The past decade has seen an explosion in mobile app users worldwide. At the end of 2021, nearly 28 billion apps were downloaded from the Google Play Store. This decreased a little in 2022 when about 27 billion apps were downloaded. Despite this small slowing, it’s clear that the mobile app industry is enormous.
Thirty years ago, we couldn’t have imagined how you’d have the entire digital universe at your fingertips. Having a smartphone allows people to stay connected to the entire world at any time of day. Technology has become so integral to our everyday proceedings, as we rely more heavily on mobile applications to get things done.
This new digital landscape poses new challenges for businesses hoping to stay afloat amongst fierce competition. Having a smartphone application for your business could help your business thrive in new ways, giving you an edge over competitors.
Are you seeking competent app development specialists to take your business to the next level? Contact RH Studio for a free consultation.
3 Mobile App Statistics You Simply Can’t Ignore
You might not get why mobile apps are profit gold mines — but numbers talk. So, here are a few statistics to help you understand the sheer magnitude of the mobile app market.
- Consumers spent more than $65 billion on Apple’s App Store in the first half of 2022 — this is predicted to grow to more than $200 billion by 2025
- Mobile app and smartphone users are spending about $380 billion worldwide on in-app purchases
- The mobile app market is forecast to generate a staggering $935 billion in revenue in 2023
As you can clearly see, the mobile app trend isn’t departing any time soon. The sooner you get on board with the app development bandwagon, the better it will be for your business. So, what are the different types of mobile apps? And which type of app is right for your business?
Types of Mobile Apps For Business
Not every business needs a particular type of mobile app, and the type you choose should depend on the nature of your business. Some might wish to develop an app to enhance customer experience, provide useful functionalities to increase brand awareness, generate profit through advertisements, or collect useful consumer analytics.
Whatever you’re thinking about using one for, it’s bound to improve your customer relationships and aid with business growth. Apps are extremely versatile and while there are multitudes of types, here’s a list of the main types for regular businesses.
1. Content Apps
Content apps are ones like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu or even Substack. They’re any type where people go to consume content. If your business is content-heavy, a content app can be an innovative way to distribute content. They provide an interactive platform for you to engage with customers and build connections beyond traditional marketing methods.
With 82% of businesses using content marketing to reach new consumers and captivate existing ones, you’re at a competitive disadvantage without a well-crafted content strategy.
By utilizing content apps, small to medium-sized businesses can cultivate relationships with existing and potential customers. This creates a meaningful impact on long-term success.
2. Loyalty Apps
The main purpose of customer loyalty apps is to reward customers for repeated patronage and purchases. Reward systems that provide discounts, bonus points, or other offers give customers a tangible reason to return to your brand for their next purchase.
The Starbucks Rewards app and H&M’s app are two of the most well-known loyalty apps globally. By offering customers significant rewards for multiple purchases, they incentivize them to keep coming back. You don’t have to be the world’s biggest commercial coffee seller or a global clothing chain to use loyalty apps.
Regardless of the size of your business, loyalty apps can help you grow. It’s a simple truth that people love getting stuff for free. So, if you can develop a loyalty program that really encourages people to buy again, you’re sure to benefit from it.
Eighty-eight percent of consumers say it takes three or more purchases for them to feel brand loyalty. Giving them reasons to repeat-purchase is crucial for building that profitable bond — using a loyalty app can help you do this.
If you offer a free product for every five products purchased, you increase the likelihood that existing customers will repurchase. It also reinforces a positive brand image as consumers associate your brand with positive feelings of receiving something for free.
3. Entertainment Apps
Entertainment apps are apps that provide any type of entertainment. They might be content apps, social media, games, puzzles, or anything else that gives consumers a kick.
Entertainment apps are becoming increasingly popular in our society, allowing people to stay entertained through their smartphones or tablet. They range from gaming apps to streaming services and provide users with hours of interactive entertainment.
This is an exciting business opportunity for companies wishing to expand their services. Entertainment apps present a great way to reach mobile users and build engagement. They also create advertising opportunities and subscription-based profit streams.
Netflix is the world’s biggest entertainment app with more than 115 million active monthly users. TikTok is another entertainment app that took the world by storm. Coming from seemingly nowhere, it now has more than 1.2 billion active monthly users.
Despite monitoring and recording all your keystrokes (effectively everything you even type on your phone) and being the ultimate digital privacy invasion, people can’t seem to get enough of it.
Additionally, businesses that already have existing content can create an app that turns their media into shareable content tailored to different platforms. By developing entertainment apps, businesses can reach customers on the go while driving up sales and viewership of their products.
4. Customer Service Apps
Customer service apps are incredibly helpful tools for managing, organizing, and engaging with customers in digital space. By using them, businesses benefit from streamlined communication with their customer base. This opens new channels of engagement and facilitates more effective customer service — something your customers will love.
Today, 51% of customer service teams use apps to deal with customer issues. Which side of that halfway line would you rather be on?
Customer service apps allow you to provide on-demand support with automated responses, tailored to your customers’ needs. With this capability, businesses ensure every customer feels heard and valued. Building those deeper connections and strengthening relationships is crucial for thriving in today’s dog-eat-dog marketplace.
Customer service apps can also be a stream for data collection and management, helping you keep track of things and refine your services over time.
Did you know that 90% of consumers rate “immediate” responses as essential to their overall customer service experience? By implementing an automated response function on your customer service app, you can take the bull by the horns and satisfy 90% of your customers.
5. Shopping Apps
Shopping apps are specialized mobile applications that make it easier to shop remotely. By using these apps, customers can find what they’re looking for quickly without having to leave their homes.
Amazon, Alibaba, Wish, and Etsy are the most well-known shopping apps worldwide. Taking the lead in the shopping app market, Amazon generates nearly $300 billion in revenue every year.
If your business has a wide range of products, creating a specialized shopping app could enhance the shopping experience for your customers. By integrating shopping apps into your business model, you’ll increase sales and customer satisfaction. This will ultimately lead to increased customer loyalty and greater reach.
Shopping apps also provide you with valuable customer insights that can inform your future marketing strategies. So, if you’re looking to modernize your business’s approach to online retail, consider introducing a shopping app.
6. Healthcare Apps
With technology improvements across the board, people demand to have healthcare at their fingertips. Healthcare applications are a useful way for healthcare providers to interface with clients and patients in a streamlined way.
They can use the apps to send push notifications about new products, book appointments, or get customer support via AI or human agents. These days, many health insurers provide healthcare apps to improve client experience.
7. Hybrid Apps
Perhaps you’ve read through the list of apps but don’t know which type is right for your business. Maybe you could use a shopping app but can also see the benefit of loyalty or customer service apps. Remember, apps are extraordinarily versatile. With a competent app development team by your side, there’s no limit to what you can do with an app.
You don’t have to simply choose a single mode and stick with it, the world is your oyster here. Hybrid apps are apps that feature a range of different functions — whatever you need, you can get.
On the market for a new app for your business? RH Studio provides start-to-finish app development support for businesses of all sizes. Get in touch for a free consultation, we’re here to help your business thrive.
Mobile Apps: Top Benefits of Mobile Apps For Businesses
1. Brand Loyalty
Developing a mobile app is an effective way for you to create stronger relationships with your customers, cultivating brand loyalty along the way. There’s a certain level of automatic respect brands get when they release an app — it lets people know you’re serious about enhancing their experience.
Did you know that 72% of consumers worldwide feel loyal to at least one brand?
A great example of this in practice is Carl’s Jr., a fast-food chain based in the United States. After launching their mobile app several years ago, they quickly gained customer recognition and loyalty. When customers purchased through their app, they earned rewards that they could redeem within the same app or at any chain.
This created an incentive-based system and signified to customers that they were valued. This effective use of digital technology significantly improved brand loyalty with Carl’s Jr.’s customer base — any business can do the same.
2. Brand Awareness
There is no denying that the use of mobile applications can significantly help to improve the brand awareness of any company. Just look at successful businesses, such as Uber and Airbnb – their rise to fame can be largely attributed to the convenience of their mobile app services.
Having an app which offers a unique user experience enables businesses to stand out from competitors, as well as brings increased visibility for customers who may otherwise have overlooked them.
For example, take shopping centre Apparel Group which has solely focussed its marketing strategy on delivering its own personalized mobile app aimed at luxury shoppers; with great success.
This boosted brand recognition and engagement, but it also helped Apparel Group understand their customers better. Through exciting promotions and appealing discounts, they provided a more tailored experience for buyers.
Pro tip: Always be authentic — 88% of consumers say authenticity impacts how they feel about brands.
3. Competitive Edge
Having a presence on mobile devices is increasingly essential in today’s digital environment. Numerous studies have cemented this, with 76% of consumers shown to shop on mobile devices, many businesses acknowledge the value of mobile app technology to gain a competitive edge.
Research by Adobe Mobile Experience reveals that 80% of customers are more likely to stay loyal to brands that provide personalized experiences via a mobile app and engagement with customers through notifications has also been proven effective.
4. Exposure Through App Stores
With the increasing number of smartphone users globally, mobile apps have become a very important tool in facilitating businesses through better exposure.
According to Statista, as of 2020, there are more than 2.7 million mobile apps available to smartphone users. This number is expected to grow to more than 5 million by 2022. Due to such a large ecosystem, having your own mobile app has the potential to greatly improve your visibility in the app stores.
Thus, it is essential for any business that wants to stay competitive and engage with customers in an effective manner, to create its own mobile app so as to increase its presence.
Furthermore, research shows that when people like a mobile app they are far more likely to recommend it or even share it with their friends or family members. This not only increases downloads but also serves as great word-of-mouth marketing for businesses.
5. Client Engagement
Apps open a world of possibilities for businesses looking to engage with their customers. A mobile app gives users constant access to company updates and loyalty programmes, allowing them to easily stay engaged with the brand. For instance, Starbucks developed an app that allows customers to pay directly through their phones and earn rewards points in exchange for free drinks.
This form of marketing has proved immensely successful — 48% of loyalty customers use the Starbucks app, and Starbucks now attributes nearly 40% of its total sales to the program. Evidently, investing in a mobile app can be tremendously beneficial for brands looking to increase customer engagement.
6. Consumer Insights
App data can be a goldmine for marketing and customer engagement. By using an app for business, companies can capture data that can help paint a picture of user engagement, preferences and behaviour.
This data is invaluable in developing strategies that engage customers more effectively through personalized communications and experiences.
A real-life example of data being used to inform strategies would be how one beauty brand harnessed user data from their mobile app to collect important insights about their shoppers’ product preferences and spending habits. Thanks to this data, the experts were able to build customized product portfolios for each customer, leading to increased revenue and customer satisfaction.
7. Direct Marketing Channel
Not only can an app be the product, customer service platform, and data collection mechanism, but it can also be a direct marketing channel for you to push new products. Fifty-four percent of marketers say they use mobile apps to promote new products.
If you’re going to create an app for your business, don’t miss out on using it as an opportunity to generate more profit.
Ready to Get Your Own Mobile App?
Mobile app development is an ever-growing market. As businesses realize the necessity of tailoring an app to captivate smartphone users, the race for a high rank on the Apple or Google app store continues to intensify.
Not only can developing an app help you overcome issues with your website not looking sleek on a web browser, but it also gives you an opportunity to improve brand loyalty, increase revenue, and market your products.
The facts and data about how mobile apps improve business outcomes are crystal clear. If you’re ready to take the leap and bring your business to the next level, contact RH Studio. We’ll give you a free consultation about what type of app would suit your business. Our team of competent software developers can help you build your ideal app from the ground up.
At RH-Studio, we like to give a contrasting view as well. Click here to read why too many businesses are using mobile applications today.
FAQ
How do mobile apps benefit businesses?
Mobile apps offer tremendous benefits to businesses of all sizes. Regardless of the size and nature of your business, developing an app can help you with:
- Developing brand awareness
- Encouraging brand loyalty
- Gaining customer insights
- Marketing new products
- Utilizing push notifications
- Increasing client engagement
- Getting competitive edge
- Finding your target audience
- Collecting email addresses
Mobile apps can also allow for simplified data collection, allowing for smarter data-driven decisions that can increase revenue.
How to get a mobile app for my business?
Getting the right app starts with making sure you have the right resources, such as developers, designers, testers etc. It’s important to have an experienced team who can help create a vision for your product that fits within the budget you have available.
Additionally, you’ll want to develop for multiple platforms of smartphone types including iOS and Android. Need a team of competent app developers? Contact RH Studio for your free consultation.
Is it worth hiring a professional mobile app developer?
The short answer — yes. Unless you’re a professional app developer with a lot of time on your hands while running your business, hiring professionals is definitely worth it. You’ll save time and resources in the long run and can spend your time and energy more wisely by focusing on what you’re best at. Hiring competent professionals to develop an effective mobile strategy can help your business grow.
How do you attract customers to your mobile app?
If you already have a subscriber base, you can invite them to download your app. You can also notify people about your new app via email marketing. Simply uploading your app to app stores also gives you a certain amount of automatic exposure.
Additionally, planning ahead and creating a marketing campaign to alert people of your app launch will significantly improve traction.
