StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re growing three times faster than the US.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes the rapid uptake of Acorns\u2019 micro-investing app is a strong reflection of the Australian market\u2019s willingness to try new fintech services.<\/p>\n
Australia vs America<\/h3>\n
While still uncertain on how their app generated this much interest, Lucas says that Acorns Australia appears to have hit a sweet spot in the market for two reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralians are very tech savvy and Australians also like to save money,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Compared to other markets like the US, Lucas says the uptake rate for smartphone apps and electronic payments systems like tap-and-go is much more rapid in Australia.<\/p>\n
Now realising that their app has far greater appeal than they could have hoped for, Lucas says their main priority is customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first move is to make sure that the current customers are happy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In the next few weeks they\u2019ll be running a survey to find out what motivated users to download their product and how they can improve it.<\/p>\n
In addition to providing high quality customer service, Lucas will also be ensuring that the app has all the features the users want.<\/p>\n
Carrying on with the planned roadmap, Lucas says they will be adding new features that will enable users to link their savings to a super fund or charity.<\/p>\n
These will become available later this year.<\/p>\n
What makes a popular fintech product<\/h3>\n
To create a product that has mass appeal, Lucas says a lot of work should go into designing an interface that\u2019s sleek, beautiful and easy to use.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not just creating something you think is great but that your customers think is great,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get a lot of compliments about our user interface.”<\/p>\n
And underlying that should be a stable and robust system that the end user can trust to protect their data.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake sure everything\u2019s working the way you said it\u2019s going to work,\u201d Lucas says.<\/p>\n
As the user-base grows, it\u2019s critical to constantly track your system and software to ensure it’s performing to expectation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity is extremely important,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t just about encryption algorithms.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about processes around who has access and control to data,” Lucas says.<\/p>\n
Determining what data is high level and who within the team can access it are vital procedural steps to implement.<\/p>\n
Lucas adds that it’s crucial to have a really good PR strategy in order to raise awareness and shine a spotlight on the product when it becomes available.<\/p>\n
\u201c95% of apps on the app store don\u2019t ever get downloaded,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because you put something out on the app store, it doesn\u2019t mean people are going to come to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow StartupSmart on Facebook<\/strong>, Twitter<\/strong>, LinkedIn<\/strong> and SoundCloud<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just three weeks after its Australian launch, US fintech giant Acorns has racked up 50,000 users, bringing it halfway to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}