Build Customized Apps and Super Apps for Local Audiences

May 18, 2019 | Rob LaPointe

Most businesses are building mobile apps to help improve very aspects of the company. There are multiple reasons why you should invest in a mobile app. If your business does not currently own a mobile app, then it means you are behind your competitors since we live in the mobile-first world. Your business is most likely missing out on huge opportunities to attract customers. Having a website isn’t good enough anymore. You will not beat your competitors if that is all you have.

Why mobile apps are Important?

The mobile app industry has the ability to grow by as much as $100 billion by the end of 2020 and these metrics have prompted many businesses to embrace mobile apps so they can engage with their customers far better and get solid insights into their users about their business. Here are some of the ways mobile app development is beneficial for businesses.

1. Direct Communication And Geo-Targeting Marketing

Mobile apps are always quick and very effective when it comes to keeping your customers engaged. It helps to boost customer interest and a better platform to promote product launches, promotional offers, improved features, and discounted rates. Direct communications also bring valuable information such as demographics, geographical locations, and shopping behavior with respect to your products and services. This, in turn, will help you understand the market demand and increase your sales and marketing strategies.

2. Building Customer Loyalty

Acquiring customer loyalty is a very tricky concept when it comes to marketing a business. Building a mobile app helps smoothen this loyalty-building journey by establishing a strong affinity between the customer and your brand through personalized experiences. This encourages the customers to make a purchase and stay with the brand in the long run.

3. Websites Create Awareness and Mobile Apps Make the Sale

When a potential customer is searching for a product or services, they will most likely use their smartphone to search for it rather than on a laptop. Most of the searches are made on-the-go during traveling, socializing, and waiting for appointments. Mobile apps being quicker and more interactive will probably nudge the customer to choose you for their purchase. Websites in general help to create brand awareness but many sales are being made through mobile platforms.

4. A Great Tool For Customer Engagement

business-to-customer communication is an essential element for marketing. Reverse communication is equally important to maintain customer loyalty. Customers would love your products when their concerns and complaints are being heard and resolved with very little lag time. This helps businesses to build brand loyalty. Having a mobile app for your business helps to maintain and streamline this critical relationship via online help desks and support systems.

Why Should You Consider Location as an Important Factor?

Just because you have a brilliant idea to build a mobile app doesn’t guarantee success. Knowing your audience well will help you to be more specific with your goals and objectives. You should never underestimate your target audience’s location because it’s an integral component of any app’s success. Performing proper research to analyze all the necessary points and creating a list of factors and features based on the geo-location factors will be a more helpful strategy before you start your mobile app development process.

The choice of mobile app platform varies depending on the region. For example, Android accounts in India are estimated to be 60% of the market share and for iOS, it’s just 7%. Even in European countries, people prefer the Android platform over the iPhone. In the US, the market for iOS way more popular than Android. Augmenting the necessary features that could impress customers for the local market is essential for any business to survive. Thus, spend quality time considering the location factors before you start your development process will help you succeed. A newer concept that will also help is considering super apps.

What are Super Apps?

Super apps are like the Superman of apps. To be more accurate, it is an app that provides several services that are mostly unrelated to each other under a single umbrella as a single standalone app. Just imagine an app that allows you to interact socially like Facebook, chat as you do in WhatsApp, book a cab like on Uber, and make payments as you do with Paypal. It is like having every service in one app. 2019 is quickly becoming the year of super apps.

WeChat, Grab and Go-Jek are great examples of this new breed of software called the Super App. WeChat with more than 1 billion users is considered to be the pioneer and king of Super Apps. Grab and Go-Jek started as ride-booking platforms, but gradually got transformed into a Super App offering other services centered around payments. With tons of data generated from the app users, these Super Apps gain more insight into their daily behavior and utilize these to offer more personalized services.

Customizing Super Apps for local audiences

1. Payment options & discounts

Super apps have a lot of interesting options that amaze users. Offers and promotions are a great icebreaker to bring in new users. If you are planning to build a super app, you should focus more on this concept. Customers love to purchase things at a discount and it helps to build a loyal user base as well. Offering discounts based on the local market will help you reach more customers and will help you increase your app’s user base. For example, Grab identified the need of discounts for Senior citizens, students and PWD’s in the Philippines under LTRFB (Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board) so they offered 20% off in GrabCar and GrabShare fares. This is a very good example of adapting to the local market.

If you are planning to establish your app in the global market, you have to focus on the payment options available locally. For example, countries such as Bangladesh restrict credit card usage among their population so you would have to look for alternate payment options.

2. Economy Factors

Adapting to the economic structure of a country and offering affordable services is the key to any apps success. Grab took over Uber’s market in Southeast Asia with strategies that focussed on the income potential of the people. Grab offered cheap and inexpensive car and bike rides whereas Uber was offering expensive cars. Thus, harnessing the economic privileges of the local market must be considered.

3. Features

Selecting the best features for the mobile app is one of the most difficult parts of the decision-making process. Consider the location of your target audience and offer them with the best possible features which will keep them engaged with your super app. For example, offering uninterrupted mobile experiences for consumers in countries like Nigeria, some parts of South East Asia is difficult due to low or poor network coverage. App developers should make use of protocols with WebSocket, XMPP which provides a seamless digital experience.

Do you have a killer app idea? SDI has the right skills to make it real. Hire Android developers or iOS programmers at affordable prices and get your next big super app built.

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