Industrial Safety Products Drives 5x Higher Revenue Per User With Its Mobile App

Industrial Safety Products (ISP) is a distributor of personal protective equipment, serving industries from construction to fire protection, along with uniforms and health products.

The company launched a mobile app with MobiLoud to give its most loyal customers a faster way to buy from their phones. Today the app has over a thousand monthly active users, and revenue per app user is five times higher than revenue per web user.

Snapshot

• Vertical: Industrial safety and PPE distribution (B2B and B2C)
• Platform: BigCommerce/Custom ecommerce backend
• Key Metrics:
  
  • 5x higher revenue per user in the app vs. the web
  • ~1,200 monthly active users purchasing or interacting in the app
  • Push notifications drive more clicks than email campaigns, with a fraction of the production work
• Business Impact:
  
  • Loyal customers reorder faster from their phones
  • App-exclusive discounts reward and retain the best customers
  • One app build works across both operating systems, synced with the existing website

"We looked at fully custom options, but the delivery times and costs were much higher. What we liked about MobiLoud was that they took our site as it was. There was no need to build for two different operating systems"
- Camila, Marketing Manager at Industrial Safety Products

The Roadblock

ISP already had a base of loyal customers who order again and again. The problem was where those customers were showing up.

A lot of their customer base is on mobile. Yet their website wasn’t designed for phones, and had more friction in the buying process than they would have liked.

For ISP's customers, that friction matters more than it would for a typical online store. Many of them are contractors and field workers who spend the day on job sites, not at desks.

“If it's a contractor who's on the street all day, traveling from one site to the next, it's difficult for that person to open a computer on the road. They want to open up their phone and buy right there.”

They needed a more convenient, mobile-first way for regular buyers to access their store. And that meant a mobile app.

The team considered building a fully custom app, designed from scratch. The numbers didn't work. Each provider they looked at came back with delivery time and cost estimates that were much higher than they’d have liked.

Why They Chose MobiLoud

MobiLoud gave Industrial Safety Products a better way to build their mobile app.

What stood out about MobiLoud was the ability to work with their custom ecommerce store. MobiLoud’s approach was fully compatible with their setup, and there was no need to rebuild the features from their site that already worked.

“What we liked specifically about MobiLoud was that they took our site as it was. There was no need to build for two different operating systems. Everything ran on the same website, and we didn't have to install anything separately. In the end, the decision was based on optimizing resources: our team's time and the company's money.”

After launch, the MobiLoud team worked with ISP to adjust the parts of the site that didn't translate cleanly to an app, like banner buttons and screen layouts.

The result was a custom app experience, tailored for the platform, but without the rigors of building a whole new channel from scratch.

Launch and Results

ISP promoted their app through social media, added a QR code and download banners to the website, and slipped printed flyers into every order that shipped.

Initial results were strong, driving a good number of downloads in the first few weeks after launch.

To give customers a reason to keep the app, ISP made it the privileged channel: app users get discount notifications first, and some discounts are exclusive to the app.

Since it’s been live, the app has made a strong impact for their business, with the results showing up strongest in two areas:

• Revenue per user. App users generate five times the revenue of web users. The smaller, frequent reorders that keep customers active happen on the phone, and the app has made those effortless. Around 1,200 active users now purchase or interact in the app every month.
• Push notifications. For a lean marketing team, push has become the highest-leverage channel ISP runs.

“A newsletter or a digital campaign requires much more work: design, content generation, the whole send. A push notification is a copy, and it generates a lot more clicks. We've realized we have to prioritize it.”

The app’s results are particularly strong when you consider Camila’s admission that they’re still yet to get close to maxing out the channel.

Their plan for the year ahead is to double down on push, market the app even more and drive even more return from what is already a positive channel for their brand.

“We already know this generates a return. Now it's about getting the greatest return through the application.”

The Takeaway

ISP sells a niche product with a high average order value to professional buyers, which is one of the clearest indicators of the value an app can bring to the table.

“For our customers, it has definitely been a very good strategy. It's easier to open the app, easier to check what's new, easier to reorder.”

The pattern is simple: ISP already had loyal customers, and the app just made it easier for them to spend money. The 5x revenue per user isn't magic. It's what happens when your best buyers get a channel with less friction, better optimized to their buying habits.

If you have a loyal customer base, buying from their phones, you should have an app too.

MobiLoud makes it easy. Book a free strategy call to see what your site would look like as an app, and see how you could launch a new, powerful retention channel for your brand without a six-figure investment.