Survey: 44% of retailers used more than five mobile business apps in 2014

Reston, Va. -- Nearly one-half (44%) of retailers used more than five mobile business applications in 2014, while 82% of retailers were able to build a mobile business app in one day or less, according to the “2nd Annual Mobile Business Application Survey” of business and IT decision makers by Canvas.



Among the key survey findings:



• Inspections, work orders most used mobile apps: When asked what business processes they used mobile apps for in 2014, surveys (41%), checklists (38%) and inspections (36%) were most heavily used.



• Integration of key business processes with mobile: 68% of retail & distribution firms see value in integrating core business applications – such as Dropbox, Square, Salesforce, and Quickbooks – with mobile devices and tools.



• Increased use of cloud storage: Significant business usage gains year-over-year were experienced by Google Drive (up from 20% to 32%), Box (up from 7% to 11%) and Dropbox (up from 50% to 58%).



• Image capture, signature capture most popular features” The 2015 survey tracked, for the first time, which mobile app features retail & distribution firms are using. Image capture (53%) and signature capture (37%) were most popular.



“Retailers and distributors are not only using multiple mobile business apps, but also building and deploying them to their mobile workforces faster than ever before – an indication that businesses of all sizes are shifting from expensive, resource-intensive custom app builds to cloud-based mobile business app solutions,” said James Quigley, CEO and co-founder, Canvas, which offers a cloud-based software service and mobile app platform. “The survey results also reaffirm that when retailers are able to easily share and learn from data collected via smartphones and tablets across the mobile workforce, the cost savings and productivity benefits can be significant.”