I don’t exactly remember when I started using my mobile phone for shopping. What I remember is that I started through mobile browsers but started to enjoy it with the arrival of mobile apps. A number of researches have revealed how technology is changing the way we shop. A recent survey report released by Compete revealed that the number of smart phones used for shopping is increasing drastically. Almost 50 percent smart phone users in the US are already using their smart phones for shopping. According to a recent survey, 74 percent mobile shoppers use their smart phones for shopping from their homes and 34 percent use them while on the go.
This survey revealed that the popularity of mobile apps among the mobile shoppers is not growing as expected, as just 25 percent mobile shoppers prefer mobile apps and the rest still use mobile browsers to shop from their favourite online stores. According to a research conducted last year, enterprise owners earned only 5% percent revenue through their enterprise mobile apps. In this scenario, the biggest question among business owners is whether to invest in mobile apps or not.
I would say, continue investing, as none of the surveys cited above clearly denied the value of mobile apps for present or future. Now let me start with the other side of these surveys. More than 61 percent enterprise mobile app users had more than one mobile shopping app installed on their smart phones. Around 30 percent had more than four shopping apps on their smart phones. Among shopping apps, those with loyalty program and discount coupons are the most popular. Consumers aged 18-35 and above 45 are most likely to use enterprise apps for shopping from business's online portals. I feel that business owners should not shun away from the idea of using mobile apps but alter their way of working. I read in the survey report that consumers are more interested in using these apps as a pre-shopping tool for many purposes. These purposes include store-locating, check for discounts; compare prices, looking at product catalogue, coupons, and product reviews etc. Thus, it is clear that shoppers are not interested in
making purchases through them but preparing for purchasing. Business owners should look to load their apps with as much information as possible about their products. This way they make their consumers use their app by giving them the information they seek from it. Listed below are few more similar suggestions for business owners.
Maintain uniqueness of the app – A business owner should introduce new features rather than copying the design and content of the main website and pasting it on the app.
Easy-to-use – Why mobile apps became popular is because they were simple to use. Business owners should take care of this because if the app is not simple, it is not fulfilling even the first prerequisite of app development.
Adding push notifications – Push notifications serve best to keep yourself fresh in user's memories. They are very useful for business owners, as they can use them to keep consumers informed about the latest on their online stores. But, business owners should not flood consumers' smart phones with frequent notifications. That would frustrate them.
Make it social – Business owners can make their mobile apps more interesting by integrating them with a social element. They should integrate their apps with social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn etc. and increase the reach of their apps.
The author is working in a mobile application development company as a senior iPad developer and team lead. He leads a team where every iPhone app developer has years of experience in mobile apps development.
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