Industry Insights

Digital commerce is increasing throughout the world – growing at a rate of 50% in the past couple of years, with more than 90% of the growth-share directly credited to mobile apps. Mobile is one of the leading platforms that 70% of the time spent on a smartphone by an average user is dedicated to mobile apps. 

Given below is an approximate report on how mobile apps have contributed to business growth in 2016 and the predicted plan of use of apps in 2017. 

Market Insights Reviewed

• Implications of smartphone apps’ increase in digital media usage time: Customer engagement is on the rise with the introduction of mobile apps. It is predicted to rise by 60% in 2017, following businesses to flourish.
• Consumers’ habits on mobile gadgets: Because of ever-growing usage time, marketers can differentiate their brand names, find opportunities to measure mobile ROI, and increase their investments in application development.
• Demographic and behavioral characterizing of app users: This helps marketers channel their products and reach out to the consumers according to their specific needs and demands, which has shown rapid sales charts.
• User interaction: Consumer interaction has increased and has helped brands to work on consumer feedback to serve the best quality buying experience and drive brand loyalty. Customer service has also been one of the most developed areas of concern in 2016 due to mobile apps’ implementation. 
• Relationship between the mobile app and mobile web: Mobile web is all-inclusive and gives the audience a broader reach in terms of research, but mobile apps have helped raise user engagement, impeccable customer experience, brand and product awareness, ROI and number of sales, and so on. 

2017 Goals

• Increasing customer attraction and retention by 73%
• Creating a lasting brand loyalty
• Creating awareness for the brand name, products, and new launches

Areas that still need work

Most of the modern mobile apps require access to real-time events for providing a great customer experience. 

Alert for flight information, or an end of season sale, customers are more likely to react faster than other traditional marketing methods3. Secondly, app responsiveness is essential for customer retention and engagement. 

Building an infrastructure that can support broad-scale data distribution is also an area that many businesses always neglected while starting. Developing a hybrid or native app which can be used across different platforms and devices is also crucial.

Summary

Brand differentiation will be more prominent in 2017 as most businesses are willing to go that extra mile by serving their customers on their mobile devices.  

Mobile web and mobile apps will mingle together to form the most powerful marketing tool ever in history.

A brand innovation strategy will be reinvented using artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things. Keeping a track of social media marketing, analytics measurement, and so on will become easily accessible for small B2B companies.

Lastly, customer adoption of mobile devices for home and wearable devices will bring new opportunities for B2C marketers. 

References

1. “The 2016 U.S. Mobile App Report.” ComScore, Inc. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2017.
2. “7 Statistics That Prove Mobile Apps Are Crucial For Customer Loyalty.” Small Business Trends. N.p., 29 Sept. 2016. Web. 03 Jan. 2017.
3. “15 Tips for Developing and Improving Mobile Applications.” Information Age. N.p., 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 03 Jan. 2017.
4. “Thomas Husson’s Blog.” How Mobile Will Transform Business in 2016 | Forrester Blogs. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2017.
5. “12 Best B2B Mobile Apps for Managing Your Business on the Go.” ROI Factor Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2017.