It is a never-ending dilemma of whether to go with only a mobile-friendly website or create your own app. But in the era of ever-evolving technology, users are spending more time on their mobile devices. Yes, websites today are responsive to fit into different mobile device screens, but do they offer the same benefits as a mobile app?
A mobile app is better than a mobile-friendly website. Not only does it improve your conversion rate but it also gets you more sales and profit. To end your confusion, we have listed the benefits of having a mobile app over a mobile-friendly website.
Easy communication
Push notification is an inbuilt capability of the mobile app to send notifications to users who have downloaded and installed it. It gives the brands an amazing opportunity to connect to the customers by sending direct messages. A good push notification instantly grabs the user’s attention and makes them click on it to take them to the app.
Brands can now reach customers to tell them about the new launches, offers, reminders on products in the cart, sale dates, purchase orders, feedback reminders, and so on. It helps you to drive attention and traffic to the app and to improve your conversion rate. Meanwhile, push notification can also be enabled for a mobile website. But the downside is that it reaches the user only when the device is on and the browser is open. Whereas, in a mobile device, the push notification reaches the user instantly.
Device access capabilities
Have you ever observed the ease with which you can share images through social media platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram? It gives you the option to select images stored on your mobile device. Also, you can use your mobile camera to click a picture through WhatsApp and send it across to your contacts. Ah, talking of the contacts, WhatsApp can easily access the contacts saved on your device so that you can forward your text, images, or videos to anyone in your contact list.
A mobile app gives you the power to make use of your device features like camera, contacts, storage, and location to improve user experiences. It uses the resources of your device to improve the UI/UX. This is not possible with a mobile website. So, isn’t it worth it to create your own app?
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User personalization
Ask anyone if they would spend more time on the Instagram app or Instagram website. There is a crucial reason why people love spending more time on their mobile apps and it is user personalization.
With an app, you can ask your users their preferences and interests during the onboarding process. Also, you can use analytics to discover user patterns and correlate them with real user action. Have you observed how Twitter, Quora, or Netflix displays content based on user interest? Through a mobile app, you can provide more accurate content recommendations and improve your conversion rate. Likewise, e-commerce apps like Amazon and Costco study the user pattern to recommend products. On-demand service apps such as Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, and Doordash use the location of users to provide personalized services.
Mobile websites cannot integrate to a large extent with the device features. Thus the personalization process is subdued and lesser when compared to mobile apps.
Offline functionality
Another distinguishing feature of the mobile app is its ability to offer offline functionality. For instance, you can access tax and installment calculations in a banking app when you are offline. YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix offer features to download videos and store them on the device to be viewed at a later time. Similarly, game apps offer features that can be accessed offline. Amazon Kindle, Uber, and Google Maps use offline features to limit a user’s inconvenience.
For example, while traveling, you can type and enter messages on WhatsApp even when there is no internet or poor connectivity. The messages automatically get delivered to the receiver when the device catches the mobile network signal. Here, the user did not have to wait for better connectivity to do the job. The app takes care of it thus reducing user inconvenience. Mobile websites work on browsers. They require an internet connection to load and function. Create your own app, offer some offline features, and you will notice how much of a difference it makes in getting more customers.
Mobile analytics
While in a website, you measure page views, it is a screen view for a mobile app. So, you measure the user sessions instead of visits to know which content is being consumed on your mobile app. Since a mobile app can access the device’s GPS, storage, and other things, it measures new types of user interactions that are not possible with a mobile website.
In a mobile app, unique users are identified through user IDs instead of cookies. The benefit is that cookies are susceptible to being deleted whereas the user IDs persist across multiple devices and version updates. The user ID remains the same even if the user changes the device or there is a version update.
Branding
As a startup or a small business, many of your competitors won’t have a mobile app. Coming to the market with your mobile app will be a crucial differentiator that can make your brand stand out from the crowd. Your app on the user’s mobile phone serves as a constant reminder telling them about your brand and products. This greatly influences the user perception and helps you to improve the conversion rate.
Create your own app easily
The startups and the bootstrapped companies find it challenging to invest in a mobile app. But do you think that only such companies with adequate funding can opt for both channels? Of course, if you are building your mobile app from scratch, it takes quite a lot of investment. And it takes time to complete building and launching the app. But why bother about investing in building a mobile app from scratch when you can easily convert your existing website into a user-friendly mobile app? Yes, you heard it right! Swipecart helps you transform your website into a mobile app without coding and at a fraction of the cost. What’s more, your app will be up and live in a short time! Never was creating your app so easy, affordable, and fast.
Wrapping Up
We have now entered the mobile-first business era. Simply said, applications provide numerous important capabilities and benefits that web pages do not. People not only download apps but are also inspired by them. Apps provide customers with a personalized environment through their unique features, push notifications, and content. A mobile-friendly website is not the future, but a mobile app is. So, why not prepare yourself for the future? Create your own app with Swipecart. Reach out to new customers while keeping the existing ones engaged. Nurture a smooth user experience. Improve your conversion rate. Elevate your brand in 2022!
