Page 12 - Logistics News Oct Nov 2020
P. 12
Opinion
Why your mobile strategy
should be top-of-mind
By Nick Durrant
Mobile app usage increased by 40 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020 and
in-app spending hit a record high of $27bn.
ACCORDING TO GSMA’s 2019 State of Mobile developing a mobile app. This mobile strategy
Internet Connectivity report, the mobile industry not only allows brands to have more personalised
currently connects over 3.5 billion people to the interactions with their users, but it also acts as a
internet, which is just under half of the global useful information gathering tool. App data can
population. And the current COVID-19 pandemic ultimately be used to improve user experience
has only driven mobile appeal. So much so that (UX). But this doesn’t mean that desktop
the second quarter of 2020 was the largest yet optimisation should fall by the wayside. It’s all
for mobile app downloads, usage and consumer about adapting and meeting your customers
spending, research from US app store intelligence where they are.
firm, App Annie, reveals.
We have embraced the world of online DinePlan case study
banking and shopping because the idea of When we created the DinePlan app, our aim was
visiting a bank or shopping mall during a global to help consumers make a restaurant booking
pandemic holds limited appeal. With all of this on-the-go. As South Africa’s first instant restaurant
in mind, developing a mobile strategy isn’t a booking app, users can find a restaurant based
nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. So why are brands on their current location, restaurant availability,
still focusing so much of their attention on the desired cuisines and even based on customer
desktop experience? ratings. But when the coronavirus lockdown halted
restaurant visits, the app had to evolve.
Going mobile first Keen to help the restaurant industry weather
Back in 2010, Eric Schmidt, a former Google exec, the lockdown storm, the DinePlan app launched
encouraged businesses to adopt a ‘Mobile First’ a feature that allowed customers to purchase
approach to designing web experiences. As the restaurant vouchers that they could then redeem
name suggests, this entails starting your product at a later stage. This, in turn, helped the hospitality
design journey with mobile in mind and then industry generate cash flow during the national
expanding features to create a version suited to shutdown. Again, meeting customers where they
tablets and desktops. are.
Gone are the days when your mobile user Back in 2015, Casey Carl, a former chief strategy
interface (UI) was considered a ‘secondary’ and innovation officer for US retail brand Target,
scaled down version of your desktop experience; explained that mobile had become a business’s
with your mobile site only offering a fraction new front door. Customers want to shop and
of your website’s functionality. A mobile first do business whenever they have time and flow
design approach starts with the smallest screen seamlessly across various different channels.
resolutions, before working your way up to larger And this is what a mobile first strategy is all
screen sizes. If you’ve ever visited a website on about. It’s about developing with the end user in
your mobile phone and the page isn’t designed to mind – the different devices they’re using, how
automatically fit different devices automatically, they’re using them and what the most common
you’ll understand why this aspect is so important. screen sizes may be. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter
More importantly, when we talk about ‘mobile’, we if you have a website, a mobi site, a PWA or an
are referring to the mobile web and mobile apps. app, you need to create something responsive,
Designing with the mobile web in mind is about informative, easy to navigate and that provides
making sure that your website can adapt to any clear directions and calls to action. If your platform
screen size and resolution. doesn’t do this, it’s time to rethink your mobile
Alternatively, going mobile first can also entail strategy. •
10 October/November 2020 | Logistics News
