In this last decade, we have seen a fundamental change in technology usage. With smartphones enriched with premium functionalities, people nowadays are more comfortable using them even for their day-to-day activities.
Today, there are more smartphone users across the globe than ever before! A recently conducted study shows that there were over 3.6 billion smartphone users across the globe in 2020. The number is further estimated to be 4.6 billion by 2023. This data clearly shows that the smartphone era is here to stay!
Businesses around the world have acknowledged this paradigm shift. Hence, companies are focused on attracting quality customers via mobile channels. While both mobile apps and websites are important customer touchpoints, apps are a bit more useful compared to websites.
Mobile apps help you reach out to a wider audience as compared to websites. With a presence on the app store, your business gets more exposure and can attract organic visitors.
Owing to their ease of use, better accessibility, and reliability, mobile apps are the most sought-after platform for businesses and consumers. When you download an app, you also get to know a business’s reputation by seeing the reviews and ratings of the app, something that is not directly visible on a website.
If you’re an early-stage startup founder weighing your options between a website and an app – given below are some unique advantages of a mobile app!
1) Push Notifications & Important Updates
Typically, it is the customer who reaches out to your business through your marketing. However, what if you can persuade a customer to reach your brand?
That’s what mobile apps do. As long as a user has your business app installed on their phone, you can attract them to your app with push notifications.
With mobile apps, you can send personalized notifications to your customers offering them discounts, coupons, hot deals, sales etcetera. You can even remind your customer about the items in their cart and persuade them to make the purchase.
Even though some new website functionality permits sending push notifications, it may not have an immense impact on your customer. Why? Since websites work completely on the internet, users with a poor internet connection might not be able to access your website. Also, if your website takes too much time to load, the user’s interest might get diverted.
With mobile apps, you can schedule notifications for different occasions. For instance, informing your customers about the upcoming sale. You can also send push notifications to customers based on shopping preference and geographical location.
2) Premium Functionalities
Many times, mobile apps integrate several features of mobile to provide a fun experience to users. This may include features like GPS, Camera, contact list, access to the gallery, etcetera.
Users can use cameras to scan bar codes and coupon codes on your mobile app. With access to the gallery, they can share their products’ photos in the reviews section. These integrated features can ease the navigation and provide a fun user experience.
These features require less effort and also shorten the time to perform a task on your app. Thus, they can help spur conversions.
3) Higher Conversions
Mobile apps are dominating over websites in the e-commerce sector. Unlike websites, mobile apps offer a great deal of user experience to the customers.
It is also noted that mobile apps attempt to yield 3X higher conversions than responsive websites. What is the reason behind this? One of the reasons will be; user data. Mobile apps conserve user data unlike websites, which refrains the customers to fill login credentials on every visit.
Also, it is observed, around 40% make a conversion out of the people downloading e-commerce apps. There might be various reasons behind this conversion rate. For instance, constant push notifications, customized offers, special coupon codes, etc are available on mobile apps. Moreover, the easy navigation and smooth interface on a mobile app enhance customer use. The hassle-free check-in and check-out process further adds to it.
E-commerce businesses usually have to cater to a large group of audience. Unlike e-commerce websites, mobile apps allow owners to customize audience preferences and show desired results to customers efficiently.
4) Minimal Network Connection
While the website loads only on an internet connection, mobile apps can be optimized to function in ‘offline mode’.
The ability to function offline is the key advantage of mobile apps over websites. While apps require an active Internet connection to perform payments, however, they still offer basic content in offline mode. Some apps like games, educational apps, retail, news can be accessed on offline mode as well.
For example, you can learn from a mobile app even if you are not connected to the Internet. You can have a seamless gaming experience in offline mode. Even in the case of an eCommerce app, you can check your previous purchases and calculate costs offline.
So, your customers can stay connected with your brand via mobile app, even while they’re offline!
5) Personalized Content
Personalized content not only provides customer satisfaction but also helps to boost conversion rates. While websites usually show generalized content, mobile apps get an edge over them with personalized content.
With the A/B testing feature of mobile apps, you can test unique designs and make decisions as per the results. Personalization can be based on a user’s history, interest, and location. The mobile app observes a user’s behavior and offers custom recommendations based on their locations and interests.
Personalization offers a WOW experience to customers! It is the best way to convert and retain your customers. Here’s an example of how personalization is highly effective in eCommerce apps.
Whenever you use an app, the eCommerce app saves user data. This data is utilized to show personalized results and notifications based on your preferences. You may sometimes wonder how you see your favorite products every time you open an app. You may often feel tempted to buy the product. Hence, personalization leads to higher conversions.
So, what would you give to your customer, a general experience or a personalized and attractive user experience? (The latter is the right choice!)
6) Mobile Apps are Faster
Users are attracted to quick things, especially on the internet. A mobile app helps them to complete the tasks 1.5 times faster than websites.
Mobile apps are known to be faster than websites. Since apps store their user data on local storage devices, loading this data takes no more than a few seconds. On the other hand, websites usually store data in the webserver. The speed at which the data is accessed depends on internet connectivity. (If the internet connectivity is slow, it would take ages for a website to access user data.)
Apps can with the help of this data send push notifications and show results based on previous searches.
There is also a technical reason for mobile apps being faster than websites. Websites use Javascript to run functions while apps run on functions that are faster.
7) Higher Engagement
Mobile apps make engagement and interaction with customers convenient. With their easy-to-use and audience-friendly features, mobile apps provide a better user experience than websites.
Some customer queries on websites are answered as FAQs. However, there are some actions that require direct communication. What if some customers are receiving late deliveries? What if some customers are not satisfied with your product/services? Not every question can be answered in the FAQ section. Thus, there is a prime need for prompt customer support service in every e-commerce business.
In mobile apps, a company can integrate in-app call features to offer customer support. In apps, you can also have a separate chat section to solve customer’s queries and guide them. Mobile apps have interfaces that offer a truly engaging experience to users. With easy sharing options and one-click-buy, they can share their purchase with their friends and acquaintances.
Singing apps also enable users to create recordings and share them with their audience. Quiz apps encourage users to share their scores on social media. With such engaging features, a brand can boost its awareness and top-of-funnel marketing. Your customers spread the word about your brand, you get new customers and leads at no cost!
8) Stronger Branding
Let’s consider your business’s online presence as your brand ambassador. Don’t you want your brand ambassador to portray your brand’s voice in the best possible way?
Let’s compare having a presence on a website and mobile app to see which one is better.
Website designs are restricted based on browser functionality, the type of device, and also the cost you spend.
On the other hand, mobile apps can be designed as per your choice. You can choose the design, fonts, tabs, icon, colors, and also do A/B testing in mobile apps. You can make your brand ambassador (mobile app) portray the brand’s voice as per your choice.
With mobile apps, you can design creative logos to set your brand apart from the crowd. Your app icon will reflect your brand whenever customers glance at their mobile screen.
Have you noticed, the moment you see a blue and white logo of ‘in’ on your mobile screen, you recognize it as LinkedIn’s logo. This regular encounter will subconsciously seed a perception of your brand in the user’s mind.
Considering the above points, having a mobile app is certainly better than websites.
9) Reduce Costs and Improved Productivity
Unlike websites, mobile apps are cost and time-effective. Mobile apps provide a shed of an umbrella to all the activities of your business. For instance, you can integrate employees, customers, sellers, delivery partners on one mobile app.
This way employees can maintain hassle-free coordination with the different departments of the business. Once coordination is established with mobile apps, you can work to increase the productivity of your employees with effective measures.
Mobile apps provide real-time data, charts instantly. On the flip side, websites take a huge amount of time to generate data through a web analytic tool.
You can even save capital by spending less on marketing by integrating your business’s social links on your mobile app. This direct communication between your brand and customers is possible due to mobile apps can go a long way. It could give you a following of loyal customers and gain credibility in the market.
Conclusion
Mobile apps provide better features and user experience than websites. The advantages of mobile apps are infinite and ever-evolving. If you want to build a profitable online business, mobile apps are definitely the way forward!
So, building a highly engaging and user-friendly app should be your top business priority in 2021. At Eiosys, we provide a range of app development solutions – from food delivery apps to catalog apps; we have done it all! We enrich your websites with premium functionalities that your customers will love!
