Mobile apps vs. mobile browser- Which one do you prefer?

­­­Most of the well-known companies and brands have already embraced the fact that smartphone penetration has been on the rise, making them to design and implement strategies to reach their consumer via mobile. However, with the ongoing competition between mobile applications and mobile websites, businesses, primarily retailers and other e-commerce businesses should aim towards creating a friction-less overall mobile web experience to ensure valuable customer relationships in the long-run. A recent investigation from Barclay’s, suggests that 42% of all retail sales in the UK market will involve a mobile device in some way or the other. 

Data from application analytics provider Flurry claimed  that users in US are spending more time (2 hours and 42 minutes each day) on mobile devices as of March 2014, as compared to 2 hours and 38 minutes in 2013. While mobile browser usage has declined from 20% to just 14% of the consumer’s time over a year, i.e., equivalent to 22 minutes each day, mobile app usage accounted for  2 hours and 19 minutes of that time spent.  

Individuals spend a lot more time consuming media in apps compared to the mobile browser. If one considers the breakdown of that time, since gaming still dominates mobile usage with 32% of time spent on iOS and Android devices (same as last year) this fact becomes evident given that gaming requires apps whereas, almost every other area provides the consumer with a choice between an app and browser, for instance, Facebook which still accounts for 17% of time spent on mobile. However, when it comes to actual shopping experience, as many as 51% of shoppers were more likely to shop on mobile websites as compared to retailer's mobile apps as published in an Adobe study in 2013. 

A Business Insider report reveals that among the top 100 retailers across the globe, 60 percent of them have a dedicated mobile website while 32% still show a desktop-optimized version of their website to mobile audience.  Another research conducted by Internet Retailer indicated that 58% of mobile retail dollars will come from the mobile web in 2015, while the remaining will come from mobile apps. This can be accomplished by a one-stop mobile platform inclusive of all user-friendly features.

For the prospective buyers, a retailer’s mobile app may not be the very first destination when they are still doing research for the products in their buying journey. Moreover, the mobile browser is often a gateway to retailer sites for shoppers using their smartphones in a store. The findings of a study published by Google in 2013 suggested that 82% of smartphone shoppers directly searched for products using their mobile device’s search application when shopping in-store, while only 21% preferred to search for products on the retailer’s mobile app. Another 62% preferred going directly to a retailer's mobile website. Despite the fact that only 10% of retailers have a mobile app, sales made via such applications now account for 33% of all spending, a significant figure that cannot be ignored according to new research by Barclay's.

Therefore, businesses need to understand their consumers' mobile-using attitude and buying behaviour to formulate digital strategies and keep updating them over time.

Author:  Debaleena Debnath
Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital.
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