What's Better for Enterprise - iPhone or Android apps

The popularity of mobile applications, or apps, has caused enterprises of all types to try their hand at the mobile market. Creating a mobile app that ties in with your enterprise can be a smart move, but it’s not without some risk. Not only that, but knowing which of the two most popular mobile app development platforms to develop for can be a tricky decision to make.

Developing a Mobile App — Pros & Cons

Before creating an app for your enterprise, it’s important to make sure it’s a good investment by weighing the benefits versus the drawbacks.

Pros:- Provides better customer service, allowing users to access your enterprise directly from their phone.- Shows your enterprise is modern- Provides your enterprise with more exposure by essentially advertising your company to anyone that browses the app store on their phone.

Cons:- Requires a significant investment that may offer your enterprise no additional revenue.- Highly competitive app market means your app may not be downloaded.- Very difficult to develop a mobile app that perfectly fits your enterprise.

The iPhone

Once you’ve determined that a mobile app is a right fit, you’ll have to choose which platform you want to release it on. The iPhone, due to its massive popularity, may seem like an obvious choice. For one, it has a huge install base that loves to download apps. Secondly, your app can be developed to work on any iPhone since they all have the same specifications. It does have its share of problems, however. For one, the iPhone app store is very competitive. The iPhone app store is significantly larger than the Android market, meaning you have less of a chance at competing. Secondly, while growth is high now for the iPhone, the market for Android-based phones is just beginning and growing at an exponential rate.

Android Phones

The main reason to choose to develop an app for the Android market is due to its growing user base. It has a huge install base of potential customers that continues to grow. Secondly, there is less competition in the Android market, giving your app a better chance to shine. Conversely, while the Android market share is widening, it is spread across hundreds of different phones. Making an app that works with all of them can therefore be tricky. Secondly, despite a large market share, the overall number of apps downloaded to Android phones is dwarfed by that of those downloaded to the iPhone. Even with no competition, your app still might not get downloaded.

Conclusion

If you are sure you want to develop a mobile app for your enterprise, you’re currently better off developing for the iPhone. It’s overall simpler to develop for, it has a large install base, and its users are known to download a lot of apps. If your iPhone app is a success, however, consider creating an Android app to match. It’s a growing market for mobile app development that shouldn’t be ignored.

Trends That Define The Future Of Mobile Application Development

If you are looking forward to outsource your clients’ projects to a mobile app outsourcing company, you are headed to make huge profits by minimizing your overhead expenses and also maximizing your profits. Here are the trends that will define the future of mobile application development.

Wearable gadgets

Year on year, the volume of wearable devices manufactured is surging up by about 30 percent. There is also a sharp transition noted from just basic to smart wearables. App developers are highly excited about this development since wearable devices like healthcare sensors, smart watches, smart jewelry, display devices and many others have to communicate with mobile applications to deliver the information in innovative ways. Hence there is a huge requirement in the fields of sports, fitness, healthcare, hobbies and fashion for mobile apps. These gadgets will ultimately decide the future course the mobile app development sector must take.

Internet and smart objects connected with mobiles

Experts say by 2020, there will be over 26 billion connected devices including thousands of small objects like toys, LED bulbs, domestic appliances, medical devices, sports gadgets and power sockets. These things will have to communicate through their Apps with the smart phones and tablets serving as remote controls and to facilitate the display and analysis of information, interfacing with the social networks and monitoring the devices. Hoes are being automated now through voice command. Such developments point out the immense need in front of the mobile apps development world.

Mobile commerce

Purchases through mobiles are on the sharp rise. Over the next four to five years, this segment is expected to reach a phenomenal growth. The Apple Pay and Google Wallet are increasing in popularity. They too facilitate purchasing through mobile phones rather than credit or debit cards. This segment will require mobile app developers to create mobile apps to process the transactions thereby ruling out the need for debit cards or cash. Therefore mobile commerce segment is yet another huge segment for the mobile apps to target.

Motion sensing and location sensing

These days, most mobile phones come with location sensing capabilities. These phones deploy multiple positioning methods to give different granularities of the location information. Motion sensing apps have come to serve several functions in the areas of mobile games, anti-theft measures, power-saving and others. Experts say in the long run, the concept of smart lighting is also expected to boom up. Sensing of the precise indoor location is very useful in Geotagging, games, vehicle navigation and fitness apps. These developments will help achieve personalization of services and information to a great extent. Therefore the immense potentials for growth in front of the mobile app development platforms sector has motivated a large number of technology companies to jump into this arena and take advantage of the exploding business opportunity.

Planning To Develop A Custom Mobile App? Follow These Tips!

Creating a smart and user-friendly smartphone application calls for considerable professional expertise and complete familiarity with the latest mobile app development platforms and frameworks. Every year, many apparently ‘fool-proof’ applications are launched, which do not manage to make any major headway among targeted clients. If you wish to develop a successful application, the following pointers would help you:

1. Determine the purpose of the app — To be practically useful for customers, mobile apps need to actually serve one precise purpose/solve a specific problem of end-users. The purpose can range from real-time updates on stock market data, to simple gaming for kids. Find out what would be the exact genre of the app you are planning to create. That would keep the process focused, and help you identify your target buyers easily too.

2. Start of with a concept — At any professional mobile application development company, experts typically get together to deliberate on alternative ideas that can be implemented, to create the app. Once you are sure about its purpose, you have the option of choosing from alternative interesting concepts via which the application can serve the same. Make sure that the selected idea is technically viable.

3. Avoid ‘me-too’ apps — It’s all very well to get into an intriguing process of Android or iphone app development in USA — but will your application have significant uniqueness value? That is a question you need to resolve, before proceeding to the designing stage of the app. Find out whether there are already any similar apps in the market, along with their popularity counts. If there is already an app similar to yours doing well among users, it would be tough for your application to make a mark.

4. Choose the design type — This would probably depend on the nature of the app, along with the proficiency of the mobile app developers at your organization. If the executives are experienced enough with sophisticated smartphone app development framework and tools, you can opt for a Native design for the application. Alternatively, in case you are looking for quickly releasing a no-frills app, the Web design scheme is likely to be more suitable.

5. Choose the targeted platforms — As far as mobile apps are concerned, one size definitely does not fit all. That’s precisely why professionals from any leading iphone application development company in USA would stick to creating advanced apps for iphones only. Of course, if you have the requisite skill-set at your disposal, you can go for designing Android and/or Blackberry apps as well. Remember, apps for each different mobile application platform have to be separately customized.

6. Make your app user-friendly — Smartness in the choice of app development graphics and functional features goes a long way in determining whether it would be able to survive and prosper in the fiercely competitive mobile markets. Chalk up the app user interface (UI) and layout in a manner that, users would never have any problems in using it. Using elegant yet simple mobile application designs is particularly important when you are making apps for kids. The dashboard of smartphone apps should never give a cluttered feel.

7. Examine the prototype — With the basic functionalities and design features, create a wireframe of the application, and build a model prototype — which can be promoted to potential users. Highlight the advantages that the app is going to provide in the prototype itself. You can easily do this via your company’s social media channels. At this point, you will also need to acquire the necessary development and marketing licenses for the app.

8. Pricing — Unless you are developing a free app (which can, of course, be done to promote your business), a proper pricing and revenue plan needs to be in place. Monitor the app development cost at every stage, so that you do not need to set its final price too high, to earn decent profit margins. You can conduct market surveys too, asking people about the maximum amount they are likely to pay for the application you are developing. Competitor analysis would also come in handy.

9. Implement an analytics tool — You need to be aware of how your app is doing in the market, and presence of an accurate and reliable analytics tool is an absolute must for that. The tool should give you real-time figures on the number of people who are downloading and installing your app, as well as the total revenue figures it is managing to generate. Scopes for improvement (if any) can also be identified at this stage.

10. Do beta-testing before release — If your app slows down the handsets of users, or has bugs in it — not only would the final sale figures remain low, but your mobile application development company would also be viewed in an unfavorable light. Create a core group of Blackberry or iphone app developers, who would actually use the app on their phones for a pre-specified period of time (at least a couple of weeks). If no issues are detected, you can go ahead with the full app launch.

11. Promote and distribute your app well — The custom mobile apps you create need to have adequate visibility on the online space, for buyers to be aware of them and actually purchase them. Start publicizing your applications on your social media pages and business website, from a few days before its release. Distribute the app through the leading web app stores. You need to ensure that the entire purchasing process can be completed in a few clicks.

After releasing the app, constantly monitor its performance metrics, and decide upon the upgrades/improvements required accordingly. Actively seek feedback from actual users, regarding the performance and the visual features of the application. Creating a mobile app can be a whole lot of fun — and following these tips would ensure its success too!

3 Points Why Mobile Application Development Is Important

Mobile applications completely alter the importance of cell phone, whether it is pre-installed or third party applications. The most modern phones like the iPhone and Android are the mini-notebook that enables users to execute many task on your mobile app development platforms instantly. Mobile development refers to the procedure of developing applications for dedicated mobile phone that turns the phone a full useful device. The Apple iPhone is one of the most popular phones that make business more full of life.

It is a fact that the iPhone comes with many features that makes it a useful gadget for your entire enterprise. It changes the business of working in the trading mechanism in line with the development of applications for the iPhone. There are many ways that mobile development helps in improving your own company.

Accessibility — iPhone offers trouble-free accessibility to applicable information while you’re away. Today, many entrepreneurs use this technology to manage their work. You can access your important files and data with the use of iPhone application. As an organization, you obtain everything you require to manage your organization through iPhone applications. Therefore, mobile development for the iPhone and other smartphones is seen as important to your business.

Market growth — the development of iPhone applications on the market is growing at a rapid rate. You can be part of this growth using the latest mobile software development.

Market Shift — The days when people buy products the conventional way is now gone. Now, with the innovation of new technology, people use the Internet to research products and order directly from the comforts of their home. Therefore, the newest version of mobile development should always be installed on the phone to the new market updates and details.

These points suggest that selecting mobile application development is really important. Now you need to carefully research the market to find the best service provider. You will receive the latest applications that will definitely make your iPhone a complete device.

Mobile Application Development: Options and New Trends

The sway that mobile devices hold over the whole industry provides a stirring opportunity for website owners and web developers. They are gnawing their applications into these gadgets while cross-platform mobile applications and website interfaces are set to fire their salvo into this vibrant sphere.

Whether it is for iPad, iPhone, Blackberry or Android a compatible application is every website’s gateway to exposure. In creating applications a list of HTML5 frameworks for mobile development provides a starting block- Ripple helps to test and debug the application on multiple platforms like JavaScript.

An impressive built-in Geolocation module enables testing of geolocation-related applications.

LungoJS which is supplied with full features of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript can implement essential features such as Geo location, History, Device Orientation and WebSQL.This framework does not require any web server support.

Joshfire is an open source mobile development framework that supports HTML5 and JavaScript. This framework will run on iPad, iPhone, Android and even on TVs and connected objects.

Sencha fully supports HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. Our applications can be equipped with HTML audio and video components, local storage element and CSS3 styling effects. They can be adapted to iOS, Blackberry and Android devices.

Jo creates applications compatible with iOS, Android, Blackberry drawing the cream of CSS technology to solve design and animation issues.

Kendo UI is a set of HTML5 controls released late last year is quite akin to though it claims non-compliance with jQuery but when we try to use it, a lot of jQuery- style codes appear enmeshed.

In developing a web-based application it is necessary to ensure that our application is compatible with browsers in use today. Much less of a problem for the mobile world because of the rampant purchase of new devices and the advancement in technology incorporated in them. But our site needs to be tested with intended user devices.

New trends have emerged in the form of writing Ruby instead of Objective C. It was released in May this year in the form of Rubymotion to develop and test native applications for Ipad and Iphone. For those accustomed to Ruby language this is quite an amazing makeover.

Before we set foot on the development phase let us decide whether to use Android, Apple or Blackberry models. A recent Forrester survey of 4000 information workers in 17 different countries found usages were in equal measure with Blackberry taking a light jab.

Mobile Development Platforms help low-power handheld devices such as mobile phones and digital assistants handle pre-installed applications during manufacture of these gadgets. But with the proliferation of Smartphones, tablets and mobiles it is necessary to take a relook at pre-installed software. Needless to mention, we cannot waste precious time developing new applications for each and every device.

Cross-platform framework has now emerged as a solution to this problem. A hybrid mixture of HTML5, JavaScript along with extra libraries provides enhanced access to the device over a pure HTML5 web application. Local Storage in excess of 5 MB, photos upload, background services run are all possible.

Leading this field is the PhoneGap framework- now donated to Apache Software Foundation as an open source project and renamed Apache Cordova. It provides a platform-specific wrapper for Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone, and exposes a platform-independent API to code against in JavaScript.

The final hitch is how we build the platform. For instance iOS requires Mac, Windows Phone calls for a Windows PC and the others come with a price tag. Today Mobile Development with options and new trends has come to stay and the web developers are now all over the mobile development platforms scouting for an entry on the mobile bandwagon.

Mobile Application Development Makes Your Business Popular

People were wonderstruck when they first saw the movie “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”. Now they have to cope up with the reality of the smartphones. The smartphones are a combination of the telephone device and the computer. They are palm sized and very handy. It would not be wrong in saying that the smartphones have shrunk the global perspectives of business into a palm sized device.

As technology evolves the smartphones are now becoming more affordable. Consequently the users of smartphones are increasing exponentially. The number of people accessing the internet through the smartphones is on a dramatic rise.

There are different brands and versions of mobiles available in the market. The operating system and the mobile development platforms of the smartphone vary from brand to brand. The basic technology also differs. It is highly probable that an mobile application developed for one brand of smartphone may not be compatible with the other. As a result of this incompatibility, the applications may not be accessible to the smartphone user. Finally it is the loss for the business who owns that particular mobile web application. Thus it becomes mandatory for the business to have applications that are compatible with all the brands of mobiles in the market. Some of the prominent brands of mobile in the market are iPhone and Blackberry. Some of the famous names in mobile applications are Android applications, iPhone applications, iPad Applications, BlackBerry applications, Symbian OS applications and windows mobile applications.

The other aspect of mobile applications is making it easier to handle the businesses. Most of the people in the higher management level of the corporate world are constantly on the move. The companies conduct operations at multiple locations. The work at all the branches has to be coordinated and regularly monitored. The reports from different branches need to be studied and reviewed. Critical Information needs to be shared immediately between the key personnel and immediate decisions need to be taken. In these sorts of circumstance where the user can only carry the cell phone and not the laptop, the mobile app need to be customized. The mobile applications help the user to be connected to the business form any corner of the world. Mobile applications work on the principle of minimal dependency on the network connections.

If it is a small business the mobile application development can prove to be a very cost effective popularity tool. Suppose your studies have revealed that most of your buyers have mobile with Android OS, you need to have an mobile app developed. The early bird takes the worm. Once you are the first at developing any mobile application that market is nearly sure to be yours. Late entries are usually considered secondary because by that time the buyers get used to using the earlier application.

How Mobile App Developers Can Prepare Apps Under GDPR Regulation

GDPR Regulations or General Data Protection Regulation is on the floor for mobile app users in European nations, is a sort of gift. Of course; your privacy is your privacy, no intruder allow getting in. The best mobile app development companies in the US were also talking about the implementation of GDPR in their app development process.

Before you judge me with this statement, let me remind you that the mobile application development process is not limited with geographical boundaries. So, an app, which is getting developed in the US might be used in Canada or maybe some other European country. This increases the responsibility of mobile app developers to prepare apps under GDPR regulation keeping the safety and regulation norms in mind. The experts have to come on a single mobile development platform and use these concerns to prepare apps under this new regulation.

Users' choice to opt-in or opt-out with consent

When a user installs an app in own device, it won't take permission rather it just ask for the need to accept the terms to go ahead in the installation process. At least, Android users don't have a choice here to opt-out for sharing of personal information and data.

Mind you, the Android users are 79% in the Smartphone market segment; yes, there is a need for user consent. Mobile app developers should ask users to opt-in at the right time, and this be implemented with the consent toolkit for developers. Here is the catch, most of the apps ask for consent at the wrong timing. And, they should know that they are in control. It would be great for users, if they can choose what to share and what not.

Managing consent across devices

When your user switches from one device to another device, it would be easier to get the same Android account on the new device. But, does that work for other apps too, Why there is a need to discuss it, because if a user does this many of times or even once; this would be difficult to identify that whether to update those privacy settings and opt-in/opt-out consent once again. The user settings synchronization should be there else continue using the same account without the update will be against of user's interest.

Organizing the user's opt-out request with respect

Mobile app developers should understand that user's choice should be on the priority, why we need to take care of that, because when an app allows the user to choose "opt-out" for some of the permission or all; it won't change the user experience. This has been to be there with all the fully functioning features of any app. Let's say a cab booking app wants to use your pictures from the device, if you deny then it shouldn't stop you to use all the features. Developers should incorporate all such features with the consent toolkit.

Integration of user consent preference with other third party apps/tools

The Smartphone we use is not the just the single component, it has a club of various hardware components, software, and applications. This is the basic need when it has to integrate the "opt-out/opt-in" consent with all available third-party apps and tools. While developing the app, it should be there to have sync with all such third-party apps, tools, and hardware so there would be no case of losing data by any mean. When a user agreed to share contact list with one app should be limited to that particular one only. It shouldn't be shared with anyone, else it will be a loss of user's privacy consent.

Wrapping up

Developers can't ignore or deny this regulation; this is also in favor of users so they need to keep it in mind. And, the internet world has no limit, so when going for any further development, dedicated mobile app developers have to follow GDPR.

5 Tips to Hire a Smart Mobile Application Development Company

It is great that you have decided to hire a mobile application development company. Indeed such a move works significantly in adding wings to you otherwise existing but slow paced business or a startup venture. However, as you raise this step, chances are higher that you end up selecting a wrong service provider due to lack of apt knowledge. The article below gives solution to this very problem with five important points.

Mobile App Platform Experience: Obviously, experience counts much more than anything else. Whether you are looking for a mobile application developer for iOS, Android, Windows Phone or any other madp platforms, make sure that it has considerable years of working history to back its claims and promises. Checking out the reviews and whereabouts of the company over the web is a worthwhile and simple step in this regard.

Domain specific experience: Ahead of madp platforms, looking for a company that holds an enriched and credible working prowess in your respective niche is another significant aspect to take care of. App developers may often hold expertise in limited fields such as business, finance, etc. However, a host of other firms may also provide capable assistance in multiple verticals such as travel, transportation, education, healthcare, non-profits and so on. Once you perform in-depth research of the market, you can have a better idea of the veterans. Consequently, you gain even better chance of selecting the best company for your business.

Finesse: This point emphasizes the quality of work that the concerned developer vouches for. You can always install and use the other apps from that developer on your mobile device. If you find them smart, interactive and user-friendly, there is every chance that you end up zeroing-in that particular mobile app development company. To the contrary, if you do not find any appealing factor in one or more of those applications, you can always move ahead and search the rest of the mobile development world; the market is all flooded with such service providers.

Deadlines: How good is the company in meeting the deadlines is another very important factor that you cannot afford missing. Imagine you have announced the date of app launch and at the eleventh hour you come to know that the app is not even half complete; indeed a helpless situation. Hence, to avoid such hassle make sure that the firm is well on time in its services and yet gives due justice to quality and standards in its service.

Cost matters: If you are a big entrepreneur, cost might not matter to you while looking out for a suave mobile app developer. However, paying hefty amounts for such kind of development projects is not everyone's cup of tea. It would instead be better to search for the companies that adhere to your specific budget constraints if you own a small to medium size business or are a beginner. You can ask for quotations from all the service providers that you think could provide your appropriate services in your stipulated financial precincts. Once you get an idea of the flow of market, it is comparably much easier and profitable to invest.

For more information & hire mobile app development company, write to us at sales.sg@hokuapps.com or call us on +65 8813 8839.

Some Strategies for Developing Enterprise Mobile Apps Effectively

Most companies are mulling over choices of different mobile app development platforms for creating their own enterprise apps. While some enterprises seek mobile app development platforms for resolving internal management bottlenecks, others are looking for customer-facing technologies.

Enterprise mobile apps are a modern day necessity. They connect employees across the organization with each other in an effort to iron out operational inefficiencies and quicken decision-making. Mobile app development platforms such as HokuApps can provide elegant solutions to enterprises that are looking for end-to-end solutions for web and mobile devices.

The HokuApps mobile app development platform equips enterprise apps with a sophisticated back-end that enables the administration to manage and administer business solutions through granular reporting engine and dashboards, fully configurable and customizable user administration for any organizational hierarchy.

Let’s explore strategies for developing well-functioning enterprise applications:

Make a Business Plan

An enterprise solution blueprint should be evaluated like a business plan. Before engaging any mobile app development platform to develop an app, you must have a clear vision of what the application aims to achieve.

There should be an in-depth analysis of solutions that exist and customizations required to fill any gaps. A strict yet realistic timeline must be implemented along with budgeting of the same.

Know Your User

The success of your enterprise app depends on the scale of adoption by the user. For this, it is necessary to build enterprise apps that have a deep understanding of user’s needs, their role in relation to other users on the app, and any interim obstacles they face. Invest resources wisely to build a solution that solves an existing pain-point. Without this, the app will not gain widespread acceptance.

Simplify the Workflow

Enterprise applications development is tedious because of the number of moving parts involved. Partner with mobile app development platforms like HokuApps to simplify the app development process by using drag and drop functionality. The process-flow must make it simpler for people in the organization to work together; this will eventually increase app adoption.

Tracking Project Progress

Enterprise applications project managers perform the difficult task of keeping tabs on projects’ progress status and delivery milestones for the team. The process tracks an employee’s workflow, which in turn will connect everyone’s work completion status to give the management visibility in project progress and execution.

Security and Infrastructure

Enterprise mobile application development platforms that work on enterprise applications must hold security and infrastructure in high regard. An enterprise app infrastructure must be scalable to provide enough room for increased enterprise activity as a company grows. Moreover, the app must route communications over an HTTPS server to prevent data leakages of sensitive company information. Enterprise mobile application development platforms must actively test apps to prevent malicious hacks on company information.

Summary

Enterprises must engage competent mobile application development platforms to develop apps that simplify the company’s workflow. In doing so, the organization must be cognizant of employees’ needs and their workflow in relation to their teams and other departments.

A successful enterprise app is one that is readily adopted by the target audience, giving rise to a marked increase in productivity of the entire workforce and on-time completion of company’s projects. Additionally, mobile app development platforms must take into consideration different user experience and user interface designs that make the enterprise app more intuitive and less cumbersome. This will be the crux of effective enterprise mobile app development.

Why Mobile Application Development Is Required by Enterprises

There is a common concept behind enterprise mobile development as some organizations think that they must do it to spread their existing applications to smartphones or tablets. This is actually not the right mindset.

The true motive behind using enterprise mobile application development is in making business processes much simpler or productive. The ultimate goal behind developing any mobile apps should be to deliver 'task focused application' for employees that they can make use of just to make their job easier.

The enterprise application market is still growing, there is a very clear understanding that being mobile is very much critical both for employees and customers. In a recent survey nearly 55% of companies ranked mobility at their top or very near to top priorities list while 66% of them were indecisive.

Yet it must be very clear to the enterprise whether to create the app development from scratch, or use an app that requires customization. The next step would be how the enterprise should best distribute such applications to users once such apps are developed and very much available.

These days mobile application development debate is very much in limelight and is drawing up considerable attention of organizations. Especially large organizations who often have enough budget and necessary IT resources to build their own mobile business application. It depends on the requirement of organization whether they want to design them for employees or customers.

The enterprises once develop the mobile apps have options to use the customized version of apps for specific devices and needs. The most apparent benefit of controlling app environment is to ensure that these applications are accessed in a very secure fashion.

So outsourcing the mobile apps development task is quite feasible for many medium and small businesses with proven results.

A recent survey has found that mobile application development has been found by many enterprises as quite transformative. It actually helps them in building up good customer and employee relationship with revenue growth and efficiency and keeps them ahead of their competitors. There are many hindrances which are actually being faced by many enterprise leaders towards success of their mobile application development which are listed as follows:

• Non-availability of enough resources meant for mobile efforts
• No proper technology standardization present within the enterprise
• No proper or clear direction or strategy available for developing mobile apps
• Requirement of integration with other existing enterprise data
• Lack of proper synchronization or decentralization of mobile efforts

However custom-built enterprise apps can surely impede innovation. This innovation can thus be accelerated by leveraging mobile development platform for these mobile applications that can allow enterprises to focus on reiterating quickly.

4 Reasons Why Retail Businesses Need Mobile App

Mobile epidemic is spreading. Nowadays, there are more than 2 billion active smartphone users all over the world. And all these people choose a smartphone as the most convenient device for the majority of their daily tasks. The possibilities of this market are unlimited, and if you still haven't done anything to use them, it's high time for you. In this article, we'll explore why a website is not an option anymore for online retail business, what benefits you will get if you create an appealing retail mobile app and what functionality you'll need to include there.

Your site isn't enough

Ask yourself what device you use more. Is it a PC or a phone? I'm sure that it's a smartphone. Now, ask yourself what is easier to work with a mobile app or a website via a mobile browser? I think that the answer is obvious. And we are not the only people who have noticed the difference. Here are some statistical facts taken from PR Newswire portal to prove my point:

• Mobile app users browse 280% more items compared to websites on mobile devices.
• Mobile apps have 90% higher rate of goods added to basket compared to mobile websites.
• Mobile websites in the retail sphere have more than 100% less conversion rate if compared to mobile apps.

The numbers clearly show that the mobile apps work much better in such areas as customers' engagement and profits increasing. And one more thing for you to consider, the portal Flurry analytics has calculated that modern mobile users spend about 90% of time working with apps and only 10% on browsing.

You see the statistics and have to make conclusions because your competitors do. Every day we get thousands of retail mobile apps and there are several reasons why business holders create them.

Benefits for business

All these phrases like "business improvement" and "profit increase" sounds very hazy. Let's talk about real advantages which you'll get after your retail app release:

Sales boost. It was calculated that more than 85% of users who installed a retail app use it regularly. Almost 55% percent of these people have made a purchase via the app last month.

Very promising statistics, right! Besides, with the help of discounts, special offers and a loyalty program for mobile shoppers, you can easily break these records. For instance, Alibaba, an online retail app famous for its discounts, has got the highest profit from mobile users - almost $25 per a user a month!

Extinguish competitors. This business if taught and the race is very intensive. Did you know that 60% of all interviewed business holders in the retail sphere confirmed that they are ready to start their own app development or they have already released one? Modern apps are very easy to use, they have much more intuitive interface than mobile websites do and %45 off people who took part in AYTM survey claimed that they prefer doing shopping via a mobile app rather than a website. Sounds like a lot of people, right? Don't give these customers a chance to choose another app. Contact a mobile app development company and release your product faster than your competitors!

Build brand loyalty. Brand recognition and loyalty is a huge plus for your company. Many businesses are trying to build their marketing campaigns in a way to increase their brand popularity. That's one of the main reasons for many business holders to create their own mobile app.

In-store experience improvement. It was calculated that more than 50% of customers can use both a mobile app and physical store shopping. Which means that these notions aren't mutually exclusive. Moreover, one can help another. In such a manner, you can improve your in-store experience with the help of a mobile app.

For instance, with a barcode scanner app, your customers can get more information about a product and its peculiarities without pinging a staff member. As well as that, your customers can pre-order goods and pick them up whenever they like.

MVP feature list

Still, there are some features which are an absolute must in your retail mobile app. Here they are:

Convenient catalogue. It has to be really well-organized and structured catalogue to help users save their time and nerves. Here's a tip for you, use only high-quality goods photos and keep your catalogue up-to-date. Nothing drives customers crazy as an item which you can see in the app but can't buy because there are none.

A lot of filters. Customers are very demanding nowadays that is why it would be useful to add additional filters to the usual ones, like size, colour and so on.

Convenient payments. Add several payment options. Not all people use only Visa or MasterCard. Different options give a user right to choose. It would be also great if you add total cost feature to your shopping cart, so a user can see whether he has enough money or it's necessary to exclude one or a few items.

The information we've listed above should become a guide for you if you want to make your retail business prosperous. The modern era demands only modern technologies and approaches. Don't waste your time and give your customers a chance to shop with comfort!

For more information on mobile app development platforms MADP, write to us at sales.sg@hokuapps.com or call us on +65 8813 8839.