Before you start implementing any of these great ideas, you'll want to consider your own individual company's needs. Let's be honest, not every company needs a fancy mobile app. You'll want to scale your mobile development efforts according to the number of users so that you can improve your customer experience while still optimizing your ROI.
- Deep Linking
- Deep linking reduces conversion friction. It can streamline the sales process by shortening the user's path to a piece of content, landing page, or promotion. Links are app specific so you'll need to look up the link for the app you're interested in. You'll probably want to use GotSchemes to look up the links because it has the most complete and accurate list of apps.
- M-Commerce Capabilities
- Make sure the check-out process on your mobile app is as easy as possible. Even though 60% of web browsing is done via mobile, only 12% of mobile app users actually purchase anything on their phone (but trust me, they want to). The lengthy checkout process we've all grown to hate causes even more frustration when attempted on mobile. If you need a good e-commerce service, we would recommend Stripe. Stripe has a collection of APIs specifically made to improve the purchasing process (including the ability to add promo codes).
- Continuous UX
- In this age of short attention spans... Oh look! Squirrel!...your users need the added value of a cross-platform app. Your app should be universal and should sync with your website so that customers can seamlessly transition from one device to another without losing their progress.
- Native v. HTML5
- It's important to consider development costs when deciding between platforms. Creating an HTML5 or hybrid app allows companies to improve customer engagement without the added cost and time-commitment of developing apps for each operating system. Unfortunately, while HTML5 has come a long way, it still falls short of the native platform experience.
The biggest benefit of developing on native platforms, aside from better security and faster load times, is the fact that they can work in low/no bandwidth areas. If your customers are going to use your app to perform any types of tasks (e.g. place orders, register for classes, check accounts, etc.) you'll want to develop native apps. Your app needs to be reliable at all times or you'll lose customers and it costs far less to keep a customer than it does to acquire a new one. 