Apps are having a huge impact on shopping habits, giving users the ability to carry out research and make purchases while they are on the move or at home. And according to the Wall Street Journal, they are effectively turning smartphones into devices that bring about impulse buying in a way that other e-commerce solutions have failed to match.
For retailers, the decision to develop a dedicated app should be simple to make, since it gives firms a great way to engage with customers and boost sales without relying solely on bricks-and-mortar outlets or a transactional site.
Investing in mobile app development in London will also be important for businesses in other industries, whether that’s in order to court customers via native software or to provide employees with access to important services and data, promoting mobile and remote working.
But how is it possible for mobile apps to empower businesses and stimulate growth? And what steps should modern firms take to make sure that they are not left behind in the race to adopt apps?
Understanding the Market
The most compelling reason to create a bespoke app for your business is that the potential audience for any piece of software which is added to mainstream ecosystems like iOS or Android runs into the billions.
This month saw Facebook reveal that 900 million people worldwide actively make use of its Messenger app to communicate with one another each month. And between Messenger and WhatsApp, 60 billion messages are sent every day, outstripping traditional SMS.
Of course, most smaller organisations will not have ambitions to reach this kind of scale with mobile apps. But a report from BI Intelligence found that now is a great time to get into the market at any level, thanks to a combination of smartphones becoming more affordable and data allowances stretching to accommodate increasingly generous usage limits.
With the right app, businesses will be capable of offering customers or employees the perfect platform to showcase the organisation at its best. So whether you want to use an app to sell products, provide support or deliver access to existing enterprise IT solutions, the potential for growth is great, and agencies offering mobile app development in London can help.
Embracing Metrics
Getting people interested in your organisation by launching an app is sensible, but businesses must also get to grips with the other benefits that come as a result of development.
Apps allow you to monitor customer behaviour, keep track of how they use the software and study their buying and browsing habits more closely than would otherwise be possible. This data can be used to help improve the user experience, as well as to inform future marketing decisions, product development strategies and more besides.
The first step to appreciating the advantages of custom app development is getting in touch with an agency and seeing what they have to offer. Checking up on apps from competitors can also be useful in the early stages, as well as once an app is up and running.