With the widespread use of smartphones, Apps have become an useful tool for vendors to offer their services and products.
The profile of traffic to websites differs vastly, with a split between visitors using desktop, tablets, and mobiles. As a result, it is important that you understand your visitors device usage, before taking any action that has a financial costs to you.
Should you jump on the Apps Bandwagon? Here are some pointers to help you with your decision making.
What are the advantages of Apps?
Apps have advantages that make them attractive to vendors. These include:
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- Insight – Apps give a much better insight to customer behaviour than websites, as they are not reliant on cookies to track activities. This gives vendors the ability to better understand their customers and develop new products or service offers.
- Stickiness – Generally users spend more time on an App than a website. This gives the vendor more opportunities for push marketing, and market different products and services visible to users.
- Loyalty – Users tend to stay with their choice of Apps, so long as it works reliably and delivers what they need. Your average user tends only to install alternative Apps, if the App fails to deliver or is unreliable.
- Revenue – Combining all of the above, it is logical to assume that a well-designed and well-executed App will deliver more revenue per user, than a website alone. However, this has to be balanced against the cost of development, maintenance, and support. Click here to read more on this.
What are the advantages of Responsive Web Design?
There are some good reasons for creating Apps, but before you spend a lot of money and time, do consider whether your website is able to deliver most of what your clients need.
A well-designed website, with “Mobile First” approach, should be as easy to use for mobile users as your mobile App. The problem is that many websites are designed for desktops, and mobiles are an after thought. A well-designed website with “Mobile First” approach, has the following advantages:
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- Development Cost – Average website cost is a fraction of the cost of a Mobile App development, and takes a fraction of the time. Apps require a much more detailed definition and product planning, than the average website. Mobile Apps tend to offer more functionality than an average website (that is the whole point of having one!), which means more time and effort should be put in defining functionality, user interface design, etc.
- Cost of Ownership – Once your website is completed, the general running costs of the website should be minimal comparing to a mobile App, unless you have a bespoke software on your website. Most websites only need hosting, and may be a few licences for specialist applications such as payment gateways, or other functions that are very specific to that website. Apps on the other hand need hosting of their own, have to be maintained in order to pass “Compliance” testing from Google and Apple, a process that needs to be repeated for every release of Android and iOS. Click here to read more on this.
- Content Management – Responsive design means you can manage your content from the single interface, even if the presentation on mobile and desktop appear different. This means less costly management and maintenance for you. Apps need their own content, management, translation, etc.
- Hosting – Your website for mobile and desktop is hosted on the same hosting platform, and as your websites delivers both desktop and mobile versions of your website, there is no additional costs of maintenance or ownership. Apps need their own hosting platform, which can cost from $75 per month depending on the App, Usage, etc.
- GDPR – Your website should already be GDPR compliant, which means you are already covered and do not need additional processes to protect data and comply with GDPR. Your Mobile App will generally gather more personal information than your website, which means it requires a more complex GDPR compliance, and is also an easier target for hacking.
Conclusion
The decision on whether you develop an App in addition to your website should be based on reliable and a comprehensive study of data. You should consider your visitors profiles, devices they use, and the products that you sell, as not all products or services lend themselves to having an App.
Developing an App is not to be taken lightly, as it is time consuming, requires a lot of planning, and clear understanding of your customer’s needs. However, it can be a financially rewarding project, if the need is proven, the App is well-specified, and development is well-executed.
Contact us if you decide you need an App, we will help you to define the project, write a development brief, and develop it for you. Alternatively, we can improve your website performance for mobile devices.