Years ago, I created an iOS app that aggregates many daily deals like Groupon for the Dutch market (Belgium+Netherlands). There were a few competitors in NL, but none in BE at the time. So I jumped on it and had some success with it.
There was one problem though: Statistics and user interviews showed that a large percentage of the user group preferred to do the actual purchase on their desktop computer. Since the app is free and makes money on a commission basis, this hurt the growth and revenue of the app. Most competitors already had the combo of app+site.
So I invested in a great domain and had the site developed. Once the site was live, I updated the app to talk to the site's server (instead of a separate server). This process finished last week and I finally uploaded the new version of the app to the App Store.
Now my app is rejected because it just downloads information from a website with limited functionality 😟
My reply to them was that the app has existed for years and that the site is very new and there to support the app. And that the app has some features that are not on the site. Unfortunately, I get the same reply: Too little functionality, app just shows what's on the website.
So I shot myself in the foot by creating that site. Any advice on how to proceed? I'm desperate. I have plans to add new features to the app in the coming months, but am out of budget for now and I doubt these will be enough to convince the reviewers. Meanwhile, the app really needs that upgrade because there are some issues fixed in the new version. Revenue has gone down a lot and my users are leaving.
Link to my site:
The app is in the App Store under the same name and there's a version for both BE and NL.
