Doesn't feel that notable. The friction of a native app download vs just using the web means that an app is rarely the right answer for shopping. Makes sense to ditch the app and focus on web.
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Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#32Threadless shirts are hands down the worst quality clothing I've ever bought online. Great designs, terrible quality. I didn't know shirts could be sewn up with so little material. Felt like I was wearing a light handkerchief. I instantly returned my shirt and had to cover shipping, sneaky bastards.
Must've changed since the early days when I bought 20+ of their shirts. Ended up wearing most gardening, etc and never had any tear or feel flimsy at all. Been many years since I bought from them though.
They changed from American Apparel to in-house (read: crappy overseas garbage) a few years back. Quality went down the drain, as did the fit.
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#33If you have a decent number of iOS users, why pull the app? Why not just let it spin out into deep space, and stop supporting it with updates? That's an honest question, by the way.
They may have a decent number of downloads, but none of us knows how many users they have. I don't know how long the app has been on the store, but it only has 53 ratings which indicates very little engagement.
There is almost no incentive to rate app. They can't reward user and why should someone leave a comment? This is why I like what Amazon does with comment.... but if most of these are real users I think the app did a good job.
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#34I really think having a dedicated native app is a huge hassle for most businesses today. The web has come a long way and is no longer plagued by the perf issues of old. I'd imagine having to support both, sync up features and styles would get extremely difficult both logistically and financially. Far easier to just have a responsive site and be done with it. Probably save a bit of money on the payroll side too, front…
The problem is most of the companies think that what they are doing is too important for the user not to use the app. They think that Push Notifications are the holy grail to keep people engaged and bring the users back. It will be good if Google allows developers to list pure progressive apps in the AppStore. Since for many non-technical users, PlayStore is how one is supposed to install apps, decision makers think…
One thing I can't firgure out is why reddit is pushing me to use their app when the site is better. I dont even understand why they want to.
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#35I really think having a dedicated native app is a huge hassle for most businesses today. The web has come a long way and is no longer plagued by the perf issues of old. I'd imagine having to support both, sync up features and styles would get extremely difficult both logistically and financially. Far easier to just have a responsive site and be done with it. Probably save a bit of money on the payroll side too, front…
The problem is most of the companies think that what they are doing is too important for the user not to use the app. They think that Push Notifications are the holy grail to keep people engaged and bring the users back. It will be good if Google allows developers to list pure progressive apps in the AppStore. Since for many non-technical users, PlayStore is how one is supposed to install apps, decision makers think…
Generally this is true. Apps are for situations where the user has a higher level of engagement.
Shopping is one of those things - such as Amazon or RedBubble - but Threadless is too specific for that use case. The majority of people simply do not shop for clothing online frequently enough to justify it.
I think that problem persists even with a progressive web app - it just does not warrant the real-estate on your phone. Technically the app launcher on Android makes this cheap but I think that's where apps often go to die - out of sight, out of mind.
On iOS or the sadly near-death Windows Phone, it's just eating more space than it can justify.
I don't think this is a problem of tech or cost but a problem of viable engagement.
Threadless just doesn't need a spot on anyone's phone.
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#36Hi. I lead the Digital team at Threadless and we're shutting down the app because doing so allows us to spend developmental energy making the experience of our main app better for everyone. It served the purpose at the time, but as our focus shifted more into the Artist Shops platform over the last two years, maintaining and updating the native app proved to not be the best use of time or resources for the team. The web and phones have come a long way since we launched it, and we feel that pulling it now is better than letting customers use something that we're not giving our full attention to.
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#37The more RAM devices have, the more widespread web apps will be. A lot of niches, originally covered only by native apps, lost their luster for native development. Web does it all nowadays. See things like Basecamp, Tidal - their apps are web based and they work just fine on recent devices. By a pure coincidence, those apps have an outstanding quality. So web stack is a thing nowadays.
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is most of the companies think that what they are doing is too important for the user not to use the app. They think that Push Notifications are the holy grail to keep people engaged and bring the users back. It will be good if Google allows developers to list pure progressive apps in the AppStore. Since for many non-technical users, PlayStore is how one is supposed to install apps, decision makers think…
One thing I can't firgure out is why reddit is pushing me to use their app when the site is better. I dont even understand why they want to.
A reason might be because it's harder to block ads in an app than it is in a browser?
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is most of the companies think that what they are doing is too important for the user not to use the app. They think that Push Notifications are the holy grail to keep people engaged and bring the users back. It will be good if Google allows developers to list pure progressive apps in the AppStore. Since for many non-technical users, PlayStore is how one is supposed to install apps, decision makers think…
One thing I can't firgure out is why reddit is pushing me to use their app when the site is better. I dont even understand why they want to.
You get more ad targeting and messaging powers via native apps than web apps.
Re: Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week
#40Same day as WWDC keynote? Coincidence?