We live in a mobile world. Consumers live in a mobile world. And today’s small businesses better live in a mobile world. Specifically, whether brick and mortar, old or new, b2b, b2c, tech savvy or tech weary, mobile apps can help businesses tap into markets they could never reach before — it’s a bottom-line game changer the likes of which rarely has been seen before.
It may be easy for many small business owners to shrug off the mobile app revolution and say it’s not for them, or they already have a solid customer base, but that’s a short-sided attitude that could someday be fatal.
Data show consumers increasingly are willing to download mobile apps to their smart devices — the average number of downloaded apps is close to 30 per device for most — and this pattern will only increase as the purchasing power of Millennials grows.
Today, even a diehard technophobe would have trouble not seeing a time in the next decade when mobile apps will become the chief vehicle for conducting business transactions that involve procurement, sales or customer service.
A recent report from the Boston Consulting Group titled The Mobile Revolution: How Mobile Technologies Drive a Trillion-Dollar Impact reported that the mobile tech industry generated revenues of almost $3.3 trillion worldwide in 2014 and is directly responsible for 11 million jobs.
Examining consumer trends in six countries — the U.S., Germany, South Korea, Brazil, China and India — the report also highlighted the growing importance of mobile tech and the willingness of customers to shell out cash for the newest products.
In the U.S., Germany and South Korea consumers valued mobile tech at approximately $6,000 per year or 12 percent of their income. In China and India, consumers were willing to spend more than 40 percent of their annual income on mobile technologies.
The report also revealed the impact of consumer attitudes on small and medium-sized businesses. It stated that small businesses that adopt advanced mobile tech applications increase their revenue up to two times faster, and add jobs up to eight times faster, than small businesses that don’t. In the six countries surveyed by BCG researchers, this could lead to 7 million new jobs for these companies.
In the United States, mobile tech now generates more revenue into the economy than longtime big industries such as entertainment, transportation, automobiles, hospitality and agriculture.
The examples of how small businesses have been able to tap into the mobile market range far and wide from mobilizing internal processes that improve the end-user experience, to customized apps that lead to one-click purchases of products from both new and repeat customers.
Kinvey, a Boston-based company that provides backend systems support for mobile applications, has customers that run the gamut from big to small and use apps in a variety of ways.
Big clients, such as Aetna, Bayer and Nascar, are not providing technology services as a main product, but have recognized the need to offer the most up-to-date mobile tech options to their customers.
While other customers, including Rexnord Bearings, Flooring America and Schneider Electric, are using Kinvey to provide mobile apps to their customers in some of the oldest industries in this country. These industries have operated almost the same way for hundreds of years, but now the demand for mobile tech from consumers has made them change their tune.
Kinvey’s pitch is that it saves money on systems and support needed to develop and run mobile apps.
“They don’t even need to understand technology,” said Margaret Rimmler, Kinvey’s vice president of marketing. “We are enabling them to do something they would not have been able to do on their own.”
Development services
The market also has been flooded by a mass of low-cost mobile app development services for do-it-yourselfers. Examples include Appmakr, AppNotch, App Press, AppsBuilder, Apptive, AppyPie, Bizness Apps and BuildAnApp — the list goes on and on.
Apptopia, another Boston-based startup in the mobile apps space, sees another side of the industry and feels the overall market boom. Apptopia is a marketplace through which app developers can sell their apps to bidders.
Launched in 2011, Apptopia lists about 250-300 new apps for sale every month. Apptopia puts developers in touch with entrepreneurs, so that the app innovations can be sold at good prices in the marketplace. While apps can go for as much as $70,000 to $100,000 apiece, according to Tess Suchoff, the company’s head of marketplace, the typical range is around $7,000 to $10,000. Each month, however, she’s seen apps sell for $20,000 or $40,000.
Suchoff said a new twist in the app-selling marketplace involves business procurement of mobile apps that can quickly be customized to fit an existing business model, thus extending services into the mobile space.
“We are seeing it trend more,” Suchoff said. “We hope to see it trend even more because it is a way for companies to see five steps ahead, since they can have an app that is already built.”
No matter how you look at it the stakes are high in small business adoption of mobile technologies. Adapting to this new reality isn’t just about survival, but also being positioned to secure success unimaginable through more traditional business models.
Everybody wants to be the next Uber, the drive-sharing company that didn’t just disrupt a traditional industry, but shattered it. Uber’s ability to connect consumers seeking taxi service to private cars and drivers has left decades-old cab companies on the outside looking in at an industry they once dominated.
That kind of success would have any startup or small business laughing all the way to
the bank, which is why smart small businesses are scrambling to target mobile market opportunities.
