Why Not an App?

Problems

No S.E.O.

Google can't even See Apps, they do absolutely NOTHING for your Search Engine ranking. In fact, even if you have a successful app, as more folks go mobile it will hurt your rankings for your website as you end up with fewer engagements that Google recognizes.

The Cost

You saw the costs in the movie above, and that didn't even discuss the cost of maintenance. You will spend 100's of Dollars a month just to keep your apps functional.
Case in point, in early 2020 Google made a change to the Play Store that forced everyone to redo the apps, and Apple just made a Major change that caused the same thing. But your app developer loves this because they have a guaranteed income stream.

Consumers Resist Apps

Just how many apps will the typical consumer have and actually use?
Businesses spend thousands of dollars trying to get consumers to download an app, typically offering an incentive. Folks may download to get the incentive but they Always uninstall immediately. The business just poured money down the drain in advertising, in addition to the lost revenue from the incentive that did nothing for their customer retention.

Top Apps

Here are the top 10 apps as downloaded from the App Store and the list is the same on Google Play. Notice anything?
They fall into TWO categories: Messaging and Social Media.
Depending upon the region, others might be a few gaming apps or video apps including Bumble, Twitch, Hulu, Netflix and HBO Max. After that will possibly come your banking app but the interesting thing, individual company apps don't even appear in the top 50!

There is only So Much space on a Smart Phone for Apps.
Folks need a compelling reason to download.
Even if they do so because of an incentive, they take the incentive but immediately uninstall.
So the business is forced to spend money trying to promote the app, but also trying to promote their website because the two are different.
Typically when a business and developed an app they end up throwing good money after bad because they spent a LOT and it's hard to admit it was a mistake and walk away so they just keep spending.
Google is one of the Main Drivers of the demise of Apps. They don't like them, the only reason they had the Play Store was they were forced into it at the risk of loosing sales of Android product.
Apps don't even register on search engines. If anything, they hurt SEO Rankings.

There are TWO other Major Problems with Apps.

Everyone has their Own App

Lowes promotes their app and tries to get folks to download and install, but so does Home Depot. Take 40 different businesses in any town and you now have 40 apps all competing against each other.
Will Lowes let Home Depot advertise or put a link on their app? Of Course not, they are competition. They won't even sell advertising on their app.

Promotion

But there is a bigger problem. When Lowes promotes their app, exactly WHO are they promoting to? Folks they are already doing business with. Their app WILL NOT reach out and bring in any new customers, they usually promote in store to folks already in the store.
Companies put a LOT of money in their app and will keep chasing that bad money with good money till someone finally admits it was not a good investment. And because the numbers are so high, usually heads roll.

Why not a Native App?

Even Google says Native Apps are Dying!