There are many reasons why a business decides to create an app, but one of the main goals is usually to increase sales. However, there are other important factors that a business may wish to consider when planning their development. Before beginning the development process for your next app or website, it can be helpful to ask yourself how you want this product will ultimately benefit your company.
The difference that is made by the nature of the application can be extremely important to the success of your business. The examples listed in this article use sales volume and income as the metric of success, but this is only one example. The sales process may be drastically different for a food delivery app versus an e-commerce store. For an e-commerce store, a frequent shopper might purchase multiple items every month and that purchase could potentially be tied directly to their credit card information; whereas a food delivery service would provide all items in one "meal" and likely have no credit card payment options at all. The difference in usage and revenue models can be even more obvious when comparing a fashion app to the mobile marketing industry. A fashion app may generate revenue primarily through advertisements, while mobile marketing services may include targeted coupon collections. Each of these marketplaces will have their own more direct relationship with the user and since they are selling different products, each offering should be treated as unique.
Please review the following chart to see how your business can benefit from different goals:
Benefit Of Each Goal
Sales Channel ------------ Income Increase Refill Direct Orders Direct Payment Implement Online Reservations Charge Affiliate Commissions Convert Promotions & Offers
Business decisions are challenging enough without choosing goals that will make your life harder. Avoid creating an app that requires a lot of maintenance or that will have a negative affect on your business sales growth. The goal of making sales is obvious, but choosing the correct target market for your business can be tricky. If you are not the end user, how do you know what problems or questions people will have? To make your app successful, think about how your product is used and make sure that someone has questions about that process. Figure out what problems or questions your customers have, test and develop the features they will need, and work to create a product that is needed.
Of all the companies I have met who are working on mobile apps or websites, many of them have not truly considered their ideal users. Is your business really HIPAA compliant? Do you really know what demographic appeals to your target market? If you are planning on starting a mobile app for your business, it is important to understand the functionality that users are looking for in an app like yours. Research tells us that apps with high functionality tend to be more popular than those with low functionality, but that does not mean that you should start with a high functionality app first. Consider your users carefully and design your app for their needs. Investing in features that may not be used is a waste of money and time, so create a plan to go from the bare bones to a fully functional app.
The goal of any business should be to become successful. How else will you pay your employees? But can you really determine what success would look like for your company if you do not know how many sales you make or how much profit you make on each sale? Asking yourself what success will look like for your business is an important step towards the creation of a successful mobile app or website development project.