5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App

One of the key features of today’s digital environment is multi-channel support. Ensuring an effective online presence that brings potential customers is becoming a vital challenge for organizations. While a fully functioning website is already a strategic precondition, some companies still research the benefits of mobile applications for business processes.

Yet, most growth analysts agree that having a mobile app for your business adds another powerful tool for reaching target audiences to your strategy. Imagine the number of smartphone subscriptions is projected to reach almost $7.9 billion by 2028, while users spend almost 90% of mobile time on apps. It opens unlimited opportunities to stay in touch with your customers and expand your business reach.

In our guide, our analysts explain why a mobile app is beneficial for business and how to use all advantages of this strategic decision.

When Should You Have a Mobile App for Your Business?

After weighing the pros and cons of web and mobile development, we have identified several benefits that make a mobile app the ideal solution for a business, especially if you’re considering creating an enterprise solution.

Mobile Traffic on Your Website

In other words, your customers visit your website from their mobile devices.

It’s quite easy to track traffic through Google Analytics or similar tools. Look at the ratio of users accessing the site via desktops to mobile devices. In general, a customer already using a mobile phone to communicate with you or your competitors is a clear signal for action.

Your Competitors Use Mobile Applications

There is hardly any niche with no competition. Look at the reviews, ratings, and number of downloads of your competitors’ apps. Analyzing the functionality and content can bring you new ideas and valuable insights. First, you need to understand how to stand out among the companies you compete with and whether you can do it with an app.

Time for a Loyalty Program

Overall digitization affects not only business environments but your customers. More people prefer to switch to digital wallets to free themselves from carrying dozens of cards. And it includes physical loyalty cards.

5 Reasons to Create a Mobile App for Your Business

Think about what an app can do that an existing website can’t. If better communication channels, process automation, and customer support align with your immediate plans, you should consider looking for a reliable partner providing mobile app development services. At any rate, an enterprise solution can become a game-changer. And here’s why.

#1 Customer Loyalty

A high level of customer loyalty is the basis for business viability and growth in the long term. Loyal customers generate more than just direct revenue — they become unofficial brand ambassadors and promote the product or service online and offline for free. In other words, they attract new customers.

If a business cannot keep a customer’s attention, it ends up in a vicious circle of increasing the cost of looking for new consumers. In such a case, all resources will be spent on staying afloat. Studies show that the advertising and marketing cost to attract a new customer is five times higher than the cost of retaining an existing one.

An instant reward system for devoted customers is an effective way to build brand loyalty. For example, members of the Sephora Beauty Insider loyalty program receive points for every purchase on the mobile app and redeem them to buy products. The point system and discounts encourage customers to remain loyal to the rather expensive beauty brand.

Getting a mobile app for business is an efficient and relatively easy way to communicate with customers. Interactive features increase user engagement while you can focus on offering unique services or terms of interaction.

Wenno, a manufacturer of toy animal figures, launched an AR-powered app helping to increase customer loyalty and sales. Every packaging box has a QR code that leads to the app’s free download. The app provides information about each animal in the collection: where it lives, whether it’s endangered, what it eats, and what sounds it makes.

However, just launching a mediocre digital product wouldn’t be sufficient. The quality of customer service greatly influences brand loyalty. According to the State of the Connected Customer Report by Salesforce, 80% of consumers say matching their experience to their expectations is as essential as the company product or service. Long loading times, software glitches, and poor user interface are likely to harm the company’s reputation. 

#2 Increase in Sales

Generating a profit is the primary goal of any business. If you already have established ways to sell your product or service, creating a mobile app for your business can become a new channel to increase revenue. Moreover, it can be a fairly significant increase depending on how large your audience is.

• By using push notifications, you can inform your customer about promotions, discounts, and bonuses and, as a result, motivate them to buy more.
• A mobile application shortens the metaphorical and literal distance between you and your customer. Besides engaging your audience directly with messages, you can use geolocation technologies to notify your clients about special offers from nearby shops or company venues.
• Mobile payments are another way to make your customers feel comfortable while spending money. People no longer want to waste time shopping if they can do it in the comfort of their homes.

After losing €409 million during the first quarter of 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Zara increased its sales by an unprecedented 95% later that year. The company made a user-friendly, streamlined online experience a vital part of its anti-crisis strategy.

#3 Business Process Optimization

While most company owners think of a mobile app as a business opportunity in terms of direct interaction with customers, such solutions can also benefit the organization from the inside. In fact, establishing internal processes is as important as finding the product-market fit or attracting investments.

An enterprise mobile app may benefit your business in many ways — from employee interaction to complex ERP systems that help effectively organize and automate a multitude of business tasks like data sharing and analysis.

Until recently, retail shops would spend days generating a product requisition involving salespeople, managers, logisticians, accountants, and warehouse supervisors. It also meant wasting time on calls, emails, and paperwork. Today, one mobile app for logistics companies can automate this routine, connecting accounting, stock management, reporting, and internal communication. The entire process takes a few minutes.

#4 A Source of Valuable Analytics

When speaking about data analysis, one should add it to the list of undeniable mobile app benefits for any business. Which products do your customers buy the most? How much time do they spend on your app? Which content is popular? Which features do they use most frequently?

You can streamline the data analysis process and get real-time reports on all those questions. It, in turn, helps executives make more informed decisions and have a clear picture of what needs enhancement.

By tracking how people interact with your app, you can understand how to improve it and make it more user-friendly. Understanding your customers is the key to success in any business niche. You can get audience geolocation data, demographics, preferences, and much more information valuable for business expansion.

#5 Business Scaling

By combining a website with an app, you get a simple yet effective model. Once the company website attracts traffic through search engines, it redirects a potential customer to the mobile app for more personalized and targeted services and offers. When a customer closes a tab with the company website, they stop interacting with the business. When the website forwards the visitor to the app, the customer experience just begins.

Simple Tips

• Create a pop-up offering a bonus for installing the app.
• Place a reminder at the end of each post.
• Set up a redirect page to install the mobile app from Google Play and App Store.

In a more general sense, using a mobile app to grow business works as part of a broader strategy of establishing the brand’s omnichannel presence. It includes a website, a mobile app, social media profiles, chatbots, and a physical shop or office.

Again, people no longer want to spend a lot of energy on shopping and expect the products and services to be available on any convenient platform. And a company application provides those options and a fair amount of flexibility on top.

Does Everyone Need an App?

While the benefits of mobile apps for small businesses are unquestionable, the final decision always depends on many factors defining the overall strategy, from geography to target audience. There are, however, some areas where launching a digital product becomes a requirement. Here are some examples of businesses that need mobile apps.

Generally speaking, most businesses in the service industry engaging many potential and already-existing customers would benefit from adding a mobile application to their sales pipeline.

Final Thoughts

Does your business need a mobile app? There’s probably no single definite answer. Successful examples clearly show how mobile apps help businesses grow, recover from the crisis, and increase customer retention. However, custom software development should always rely on the requirements and objectives of each particular project and client.

Whether a mobile app for a small business or enterprise-level software, we are always proud to collaborate with our partners.

A stand-alone custom solution may not solve all your business problems. However, as a part of a comprehensive omnichannel strategy, it becomes a powerful tool for increasing profits.