There was a time when having a business meant having your own office and your own store and that was considered enough. If people had to buy your product, they had to go to the store and buy it. However, with technology taking over every aspect of our lives in the last decade, it soon became imperative to have a website for every business. In the past few years, it has gone a step ahead and today mobile applications have become a norm for businesses all over the world. Be it a clothing line or a news portal, everything has a mobile app these days.
But what are these mobile applications exactly? And how do they help these various businesses?
Mobile applications or mobile apps are basically software programs meant for mobile phones. They are faster than websites and are user-friendly as well. For example, if we are on a computer, and we want to log in to Facebook, we would have to go the website, www.facebook.com and then log in from there. However, on a phone, if we have the mobile app, FACEBOOK, we can stay logged in there all the time. All we would need to do is download the app from the app store, tap on it, and it would immediately take us to our Facebook profile. Thus, if we have the apps of all the important websites on our phones, it would save us a lot of time.
Besides this, these mobile apps have affected the corporate world in numerous other ways. Let us see how!
Accessibility
It has made the businesses and their products more accessible to the common people. By being there on their most used device that is mobile phones, it has increased the interaction of the people with those businesses and their products. The more they interact with your business, the more they will trust you and would remain loyal to your products. According to MarTech, 61% of consumers think highly about companies with fast and reliable mobile apps. Considering that, companies which do not have a mobile app are definitely losing out big time.
Sales have Increased
The consumers can view the products during any time of the day, no matter where they are and can buy the same right from their phones. Be it a dress or a branded watch, if they can get what they want with just a tap on their phones, then why would they bother to go to the shops? According to MarTech, 80% of consumers do at least a part of their shopping via mobile apps every month. So, in a significant way, these mobile apps have led to a rise in the sales of businesses. No wonder, the demand for good mobile application developers is going up.
Detailed Information about the Businesses and Their Products
The customers get to know about the products in a much more comprehensive manner through mobile apps. There are details about every product given on the app. For instance, if it’s a dress that the customer is interested in, he or she can view all the details, that is the fabric used, the size of the dress and also a number of pictures with a model wearing that dress, so as to give them an idea of how the dress would look. The customer can easily check all the details given about each of the products and then decide which one would suit their requirements the most.
Garners Interest of the People and Saves Their Time
It garners more interest of the customers and also saves their time. For instance, if an app is there on their mobile phones 24*7, it would definitely make them open it every now and then and check what’s new. If they like what they see, then they would not shy away from buying it. Also, since they can buy things sitting in the comfort of their homes, it makes the whole process much more pleasant and less time-consuming. There is no need to run to the stores from work, within a certain time frame anymore. Be it 12 at night or 6 in the morning, they can order what they want, whenever they want, from wherever they are!
Connects with the Younger Generation
The younger generation or the millennials, as they are called now, are constantly on their phones. They spend almost the entire day checking out everything new online. According to MarTech, 45% of people between the age group of 18-20 use mobile phones to search on the internet every day. These smartphone apps thus make the businesses reach out to that demographic and connect with them.
Better Customer Care
With mobile apps, the customer care service has improved rapidly. For instance, if the customer is not happy with the product that they have received and he/she wants to return or exchange it, there is no need to head over to the stores or make long calls anymore. All the options are given on the mobile app from where they can easily raise the return or exchange ticket and the company will do the needful. Thus, it has made the whole process a lot simpler and hassle-free.
Customer Loyalty Points and Other Perks
With a smartphone app, the companies can give loyalty points and a number of other perks to the regular customers. Also, if someone is buying something for the first time on their app, they can give a sort of discount, say a 20% discount coupon to him/her. That will make the customer happy and would make him/her come back to your app. If some customers buy things every now and then from your app, you can give them customer loyalty points and the accumulation of all those points would make them get some kind of discount on their future purchases. All of these perks would surely make them stay loyal to your app.
Sending Notifications to Regular Customers
When customers log in to the mobile apps, they need to give certain information like their Email ID and phone number. Since all of that information is stored on the app, the company can send regular notifications to the customers about new offers and discounts. It would, in turn, lead to more sales, as people are always keen on discounts and attractive offers.
So with all the above-mentioned advantages related to smartphone app development, it becomes crucial to have a mobile app which is secure and gives a good performance. If your app is not fast enough or hangs more often than not, it would become a sort of annoyance for the customers and they would probably choose another app the next time. Hence, if they do not want to lose out on potential customers, the business owners should always keep in mind to look for reliable web and mobile development companies for mobile application development services. If the mobile app developers are competent enough, they would create an app which would prove to be a great boon to your business and would certainly play a significant role in taking it to the next level!