Banking apps beat shopping apps on satisfaction front

Smartphone users in the US and Britain are more satisfied with banking apps than apps on offer from big retailers, a study shows.

The findings from the California-based research organisation Apigee Institute showed that while 45 percent of smartphone users have downloaded banking apps, only 27 percent of the same respondents downloaded retailers' apps, a report on fiercefinanceit.com said.

Researchers found that consumers are interested in apps that go beyond core functions.

"For banking, there are a lot of transactional services that are very useful to people and are amenable to being digital," Bryan Kirschner, director of Apigee Institute, was quoted as saying.

Banks are also more realistic about the significance of their brick-and-mortar storefronts.

"Banks do not think customers really enjoy coming into the branch to order cheque books," research analyst Pablo Kenney added.

Leading retailers should be more creative to impress upon smartphone users so that they shop more through the online medium, the study said.