How RuStore Increased App Downloads by 235%

RuStore is an app store for Android, Harmony OS, and Aurora OS, launched in May 2022. It offers a full infrastructure for users and developers, including the ability to download and pay for apps and games unavailable on foreign marketplaces. Since January 2024, RuStore has been using Altcraft's platform tools. In this article, we’ll share the strategies that led to positive results.

Challenges and Objectives

Despite successfully attracting users, RuStore faced a key issue: most users were only downloading one app. This conflicted with RuStore’s goal of building a deep funnel—from downloading the store itself to installing multiple apps. To achieve this, it was crucial to reshape the perception of RuStore and increase user engagement.

Main Challenges:

• User Retention. RuStore was mainly seen as a store for banking services and government apps, even though it also offered other apps, including international ones.
• Market Competition. Competing app stores had the advantage of being pre-installed on their own devices, making competition tougher.

Before RuStore, there had been no app store of this scale in Russia. Additionally, the lack of its own devices and a centralized data repository made configuring permissions more difficult for RuStore’s operation.

To tackle these challenges, it was necessary to rethink the approach to audience engagement and clearly communicate RuStore’s value.

Objectives:

RuStore faced three key objectives:

• Retain users’ attention.

• Create a centralized data repository.

• Inform users that RuStore offers a wide variety of global apps and games.

The solution was the integration of a CDP platform, which enabled RuStore to:

• Collect and organize all data in one place.

• Build detailed user profiles.

• Track audience behavior and analyze user preferences.

• Launch marketing campaigns across multiple channels.

• Experiment with different message formats to improve effectiveness.

• Integrate VK Messenger and their own push notification service.

• Ensure compliance with high security standards.

Why RuStore Chose the Altcraft Platform

After evaluating the available options, RuStore chose Altcraft. The platform met all of their key criteria:

• On-premise deployment to ensure high-level data protection.

• Compatibility with their internal push notification service and support for sending messages via VK Messenger.

• Full compliance with security standards and government procurement regulations.

• Advanced functionality, including efficient database management, user profile creation, and multi-channel campaign execution.

Thanks to the implementation of Altcraft CDP RuStore was able to solve critical marketing challenges and quickly adapt to changes in the market.

What Was Done and What Results Were Achieved

Launching Campaigns. After integrating the platform, the team began launching targeted messaging campaigns based on user data analysis. They identified specific audience segments, such as moms and gamers, to fine-tune the campaigns. Additionally, analysis showed that users who had already installed banking services were more likely to download other apps as well—insight that helped adjust their promotion strategy.

Types of Campaigns. Two types of campaigns were used: short messages and more detailed ones. They contained information about the most popular apps and the capabilities of the RuStore platform. Email and push notifications were used to deliver the messages.

Customer Retention Efforts. In parallel, work was done to address user churn. With the help of analysts, they identified segments of users who were leaving and launched campaigns to win them back.

Push Notifications About New Releases. Regular push notifications were sent with updates about new content in the store. Special attention was given to games, as they were the most popular app category.

Results:

• Users who opened the messages downloaded 30% more apps.

• They also updated their apps 20% more often than those who didn’t open the messages.

• The marketing analytics team conducted research to identify churned users. By launching targeted campaigns aimed at bringing them back, they were able to recover over 1 million users.

• Thanks to the active use of direct communications in 2024, the number of app and game downloads among users who received email campaigns increased by 235% when comparing Q2–Q3 to Q4 2024.

• More than 430 campaigns were launched for various audience segments, reaching a total of 46 million users through direct communication.

App downloads among recipients

Conclusion

The solutions provided by Altcraft played a key role in RuStore’s growth. The platform helped establish effective user engagement, boost activity, and bring back a significant number of lost users. This not only allowed RuStore to adapt to new market conditions but also laid a solid foundation for further growth and scaling. RuStore will continue its collaboration with Altcraft to enhance the service and improve user experience.