A new report from Xtreme Labs states that many retail brands are missing the boat on the mobile app opportunity. They say that 30% have no mobile apps available to users and that with retail brands offering mobile apps, many are being scored low by shoppers. This offers a wide open space for savvy businesses to jump in a secure additional market-share with quality mobile applications for iPhone, Android and tablets.
While it is quite amazing that 30% of big name retailers don’t have mobile apps, it is equally amazing that those that do are getting a large number of complaints. Apps like this just tell users to go somewhere else to do their shopping. A well designed and developed iPhone application or Android application will keep users in your store.
According to Xtreme Labs data, mobile applications for the Top 100 Retail Brands averaged merely 2.9 out of 5 stars for iOS apps and fared even worse in the Android environment rating just 2.2 out of 5 stars.
Their data shows some great information for brands looking to build an app for their brand. Shoppers are looking for mobile apps to augment their in-store shopping experiences and these mobile apps need to work without crashing. A surprising 33% say app crashes of big retailer applications are an issue with Android apps and 23 percent state the same thing with iPhone applications. Additionally, consumers are looking for better features and better design.
But beyond just developing a better mobile app experience, users need to keep in mind where users will be using these apps. Consumers are using these apps and mobile web sites in-store and are increasingly shopping at stores that offer free WiFi over those that do not offer WiFi connectivity.
Looking at current trends and apps that are scoring well, there is a huge opportunity for savvy retails to augment their users shopping experiences and grab additional market-share with carefully designed mobile applications that include quality development.
One of the hottest new trends in retail, thanks to the Apple stores, is allowing retail associates in stores to complete transactions on the spot rather than making customers walk all the way to a register and stand in line to complete the transaction. Giving retail associates the tools to do this is taking customer service to a whole new level and rapidly making the cash register obsolete.
At the last Mobile World Congress, mobile payments and mobile payment systems were one of the hottest topics. We are entering an age of mobile and mobile applications taking retail to a new level, especially if you consider the opportunities offered by augmented reality.
As Charler Napier says: “Small business owners represent the segment driving mobile payments adoption most aggressively today” in an interview with Bloomberg. But we are still in the early stages of development so opportunities are abound. While we are hearing about names like Square and GoPayment right now, there are sure to be other solutions providers to follow.
In the near future cash registers are going to disappear in favor of mobile payment systems and since 66 percent of retail transactions are made with plastic today and 180 million Americans carry a credit or debit card, it’s no surprise that retailers would switch to mobile payment platforms that will change the face of retail.
If you are planning on building an app, consider integrating new mobile payment systems into your iPhone app or Android app. Passbooks and digital wallets are also extremely hot topics in the industry right now and its better to plan for the future with mobile application development.
If you aren’t sure whether your business needs to enter the mobile space with a custom designed mobile application or mobile web site, please take a moment to consider just how important mobile devices are to consumers at this point in time. In studies some participants are responding that they would go without water rather than lose their smart phone and many claim to take take their smartphone everywhere they go, including the bathroom.
Astounding new numbers from a study done by Apigee show that a staggering number that 85 percent of mobile consumers would rather go without water than their smart phone. Digging into the numbers deeper we see that it’s the mobile application function and mobile application market that is the most indispensable to consumers. Mobile apps are becoming a deeply entrenched part of consumers lives around the world as we see that in France about 20% of the population order dinner with apps only and 23% of consumers in Spain utilize apps only to find dates.
People’s lives and how they go about them is rapidly being tied into their smart phones and the mobile apps on their devices and we don’t see that changing in the near future. Businesses that are ignoring mobile applications and mobile web site are rapidly finding them selves on the outside looking in and businesses that aren’t developing for both of the major platforms are ignoring a big chunk of that market. A few years ago we steered clients towards building Android mobile applications as well but these days, pretty much every savvy business is building both iPhone applications and Android applications and often doing iPad applications if it works with the concept.
Additional data from SponsorPay shows that mobile consumers are utilizing their mobile devices for 117 minutes each day on average. These consumers are taking devices everywhere they go. According to their report 11% of mobile gamers, for instance, will play games on their mobile device while in the bathroom.
With a market that is this large and devoted, businesses must embrace mobile application development as soon as possible or risk being left behind as their competition takes their market share. How can you grab this market? What app can you build for your business that consumers will want to have on their smart phone and better yet use on a regular basis? These are the devices consumers carry with them and have in their hands, this is a tremendous opportunity for your business to position your self right in front of your consumer’s eyes.