Creating an App Retention Strategy

PRODUCT POSITIONING | CORE USE CASE DEFINITION

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Deliver more value to our users through the app to decrease churn

In Summer 2024, AKQA was asked to revamp iFIT, a fitness subscription app by NordicTrack, in order to improve retention. They were suffering from a 50% churn rate of subscribed users annually, due to a lack of perceived value for the cost.

strategic vision

Pivot to an ‘always-on’ approach that provides personalized, trainer-led guidance for users anytime, anywhere

To develop a strategy for the updated app, I synthesized customer feedback, conducted secondary research, reviewed competitor experiences and audited the current iFIT app as well as the ecosystem of other digital experiences and NordicTrack exercise equipment it sits within. A key insight emerged…

Exceptionally motivating and personal trainers are the main point of differentiation for this fitness subscription.

However, the biggest value gap was that the app was focused on supporting solely workouts on NordicTrack equipment. Customers wanted to take the app with them to workout anywhere, but it’s content with strong support from trainers didn’t come through on “manual,” non-equipment workouts.

To embrace personal relationships with trainers as a core differentiator and establish the app as a touchpoint for ‘always-on’ guidance and motivation, I created a compelling vision:

iFIT APP VISION

Execution 

To bring this vision to life and determine the most important features to build for the new app, I partnered with product management to map out iFIT customers’ fitness journey and define six priority use cases the updated app should focus on serving first.