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How should an e-Commerce company think when it comes to prioritizing mobile web vs mobile shopping apps? When is the mobile web optimal, and when does the apps come in to play? Find out in this episode of the One Minute Digital Podcast.
KEY TAKE AWAYS
- Mobile shopping apps promotes loyalty and relationships with your customers.
- Mobile or responsive web is easier to market utilizing SEO, Social Media and other channels. It also captures first-time and occasional buyers.
- e-Commerce companies need both Mobile web and Mobile apps in order to be successful long-term.
TRANSCRIPT – MOBILE WEB VS. MOBILE APP
Hi everyone and welcome,
Today we will talk about the age old question of responsive/mobile web vs mobile app when it comes to e-Commerce.
Responsive web vs mobile apps can turn into an endless debate, but it’s fairly simple, you need both in order to succeed in e-Commerce for the long term.
According to a fairly recent report by Criteo, apps account for about 54% of mobile sales among retailers who generate sales both among mobile web and apps. These numbers are for the UK but it is similar across the EU and North America. In the same surey it also says that conversion rates are 3 times higher in mobile apps than on mobile/responsive web.
So the mobile app is really about building the relationship for the long-term with your customers. It’s about being more sticky and that the customers has their favourite place on their mobile device to interact with your brand and shop your products. Also apps are really contextual, so for retailers who have offline / brick and mortar locations you can tie in the shopping experience. Using the app when the customers go in to the actual stores, this is also one of the strengths when it comes to apps and e-Commerce.
Other strengths are of course that you can provide push notifications, or provide more value to your customers if you have connected products.
However apps have a few downsides of course. First of all apps are pretty difficult to market and get buss around. There are so many apps now in the market, so unless you have a very strong brand it will take some investment and energy to get it to take off.
This is sort of where the responsive web comes in. A responsive or mobile web, is basically a mobile version or a scaled down version of your desktop web. What this enables you to do is to get all the search traffic directly in to your shop. You don’t require your customers to buy via your app only, instead they can use your website when shopping from their mobile for the first time, or for the occasional buyer.
The downside with an app is that it requires a lot more from your visitors. For example if you are marketing your e-Commerce in social media, and you are linking to the app. That would require the customer to download the app and install it. While with the responsive web you would simply link directly to your product page. So a responsive website have a lower barrier to entry towards your e-Commerce. But it’s not that sticky and you can’t really build a long-term relationship with your customer, but it goes a long way.
Ok that’s it for today, thank you for listening.