Top 100 Web Developers Worldwide on Twitter 2013 Released

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Congrats to Kimber Johnson @kimbergjohnson , Managing Director of Pacific App Design for being named to the Top 100 Web Developers Worldwide on Twitter 2013.

Criteria included:

Supportive – First and foremost, we all want somebody we can count on – a friendly face who works hard and doesn’t go missing when times are tough.
Cutting Edge – Responsive layouts, retina support … what ever next? The web development industry is constantly changing. Every day brings new developments, technologies and techniques.
A Programming Wizard – Not to be overlooked, a little knowledge of HTML, CSS or even JavaScript will go a long way. If a Web Developer can’t get technical and talk a little turkey, they may struggle further down the line.
A Story Teller – Websites are likes stories, a narrative of information that communicates a website’s purpose while persuading visitors to act. Weaving words and ideas together is an essential prerequisite, without it a website will become a confusing puzzle without an answer.
Artsy – We all like beautiful websites with full-screen glossy images, huge typography and brilliant branding. Like it or not, ugly websites are a thing of the past.

The original article can be found at http://bit.ly/11Ha5Uf

Desire for Location Based Offers Grows

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A new poll by Harris Interactive found a 19% increase in interest by users in getting local mobile offers since 2009, assuming the users has given permission for the offers. Harris Interactive asked, “Assuming you gave permission, how interested would you be in receiving mobile alerts about new products, sales and/or promotions from your favorite merchants, restaurants, or stores on your cell phone/smartphone?”and 45% answered that they were at least ‘somewhat interested’. In 2009 only 26% responded similarly.

When those polled were asked what effect a mobile alert for an offer that they could redeemed nearby would have, over 75% said they find such location-based alerts at least “somewhat useful” and “more relevant” than traditional coupons. Clearly this is one of the areas we are seeing mobile applications mature in as users usage patterns starting to become more defined.

According to Pacific App Design’s Managing Director, Kimber Johnson, “Consumers are looking for offers. Smart organizations are including these offers as part of their mobile offering as these offers are valued by their consumer base and often these offers are the driving force for their consumers to keep regular contact with a brand via mobile application.”

Survey participants in additional questions offered further insight and responded that “offers via mobile were easy to act on” (89 percent), “made them aware of retail locations they had previously not known about” (87 percent), “encouraged them to try out new things” (83 percent) and “promoted spontaneous purchases since they are near the store” (73 percent).

Kathryn Koegel, Chief of Insights at Primary Impact Research, says that this increase “suggests that mobilized consumers are increasingly aware of how easy it is to use mobile phones to save money and time, and have come to value offers that incorporate their location”.

Let Customers Be Able to Find You via Mobile Devices

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In the last few years we are seeing people utilizing computing power in a vastly different way with smart phones and tablets often becoming the device of choice over laptops and desktop computers. Many small business have discovered that by being easy to find on these devices they have been able to increase sales and growth.

No longer can businesses just put up a web site and expect that to be enough. A business needs to be able to be found in a wide variety of places to insure that customers can find them where ever they are looking. Whether its via mobile web site, traditional web sites, mobile applications (including iPhone and Android apps) or social media, your business needs to have an established presence.

Here are some key items to think about regarding improving your presence in these mediums:

Mobile Web Sites: The number of searches completed on mobile devices has climbed 20% in the last year. Business owners without mobile web sites are missing out on a significant amount of searching. According to Nielsen, those who use mobile devices to search for you are statistically more likely to follow up on the search. 55% of mobile searches result in a purchase. A survey by comScore has revealed that searches done on mobile devices are much more likely to result in a sale than searches done on computers.

Mobile Applications: Mobile apps provide consumers a regular way to keep contact with your business. Applications are fantastic at deepening markets and businesses need to provide content that keeps loyal customers coming back. Is your app a one shot deal or something that consumers want to keep readily available to visit? Do you provide something of value to those that have downloaded your app? Apps that users return to over and over help generate repeat business at a tremendous rate.

Social Media: About 40% of those surveyed use social media to interact with businesses. This is a huge number of people that your business could reach. Social media outlets are well formulated to the mobile environment and a great way for consumers to find you via their mobile devices.

It is essential for your business that you and your products are readily findable on mobile devices. Once consumers get to your mobile site or app, make it easy for them to find most relevant information about your business: your address, phone number, and hours. This is important with social media as well. Make it easy to find your physical location on your digital presence.

Savvy businesses are embracing these trends and leveraging the power of mobile to propel growth.

Mobile More Important to Retail Than the Internet

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Mobile is having a massive effect on the retail industry and is expected to have a bigger impact on the industry than the Internet ever did according to a new analysis from Deloitte.

Deloitte’s new Consumer Review is showing a sound 14 percent rise in smartphone use in the UK to 72 percent. Based on the rise in the number of shoppers with mobile devices in hand, we see retailers are quickly installing WiFi into stores, developing mobile apps, and optimizing marketing campaigns and mobile web sites for tablets and smartphones. In fact in a survey of 1,000 UK consumers, it was found that one third had already used some form of online wallet.

“There is no doubt that mobile is rapidly redefining the way consumers and brands interact even more than the Internet did,” said Ben Perkins, head of consumer business research at Deloitte. “Consumers are expecting convenience, simplicity and security in exchange for their loyalty. It is only by embracing mobile’s full potential with the right strategy that a consumer facing business can compete in a mobile-centric world.”

Savvy businesses that fulfill customer expectations are reaping the rewards while others that do not are at risk of being left behind. “Right now we see smart companies embracing the new business paradigm”, according to Kimber Johnson, managing director of Pacific App Design.”Those that are giving consumers the mobile experience they are looking for are seeing great results but I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of a business that isn’t keeping up right now.”

This brings to light the importance of usability. Consumers are no longer content to just see a business has a mobile presence, but rather as the industry has grown and matured they are expecting that presence to be easy to use or they will abandon it.

Mobile Commerce to Double by 2017

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According to new figures from Juniper Research in ‘Mobile Commerce Markets: Sector-by-Sector Trend Analysis and Forecasts 2013-2017’, they predict the value of mobile transactions to more than double from this year’s $1.5 trillion to a very impressive $3.2 trillion by 2017. This comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched the meteoric growth of mobile application development.

Right now this creates a huge opportunity for retailers as not all businesses have stepped up and added a mobile presence. “Mobile presents a great opportunity for savvy business operators at this moment,” observes Pacific App Design’s managing director Kimber Johnson, “if businesses do not embrace a user-friendly mobile experience, they will find themselves falling behind the competition who are embrace mobile channels.”

In a recent report from TransFirst and ControlScan, it shows that just 37 percent of retailers are either in the process of optimization (15 percent) or have plans to optimize with mobile web sites in the next year (22 percent). Which is surprising given how thoroughly the market has embraced the technology. Google research from May, 2012 showed that the average smartphone owner installed 28 apps on their device. According to a study by Flurry in December of 2012, U.S. consumers spent an average of 127 minutes using mobile apps per day. This is an ideal place to connect with a consumer base.

“From our experience, we have seen that a multi-pronged approach works best,” continues Kimber Johnson, “mobile applications work well to deepen relationships with customers and to improve relationships with a consumer base, while mobile web sites typically work well widening a consumer base as they help improve the experience with consumers on a first contact.”

The value of mobile app marketing and a strong mobile web presence cannot be overstated. Users are attached to their mobile devices and depend on them to deliver content on in an enormous spectrum and if you are not delivering content within that spectrum you are at risk of being ignored and forgotten.