The mobile app development market is growing exponentially because of its ease for users. In fact, the third quarter of 2021 saw whopping downloads from different users (27.6 billion on Android and 8.1 billion on the iOS platform). In such a mobile-driven era, B2B mobile app development also became a hot trend in the market!
B2B mobile apps are an interesting trend that offers remote monitoring of various enterprise operations to CEOs, CTOs, and COOs. Whether managing the projects or tracking the working hours of your team, or even streamlining the marketing, sales, and HR operations of your company, B2B mobile apps offer everything to the users.
That’s why companies worldwide are today investing actively in B2B mobile app development. Are you one of them? Don’t worry; we have got you covered! Let’s explore the development process of creating a custom B2B application for your business.
Table of Contents
Market Overview of B2B Apps
2018 was when B2B mobile apps began gaining momentum. Companies worldwide discovered the many amazing benefits of a custom B2B app to their brand. The popularity grew so much over these years that, as per Strategy Analytics, the B2B mobile app development market is predicted to cross the mark of $140 billion by 2023.
Almost 70% of the B2B queries came from mobile devices in 2020. Today, nearly 80% of businesses spend their time on mobile devices to streamline their business processes while sitting remotely. Process optimization, resource allocation, and real-time support are crucial factors contributing to the growth of the B2B mobile app development market.
How to Develop a B2B Mobile App?
Here’s how to develop a successful B2B mobile application catering to your business needs. You can book a free 30-minute consultation to kickstart your app development process right away!
Select the Type of B2B App You Want for Your Business
Launching a B2B app requires having a clear understanding of your business goals. You should know what all things are to be focused on for a successful business. For that, tracking the latest market trends is a good option.
Besides that, you can also audit your business processes to know what things lag and how they can be monitored with a B2B mobile app. Not to mention, tracking your competitors is yet again an excellent strategy to define your requirements.
Hence, when you have analyzed all of those needs, it is now time to select a suitable type of B2B mobile app. There are presently four types of business apps that can be categorized according to the tasks they accomplish.
Commercial Apps
Commercial apps are somewhat similar to B2C eCommerce apps. However, the only difference is that these eCommerce apps are dedicated to other businesses rather than direct customers.
With commerce B2B apps, you can send your partner personalized quotations, product descriptions, and additional information. Some of the leading brands like CAT and Alibaba are examples of this type of B2B app. Common features of this type of B2B application are:
- Product Listing
- Personalized Quotes
- Commission Management
- Delivery Status
- Support and Return Management
External Management Apps
Another common B2B mobile app type is external management apps. A seamless communication platform is all they need for companies directly connected with vendors or customers.
Tools like CRM, project management platforms, and online video conferencing apps fall. Jira is one such B2B external management app that helps companies with project management, task tracking, assignments, etc. You can connect your in-house team with vendors or clients to allocate tasks and offer real-time project status.
Internal Operations Apps
Besides managing the external; communications, managing internal operations are also necessary. That’s where internal operations apps come into play! From creating marketing blogs to managing the salaries and getting the project’s status, internal operations apps can streamline almost all the tasks of your company.
Slack is a popular internal operations app that enables companies to streamline their internal processes. With Slack, the employees can communicate and exchange files; the managers can also allocate various tasks to the employees on the same B2B platform.
Work Streamlining Apps
Finally, we have work streamlining apps purely used by field workers, HR managers, and other employees of your company. For instance, if you want to know about your deliveries, you can connect with your delivery managers. Similarly, your HR managers can keep track of all the information of employees or new joiners. Google and Microsoft tools are some of the popular examples of work streamlining B2B apps.
Besides that, the choice of B2B app development approaches also affects the scope of your app. For instance, if you plan to go with native apps, you can only target a certain type of platform. That is not the concern with hybrid app development.
Hence, it is always better to choose a suitable type of platform to build your B2B app. Here’s an overview of various models for your B2B mobile app.
Choose the Best Features and Tech Stack
Features and tech stack play a crucial role in defining the scope of your application, and B2B app development is no exception. Any successful B2B application consists of three segments, market, customers, and business offerings.
When these three factors are analyzed, the developers can easily suggest the best features and tech stack to implement your requirements in the app. As a leading B2B app development company, we recommend focusing on your app’s various features and tech stacks.
Features
- Real-time Chats
- Document Exchange
- Time Tracking
- Project Details
- Leave History
- Reimbursements
- Task Allocation
- Meeting Invites
- Video Conferencing
- Attendance Details
- Client CVs
- Leads and Sales
- Support Module
Tech Stack
The app development frameworks play a crucial role in enhancing the working of your B2B mobile app. The framework offers structure and foundation to build a successful mobile app.
However, choosing the best one may seem daunting for most businesses. Hence, we have listed below the top four app development frameworks that you can use for your B2B mobile app development.
| React Native | Works for Android and iOS, Open-Source, Based on JS, Cost-effective, More time to market, Code reusability is possible, Slow and requires more space, Slow debugging, Testing is challenging. |
| Flutter | Uses a single database, Open-source, Written in C++, Faster development, Supportive UI, Integration is a problem, Develop large apps. |
| Ionic | Can develop hybrid, cross-platform, and PWA using this framework, Written in JavaScript, Faster development, Cost-effective, Intuitive UI, Not suitable for heavy apps, Lags security. |
| Xamarin | Open-source, Written in .Net, Easy API Integration, Best for offline apps, Offers large-size apps, Do not provide access to most of the open-source libraries. |
Opt for a Reputed App Development Company
Once you clearly understand your business goals and requirements, the next big step for a successful B2B app development is to hire a reputed app development company.
Now, most companies have a common misconception that they can easily hire freelancers for their app development at a much lower cost than a professional company. Well, that’s what becomes their biggest failing point.
Yes, you heard it right! Hiring freelancers may seem a good option if you plan to launch a low-scale mobile app. However, when it comes to your business application, risking that much may sometimes become handy.
Why? Well, there are many reasons!
- Unlike a reputed app development company, freelancers are not aware of the latest app development trends in the market. That can impact the scope of your project.
- 24*7 availability and years of experience is another thing that makes a reputed company better than freelancers. You can get experts app developers for your B2B app development that dedicatedly works on your project. Freelancers may shift to another trending technology after a certain period.
- Next-gen tech has become an important aspect of the success of any project. However, unlike a reputed app development company, freelancers may not have expertise in implementing smart AI tools in your B2B apps.
- In-depth competitor and market analysis, a complete suite of professional services, after-sales support, a dedicated development team, flexible models, and proof-of-concept service are other reasons that differentiate an experienced B2B app development company from freelancers. Hence, you should choose wisely.
Now, if you are thinking about how to choose an experienced app development company, then our expert articles have got you covered!
Additional Read: How to Choose an App Development Company to Increase ROI?
Begin Your B2B App Development with an MVP
So, you have conducted market research, chosen the best features, and hired a reputed app development company for your project. But, have you validated your ideas before initiating your B2B mobile app development? Well, if not, then you may need to think again!
You often have certain expectations for your project, but they do not match the trends, business goals, or sometimes your budget. Hence, it is always best to validate your ideas before implementing them in your app. That’s where MVP comes into play!
MVP stands for a minimum viable product that undertakes all the features and designs you have selected for your project to offer you a dummy view of your app. That means you can easily see your app’s user interface and features. You can know what a certain feature will do and where it will lead your users.
Exploring the user experience of your app is also possible with MVP creation. Hence, you should always opt for a development company that offers you MVP creation services. You can even connect your project manager with the designers to build several prototypes for your app and then go with the best one!
Read More: How to develop an MVP?
Test Your App Before Final Deployment
The final step in developing a custom B2B app for your company is testing and deploying your app. Once the development part is over, most companies often make the mistake of deploying their apps. They forget or sometimes ignore the process of testing, which costs them significantly after the launch. But how?
Well, testing ensures a smooth performance of your app over multiple platforms and devices by detecting the bugs that were left unidentified during the development.
We are sure you do not want that for your business application. Hence, always ask your development partner if they offer testing services. Remember, a reputed company always provides testing as an integrated app development service.
Latest Mobile App Development Trends for 2022
Knowing the basic development process is not sufficient if you want to create an excellent B2B app for your company. As a brand, you should be aware of the latest trends that can enhance the working of your company and can make you stand apart from your competitors.
So, to help you outsmart your competitors in the mobile app development niche and create an engaging app for your users, we have listed the top app development trends of 2022.
Interactive Designs and UI/UX
According to a trusted source, eight out of 10 companies expect an engaging UI for their B2B application. An app with a good user interface design and an excellent user experience is the main demand of businesses. However, according to the survey conducted by SwiftCloud, almost 45% of companies said that most of the B2B apps lack the engagement part.
Hence, if you want to succeed in B2B mobile app development, focusing on your app’s Ui/UX part is critical. You need to hire the best UI/UX designers for your app to create an engaging interface for your users.
You can take help from your development partner to create an excellent design for your app, considering the features and user experience.
The Agile Development Methodology
Another crucial factor that helps you stand out from the competition is following the best app development methodology. The agile development methodology has taken over the app development market. And why not?
With the agile methodology, you can easily get real-time updates on your app. After every sprint release, the project managers connect with you, and you can make amendments without going back to stage 1 (the initial phase).
Not to mention, the cost and time required for testing are also reduced when following the agile development methodology. That’s because everything is made as per your expectations and reviewed by you. So, there are fewer surprises.
Hence, choose an app development company that follows the agile development methodology while developing your custom B2B mobile app.
Next-Gen Tech Integration
Whether we talk about AI, IoT, Big Data, Cloud Computing, or Blockchain, the next-gen tech has become an essential component in today’s competitive world.
You can easily secure your data, implement smart algorithms in your business, and store and process the vast amount of data generated from your system. The scope of getting your user’s data from smart sensors is also possible with next-gen tech.
Hence, you should also leverage that trend for your B2B app development. For instance, you can use smart Ai modules to automate your mundane back-office tasks. Or simply use blockchain to secure your transactions and data flow. You can even leverage cloud computing services, the most popular one, to store, process, and analyze a vast amount of data to get useful business insights.
Book a free consultation call with our experts to know more about the suitable technologies that can enhance your B2B app development!
Wearable App Integration
The world today has become more mobile than ever. Everyone likes to have everything at their fingertips, especially when talking about professionals. That’s why it is very important to make your app easy to integrate with wearable devices.
As a CTO or CEO, you should be able to manage everything from your smartwatch to ease the management process. Things like tracking the working hours, managing the leaves, monitoring the project’s status, and sales for your company should be the few things that should be presented on your smart bands.
Well, besides making your management work easier, wearable tech integration will even make you look cool amongst your competitors! 😎
Instant Support and Communication
Last but not least, we have instant support as the leading mobile app development trend for 2022. You all would agree that businesses can lose thousands when they do not get support at the right time. And we are sure you do not want that for your company!
Hence, make sure to offer real-time data and support to your employees at the time of need. Your B2B app should easily update the data on every platform of your company, be it web or mobile.
Besides that, you should also provide an admin panel that can offer support services to your users at the time of need. Implementing an automated chatbot can also be the best option for streamlining your support services. You can connect with us for custom chatbot development.
Additional Read: Essential Checklist for Successful Mobile App Development
Ready to Begin with Your B2B App Development?
So, that was all about B2B mobile app development. Are you also planning to launch a cloud-based B2B mobile app for your business? Well, we can help you convert your ideas into a reality!
At Matellio, we have years-long expertise in creating custom mobile applications catering to our client’s needs. Whether implementing secure blockchain tools or smart AI algorithms, we have experts that can fulfill all your needs with a single app. Our cutting-edge services range from technology consultation and software engineering to UI/UX, testing, web to app development, and even migration and support, covering nearly every modern-day challenge of the global market.
That’s why global platforms like Clutch have recognized us as a leading mobile app development company many a time. So, why wait for your competitors to win when you can start today? Leverage our free 30-minute consultation service and turn your ideas into a reality. Get in-depth competitor and market analysis and a no-obligation quote for your project.
