5 Reasons You Need a Mobile App for Business

Submitted by Candace Saunde… on 06/03/2019 - 09:00:am

These days, you can connect with most businesses digitally through their website and social media accounts. Your local mom and pop coffee shop, and maybe even the church down the street, are on these platforms. What many also have, however, is a mobile app for business.

The driving reason behind businesses’ growing adoption of mobile is users’ ever-increasing use of mobile devices. In fact, the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes, or 80 times a day (New York Post), with more than 90% of that time of time spent on mobile apps (Smart Insights).

Especially if your target demographic heavily uses their mobile devices, such as Millennials of whom 92% own a smartphone, it may be time to build a mobile app. That way, you can reach your target audience on their favorite platform. Still not sure if building a mobile app is for you? Let’s dive into 5 reasons why to build a mobile app for business.

1. Connect with users where they spend time.

As noted, mobile is becoming the place to be for Internet users, with 95% of Americans owning a smartphone as of 2018. In this way, it should come as no surprise that over half (63%) of online traffic in the U.S. was mobile last year, a number likely to continue rising in the years to come.

Not only is online traffic moving more toward mobile, but users tend to spend more time using mobile apps than mobile websites: Users spend 8x more time using mobile apps than the mobile web. In line with this, users also spend more time viewing products in mobile apps: Users view 4.2x more products per session on a mobile app as compared to a mobile site.

2. Become constantly visible to your customers.

Once you’ve captured a customer, you’ll want to keep them coming back for more. In fact, it’s often more valuable to retain your existing customers, as it costs up to 5 times more to acquire new customers. Moreover, a 5% increase in customer retention rates can increase profits from 25% to 95%.

In terms of customer retention, the downside of only having a website is that it’s up to the customer to choose when to visit it, unless they are prompted by an email or an advertisement. Once your customers download your mobile app, however, they are constantly reminded that you’re there through a little icon on their screen, greatly increasing their potential to visit.

Additionally, you can use push notifications, or other features, to drive mobile app open rates. Push notifications alone have the potential to result in a 26% higher mobile app open rate and, as an added bonus, a 92% higher retention rate.

3. Drive sales with mobile features.

Whether your business is entirely online, or your online tools supplement your in-person business, your online tools should work to boost your online sales. The good news is that mobile apps are known for driving conversion rates: In fact, mobile apps have a 3x better conversion rate per session than mobile sites, not to mention a 1.5x better conversion rate than desktop sites.

One reason why mobile apps offer better conversion rates than other platforms is due to the features it has to offer. For example, on mobile, you can make purchasing a product easy with mobile payment integration—as of last year, 49.1% of U.S. Internet users were using PayPal. You can also reduce your potential for abandoned shopping carts through push notifications or email marketing campaigns.

4. Increase customer engagement.

Another way to foster increased sales with a mobile app is through increased customer engagement. In fact, most marketers (68%) believe that customer engagement results in membership renewals, repeat purchases, and customer retention.

Mobile apps create an environment for higher engagement through tools like those mentioned above. For example, those notable push notifications can increase engagement by up to 88%. Likewise, 87% of mobile marketers successfully use location services for location-based marketing, noting an 83% higher customer engagement.

5. Garner a competitive advantage.

We saved the best for last: When you build a mobile app, you gain a competitive advantage. Although mobile apps are gaining momentum, if you have a small to medium-sized business, you may still be one of the first within your circle to build an app: 58% of small businesses do not have a mobile app, though 30% claim they would like to in the future.

Especially if one of your target demographics is Millennials or Generation Z, having a mobile app will show your potential customers that you are on the cutting edge of technology. In addition, you will be one step ahead of your competitors, jumping onto the movement toward mobile before perhaps many of them even do.

Ready to Build a Mobile App for Business?

Now that you’ve reviewed some of the benefits of building a mobile app, you’ve likely reached a decision as to whether it’s time to create a mobile app for your business. If you’ve decided to build a mobile app, you can visit our post with 6 Excellent Tips for Making Your Mobile App Idea a Reality.

If you’re ready to start development, consider partnering with us. ClikFocus has been building results-driven mobile software to web applications for businesses for over a decade. As a solutions-oriented team, our goal is to provide software solutions that help you to achieve your business goals.

To build a mobile app for business today, drop us a line.