Retail mobile apps and mobile location-based services are rising the popularity charts with each passing day. Are you looking forward to introduce a retail mobile app for your business as well?

1. Mobile location-based services are gaining momentum with
time
Today, with proliferation of mobile devices, evolution of mobile Internet speed and
availability of a variety of apps for downloads, mobile location­based services are
also increasing significantly. Nowadays, every business segment is realizing the need
for mobile solutions, and therefore, they are more focused on coming up with a
robust mobile ecosystem to meet the demands of the mobile­savvy users. As per a
report from Juniper Research, the smartphone proliferation will drive the mobile
location­based services (MLBS) to above $12.7 billion by the year 2014.
It has been seen that with the greater usage of mobile Internet and easy consumer
access to various app distribution channels, mobile location­based service (MLBS)
providers have become more and more interested in providing MLBS applications.
Convergence between mobile commerce and location­based services (LBS) are
growing each day and the primary driver of this convergence is Near Field
Communication (NFC), that'll bridge the offline and the online world.
Let us take a look at the various ways in which location­based data is changing the
mobile ecosystem:
1) Location­enabled mobile ads are quite popular among the mobile users for the
impressive prices that they offer. Whenever a user is geographically close to a
business or a store, the click­through rates on the mobile banner ads of that
particular business is seen to automatically rise.

2. 2) Location­based features have turned out to be highly beneficial to boost
engagement on apps. For example, social networking sites such as Twitter and
Facebook have come out with features which lets you share your location with your
friends whenever you want. This has also led to the rise of mobile location­based
services.
Owing to the aforementioned factors, business organisations have realised that
mobile location­based services are fast rising the popularity charts nowadays. That's
exactly why retail stores are coming up with more and more retail mobile apps to
enhance the shopping experience of the mobile users.
For instance, AroundMe is an app that uses geolocation capabilities to allow
customers to locate relevant businesses nearby. The app enables consumers to search
for merchant categories such as grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.
Therefore, retail mobile apps are clearly an advantage for various retailers
nowadays. Consumers can directly search for various businesses, stores, cafes and
restaurants by simply tapping on the retail mobile apps icon. This not only helps the
user locate where the desired destination is, but also a consumer might search for
further details (such as reviews and recommendations of a particular restaurant) of
the place. This will help them make better decisions whether to visit that place or
search for other options. In addition, if there is an attractive offer going on at a
nearby retail outlet, the customer gets the details of the offer as and when he passes
that store. This leads to the increase of in­store footfalls of the store.
Mobile location­based services and the popularity of retail mobile apps are here to
stay. They are rising in popularity with the increase in smartphone penetration world
over. Are you considering of introducing a retail mobile app for your business too?