How to Design FMCG Mobile Apps: Best UX Practices for User Engagement

The rise of  FMCG mobile apps  has reshaped how consumer brands build loyalty and engage with their audiences. As more FMCG companies introduce digital platforms offering rewards, discounts, and gamified experiences, user experience (UX) has become the defining factor of success. Unlike e-commerce or fintech apps, FMCG apps must be fast, intuitive, and rewarding, reflecting the quick-consumption nature of the products themselves.

This article will outline the  best UX practices for FMCG loyalty apps, highlight common design challenges, and present a case study example to show how thoughtful UX design can drive user engagement and retention.

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) are low-cost, high-demand products that people purchase frequently, such as snacks, beverages, toiletries, and cleaning. In recent years, FMCG brands have increasingly moved toward digital loyalty systems to retain customers, increase product engagement, and promote repeat purchases. As a result, many FMCG companies have launched mobile apps offering incentives such as points, rewards, discount coupons, and gamified experiences.

However, unlike e-commerce or fintech apps, where users are willing to spend more time, FMCG apps face a unique challenge: users don't buy fast-consumption products with deep engagement in mind. They expect things to be quick, easy, and worth their time — just like the products themselves.

In the FMCG loyalty space, UX is everything. Most users come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and have limited attention spans. Your app has one shot to deliver a clear value proposition: Why should they bother scanning a receipt or entering a code? What's in it for them?

Here are a few key UX challenges we've identified across the industry:

1. Low attention economy: Users don't want to explore complex navigation or read through walls of text.

2. Instant gratification culture: The reward system must feel immediate or achievable to keep them engaged.

3. Transparency and trust: Users drop out if the system looks vague or the rewards feel unreachable.

4. Fun over friction: The app must feel smooth and entertaining. Otherwise, it's just another chore.

As a UX Designer at adesso Turkey, I worked on multiple loyalty programs for major FMCG clients and have seen these challenges play out firsthand. The key is creating a frictionless, low-cognitive-load experience that feels rewarding and enjoyable.

For the sake of this blog post, let's have an imaginary Loyalty App called SML, short for SuperMarket Loyalty. In SML, users earn SM Coins by purchasing specific products and scanning the codes found on them. These SM Coins can then be redeemed for additional discounts, free products, or even more SM Coins, creating a rewarding and straightforward loop that encourages continuous participation.

So here are some ways we can make SML better (Note that these strategies all come from previous Loyalty App experiences):

1. Don't Expect Users to Read

A common caveat to consider when designing FMCG apps is that users don't read. According to Hooked by Nir Eyal, one of the four critical sequences to form habits is unpredictable, variable rewards. How do we combine these two to create one big premise? We create a “Spin the Wheel to Win the Prize” section.

Thanks to the wheel, we not only make the process easier to grasp by visualizing the reward-winning process, but we also randomize the rewards for the fun factor and to trigger the desire to repeat to earn something bigger later, aiming to increase retention in this way.

2. Conversational UI Is a Must in This Day & Age

Loyalty apps tend to have convoluted campaign mechanics, such as multi-step participation rules, limited-time offers tied to particular product combinations, location-based restrictions, and layered reward systems that confuse users more than they excite them. Because of this complexity, more forward-thinking loyalty apps have started integrating smart in-app chatbots and widgets.

These tools guide users through the app in real time, help with navigation through deep links, open external product pages when needed, and even send proactive reminders when a campaign is about to expire. This assistive UX drastically improves clarity, increases campaign participation, and reduces frustration for users just looking to get their rewards without having to decode a system.

3. Increase Engagement Through Gamification

The loyalty app has a basic premise, right? Buy products, scan codes or receipts, and win rewards. How do we increase engagement in an app with such a simple value proposition? By further adding gamification elements. Since mobile games have mastered the art of gamification, we can utilize their ways in loyalty apps. Remember, you are the painter; your loyalty app is a canvas.

3.1. Daily Login

Daily logins are every mobile game's bread and butter. Yet statistically, they work. They activate 3 primary motivations*:

1. Habit Formation: People love routine. If an app becomes practical or fun, it can easily become part of someone's daily habits. Keeping UX consistent helps users feel comfortable and confident when they open the app.

2. Intrinsic Motivation: Users often come back because they enjoy the feeling of progress. Adding small surprises, unlockable content, or evolving features gives them a reason to keep exploring.

3. Extrinsic Motivation: Tangible rewards like daily bonuses, streak incentives, or small gifts keep people returning. Once they start, they often don't want to break their streak.

3.2. The 4th Motivation: Social Factor

There is another tendency of users that we must consider: social connections. Many apps in the sector achieve this with friend invitation campaigns and events; however, for many of them, the reward to be given to users could be a point of consideration. The value of the thing given shouldn't exceed the value it could bring. A loyalty app would have no problem figuring out what to give away and even micromanaging the reward based on the analytics of the profit a new user brings. Loyalty currency is a great asset in balancing this. Therefore, an "SML- Bring Your Friend to Win" campaign can be introduced.

3.3. Product Quiz

Ever wanted a gamification feature that boosts engagement and brand loyalty and helps promote a specific (maybe underselling) product while making users happy they bought it in the first place? Look no further, here's a Product Quiz!

Product Quiz achieves 3 main things:

1. It makes the app more interactive and allows users to return to it for reasons other than its main function.

2. It gives space to the SuperMarket company to promote certain products. It is very flexible, kind of like an ad that lets users win.

3. It makes users happy to have bought a product they possibly wouldn't have otherwise.

In this post, we explored some UX strategies for mobile loyalty apps in the FMCG sector, using a fictional app called SuperMarket Loyalty as a pseudo case study. I wanted to highlight the need for fast, clear, and rewarding experiences due to the low-engagement nature of fast-moving consumer goods.

Drawing from real-life projects, we discussed effective solutions in response to many challenges one might face in the FMCG mobile app sphere. A little reminder, though, is that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and there are lots and lots to come if you wish to indulge in the world of UX of Loyalty.