Small businesses think that creating a mobile app could improve sales and help them better engage with customers but few have embraced the technology, a new survey has found.
The survey by Endurance International Group, a Web hosting company, showed 68% of respondents see a mobile app as a way to grow their business, but 78% of businesses still do not have a business-related app.
This research is part of a survey the company’s more than 900 small business clients. The survey, 2015 Small Business Perspectives on Mobile, was designed to provide information on how people who own small businesses feel about mobile applications and to help guide future investments in mobile products and services.
The data found that small businesses understand the potential associated with mobile apps but often don’t have the time, resources or expertise to create or manage a mobile solution for their business, founder and CEO of Endurance, Hari Ravichandran, said in a press release.
Half of business owners said not knowing how to build a mobile app was the biggest barrier to creating one, while nearly one-quarter (23%) said they were too busy their business to maintain one. Twenty-two percent said developing a smartphone app was too expensive.
Still, about two-thirds of respondents (65%) said they must have a mobile presence to remain competitive. More than half (55%) agreed mobile solutions are fundamentally changing the nature of sales for their business.
The influence that digital devices have on purchasing habits is growing rapidly as customers look to their smartphones for information about products and pricing long before they step foot into a business.
Research by Deloitte by shows that digital technologies influence 36% of in-store retail sales and was expected to reach 50% by the end of 2014.
Despite the low adoption rate, most small businesses said they planned to invest in mobile solutions in the next year, the survey found.
Twenty-one percent said they would start in the next six months, 29% said they would start in six to 12 months and 22% said it would happen in one to two years. A slight 16% said they would never invest in a mobile app.
A publicly traded company based in Burlington, Mass., Endurance conducted its online survey of 909 of U.S.-based small businesses between Feb. 26 and March 4. It defined small businesses as having 10 or less full-time or part-time employees.
Endurance, through its various companies, provides cloud-based solutions to help small- and medium-sized businesses succeed online.
Please Leave A Comment
Related posts:
84% of Companies Don’t Have an Enterprise Mobile Strategy
Digital Marketing Expenditure Expected to Increase Among Small Businesses
HealthITJobs.com Launches Mobile Apps for Healthcare IT Job Search
Survey: Mobile Technology is Increasing Amount of Work Done Outside the Office
Fraudulent Ads Cost $850 Million Through Mobile Apps