10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App

Mobile phones have become the new storefronts where customers browse products, interact with your brand, and make real-time purchase decisions. 

Nearly 90% of smartphone users spend around 4.2 trillion hours on mobile apps, averaging 3.5 hours per day per user.^[i] Not just this, about 49% of people open an app at least 11 times daily.^[ii] 

It is a trend that’s only gaining momentum. 

In fact, the growth of in-app purchase revenue is expected to reach 260 billion dollars by 2029.^[iii]

So, if your business doesn’t already have one, launching a mobile app can help you nurture relationships with mobile-native customers and boost business sales. 

In this blog post, we’ll weigh the benefits of creating a mobile app to understand why investing in it is the right choice for your business. 

Swipe Right on Growth: Why Mobile Apps Are Non-Negotiable

The list of mobile app benefits is quite long. Let’s take a look at some of the top benefits you can get from having a dedicated mobile app for your business.

1. Boost Your Brand’s Pocket Presence

Most users spend around 4.5 to 5 hours^[iv] daily on their smartphones, with much of it on mobile apps. But even if yours isn’t always in use, it’s still there, sitting on the home screen, catching glances, and building familiarity. This passive presence adds up.

Think of your mobile application as a subtle but robust brand reminder. Every scroll, swipe, and unlock increases brand exposure, helping users unconsciously register your logo, colors, and name. Over time, it leads to stronger brand recall & higher chances of engagement.

And here’s the edge— mobile apps don’t just increase visibility, they help you understand who’s seeing you. With in-app data and usage patterns, you can fine-tune your visibility strategy, ensuring you’re showing up for the right audience, at the right time, with the right message.

2. Build a Personalized Bridge Between Your Brand and Customers

While mobile apps work as a direct communication channel between a business and its customers, their biggest advantage is personalized communication.

Mobile applications enable you to personalize information such as messages, recommendations, and offers according to the user. With app features like geolocation and user profile, you can further customize your messaging for higher relevance. You can even integrate interactive elements like AR-based try-ons, milestone-based greetings, or custom discounts based on shopping history, making personalization useful and memorable. Additionally, push notifications can help you persuade users to engage with your business.

Related Read: Enhance Your App Functionality with Top 10 Features of a Robust Mobile App

3. Turn Every Mobile Interaction Into a Business Opportunity

User experiences are integral for the growth of your business. Every enhancement on your digital platform is directed toward improving the user experience.

A mobile application goes beyond any responsive website by delivering speed, convenience, and intuitive navigation. With its engaging and user-friendly UI/UX, a mobile app also provides a personalized browsing experience, tailored to individual user preferences and behavior. This significantly boosts user satisfaction. Moreover, app features like offline access and integrated device capabilities such as GPS or biometrics can further improve customer interactions, all while encouraging repeat purchases.

4. Redefine Customer Engagement Across Channels 

Users spend 7x more time on mobile apps compared to mobile browsers.^[vi] Mobile apps are quite accessible and make for an effective way to target your potential customers. It is more likely that your business’s target audience will first download your mobile application, providing better engagement opportunities. For example, if you have a product feed, you can share favorite products and shopping list controls with your customer. You can also integrate your mobile application with a review tool to get true reviews from the most engaged customers. 

Integrating social channels with your mobile application can further help extend your digital presence and enrich brand-audience communication. This also makes it easy for your customers to share your content among their peers, ultimately boosting engagement.

5. Power Your Decisions with Real-Time Customer Insights

A mobile application is an excellent way to collect and analyze customer data. It can help you gather insights on user behavior, time spent, areas most/least interacted with, customer feedback, and more. With real-time data tracking, you can monitor user activity as it happens, enabling quicker responses to user needs or app issues.

Analyzing this data will help you better understand your users and their preferences, which you can leverage in your marketing strategy. You can also segment app users based on their behaviors, location, or purchase history, easily running hyper-targeted campaigns. Furthermore, you can also improve your business offerings based on users’ interests and fuel data-driven decisions to generate the best possible results. These insights will contribute to more personalized experiences, higher user retention, and greater ROI.

6. Fuel Growth with New Revenue Channels

Mobile apps are a personalized way of shopping for your target customers. They make the purchasing process simple and intuitive, which ultimately leads to a boost in sales.

A remarkable example of this is Domino’s Pizza app. When the company launched its mobile app for orders, it saw a 28% increase in its sales in the UK alone within the first six months. Today, the company gets 50%^[vii] of its total orders on its mobile application.

With better engagement, loyalty programs, and greater perceived value, businesses need not spend more on paid advertisements while generating more conversions. 

Depending on your business type, you can also monetize your app using in-app purchases, freemium, and paid apps to earn additional revenue. If your app users enjoy your application, they will be more than willing to pay for it.

7. Serve Customers Better, Faster, and Smarter

Mobile applications are one of the most effective channels for customers to get in touch with your business. They provide easy-to-access information that results in improved customer satisfaction.

Mobile apps also build an instant feedback system that encourages customers to reach out to you for their queries and comments. This helps build a communication loop between your business and the customers, thus making it an ideal customer service channel. To go a step further, modern business apps can integrate AI-powered chatbots for 24/7 assistance or provide app-exclusive features like subscription management or AR-based product support. These tools can streamline customer service and deliver smart, personalized help, right when and where users need it.

8. Capitalize on a Niche 

Regardless of your industry, standing out and securing a larger share of your niche is important. A well-designed mobile app can provide your business with a distinct advantage. By incorporating unique app features like chatbots or personalized offers, you can differentiate yourself from others in your field, especially if creating an app is uncommon in your niche.

For instance, research shows that 85%^[viii] of consumers prefer shopping in an app rather than a browser. If you’re in ecommerce, having a mobile app can provide your customers with instant access to products, exclusive deals, and smooth checkout experiences.

Moreover, a mobile app doesn’t just make things easier for customers, it can also help you understand their behavior through analytics. These insights will empower you to refine your offerings and provide more value. 

9. Encourage Repeat Business with Stronger Customer Loyalty

A mobile application plays a subtle yet important role in building trust with your customers. This facilitates maintaining a higher retention rate by providing customers with valuable experiences that foster brand loyalty. On a mobile app, you can start loyalty programs with incentives, enabling your customers to stick to your brand.

Starbucks is a good example of that. They have a Star Points system that rewards a customer for visiting a nearby Starbucks outlet. This encourages the customer to visit the outlet again to earn more rewards. 

These programs can also encourage customers to share your brand across social media. Plus, you can leverage reward program data to recommend more relevant products and nurture long-term customer loyalty.

10. Drive Social Engagement Straight From Your App

One of the biggest advantages of mobile apps is their ability to integrate with social media platforms. Since most users access social media on their phones, linking your app to these networks can provide a convenient experience. Many platforms provide APIs that enable businesses to embed social features directly into their app, whether logging in through Facebook, sharing a recent purchase on Instagram, or engaging with their latest posts. This increases the chances of organic promotion through user-generated content.

For instance, a retail app could enable customers to share their wishlists on social media or request order updates via in-app Twitter messaging. A great example is Nike’s app, which lets app users share their workouts, achievements, and product reviews on social media with just a tap. When done well, social integrations can turn your customers into brand advocates and your app into a powerful marketing tool. 

Key Takeaways

Considering the growth of the mobile app market, the question is no longer “should my business have a mobile presence?” but rather “how can my mobile app deliver the most value to my customers and business?” To achieve that, it’s essential to consult a mobile app development expert, like Grazitti Interactive, who can help you define a mobile strategy that aligns with your goals, audience needs, and industry trends.

Wish to Strengthen Your Mobile App Development Strategy? Book a Free Consultation.

References: 

^[i] Sensor Tower

^[ii] Build Fire

^[iii] Choicely

^[iv] Exploding Topics

^[v] CrowPink

^[vi] Social Plus

^[vii] Retail Dive

^[viii] eConsultancy