Irrespective of what you sell, companies now want to reach out to people, engage with them, and offer their products and services. With technology playing a pivotal role, there has been a massive increase in the number of ways through which a company could communicate its ethos.
One such medium is smartphones. Mobile applications or customized mobile websites have become an extension of companies these days and have been instrumental in driving revenues.
Should they go for a mobile application, or is a mobile website enough?
The answer lies in UX or user experience.
There are many things to consider before rounding off to one of these two. Hence, we will discuss both the channels in depth and help you take the final call.
Statistics Regarding Usage of Mobile Apps and Mobile Website
Regardless of your opinion, many statistics could prove useful for going with responsive mobile sites or mobile apps. The UX plays a pivotal role here, and thus, could not be ignored.
1: Increased Usage of Smartphones
The diminishing cost of internet usage coupled with the sharp rise in smartphone usage has ushered the entire globe into a new dimension.
As per the ComScore study, more than 71% of the internet traffic in the United States comes from mobile devices, while a larger chunk of traffic (91% to be accurate) comes from mobile devices in Indonesia.
Other crucial data reveal that more than 87% of digital traffic comes from mobile applications while on the other hand, the rest 13% come from web applications.
2: Shift in User Preferences
The ComScore study of 2017 highlights many important highlights that have proved to be transforming. The study starkly highlights the shifting preference of smartphone users from websites to mobile applications.
The principal factors highlighted by the firm concluded higher speed, ease of use, performance, and additional features as the chief factors for the rise in demand for mobile applications.
Apart from that, the social media platforms and e-commerce apps ruled the charts.
3: Better Conversions
A recent study on the purchasing pattern of customers highlighted that a greater share of people preferred to shop online through applications than the mobile website.
Most individuals viewed four times new products than that on applications in a single session. Furthermore, the conversion rate on mobile applications is three times higher than the mobile website.
4: Customer Retention
When it comes to customer retention, mobile applications outperform mobile websites for a considerable time. Companies need to constantly get in touch with their customers for retention, and applications fulfill all the criteria by providing tools like notifications and several others.
Drawing a Line: Advantages of Mobile Website over Applications
If your primary objective is sales and marketing, a mobile website is a great way to kick start your campaign.
The mobile website inherits many advantages over apps, and hence, is the perfect partner for your mobile outreach strategy. Some of the key factors include cost-effectiveness, compatibility, and accessibility over mobile applications.
Some of the reasons to choose mobile websites over applications are as follows.
● Accessibility: Mobile websites are primarily designed to give users easy access to their offerings. It could work on a wide range of devices without constant modifications.
On the other hand, one has to download and install an app for him/her to access the content. This could be an exhaustive experience, and thus, is avoided by most.
●Compatibility: A single mobile website customized for smartphones or tablets could work effortlessly across multiple devices and create a good impression in the customer’s mind.
However, when it comes to native apps, a company has to develop an app for every platform and dedicate a team for development, modification, and update.
● Upgradability: The upgradability serves as a great advantage as well. For a web version, all you need is just publish the update, and it’s done. As simple as that.
On the other hand, To upgrade an application, one has to push updates on the app’s play store and allow users to download and install updates on their smartphones. The changes will only be visible then.
● Share-ability: When it comes to websites (mobile or otherwise), one has just to share the link with anyone he/she likes.
However, apps are hard to share and hence are not user-friendly.
● Lifecycle: The average shelf life of an application is less than 30 days, as per some research. Until the app provides great value and functionality, most likely, it would be uninstalled in a few days.
But with a mobile website, one can always come back and start searching for things with new enthusiasm.
The Other Side: Advantages of an App over Mobile Website
Despite being considered inferior to (in terms of UX and applications) the mobile website version, things could change pretty fast all the time.
There are a few tasks that are still done best on apps, and hence, apps still hold importance. Some of the points based on which apps take over the websites are as follows:
● Interactivity/ Gaming: When it comes to gaming, mobile phone games aficionados are a huge fan of high-end devices, which includes an app. One may not make rich music and graphics on the web, and hence, apps are the best thing in such a scenario.
● Personalization: Despite being available online and accessible by a browser, some sites are better viewed and personalized on apps.
Consider Instagram. The app version of the popular social media is best consumed and personalized on the app.
Similarly, the clean UI and the great UX of mobile banking apps are much more enticing than the web versions. The personalized application is what keeps the users hooked.
● Improved Functionalities: Smartphone users leverage a wide array of sensors and the processing speed of the device to ensure that apps function well.
For example, without special and customized scripts, one cannot do a simple calculation on the web.
However, as more functionalities get incorporated, leveraging apps becomes a piece of cake. Apps can now function multiple tasks from a single stage, thus, making them super exciting for customers.
● Rendering High-End Graphics: The best part of apps over websites is that they could be used to render high-end graphics.
Let’s say you have a financial analysis project coming up. Things look pretty horrible when done on web browsers, but are easier to represent on applications.
In most apps, one can dynamically change the values and see the changes in real-time, which are otherwise impossible in web browsers.
● Push Notifications: One of the most favourite features of advertisers and companies is that they could send push notifications to the users.
In this way, a company knows it has a large audience with whom it can get in touch. However, in the case of websites, the notifications are limited to the website only. This is why promoting other methods like emails as their primary source of communication.
● Works even without an internet connection: The mobile applications are designed to store data locally on the device, making it easier to access even without an internet connection. In the case of uploads, the process resumes as the connection is established.
Concluding Remarks
Mobile apps vs. websites in terms of UX or user experience is an exhaustive debatable topic, with each side having a fair share of advantages.
In reality, choosing one of them depends highly on your business goals.
The graphics and the processing is better done on mobile, therefore, you can prefer going with a mobile app to leverage its computing power. It will help you engage and interact with your customers better and drive loyalty.
On the other hand, a mobile website could relay similar features that are not resource-intensive. It will help you provide mobile-friendly content that your audience can find useful and eventually become your customers.
Contact the App-Scoop Vancouver Mobile App Developers for further details.
