Businesses have been exploring every possible way to target customers these days. Customers these days are on the move and they are using mobile applications for convenience. Be it smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices they have all the required information. Hence, it has become imperative for businesses to have a mobile app or a mobile friendly website.
25% web traffic recorded from mobile devices
The use of mobile to visit any website has been on a rapid growth since the inception of smartphones into the market. There are other devices such as tablets etc. which also is involved in the growth of user base. There was time when almost all the web traffic was from PC’s or laptops but, today roughly 25% of web traffic has been recorded from mobile devices and also the mobile app market has reached almost $30 billion in revenue (netsolutionsindia). It has also been predicted that by 2017, 25% of online retail transactions will take place on mobile (mashable). This depicts the market potential for mobile/tablets and the urge to have a mobile strategy in place for every business.
Having mobile apps for your business does have other huge benefits like building loyalty, reinforcing your brand, increasing your visibility & reach, increasing sales, increasing exposure across mobile devices and connecting with on-the –go customers. There are also benefits from customer side such as easy access of inventory, getting notifications about events & launches, one-touch access, direction to store locations from anywhere and many more. Mobiles/tablets are also convenient in use than laptops/desktops as they can be accessed on the move. It all depends on the ways in which you want your business to portray to your customers and the ease with which you want your customers to reach you.
After finalizing to go mobile, a question that arises immediately is “Should I have a mobile app for my business or a mobile version of my website?” Let us first decide depending upon the nature of business you are running. If at all you are running a retail business then, having a mobile application does have its advantages as people can look at your catalog online and make purchases. But, what if you are running a consultancy? You would have nothing to showcase other than your services. Then, in this case your objective of a mobile friendly website should work. Hence, before going mobile, business owners should be clear in their objectives of whether to develop a mobile app or a mobile version of website.
Mobile apps are considered to be one of the coolest tools for marketing your product to your customers, get returning visitors and also help engage your customers in a new way. They are going to be one of the biggest weapons for marketers in future. Have you decided to go mobile yet?
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