Responsive Website or Mobile App – Which is Best for Your Business
The world is moving at a fast rapid pace. With the rapid increase in smartphones usage, user habits have tremendously changed. For online shopping, paying utility bills, and booking tickets, the user gives more preference to smarter way than a traditional approach. Everybody wants to finish the work as soon as possible whether it’s office work or housework. Nobody wants to face a risk of trouble while fulfilling daily routine tasks.
Mobile apps have played a vital role in shaping the daily life of a person. Most of the successful business & corporations have already adapted to this changing trend. Amazon (e-commerce platform), Flipkart (e-commerce platform), ShopSavvy (price comparison), Paytm (digital wallet), Uber (rent a car), MakeMyTrip & Oyo (Reservations) and many more, all these companies have already launched their mobile apps.
In this blog post, I would be throwing some light on the importance of mobile apps and reasons why you should consider developing a mobile app over a responsive website (particularly if you’re a new start-up business). But before starting with a blog post, I would like to special thanks to all the app developers (iOS developers & Android developers), who did hard work day n night to make a life of the user comfortable.
#1 Quick Access to Information
With the help of mobile apps, you can get quick access to information. Example, if you’re looking to buy a pair of shoes and you decide to buy the same from ‘ABC’ company. Now, if that ‘ABC’ company only have a responsive website then, in that case, the user has to open a website. For opening a website, the user first has to open a browser and then type in URL.
The user faces difficulty when he only knows information about the company name and has no idea about the company website URL. In this case, he first has to search for a company website URL by typing a company name in Google/Bing search box. There is no guarantee for the results which search box will yield.
Isn’t this complicated method? If that ‘ABC’ company would have a mobile app, then the user needs to install the app. After installing the app, he/she can buy his/her favorite pair of shoes with one click.
#2 Higher User Interaction Rate
With the help of mobile apps, you can easily send instant notifications about offers, discount, and news to the users. You must have heard about ‘Push Notifications’ features in smartphones. Push notifications are like a simple message. Once you click on the same, it will take you to the desired page of an app.
This exclusive feature will help you in increasing user interaction within your app. As a result, the chances of getting sales will increase. With higher sales, you will earn more revenue.
#3 Quick Acess to Basic Information even if the Internet is Slow
One of the most significant advantages of having a mobile app is that you don’t need to have a stable internet connection every time. These days app developers are building apps in such a way that it can even open & perform on slow internet connection.
So, if you are looking to purchase or book tickets, then you don’t need to wait for a stable internet connection and change your location for the same. But this is not the case with a responsive website where you need to have a reliable internet connection.
#4 Responsive Websites are Slower
Mobile apps usually store data on the device. So fetching data from the device takes lesser time. Website stores data on the server so because of the same reason fetching data from servers takes some time. Ideally, mobile apps are 1.5 – 2 times are faster when compared to responsive websites.
#5 Use of Inbuilt Device Features
With mobile apps, you have a surplus advantage. You can make use of smartphone features likewise Geolocation, Camera & Fingerprint Scanner.
Example if you’re looking for a nearby ‘Adidas’ store than with the help of their mobile app combined with geolocation feature, you can get information about a nearby store. You can post reviews for an e-commerce store by posting photos clicked from the live camera even a small video clip.
Conclusion:
There are more than 2 million apps available on both the Apple store as well as the Google play store. This data will continue to rise and is expected to touch overall 5+ million apps by 2025. Probably it’s the best time to build a mobile app before it’s too late and you’re out of the competition.