Mobile apps are all the rage in the modern age. According to Statista, which compiles data across a range of industries, the Google Play store alone hosts over 2.8 million apps, with Apple’s App Store not far behind with 2.2 million. Those numbers grow year-on-year and many businesses have found success through the implementation of mobile apps into their strategies.

However, that isn’t to say that a mobile app is right for your web store. So many different factors go into the success of a mobile app, many of which stretch beyond the objective quality of the app. In some cases, developing one will just lead to money being poured down the drain.

That leaves web store owners with a critical decision to make regarding whether they should get a mobile app developed or if they should optimize their existing websites towards mobile devices.

Mobile Apps in Numbers

In a recent article, mobile app development resource Hupa Mobile explored the numbers behind mobile app conversion rates. It found that, on average, a little over 26 percent of people who looked at an app went on the download it to their phones. Even better, the highest achievers saw conversion rates rocket up to as high as 80 percent.

So far so good, right? After all, one in four people downloading your app is certainly nothing to be sniffed at. However, that figure doesn’t tell the whole story.

The site went on to break these conversion figures down by category and found that there was a rather noticeable disparity between the best performing categories and those lower down on the totem pole. For example, mobile apps related to music and travel tended to achieve above or near the average conversation rate, however, those related to entertainment, games, and education trended lower, with some categories achieving an average of less than 14 percent conversion.

So what does this tell us? Well, at the base level, it suggests that those with web stores related to music and travel products are much likely to see higher mobile app conversion rates than those who sell other entertainment products or those who offer educational items. As such, a mobile app may not be the best choice for those at the lower end of the conversion scale, as they may not even achieve the number of downloads required to gain an adequate return on the investment required for development.

How About Sales?

Of course, a low download rate doesn’t mean much if every app conversion results in sales for your web store. Unfortunately, recent data seems to suggest that, despite apps making great strides in recent years, most users still prefer to shop from the comfort of a desktop or tablet device, rather than a smartphone.

Smart Insights has found that sales conversion rates on desktop computers were at 4.14 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, with smartphone sales lagging behind at 1.55 percent. This suggests that people prefer to make purchases from a static location rather than while they’re on the go, which adds another layer to the question of whether or not a mobile app is right for your web store.

What this data doesn’t highlight is how many of those desktop purchasers actually learned about the product they purchased via a mobile app and made the decision to purchase from home later on.

The Future

Mobile apps are all the rage in the modern age.

Having said all that, there is still a lot of room for mobile apps to grow into and we could still say we are in something of a transitional phase when it comes to making purchases via apps. An article in Smashing Magazine pointed towards 81 percent growth in usage of shopping solutions apps back in 2015, for example.

So the fact remains that people are interested in shopping solutions via mobile app, but the timing may not be right for your web store to make the transition, especially given how much sales fluctuate between industries. In this regard, the choice may be more about building toward the future than it is about capitalizing on existing market demands.

So What Do You Do?

Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast answer as to whether or not your web store really needs a mobile app right now. Though the industry is trending towards growth, the fact remains that most people still prefer to shop online via a desktop computer. Couple that with the fact that conversion rates vary across industries and you have a very difficult question to answer.

For many companies, particularly those outside the travel, music, and entertainment industries, the answer is likely to continue focusing on optimizing their existing websites for mobile users, rather than creating dedicated apps for their web stores. A properly optimized website will still offer much the same functionality as an app, barring things like notifications, and allows you to service those customers who do want to shop via mobile without having to invest significant money into the development of an app.

So when making the decision, keep in mind your existing revenue, what you hope to achieve with the app, and all of the factors discussed above. If you don’t have the budget for an app and can’t see how it will benefit the web store, focus on the cheaper alternative of optimizing your website for mobile devices. You may even find that doing so offers you more data that you can use to make a decision regarding a mobile app later on down the line.