Gone are the days of using your mobile phone simply for phone calls. Today everything is mobile . You can deposit checks with your camera, video message with family from across the world, and challenge perfect strangers to a game of “Words With Friends”. A majority of our time is spent using our mobile devices, which is a major reason why so many companies are making the move to mobile.
Companies who initially went the web-based mobile app route have found the inability to customize, brand and contact users with push notifications troublesome, resulting in a majority of those companies switching to native mobile mobile apps.Whether it’s discovery in the app store or overall trust, users tend to prefer downloading a well constructed and easy-to-use native app over a web-based mobile app.
In addition to users overall trust level and preference, lets take a look at several benefits of investing in a native mobile app over a web-based mobile app in terms of business objectives and ROI:
- Functionality: You can do more with a native mobile app. With a native mobile app you have the ability to deliver push notifications, which helps drive business back to your mobile app and back into your dealership. Send coupons, service reminders, or new inventory updates to your users with the click of a button. The ability to send push notifications is a function available with a native mobile app.
- Discovery: The App Store is the show floor for your mobile app. Unfortunately,if you have invested in a web-based mobile app, that pre-built show floor does not exist. While gaining visibility in the App Store is not instant and does require some work, mobile phone owners are able to search by keywords, company or app name in the App Store with ease. Having your app in the App Store helps with downloads, which means more users are able to see your messages and inventory.
- Engagement: As mentioned before, consumers spend more time with native mobile apps than the web. According to Flurry, the average usage time in mobile apps in the U.S. grew 35% in 2012 to 127 minutes per day, while average time on the web declined 2.4% to only 70 minutes per day. If mobile app usage continues on the same upward trend, having a native mobile app that engages users through push notifications will help in every aspect of dealership traffic.
Interested in making the move to a native mobile app for your dealership? Contact the Dealer Baby team at heynow@dealerbaby.com for more information.
