Mobile App Maker Pro

Mobile Apps and More on the Web

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Mobile Devices and eCommerce

How often do you utilize your mobile device for shopping and ordering?  There are a number of big name businesses such as Amazon were amongst the big name early mobile app adopters.  Other big name retailers such as Wal-Mart are now mixing the physical space with the electronic one.  This is now being extended down to the medium and small business level. 

Similar to mobile device popularity, e-commerce promotes one thing-customer convenience.  This convenience has been used to fuel a rapid rise in sales.  This article from Forbes says that approximately, “half of all mobile commerce will be mobile by 2017.”  What does this mean?  If your organization is one that sells products, you should be looking to incorporate mobile commerce into a mobile app if you are not already.   

Incorporation of an e-commerce solution works for the business and the customer.  The simple way that customers benefit was already stated, ordering convenience.  Since customers at times do price comparisons, this will help the customer select the lowest price possible. 

Looking at the benefits for the business, there are a number of ways a business can benefit.   When it comes to customer retention, keeping customers coming back is done through continual ways of adding value. Adding value is how a business continues to keep customers coming back.  It comes to getting new customers, they are looking for ways that a business can stand out. If there to read retailers to sit side-by-side, the one that has a mobile presence is the one that would most likely be the one that benefits from the new customer.  The business also benefits from boosting the brand awareness. The Visibility allow new customers to become more familiar with your brand. Along with that this will help to drive conversions and sales. Having a app present on the mobile device at all times encourages them to shop more often as opposed to getting wanted Internet search engine and try to find a comfortable place.

When it comes to the operations of the business, incorporation of a mobile app e-commerce solution is one way that a business can save. This is going to be depending upon the type of product that the business cells however. For a business that relies on just in time order fulfillment, and this benefits of the business more than having a large stock on hand and having to wait for products to be sold. 

When it comes to incorporation of e-commerce into your businesses mobile app below are a list of related selections within the Mobile App Maker Pro app builder:

  • Magento
  • Prestashop
  • Shopify
  • Volusion
  • WooCommerce

If your or another business does not utilize one of the above mentioned solutions, you could simply insert a page from your website into the app itself. If you go this route however, you need to ensure the website is mobile responsive. The last thing that you wish to see is and a page added that will not be useful for the consumer.  What is mobile responsive?  It is a website that resizes to mobile devices if necessary.  Within the Mobile App Maker Pro Members' Area, we discuss a platform that will be mobile responsive with no extra effort on your part. 

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Push Notification Benefits

When one is looking for a differentiation factor, look no further than the push notifications.  They can be used as a method to locate people nearby.  Emergency updates can be delivered immediately.  Last but not least, it can be integrated for other special messages such as sales. 

There are a number of social media applications that utilize push.  When enabled, people that are contacts with one another are alerted when they come within a certain vicinity of one another.  The devices essentially recognize and alert each user.  This is useful when people are in a crowded area such as large venue such as an amusement park or a shopping center.   

The emergency update is one that is used primarily by government entities.  They are limited to AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) and Emergency, focused on weather alerts.  The AMBER alert as you may well know is focused on children who are missing.  This alert gives all people an immediate notification to look out for children. This is useful when they are abducted and being transported. More information for the AMBER alert is here.

The weather alert is useful obviously when there is impending dangerous weather conditions.  One scenario given by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on their website gives a hypothetical scenario that it is used to prevent a person from driving into a tornado.  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/wea.html

The business environment can benefit from having push notifications involved in a number of ways.  Looking internally first, the business can have it’s own internal app that informs employees of an activity that needs to be done when scheduled in advance.  This gives the employees the opportunity to know of any activity that needs to be done immediately. 

Looking at customers the most significant benefit is delivering information to them immediately of a special that is to occur.  Mobile marketing is now a reality without any technical knowledge needed.  The inclusion of this is very simple within the Mobile App Maker Pro app creator.  Here’s the steps:

  • Include a title and a message.  Select one of the following
    • Open an app feature page, custom URL, or HTML source code
  • Send to no specific location or those within a certain radius
  • Send to all users or those with a specific topic
  • Send immediately or schedule a time/date

So here’s a few things to expound upon.  If you have a special of some sort that is occurring, you can have all items that are on special located on one specific webpage.  This allows you to add all information in one centralized place for customers to view.  Form there, you can make this location based.  If there are customers in a specific location you wish to focus on, you can do this.  This is useful if there are customers in a certain area that buy a certain type of product.  If you wish to have all of a client base have equal access, you can make it available to all people. 

If you utilize topics from within your mobile app, perhaps you wish to send to just certain individuals.  You can do that as well knowing there is a higher chance of action. 

Lastly, you can quickly add this feature quickly and send it immediately or on a schedule.  Either way, we are looking forward to helping you develop your app at Mobile App Maker Pro Members Area. 

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Mobile and Traditional Computing

How do you predominately access the internet?  Is it on a traditional desktop, mobile phone, or a tablet device?  2014 was a signifiant year according to Smart Insights.  Why you ask?  The graphic below shows what happened. 


This is the year that mobile computing overtook the traditional desktop.  Although mobile has more popularity, it goes without saying there are some things that the desktop has an advantage over the mobile and vice versa. 

The computer has advantages in processing power, full featured operating system, upgrade options, and software options.  This is in addition to costs.  A computer has a one time purchase.  A mobile plan may now be nothing more than monthly fees.  However, in the long term, it is easily conceivable that the mobile user will end up paying far ore for their device. 

The mobile device has a high degree of accessibility as some devices stay no further than one arm’s distance apart.  Speed doesn’t compare between the majority of personal computers and mobile devices which operate with flash memory.  Starting a mobile to boot the device is typically faster on a mobile device.  There are less parts to power, translating to better battery life. 

This all in mind, a new trend. The trend is people moving away from the traditional desktop computer and moving towards mobile devices. Initially, it was the smartphone. The smart phone was supplemented with tablets. However as the phones have grown bigger, the bigger size phones are now supplanting the tablets.  This trend will only increase as smartphones gain the following capabilities from this Wired magazine excerpt, “if a smartphone can do all the things PCs, digital cameras, camcorders, GPS navigation devices, MP3 players, and DVD players can, and more, then yes, smartphones could be the primary computing device for many people.” 

Looking at the smart device operating systems themselves, they are increasingly becoming closer in terms of capability.  An app that was used for particular device a few years ago, a non-of them present the other operating system. That is an increasingly no longer the case. Mobile apps that are present for Android are now also present for iOS and vice versa. These two operating systems compromise the overwhelming majority of smartphone operating systems.  With the Mobile App Maker Pro platform, any other device internet connected device will work as a web app. This means in short any internet connected device is compatible.  If you’re interested in getting started, learn more by going to to the Mobile App Maker Pro Members Area.  Here, you can create as many apps monthly as you wish. The major skill is that of cutting and pasting information. From there, we will handle all mobile app technical aspects.   

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Mobile Apps and Customer Retention

How do you use your mobile phone?  How much do you spend in a favorite app?  There is a strong possibility that you may utilize Facebook.  Like it or not, the brand is many things in one.  It retains heavy usage It serves as a primarily as a means of communication.  The internet “chat rooms” of the 1990s were replaced by various groups.  Prior to the creation of the FB Messenger app, messages served as a self contained email.  It served as a launch point if someone had a website link included.  Imagery is driven by still and video.  They can be embedded in a video feed.  Images are effective since many people are very visual.  This also draws upon the person who submits the image since they receive attention from people that they know. 

This is similar to how the Mobile App Maker Pro platform works.  We can incorporate all these things into one platform.  One additional component that can be added is eCommerce.  One of the most well known platforms Amazon.  One thing is immediacy.  Other major retailers are playing catch up with Amazon trying to offer similar services. 


Applying this to the small business environment, one of the primary drivers as demonstrated at Consulting is customer loyalty. Loyalty is “about likability (86%) and trust 83%.”  The Mobile App Maker Pro platform incorporates a customer loyalty program.  Loyalty programs are useful in encouraging customer retention.  The business that focuses on customer retention rather than acquisition has more predictability as the customer returns with greater frequency.  More predictability is better as it alleviates many stressors. This is illustrated by the fact that “72% of small businesses plan to allocate the majority of their marketing budget to customer acquisition. 28% plan to allocate the majority to customer retention.”  Moving some of the budget from acquisition to retention focus maximizes the the customer base since there are only so many people in a given geographic area (assuming the business only has a physical location). Having a strong presence in the local area will help lower the marketing budget since the satisfied base that takes time for word of mouth marketing will reap the greatest benefits although it is the marketing with the lowest rate of growth. 

The other aspect worth considering is personalization. The mobile device comes with a common set of basic attributes. 

However, the owner will personalize it once they get it out of the box.  There are many possible reasons that may keep an individual coming back to the app.  Usefulness is one.  The small business that has pertinent information for its customers should see a higher return on investment along with something that differentiates form the competition since some small businesses are only now starting to realize and recognize the importance of having a mobile app. 

Another is convenience.  There are a multitude of ways to make an app more convenient.  Hypothetically, let’s say a business has the following:

Individual that does not go directly to the website will have to type in all of those addresses/phone numbers separately. However having app takes it from typing to just a few taps of the screen. That is where the mobile at maker Pro platform is different. Everything associated with a individuals web presence is easily integrated right into the app itself. No longer doesn't individual have to go and visit several websites to do you any material. Everything is present right at the fingertips. When your interest in learning more regarding mobile application development come to the join page and enter the Mobile App Maker Pro membership website today.

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Mobile Apps vs. Mobile Websites

When it comes to security, what do you think is better-an app or a website?

I say this since it is election season in the United States.  Plenty of allegations are flying.  It has been alleged that state affiliated personnel have hacked into various databases and released this information.  This happens at times but is more important given the nature of this election.  Turning away from the political realm, let’s move it closer to home when we look at mobile apps.

  

Before we get too far, I want to make sure we have a good solid definition to work with:

Mobile Apps-Downloaded from a central location such as Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

Mobile Website-Requires access using only a device’s mobile browser. 

So the first thing to examine is how much information can be transmitted.  Both have times where you must use personally identifiable information.  With that in mind, it’s where is your information stored.  Depending upon the device, it’s stored within the servers of the company (Apple/Google).  The mobile website is housed within that particular website.  It’s easier to hack a smaller website in contrast to a commercial enterprise.  The mobile app has at least two levels of security.  The developer has their security protocols.  Apple and Google both have theirs as well.  The superiority of those commercial enterprises is they do their own security check independent of the developer.  Additionally, the commercial enterprise has a quality control department that is dedicated to maintaining app security since there are millions of people they are responsible for.  What is released is virtually assured to be free of any malicious code. 

Tracking of a physical location is where the mobile app is unique.  The mobile app has the capability to actively track your physical location (when given permission).  The mobile website has the ability to track your browsing habits. From here they can link into a litany of advertising companies.  The mobile apps typically have far less ads.  If there is an app that’s ad enabled, you can generally buy an ad free version to mitigate ad incorporation.  It is possible to block ad tracking on a browser but there is generally some sort of addition to the browser used. 

There is an overlap between the two.  Both can access various types of personalized information.  This includes:

  • Name
  • Phone number
  • Email addresses

We at Mobile App Maker Pro value privacy.  There is no personal information that is stored in our server or within the app outside of what is supplied.  The business that wants to have customers sign into a protected page still have the capability to do so since the app has an in app browser that merely works as a bridge to the information.  You can do all this and more when you create an app with the Mobile App Maker Pro platform today.