Mobile App vs Website: The Best Option for eCommerce Businesses

Between a mobile app vs website, which option can help you in the growth of your business?

A report by Statista states, in 2020, retail eCommerce sales touched a global revenue value of 4.28 trillion USD. In 2022, the same revenue is expected to cross 5.4 trillion USD. So, you can imagine the size of the eCommerce industry in the world at the moment.

Now, while the competition is very high, giants like Amazon are still to keep themselves ahead in the race. The question is, how? Well, their amazing R&D department knows its job well.

And to help you grow in the race as well, we have some inputs that you might use. Today, we will discuss which option is better between mobile apps vs. mobile websites for your eCommerce business.

So, without further ado, let’s begin!

Advantages of mobile apps vs. mobile websites

To understand which option among mobile website vs app is better for an eCommerce business, we will go through the advantages and disadvantages of both.

Advantages of mobile apps

Let’s have a look at the crucial advantages of eCommerce mobile apps first-

1. Faster loading time

The best advantage eCommerce apps have in the mobile app vs website competition is the loading time. Mobile apps very often keep required data stored offline on devices. Thus, the internet is only required to fetch product listings and other details.

2. Better security

The eCommerce app development process uses multi-layers of cybersecurity. Moreover, it is also impossible for browsers or other websites opened in the tab to track or record crucial information like user credentials, payment details, and more.

3. Faster payments

Among a website or an app, eCommerce apps usually have the advantage of processing payments faster. In some cases, users do not even have to enter all details every time they make the payment. With the help of other payment apps installed on the same device, eCommerce mobile apps can process the payments with a couple of clicks.

4. Easy feedback

Another advantage of mobile apps among an app vs mobile site is, with the help of in-app feedback tools, collecting survey data or feedback is easier. The owner of eCommerce mobile apps can easily install an in-app survey tool to display feedback popups to users.

Disadvantages eCommerce apps

Now, from the perspective of a user and an eCommerce business owner, we will have a look at the disadvantages of the eCommerce mobile apps.

1. Costlier development process

The eCommerce app development process requires more effort, resources, and budget. Moreover, the maintenance stage also costs quite a good amount of money.

2. Identifying glitches and getting rid of them is hard

Mobile apps have a major disadvantage if we talk about a website or apps. Identifying glitches or errors in the code and taking care of them is quite difficult. Sometimes, it requires more dedicated developers to figure out the issue. It increases the cost and time.

3. Limitations of features in cross-platform apps

The top app development companies suggest that hybrid apps are less costly. However, cross-platform apps can not offer features or performance just like native apps. The reason is that the development process is done only once for multiple operating systems and it requires to be adjustable with all of these.

Advantages and disadvantages of eCommerce websites

Furthermore, we will throw some light on the advantages and disadvantages of eCommerce websites to give this blog a fair conclusion.

Advantages of eCommerce websites

Modern businesses are adopting eCommerce websites at a rapid speed. However, it also depends on the requirements of these businesses and if these requirements are met with the help of the websites or not. Let’s have a look at these advantages to understand what your business requires between a mobile site vs app.

1. The less costly development process

The eCommerce websites are cheaper to build. If you have a lower budget, it is ideal to go for a mobile app among mobile app vs website to save development and maintenance costs. Compared to a mobile app development company, a web development company will give you a cheaper quote for the exchange of its services.

2. Flexible

eCommerce websites can support any browser. Thus, they are more flexible and adjustable to the operating system and size of the users’ devices. It helps business owners in expanding their market coverage towards multiple target markets.

3. Search engine optimization

The SEO technique helps eCommerce websites to rank better on search engines. Search engines like Google have some algorithms that keep updating from time to time. These algorithms decide which article should appear on the first position or first page. Thus, SEO can help websites in getting displayed among the top ten results on the first page of search engines.

Disadvantages of eCommerce websites

eCommerce websites are cheaper to build, but they still lack a few functionalities that business owners might use.

1. Slow loading speed

One of the major issues faced by common users is slow loading speed. Not every target market has a faster internet speed. Thus, the slow loading speed of a website can be really annoying and push the user away.

2. Risk of getting tracked by spam websites

Many malware websites are now trying to track and steal user data. Thus, using the eCommerce website while one of such spam sites is already opened by the user, might result in exposing crucial user data.

3. Can not access offline

Browsers save no data apart from cache and cookies. Thus, it is impossible to access websites without the internet. And that is a major disadvantage in a mobile website vs an app.

To conclude- Who is the winner between app vs website?

Well, even though it depends on the requirements of the business owners, mobile apps still have a greater advantage. The reason is that mobile apps are faster, secured, and have a better user interface as well.

So, that’s it for the app vs website blog and hopefully, it was useful for you!