The Dangers that High Street businesses will encounter when building their own app

Are you a business that is looking to develop your own mobile app platform? If yes, then take the time to read this article, as we dive into the app development world and highlight some key dangers that often arise. 

Developing a mobile responsive website can be a great start for businesses that wish to increase their exposure and sales. If, however, you really want to stay at the forefront of change – such as we have evidently seen from the impacts of COVID-19 – developing a mobile app may also help your business’s mobile presence and engage your customers much more successfully.

However, it might be that having your very own app isn’t the right thing for you and your business – and we’ll show you how Roam can deliver lots of the same functionality and results, without the potentially eye-watering price tag. 

Benefits of apps

Not so easily convinced? Here are seven benefits that your business could experience from creating a mobile app for your customers.

1. Provide more value and insight to your customers
2. Better customer engagement
3. Boost your profits
4. Inform users of new product releases and other offerings
5. Put your venue into your customers’ pockets, which in turn puts you in sight and in mind at all times
6. Reach out to younger demographics
7. Guaranteed higher rate of customer retention

So, welcoming a mobile app into your business marketing channel seems like a great idea, right? However, if you choose to develop an app for your business, then we just advise that you simply be careful… 

Here are the reasons why you should be careful

Small businesses often step into the ‘app development world’ by choosing to have their app developed nationally or overseas.

The common trend in the UK is that you often find sales people knocking on your door, offering you an amazing package deal. “I’ll build you a website and a mobile app for £2,000” they say – and that sounds really great, right? 

However, something that sounds great can soon be damaging if it’s not your area of expertise. Apps have to be optimised correctly, and if you want an app for your company that genuinely benefits your business, this will, with no doubt, be very costly. It needs to be done right and to benefit your business in the right way – especially when it comes to bug fixes, ongoing maintenance costs, hosting and future development ideas. 

The reality is that for your £2,000 you will most likely receive some kind of website and an app that will often be a template re-skinned and repurposed from another company. This would disregard any app store optimisation, to ensure positive visibility – in other words, an app that is not completely original or correctly optimised will rank less highly, or appear in the wrong places, in the app store. In a worst-case scenario, Google and Apple could deny your app a listing at all, if they deem that it does not meet their quality standards.

Next, the company you’re dealing with will also request a support contract to be put in place. Price will depend on where you live, but such companies will often request around £300 a month for ongoing support.

Let’s not forget that the support contract does not include additional features being built. So, at this point, you are now on a daily rate for any improvements that you want to make, with the risk that your app ends up out of your control with a nice sum of money coming out of    your account each month. This might well leave you thinking, why did I do this? 

In addition to the above, when building an app, you also have to build it in such a way that it can support your growing customer base. If it is not built with your future customers in mind, this can then lead to your app crashing – which in turn, provides a bad customer experience.  

Let’s talk about overseas app development

Having an app developed overseas can be done at a fraction of the price in relation to the industry standard – and we all love a bargain right? However, the app-development saying goes like this…

“Buy cheap, pay twice.”

Often, overseas app developers will be using different or sometimes outdated technology, or may have aesthetic standards or preferences that differ from what your customers expect. Time differences and language barriers might also make it a challenge to communicate exactly what you want. Added to that, offshoring apps can also expose you to security and data leaks. For example, Forbes found that companies that go overseas are 31% more likely to experience potential data leaks or IP loss.

Concluding the risks of developing your own mobile app

So, if you choose to develop an app yourself, please be aware of these seven risks to watch out for:

1. Risk of building an app that your target users don’t want
2. Risk of user growth exceeding what your app can support
3. Risk of choosing the wrong development partner
4. Risk of high maintenance and bug fixing costs – for example, £300+ per month
5. Risk of security breaches.
6. Risk of getting denied on iOS and Android
7. Risk of investing in a platform that you can’t control.

Why Roam can be a great alternative to creating your own app

Are you now unsure of creating an app for your business? Does building an app seem too stressful? Do you wish having an app was quick and easy?

This is where we step in with our app Roam, and our #RoamLocal campaign.

Our #RoamLocal campaign has the objective of developing a digital high street, where we are putting a 21st century spin on the way customers look and interact with their local towns and the businesses that serve the community! 

Your business is already on our award-winning app platform, and we are already directing people to your door – we are here to simply support and champion local businesses like yours. We provide every business on the high street with a free platform that you can really shout from – and, more importantly, be heard by those who care and are actively looking for your offering!

Here are some benefits of claiming your free-to-use business listing on our app Roam:

1. We will save your business the hassle of finding an app developer, and we won’t charge you any high and hidden rates. By claiming your listing on Roam, this effectively becomes your very own app platform
2. You will save on months of development time that it would take to build your own app
3. We will increase your business efficiency by providing an effortless and simple platform for your business to claim. It takes only 90 seconds to sign up and then you can add your information, such as menus, images, news, events and other offerings
4. You have the ability to send customers push notifications, direct to their phones, sharing any news, offers, events, loyalty deals, discounts or other offerings that you have available 
5. Roam is proven to increase your customer retention – studies show that by increasing your customer retention by as little as 5%, this in turn can increase your revenue by as much as 100%
6. You can create a loyalty club for your customers – it’s known that existing customers are 40% more likely to buy your products
7. We take away the stress of having to think about bug fixes, maintenance costs and future builds, because as a business you are a part of our community, and you are at the heart of what we do – and we do it for you!
8. We understand what high street businesses need and want, because we are data driven and talking to businesses like yours all the time – that’s the power of being a part of a much wider community
9. Your business is a part of an award-winning platform that has a whole ecosystem flowing through it, which focuses on increasing your footfall, exposure and sales for your venue
10. Roam is designed to let your customers shout about what you do best and recommend you to all their friends
11. With our algorithms, we are able to put the customers who are looking for you, in front of you!

With studies such as Gartner finding that less than 0.01 percent of all consumer mobile apps will become financially successful, why risk making the investment on an app that has not yet been successfully developed? 

If you are serious about bringing your company into the world of apps, and want to access local exposure, then why not use your next 90 seconds to simply claim your venue on our award-winning platform and start enjoying the many benefits that come with being a part of our community!

Claim your already existing profile for free, and start attracting customers