The Impact of Mobile Apps on Small Businesses

Jan 18

Image by monkeybusiness on Envato Elements

Introduction

Ever wondered how small businesses manage to be everywhere you go? This not so secret weapon is a turbo charged, in the palm of customers, a Mobile App! Let's dive into the world of pocket-sized tech frontier. It all started with the invention of the world wide web and what seemed impossible became a reality. One of those things was to have a handheld device that you can use to do almost anything. After that it was only a matter of time that businesses of all scales would start leveraging the mobile application technology to their advantage.

Small businesses in essence provide products or services in a limited capacity. Back when the internet and internet based applications weren’t as common as now, small businesses had to work in a specific geolocation. Gone are the days of geographic shackles holding back small businesses, thanks to the internet and the storm of mobile applications, your business can now embrace limitless possibilities.

Mobile Applications and How They Have Changed Daily Life

Back in the day, the go-to move for businesses was creating a flashy website and crossing their fingers. Little did we know, those sleek websites were the beta version of a grander technological evolution. As the infrastructure unfolded, it became clear: websites were just a stepping stone in the algorithmic dance of digital transformation, paving the way for the real game-changer – mobile apps!

Before mobile applications, businesses had to rely on walk-in customers and customers from other web based channels. The businesses that were creating and maintaining their websites were at par level with the technology, but it was researched and found out that creating a sense of customer loyalty was not something that these websites were not able to offer. With websites, businesses were able to generate sales by running marketing campaigns and advertisements, but these were mostly one time sales.

As per an article written on techjury, an average mobile phone in 2020 had around 40 apps installed in it, and by 2023, this number was expected to reach 80. These are the apps that the customers rely on while making regular purchases of products and services. Another statistic mentioned in the same article was that an average person spends 83% of the mobile usage time on applications and only 13% on web surfing. If a mobile app is installed, the customer is more likely to explore the product options and purchase a product or book an appointment as compared to looking for the same product or service elsewhere.

This change in the daily life of a customer and the dependency on mobile devices has been nothing short of a disruption considering all the possibilities that it brings for businesses of all sizes, most importantly the small business sector. Small businesses are the essence of an economy and they are the ones that support it the most. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, small businesses contribute to 43.5% to the United States GDP. With access to the entire world, small businesses can really excel and create opportunities in the economy for growth and employment.

Benefits & Impacts of Mobile Apps For Small Businesses

Mobile apps open a window to a whole new level of how a small business can engage with its client and the best part about it is that it is mostly automated. Small businesses can have direct communication with their customers through their mobile apps. The most common example of this is live support where a customer can talk to the support representative of the business and have their query answered.

Furthermore, small businesses have the option to run personalized marketing campaigns through their mobile apps. Analytics is the key to all the decision making and the data provided by these analytics is what mobile apps bring to the table. This data can include buying patterns, browsing patterns, time spent and other variables. By utilizing these statistics, a small business can create effective and personalized marketing campaigns that target customer’s desires and pitch these products while retaining customers.

Another aspect of mobile applications that is very beneficial to small businesses is the ability to send push notifications. These notifications not just pitch products, but also send updates for the products and services that have been purchased. This creates a sense of satisfaction among customers, while the businesses can use these sorts of notifications to gain trust and enhance customer engagement.

As discussed above, the well being and growth of small businesses is absolutely essential for an economy to flourish. The growth of a business is only possible if the business is willing to adapt emerging trends and technologies that are being introduced in the market.

Small businesses have harnessed the power of mobile apps to fuel their growth and make significant strides in today's tech-driven landscape. This growth is not only about having access to a global market, it is also about retaining customers by providing them with a seamless process of making purchases of products and services.

That is where mobile applications make an impact. Researches show that businesses with mobile maintained applications are able to make three times more repeated business as compared to the ones that do not have mobile applications. Some other impacts that mobile applications have specifically on small businesses are as follows:

Enhanced Customer Engagement

The main reason why people support small businesses as compared to going to a larger enterprise is because they get the feeling of being known as a customer. That is something that small businesses have always excelled in and with mobile applications, they can take it to a whole new level. Small businesses have been able to enhance the customer engagement through various methods which include chat support, push notifications, personalized promotions and content. And most of this is done through automations within these mobile applications.

Data Collection and Analysis

The most important thing for a business of any size is its ability to make well informed decisions on time. When it comes to small businesses, it is absolutely crucial. Small businesses do not run on a huge capital and they also do not have a lot of investment to be able to try out new things that may or may not have positive outcomes. That is why it is extremely important for small businesses to make informed decisions and that can only be done through data collection and analysis.

Well built mobile applications have analytics modules built in them that analyze customer interactions with the mobile application and build data based on them. That data is then used to show insights to the business owners based on which they can create a customer focused and personalized marketing strategy. Small businesses, with the use of analytics can create a huge impact in terms of repeat business and profitability.

Online Presence and Branding

Small businesses are the ones that need recognition the most since they are not really spending huge amounts of money on over the top marketing like other large scale businesses. Their presence and branding is something that only starts with a logo, marketing collateral and a website but there is a piece that is missing. That is what we consider a mobile application.

Mobile applications for small businesses not only help them in generating revenue but they also allow small businesses owners to create a complete image of their company where they will have all sorts of social media presence along with a mobile application that the customers will be lead to download through all the other online channels.

Customer Feedback and Reviews

Mobile Applications provide a unique advantage to small businesses related to making their product or service even better. Large scale businesses have tons of customers and they can’t realistically go through each and every feedback and review given to them. Even if they do go through them all, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to use specific feedback and reviews for improvements. Instead, the only thing that they can do is combine all the data and make decisions accordingly.

When it comes to small businesses, each and every customer of theirs is important to them. That is why a mobile application is the best possible channel through which they can receive feedback and work on improving their products or service. The impact of this can start from feedback and can help small businesses improve their product to a level that they may not have thought of.

Competitive Advantage

Small businesses are always in great volume in an economy. Each and every product or service being sold has dozens of different companies working in that product or service industry. Competitiveness comes naturally to each small business as they are in a race with each other to grab the most market share.

The impact of a mobile application can really make a difference in the market share of a small business by adding another sales and communication channel between the customer and the business. A business that does not have a mobile application would keep losing its market share mainly because a customer who would have a mobile application of a similar business would always find it easier to purchase a product or service from there instead of going to the competitor’s website or physical store.

Cost Savings

When it comes to the cost of a mobile application, small business owners sometimes find it to be a huge cost compared to the sales that it might bring in. That is where they are wrong. A mobile application’s sole purpose is not just to bring in sales, it is to create an experience for the customers.

If a similar experience was to be given in a physical store, it would cost a lot more as the business would have to hire employees to cater each and every customer at the same time and would also have to bear the overhead cost of the physical store. An impactful mobile application would do that in an automated way so the company not only saves money in employee wages, it also saves in overhead costs and provides a superior experience to a customer than what can be provided in a physical store or a website.

Conclusion

In the above discussion we uncovered some constructive insights. We talked about how using mobile apps can really boost a small business, helping it reach both short-term wins and long-term goals by leveraging tech. These goals include personalized marketing campaigns, superior customer experience, online presence, branding and finally enhancing profitability.

Now let’s think for a minute about how adapting with the technology trends can be excessively crucial for a small business to become successful. A business that does not adapt with the emerging technology trends might think that it is saving money by not spending on flamboyant tech activities, but in reality it is missing out on a world of opportunities. A business that realizes the importance of what a technology trend brings to the company is actually investing in itself to see it grow in a manner that only someone who understands can envision.

Until now, we have seen that mobile applications have been thighly impactful, but if we look to the future, the possibilities are endless. Nevertheless, we know for sure that mobile devices are not going anywhere anytime soon. That being said, in the next five years we believe that the technology trends will revolve around mobile devices and the only way to keep up with them is to build a scalable mobile application for your business and maintain it with the new technology trends so that the customers can continue having an experience that would leave a positive impression.