Earlier this month John Lewis launched their new ecommerce site for mobile. Instead of creating an app for users, they simply created a dedicated mobile site. In the past couple of years, companies have gone crazy creating their own dedicated apps. Amazon’s app is particularly innovative, enabling you to take pictures of products and then go back and buy them from Amazon later. The app recognises the product from the picture.
Although apps offer the functionality to create a unique and different way of shopping, it is not without its problems. Firstly, there are a huge range of smart phones on which users can browse the internet, all with slightly different sized screens and using a variety of software. By building an app you are potentially ignoring the swathes of customers who choose to use devices other than the traditional smart phones – the iPhone, Google phones or Blackberries.
By creating a designated mobile site, John Lewis have not only encompassed all internet browing phones, but have saved themselves a lot of bother adapting their app for each device.
