In this article, we will discuss the main challenges and dilemmas businesses face when they think about developing a mobile app.
We will also discuss how to tackle or solve those challenges and dilemmas to be be able to make an effective content or shopping app, when it’s the right time to do so.
You do not want to be waiting too long to launch an app. Time is money, especially in the digital world. The sooner you publish your App, the more time you will have to make it work before your competitors sweep the market.
We see mobile apps from competitors and businesses in other industries doing extremely well. We wish to replicate that situation for our business, but we often have some internal and external barriers that do not let that happen.
Let’s dive into understanding the things that stop us or hold us back from taking action towards building an m-commerce app, even though we know that it could be a game changer for our business.
We will dissect each challenge to the point that they no longer seem a hurdle to us.
1. Lack of clarity on objectives
First thing we need to do is ask ourself the objective we want to achieve through the app. Our objective for the app could include earning more revenue through online sales, customer retention, brand promotion, running a loyalty program, and getting referrals.
Brainstorm on all the reasons for which you wish to create an app. Prioritize a few objectives, so that you can focus on them while creating the app, to create an impact. Do not go after all the objectives at once. Focus on a few things and be the best at it. A focussed app will always get you better results.
2. Lack of knowledge of customer preference
If you’re not sure about your customer’s preferred shopping/content consumption mode, then there is bound to be apprehension in your mind about the effectiveness of developing an app to capture and retain customers. Businesses should always act on real facts and analytics.
One way to know where your customers are consuming your content or shopping with you is to study Google Analytics. They give you a clear idea about where your website visitors are coming from. If a substantial proportion of your website visitors and shoppers are coming from mobile devices, then there is no reason to delay the creation of a mobile app.
3. High monetary cost
One other barrier that holds us back is the cost that is involved in making an engaging and effective app. To build an app, one has to engage a app development company or make a team of developers, designers, testers, and so on. This can prove very costly.
One way to build an app cost-effectively is to use an online app maker like AppMySite (AMS). They help you build an app for your Woocommerce or WordPress website without coding. In fact, AppMySite does not require you to do anything except subscribing to an App development monthly/yearly plan and submit your website’s URL.
4. Opportunity cost – Time and money
Another cost that you spend when you develop a business app with a third-party development company or your own team is that of other business priorities that suffer due to lack of proper attention. This increases an already high cost you generally spend on a team of developers.
With AppMySite, you can covert a Woocommerce or WordPress website to mobile app by subscribing to their cheap monthly/yearly app plans. Also, you do not have to spend any time in following up on development, testing and publishing of apps with AMS. Hence, you save a lot of valuable time and money to focus on other business priorities.
5. Lack of technical knowledge
A lot of times, businesses and their managements are not equipped with the technical knowledge required to lead a team of developers, designers and testers to create a well-planned and scalable app that will support desired business objectives. This can be a big deterrent to building an app.
You can bypass the need to have technical know-how to lead a tech team by creating an app that requires no coding. AppMySite is a the platforms that lets you create an automated WordPress or Woocommerce app. Through the apps developed by AMS, you can update content on your website, and see it automatically reflect in your app. All this can be accomplished without any knowledge of coding.
6. High-maintenance teams
App Development teams can prove to be very high-maintenance, due to software, HR, supervision and other costs involved. This may seem like a very big hurdle in creating an app without disturbing your focus required for other priorities of your business.
App development, design, and testing teams often require close supervision to create a quality product. You can do away with this complexity by hiring a professional team of app developers with AppMySite. Their process requires you to take only two steps—Subscribe to their app plans and Provide your website’s URL. The rest of the tasks are attended to by the AMS team, upon which they send you a tested app for approval.
7. Difficulty in post-development promotions
Once the app is developed, it’s a challenge to publish and promote it properly, so that it becomes noticeable in the market, and is easy to find for customers who are looking to shop with you online or through mobile phones. Many companies develop apps, but are not able to promote them.
With AppMySite, you just need to approve a pre-tested app. This app is published by the AMS team on relevant app stores. They design the marketing graphics and content for app store pages in a way that users see value in downloading the app. The app store pages published by AppMySite are also Search engine optimized, so that mass users can easily find them.
8. Retaining customers
The last challenge in app development is to retain customers who download your app. There is no set rule on how to retain customers to keep shopping through your app. However, there are certain points you can keep in mind while developing an app to ensure that their is high customer engagement.
To make an app work, ensure that it delivers value and convenience at every stage of use. Pay attention to user interface, design, ease of searching for relevant products and content, convenience to make payments, etc. All these features can be automatically pulled from your existing website to your app with the help of AppMySite.
There is no challenge too big, if a proper solution is sought. Therefore, convert the above pain points into strengths by gaining knowledge and engaging the right app development and promotion resources.
A high-quality online app maker like AppMySite, can do wonders for your business if it helps you save time, effort and money in developing an app that is effective and engaging.
