Do Business Owners Need Both Mobile Apps and Mobile Websites for Their Businesses?

A steady increase is being noted in the number of people accessing digital content on their smartphones, tablets and phablets. A large number of people even use their mobile devices from accessing websites, using social networks, and checking emails. Many studies have shown that a large number of users prefer mobile apps to mobile websites to avail personalized experience and location-based services. But no enterprise can increase its sales and revenue by replacing its website with a mobile app. A business needs both mobile apps and mobile websites to reach out to a higher number of users and convert them into customers.

Pros and Cons of Building a Mobile App

Several companies have used mobile apps successfully to keep the users engaged and increase conversion rates. The mobile app makes it easier for customers to interact with the business and its products/services. In addition to communicating with the customers more effectively, a business can also use the mobile apps to promote its products/services and increase sales through attractive offers and discounts. The mobile app will further make it easier for the business to promote and popularize its new products and services within a shorter amount of time. Also, the business can use its mobile app as an efficient tool to build a powerful brand.

But an enterprise cannot avail these benefits without making its app available on multiple platforms. At present, the worldwide market share of Android exceeds that of iOS by a large margin. But the people using iOS-powered devices are more likely to indulge in mobile commerce and in-app purchases. Hence, the business must make its app available for Android to accomplish more downloads and for iOS to boost sale of products/services. Often small companies and start-ups lack the resources like talented mobile app developers to develop native mobile apps for multiple mobile platforms due to varying application code and programming language. Hence, many enterprises opt for cross-platform mobile apps to reach out to more users by overcoming the operating system and device diversity.

Pros and Cons of Developing a Mobile Website

As mentioned earlier, many businesses lack the resources required to make native mobile apps for multiple mobile platforms. But each enterprise can launch a mobile website without investing extra time, effort and money. The mobile website can be accessed by users through a browser on a wide variety of devices and operating systems. The enterprise can further update the website and make new functionalities available to each user almost instantaneously. Also, it can promote the website on search engines and social networks to increase both number of visitors and increase conversion rate.

An enterprise also has option to convert its mobile website into a web application that functions just like native mobile apps. But the mobile websites, unlike mobile apps, lack the capability to access the native features of the underlying mobile device and operating system. Hence, the mobile websites lack the capability to deliver personalized user experience. Also, an enterprise cannot provide location-based services efficiently through a mobile website. That is why; it becomes essential the business to focus on the user experience delivered by the mobile websites to keep the visitor engaged and convert them into customers.

Bridging the Gap between Mobile Apps and Mobile Websites

On the whole, both mobile app and mobile website have their own benefits and shortcomings. An enterprise has to optimize the user experience delivered by its mobile website to accomplish higher conversion rate and boost sales. Likewise, it needs to focus on the accessibility, functionality, performance and security of the mobile app to make it last longer on users’ devices. Hence, enterprises often find it challenging to manage both mobile apps and mobile websites at once. However, a business can bridge the gap between its mobile app and mobile website in a number of ways.

Google recommends businesses to make their websites deliver mobile user experience by developing progressive web apps. Like mobile websites, the progressive websites are searchable and can be updated immediately. But the users have option to install the progressive web apps on their mobile devices. Also, they can access these apps even when there is not internet connectivity. The progressive web apps still supports push notification, local notification, and similar features provided by native mobile apps.

Also, an enterprise can consider launching a mobile website initially to overcome constraints related to time and resources. It can subsequently convert the mobile website into a mobile app and make it available on multiple mobile platforms. There are a number of tools that enable users to convert their existing websites into a platform-specific mobile app while keeping its structure and content intact. These tools further make it easier for enterprises to develop and maintain both mobile apps and mobile websites simultaneously. Hence, an enterprise must explore ways to launch and manage both mobile apps and mobile websites efficiently to reach out to more users and accomplish higher conversion rates.