Whether it’s mobile games, meditation, social media or a favorite store, consumers and business leaders alike fill their phones with go-to mobile apps.
Businesses can lure consumers to mobile apps through loyalty programs and coupons, as seen with Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s. Instead of waiting for a computer and Wi-Fi, consumers can purchase items with a tap of the finger. At least, that is how it should be.
Enterprises are looking for technology that will bring value to their business, but tech leaders do not need to reinvent the wheel. Mobile apps have sauntered from center stage to the back burner as issues related to cyberattacks and supply chain management increase. Mobile apps increase conversion rates, build reciprocal relationships with customers and keep the most loyal consumers happy.
But not all mobile apps are created equal.
Poor mobile app experiences can include a lagging interface, forcing users to create an account before viewing products or users getting kicked out, according to Matt Hudson, CEO and founder of BildIt, a mobile app development platform.
Before starting BildIt, Hudson was the lead software engineer and architect of the Belk app. During his time, he identified two types of customers: those that were loyal and those that would leave.
Loyal customers might begrudgingly restart the app 20 times to get what they want, but potential customers that are browsing for a specific item or a good deal will bounce at the first signs of friction, Hudson said.
“However, I would argue that with a mediocre mobile app, you’re also alienating your most loyal customers who expect more,” Hudson said. “You should have a great one specifically for these best customers, and it's a much bigger percentage than they think it is.”
Why mobile apps matter
The major app stores, including Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store, are similar to traditional marketplaces for customers to find what they want, read reviews prior to downloading and compare to competitors.
“If your product is not where people look for it, that creates user friction,” Dominick Profico, EVP and CTO of Mobiquity, a digital consulting business, said in an email. “People are accustomed to icons on touch screens launching into their experiences.”
Progressive web applications, commonly referred to as PWAs, have tried to bridge the gap between web development and app experiences by allowing users to enjoy the features of a native mobile app and deliver it on the web.
Many large players have seen significant increases in traffic after deploying their PWA. For instance, Hulu replaced its platform-specific desktop experience with a PWA and saw a 27% increase in return visits, according to Google’s developer page. Twitter saw a 65% increase in pages per session, 75% more tweets and a 20% decrease in bounce rate when it deployed its PWA.
“The challenge with PWAs right now is that support between Android and iOS is not the same,” Profico said. “Things like notifications and biometric security are handled differently and to different degrees by the two platforms making functional parity hard to achieve.”
In the future, things might change especially if PWAs continue to prove fruitful for larger companies, but for now there isn’t a substitute for a good mobile app, according to Profico.
In many ways, the relationship between customers and online shopping can be compared to the cycles of dating, according to Hudson.
When a customer is going on a first date with a company, they go to the website where there are no commitments. If the experience goes well, the customer might give the company their email address.
Over time, the customer will feel comfortable enough to get married to the company by downloading the app, allowing push notifications and creating a login and password.
Now, the relationship is reciprocal because the company sends notifications about deals and sales and in turn the customer does a lot of their shopping with the company.
“So anybody that tells me, well, it’s only 30% of our customers [that are on the app], I think well it’s the 30% willing to get married and those are the people that you should be loving the most, so you got to provide them the best experience,” Hudson said.
Without it, companies risk tarnishing the brand and losing customers and money.
