Business on the Go: Why You Need an App to Stay Ahead of Your Competition

A quick look in the App store or Google Play store will bring you to thousands of applications, all ripe for downloading. Many of these apps are from businesses and startups that sell a product or service, such as Amazon's or Thriftbooks'. For decades, brick-and-mortar franchises and mom & pop shops have been transitioning a piece or whole of their operations to a digital platform that is their mobile or desktop application. But for many entrepreneurs, the pros of building and maintaining a business-dedicated app remain nonexistent or not worth the time or effort spent. Here's five reasons why it's essential to have an app to avoid getting steamrolled by the competition.

Increase Your Visibility

According to a recent study released by mobile measurement and ad agency Fluffy, the average American consumes close to three hours of his/her time per day on a mobile device. While it's most likely that only a select few applications account for the bulk of this time usage, the fact remains that people have complete access and ability to unlock, scroll, and play on their mobile devices. Being out there on the phone screens of millions of people can be a turning point for your brand's visibility, sales, and overall growth.

Develop a Direct Advertising Platform

Perhaps the most glaring reason to have a mobile application for your business is the ability to provide your customer base with any and every piece of information you want to share with or offer them. From special sales events to new store locations and product lines, this data can be pushed to the mobile app and users can get notifications right away. Compared to doing email blasts whenever there's an upcoming promotion, push notifications on a mobile app is a more efficient and scalable way to get user attention.

Establish Stronger Customer Relations

Regardless if you are selling baked goods or gym memberships, your customers need a way to get a hold of you or someone who can help them when they have inquiries or issues. Having a Help Desk feature as a part of your mobile application can improve the turnaround time of customer inquiries and issues and build better rapport with your customers. While you can also stick a help desk feature on your website, having it on a mobile app means that clients can access customer support services from anywhere and anytime they need to.

Stand Out From Your Competitors

A well-built, responsive mobile app can be the "wow" factor and competitive edge that your business needs to stand out and thrive in its respective industry. Mobile apps are still relatively nascent within the realm of small businesses. This gives you an opportunity to steer your brand away from the rest of the herd and stand out as a more legitimate and bolder brand.

Costs are Flexible

The cost of building an app varies widely, with small shops selling their services for roughly $100,000 to some of the more prominent app companies charging up to $1 million. Depending on your project's budget and technical specifications, there is surely an app development agency that can help you bring your app idea into a reality. Look for a service provider that can build your app natively, meaning that they can write code for specific operating systems, such as Android or iOS.

Staying ahead of the competition can be both time-consuming and costly, to say the least. Building and maintaining a mobile application is perhaps the most cost-effective and timely approach, considering that the typical consumer is always on the go and on his/her mobile device.