9 Advantages of Mobile Apps over responsive eCommerce websites

We have ushered in a Mobile era in 2017. As there were more mobile users in 2016 then desktop users across the glove. All things including services, products, and even supplies will need to accommodate to hand-held devices like mobiles, tablets and phablets. It will become a game of survival of sorts where ‘go mobile or perish’ will be the condition. Else, you can bid Adieu to your customers and business as they migrate to mobile apps and mobile friendly websites.

It is an understatement to say that every business should have a website. In fact, most businesses have at least one website that is functional. But, we can not say the same about applications. Number of studies by Oracle and MobileSmith have proved that over 60% users prefer mobile apps over mobi-sites to purchase online. Now, if you are into a business which deals with selling products, then owning an application is far more beneficial then a responsive website.

KNOWARTH we believe that mobi-sites are not enough to power user engagement or to optimize your productivity. Businesses will soon need to consider mobile app development to stay ahead of the competition. But, why should a business build an app? And what are the key benefits of mobile applications over mobile websites? We have pondered over it for a long time and listed down nine compelling reasons for you to build an app.

1. Mobile Apps are faster

At the end of the day What users think and like is what brings business and profits.

Applications are usually 1.5 times faster than mobile websites and they perform actions much faster too. Applications store their data locally on your device. Allor, data retrieval happens in the blink of an eye. In the case of mobi-sites, data needs to be fetched from the web servers which can take from few seconds to a minute depending upon the network speed and packet sizes.

Another reason is, mobi-sites use JavaScript to run functions and apps run on frameworks which can be five times faster. As all of this happens in the back-end, your users get to perform actions much faster on the front-end delighting them with a seamless experience.

2. Personalized content

It’s been noted that users love personalized content for an immersive experience.

Users love highly tailored content according to their preferences. It’s like offering them a tailored communication in the language they speak and understand. User-centric personalisation is critical in making their experience delightful. Personalisation can be based on a user’s interest, behaviors, location, culture etc. And mobile apps make it easy to cater personalized experiences.

Your mobile app can let users clearly define and set their preferences from the beginning, based on which they can be served customized content. The app will observe their engagement and behavior to offer custom recommendations and filter updates for them depending upon their actual location in real-time. Isn’t that just awesome! It will wow your customers, as having an app is not only about personalisation, it’s also to sell your products and services. Right!

3. Instant Online and Offline access

Mobile apps offer seamless experiences with their ability to work Offline and Online.

All mobile apps offer instant access by a tap. They allow users to consume their content quickly offering seamless experience via storing vital data that can be accessed offline too. Some apps like banking, storefronts, retail, finance, games and news work both online and offline. i.e. loading a news item or a game that can be read or played without internet connection is just wonderful.

Ability to work offline is the most fundamental difference between an application and a mobile website. While apps need an active internet connection to perform critical tasks like payments and notifications, but they still offer basic content and functionality to users even in offline mode. And that’s what makes all the difference between a sale and a bounce.

4. Using device features

Mobile apps have an added advantage where you can code an app into utilizing various features of a native device. So, once downloaded they can use features like Camera that can scan PFDs, QR and Bar codes and NFC to use for payments, GPS to connect with maps and other services and accelerometer, gyro meter and compass that can be utilized for thousands of different purposes. We are seeing the rise of fingerprint scanned on devices which are yet to be explored and exploited for various apps and solutions.

Another added advantage is that device features can significantly shorten the time users take to initiate and perform an action and fundamentally change they way a user interacts with the device and your applications. Also, iOS, Android, Xamarin and Hybrid app coding platforms they all have their distinct features and standards that mobile application developers utilize to beautify a user’s experience.

5. Push Notifications and instant updates

The ability to send instant and non-intrusive notifications to your app users is a major reason why enterprises and businesses should build an app.

In-App notifications are received when a user opens an application on their devices. Push notifications are received on devices regardless a user opens an app or not. Basically, the update and promotional notifications which you receive on your devices on a daily basis are Push Notifications.

Moreover, you can send regular updates via Play store, iTunes, and windows store to your app via OTA, keeping it updated at all times with all the latest features and images and product listings. It will also allow you to promote products and services regularly increasing your sales and profits.

6. Branding and Design

Your Mobile Application becomes your Brand Ambassador.

Unlike websites that rely on browsers to support functions, mobile applications can be designed to support swipe gestures like a drag, pinch, hold, tap, double tap and more, each performing a certain action that increases user friendliness. Moreover, you can design your application in the way you want without depending upon the device or browser elements and caching problems.

Every mobile app is customized according to a company’s branding and yours won’t be an exception. And if you’re changing your branding, then there’s nothing better than a mobile app. You can virtually change how your app appears along with colors and layout whenever you want with version upgrades and uniform it according to your vision and what users want. Your app then becomes your 24X7 earning salesman.

7. Productivity Improvement and Cost reduction

Mobile apps help you expand your audience reach in a very short time by reducing marketing costs.

The biggest benefit of mobile apps is that it increases communications between your employees, vendors, and customers by sharing the same resources and place to order, give replies and train about your products and user behavior. They tend to increase productivity by 20–40% with readily available charts and reporting tools with accumulated customer data.

Moreover, as you communicate directly with your customers and employees, your marketing and advertisement spend get reduced drastically. Also, your users can share via social channels integraed in your app to expand your social footprint on the internet. That is super beneficial these days considering even FB and twitter has now started charging for premium space and conversations.

8. Interactive Engagement

Mobi-apps have their own interfaces that allow users to experience two-way immersive experience. They can simply share an image to their friends and show what they’ve bought via easy sharing and one-click buy, will boost your conversation with the customers and revenue.

Companies these days are developing websites that habituate their customers with task-based associations over apps with easy accessibility. This improves user’s engagement experience for purchase, query and contacting you for delivery, grievances and all other sales and customer experience related aspects.

9. Increased SEO potential for your website

Your app can be advantageous in two ways, for your in-app content and your website content as synonymous words will be used in the content for products and services. Google these days rank your in-app content too and you can modify your content in your application to help you with your website SEO.

You can optimize your application on respective app stores to rank you highly and include certain Dynamic Success Metrics that will ensure your application’s success via SEO tricks for application optimization.

In conclusion, there are millions of mobile application out there on the internet and probably there will be millions more. Remember, users are spending more and more time on apps as latest researches have suggested and a business should be present where its customers are. So, it is the best time to build mobile applications for businesses to fully harness ‘First Movers Advantage’ to sell your products and services before your competitor does.