Xero has announced App Launcher, a new way for customers to launch and sign in to their favourite Xero App Store apps within Xero. It is available now to Xero’s three million subscribers globally, and is the first key feature update to Xero’s App Store since launch in August 2021.

App Launcher allows users of the Xero platform the ability to easily launch connected apps via a simple dropdown tab within the navigation of their My Xero dashboard. Customers will also be able to open the Xero App Store via App Launcher to help find new apps to solve their business challenges.

Nick Houldsworth, EGM Ecosystem, Xero says: “By enabling our customers to easily find and launch their apps from within Xero, we’re providing a more seamless, integrated user experience that helps small businesses and their advisors get their work done faster and more efficiently.”

“We’re always looking for ways to bring apps closer to our customers as we know small businesses that use more apps are more successful. We’re also passionate about getting our developers’ apps into the hands of small businesses, because we’ve seen the positive impact connected workflows can have on a business and their teams,” Houldsworth added.

Research by Xero and Accenture, Picking up the pace: Trends in small business technology adoption showed that app usage was generally indicative of more resilient sales and jobs growth. The top 25 percent of app using businesses reported annual sales uplifts (compared to non-users) of 4.4 percent to 8.7 percent (depending on the country).

This effect increases significantly when using five or more apps. Pandemic Insights: Small Business Experience - showed that organisations using five or more apps grew their sales by 4.3 percent, compared to a drop of 3.4 percent for those without any apps installed. This is also reflected in the Xero App Store’s successful launch which has seen traffic more than double from August 2021 to 31 January 2022 (108 percent), when compared to the same period the year prior.

App Launcher is the first of a number of new features planned to expand the Xero App Store’s reach in 2022.

“Our mission is to build a network of third party innovation for small businesses that extends the value of Xero beyond what we build or own. App Launcher is another channel for partner success that we hope will entice new developers to join the Xero App Store and create the next ‘killer app’, that will in turn help extend the value of the entire Xero platform,” says Houldsworth.