Mobile App Development For B2C: A Gumtree Case Study (70 Characters)

Background of the application

Discuss about the Mobile Application Development for B2C Solution.

Gumtree is an online classified site with about one million live listings. It has implemented a successful mobile application (Gumtree.com, 2017).

The application is a B2C solution for the clients and complete in nature. Its business through the application and the associated benefits meant for the users are identified in this report.

The report has discussed the background and details of the application at first. Then the architectural features, benefits, interfaces, business processes and the influence on Gumtree are identified here.

The Gumtree is a mega-mall at online along with providing jobs, rents and various other features. Its site has been simple, easy and quick to understand. They have established a mobile presence for their business that has been one of the considerations. Their site and apps have been looking pretty much same at the first sight. The determining of what has been most suited to the necessities has been depending on various factors. This has been including the available budget, target audiences, and the necessary features (Joorabchi, Mesbah and Kruchten 2013). The app of Gumtree is the actual application to be downloaded and installed in the mobile phones instead of rendering within the browser. The users could visit some portals that are device-specific like the Blackberry App, Android market, and the Apple’s app store. The app has been pulling content and information from the Internet. The development of the application has been including various imaginations leading to a great app.  It has also been including the identity, designing of the app, integrating with the proper analytics tool, identifying the beta-testers, listening to the feedback and integrating of the relevant ones, releasing and deploying the app, capturing the metrics, marketing the app properly (Iacob, Harrison and Faily 2013).  The primary drivers of the mobile application are the devices and the operating system, native and the web (HTML) app, user authorization and authentication, integrating with the enterprise system, application distribution and the custom add-ons for the consumer applications. It also includes the support, enhancements and maintenance and the 25-20-25 Thumb rule. 

It has been including the determining of the device like the screen size, CPU characteristics, and the resolution, memory, and storage space. Then the bandwidth is considered and the user interface is defined. Next, the navigational features are determined. The presentation layer has comprised of the UI Components and the Process components (Barnett, Vasa and Grundy 2015). Next, there is the business layer and data layer. The business layer has been focusing on the way the business has been presented to the end users. The data layer was comprised of the data helpers, utilities, service agents and the access components.

Description of the mobile application

Their interface comprised of the Adobe Creative Suite as it came to perfect the placement of pixel and creating the icons for the mobile app. They have also used the keynote for creating the animation. Several other tools have been including the Flux, Pixate and the open source origami of Facebook. While creating the user interface of the app, Gumtree has been making that effective enough for the expert users being informative and simple for the novice users. They have been keeping the principle primary buttons ideally at the bottom of the screen (Li and Halfond 2014). Thus their controls of the user interface have been needed the motion like the selection list and notion, keeping in mind how the user has been the holding the mobile. This also includes particular motions that have been generally natural for the users.

With the help of the mobile app, Gumtree could market that more directly. They could provide much information to their clients regarding the services and products. They have been providing the customers the values. The clients have high interest in the valuable services and products. They have been building the brand recognition utilizing the mobile application. They have created the likable features and mesmerizing the audiences. Rather than just putting up a costly billboard, they have constructed a functional app (Doub et al. 2015). Their customer engagement has been increasing. They have been relying on all their communication at the personal level. Hence the ordering or booking process has been as simple as possible and very secure. Moreover, they have been standing out of the crowd and increasing the customer loyalty.

The mobile app has been very much easy in touching for accessing. The mobile app of Gumtree has been functioning as the virtual location for the business. The customers have been very much helpful in getting in touch with the company. They are also able to get instant guidelines. They have been receiving instant notifications along with promotions and special offers (Mota et al. 2017). They have been also been acquiring pertinent scheduling data within the reach of their fingertips. The customers have been able to schedule the appointments through their app.

It has been generating the broader access for the users and identifying the necessities of the customers better. They have been agility and convenience guaranteed. They have also enhanced the availability to the customers with all the day visibility around the world. There has been effective marketing to their services and products. Moreover, they have been providing perks to earn the loyalty points.

Architectural features

One of the principles lying beyond that is the strong data integration. Thus the exact information could be acquired from the usage of mobiles helping you to serve the best. The mobile strategy has been storing, scaling and connecting the data of the users and personalizing the experiences according to preferences and likes (Majchrzak, Biørn-Hansen and Grønli 2017). Gumtree has used modern technology and thus never compromised with the kind of technology they have been using the app since that has been creating a vital difference in the user experience and user interface designing.

The problems are discussed hereafter:

The failure to target the proper mobile platforms such as the Symbian, Windows, Android, and ioS:

The mobile platform has been running on various principles. This has been most significantly the attributes that have been served by the platforms differing from each other. This has been always the matter of concern for the entrepreneurs in deciding what platforms they might consider for the app and the reason behind that (Xanthopoulos and Xinogalos 2013). They have been investing huge money by targeting numerous platforms at one time instead of having the appropriate surety if success and proper customer feedback.

Developing the dull UI failing to serve the user experiences and the usability:

These have been one of the largest mistakes and have been straight away compelling the app for encountering the downfall. Gumtree’s application UI and the mode of navigation have been easy to understand, consistent with all the updates and fun in using (Poon 2015). The complexities under the app’s functionality what the users have been tending to avoid since they have been wishing to interact with the chosen app to be highly user-friendly and smooth.

The failure in developing the pre-launch strategy of app marketing:

The app has been of no valuation though it has been attributing the best functionalities. This has been occurring has it has not been backed with the good marketing strategy. It has been vital to understanding how the target audience has been discovering the app. It has been demanding the conducting of research just as they have been developing the app prior to launch that app (Choo et al. 2016). The process has been comprised and taking the proper app category for deciding the most profitable platforms where they would consider the marketing of the application.

The future developments are analyzed below.

The cross-platform and the development of the cross-device:

Interfaces

The app could not be limited to the single platforms. With the development of the HTML5, the future of this app would witness hybrid applications and work for every platform (Erfani and Ali 2013).

The IoT would definitely help in controlling the things through the app. In time users would see for of these used in the routine life.

The mobile app could develop the user experience in a more new way. The Wearable apps would drive the innovation of the component technology (Xanthopoulos and Xinogalos 2015). In the current age of the Wearable, apps would shape the scenario of technology, particularly in the smart-phone along with very exciting features.

Conclusion:

Thus the report has analyzed the various aspects of a mobile app for Gumtree. Regarding the description of the mobile app firstly the architectural features of the mobile app are developed. Several other tools have been including the Flux, Pixate and the open source origami of Facebook. While creating the user interface of the app, Gumtree has been making that effective enough for the expert users being informative and simple for the novice users. This also includes particular motions that have been generally natural for the users. For the users, the mobile app has been very much easy in touching for accessing. The impact of the mobile apps has been huge as it has been generating the broader access for the users and identifying the necessities of the customers better. The future developments of is that the cross-platform and the development of the cross-device, usage of IoT applications and the Wearable App.

References:

Barnett, S., Vasa, R. and Grundy, J., 2015, May. Bootstrapping mobile app development. In Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Software Engineering-Volume 2 (pp. 657-660). IEEE Press.

Choo, S., Kim, J.Y., Jung, S.Y., Kim, S., Kim, J.E., Han, J.S., Kim, S., Kim, J.H., Kim, J., Kim, Y. and Kim, D., 2016. Development of a weight loss mobile app linked with an accelerometer for use in the clinic: usability, acceptability, and early testing of its impact on the patient-doctor relationship. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 4(1).

Doub, A.E., Levin, A., Heath, C.E. and LeVangie, K., 2015. Mobile app-etite: Consumer attitudes towards and use of mobile technology in the context of eating behaviour. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 17(2), pp.114-129.

Erfani, M. and Ali, J., 2013. Real challenges in mobile app development.

Gumtree.com. (2017). Gumtree | Free classified ads from the #1 classifieds site in the UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gumtree.com/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2017].

Iacob, C., Harrison, R. and Faily, S., 2013, November. Online reviews as first class artifacts in mobile app development. In International Conference on Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services (pp. 47-53). Springer, Cham.

Joorabchi, M.E., Mesbah, A. and Kruchten, P., 2013, October. Real challenges in mobile app development. In Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 2013 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on (pp. 15-24). IEEE.

Li, D. and Halfond, W.G., 2014, June. An investigation into energy-saving programming practices for android smartphone app development. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Green and Sustainable Software (pp. 46-53). ACM.

Majchrzak, T.A., Biørn-Hansen, A. and Grønli, T.M., 2017. Introduction to Mobile App Development Minitrack.

Mota, J.M., Ruiz-Rube, I., Dodero, J.M. and Arnedillo-Sánchez, I., 2017. Augmented reality mobile app development for all. Computers & Electrical Engineering.

Poon, N.Y.K., 2015. A Design and Development of Mobile App for Supporting Tree Management (Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Construction and Environment, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University).

Xanthopoulos, S. and Xinogalos, S., 2013, September. A comparative analysis of cross-platform development approaches for mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 6th Balkan Conference in Informatics (pp. 213-220). ACM.

Xanthopoulos, S. and Xinogalos, S., 2015, March. Mobile app development in HTML5. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1648, No. 1, p. 310009). AIP Publishing.