How does a Mobile App Fuel up Business Growth?

 

Take a look at these amazing stats concerning mobile app usage and the revenue generated by mobile app development.

• The year 2021 witnessed a total number of 7.1 billion mobile users. This number is predicted to shoot up to 7.26 billion by the year 2022 and 7.49 billion by 2025.
• There were 218 million mobile app downloads in 2020 which indicates a 7% surge over the period of one year.
• 92% of a user’s mobile screen time is spent on mobile apps.
• 51% of the users reported that they had discovered a new product through searches using their mobile device.
• The global expenditure via the iOS/Google Play Stores has been recorded at 112 billion dollars in 2020 which shows a growth of 25% within one year.
• The mobile ad expenditure was 240 billion dollars in 2020, which reveals a 26% growth within a year.

The aforesaid stats clearly indicate two crucial consumer behavioral aspects of the modern era - the extensive usage of mobile devices and the humongous popularity of mobile apps. Needless to say, mobile apps are essential tools that contribute to the growth of a business.

Let’s explore how mobile apps can be game-changers for businesses across diverse domains.

 

The Contribution of Mobile Application Development for Business Growth

 

Promotes Brand Recognition and Provides a Competitive Edge

These days, every business encounters tough competition to make their presence felt amongst the masses. A mobile application combines the strategies of traditional and digital marketing – hoardings, newspaper ads, social media promotion, etc. – and employs novel methods to propagate their ad campaigns digitally. And, new-age users are more inclined towards mobile apps over websites. So, enterprise mobile apps turn out to be great tools that attract customer attention, enhance a brand’s online visibility, expedites brand recognition, and hence provide a competitive edge over peers.

 

Creates a Direct Marketing and Communication Channel

The presence of a mobile app promotes direct marketing as business brands can consolidate all information and make products/services available at the consumers’ fingertips with the help of various mobile app features like news feed, general info, user account, search functionality, etc. More importantly, products and services can be directly sold to customers via apps.

Entrepreneurs use mobile apps to effortlessly and effectively communicate important announcements such as promotional offers, product launches, etc. through real-time user notifications. This keeps the users updated about the launch of new products/services/ lucrative offers and reminds/encourages the customers to make a purchase.

Applications provide handy insights about the purchasing patterns of users, their geographical locations, and demographics. A thorough knowledge of user behavior helps businesses to devise better marketing strategies. And, knowing the user’s current location enables brands to leverage the geo-targeting feature – sending ads to the customers when they are within close vicinity of your store - for attracting consumers.

 

Expedites Sales, Drives Conversions, and Retains Customers

These days, it’s not enough to possess a mobile-friendly website for a business selling goods/services. A mobile app with an amazing interface is essential for accelerating sales and driving conversions. This is because several mobile apps features help in simplifying things for users – easy access to shipping information, effortlessly executing payment process, a hassle-free checkout process with the help of just a few clicks, etc. Moreover, it has been observed that the purchasing frequency via mobile app is 1.8 times more than the shopping experienced via desktop devices, and the users purchase more when using a mobile app rather than a mobile-friendly website.

Example:

The Touch of Modern app came into being as an eCommerce website in 2012, but soon planned to target mobile users as well. Surprisingly, after launching a mobile app, the number of customer orders skyrocketed from 30,600 to 131,000. Now, 70% of their sales are generated from their mobile app and 57% of purchases are from repetitive consumers.

The British marketplace Asda decided to launch a mobile app with the intention of simplifying and enhancing their customers’ shopping experience and accelerating sales. The enterprise conducted an extensive survey for identifying the customer requirement and gathered that the customers desire a mobile app with functionalities such as barcode scanner, store locater, recipe finder, etc. Asda’s mobile app provided all these features resulting in a huge leap in online customer orders. Almost 90% of their grocery orders poured in through the app and mobile sales contributed to 18% of their total annual revenue. This firm is currently the second-largest retailer in the U.K. based across 500+ locations.

Enhances Operational Efficiency of Businesses

Mobile app development facilitates internal operations, communication between various departments, etc. thereby improving the effectiveness as well as efficiency of business operations. Today, several firms struggle to manage employees working remotely –either from home or from remote field locations - resulting in inadequate communications between teams. The presence of a mobile app opens up myriad effective communication channels and hence, eliminates interaction hassles while helping teams to stay connected without much ado. This results in improved work efficiency, enhanced motivation, and lower operational costs.

Minimizes Operational Costs

Crafting a customized mobile app for businesses can reduce operational costs to a great extent. A mobile app turns out to be a useful tool that maintains online records of important data like timesheets, daily work orders, guest forms, online reports, inspection records, inventory information, etc.

Example: Cumberland Farms, a large-scale firm with 500+ gas stations/retail stores and over 6,000 employees, encountered problems to smoothly run its business. This is because all their record-keeping activities were executed on paper and the task of record maintenance seemed quite challenging. This resulted in slow processing times, which worsened as the company grew. So, they launched a mobile app that enabled them to create mobile forms for executing paperless operations. Consequently, they witnessed improved internal operations, enhanced workforce productivity, reduced operational costs, and experienced a higher ROI. Furthermore, the expenses incurred on paper - over 11,000$ per year – were saved.

 

Establishes an on-demand Marketplace

The whopping success of on-demand applications such as Uber, Postmates, Grubhub, Lyft, etc. testifies to the fact that on-demand marketplaces are the order of the day and a great hit amongst the users as well. And, for reaping the benefits of on-demand solutions, one need not set up a new line of business altogether. Established brands operating online can also architect an on-demand app solution for broadening their customer reach.

Example: Mobile app development has enabled the brand Rover to improvise their existing business model and this strategy provided them a golden opportunity to gain a competitive edge. Rover began as a website offering services like daycare, dog visits, dog walking, boarding, etc. They launched a mobile app with an intention of enhancing their existing infrastructure – introducing new and unique features that were not possible to offer using a website. The most notable feature was GPS integration that allowed the dog owners to track down the walkers and keep a tab on their activities while dog walking. Needless to say, Rover witnessed a massive surge in the number of registrations, with 10,000 new users per week. Thus, their mobile app solution enabled them to provide unparalleled customer services and also doubled their revenue generation.

Generates Revenue Streams through App Store Monetization Strategies

Subscription Model

If you possess a subscription-based business model and need to employ cost-effective and effective methods of accelerating conversions, there can be no better solution other than a mobile app. But, the question that baffles most app creators is: “How does a mobile app enable owners to make money in the app store?” Well, this is tricky and you need to follow the right procedure. If users have to pay for downloading your app, it’s less likely to fetch customers. So, you need a smart business strategy in place. Check it out!

Offer the basic features for free and employ a multi-tier subscription model for providing premium content. The subscription charges for each level should be decided as per the content/add-ons provided. Now, to convince customers into adopting your premium version, provide a free trial of your exclusive services to users. This policy is sure to convert a significant chunk of the free-trial users, resulting in a continuous revenue stream for your business.

Example: Spotify allows users to download the app for free. Thereafter, the users can upgrade to premium versions based on their choice, preferences, and the level of personalization required.

In-app Ads

Another crucial app store revenue generation strategy is in-app ads. For this, you need to rope in third-party businesses for posting ads within your app. This way, the business brands get an opportunity to advertise their offerings, while you gain an additional revenue stream. But, remember not to bother users with too many ads running on your app.

Example: The free version of several apps including YouTube contains ads.

EndNote

So, isn’t it a great idea to hire professional mobile app development services for architecting an impeccable and profitable mobile app for your business? If you are on the lookout for an experienced and proficient technology partner, the offshore mobile app development company will be a safe bet.