We all seem to have less time and more things to do and it feels like we are increasingly lacking free time.
In order to reduce the time and efforts we spend to purchase goods and services, many now resort to more modern methods and choose to go shopping with the help of their mobile devices.
Thus, we are witnessing the development of the largest prospects for so-called e-commerce. Mobile apps make it easy not only to purchase goods but also to use for various services like taking a taxi or paying your bills.
In this article, we consider the most obvious reasons to invest in mobile application development for successful e-commerce businesses.
4 Reasons To Have A Mobile App For Your Online Store
Some Facts About Mobile Application Development
Before considering the main advantages of having a mobile application, it is worth mentioning that not every e-commerce business can afford to build a solid mobile app.
Moreover, such an investment will pay off well if your online store already has a steady income and regular customers. It’s also very important that your brand is well-known or you have a marketing campaign for your app and your store.
There are different types of mobile app development but the right choice can be made only if all the technical aspects of such a project are taken into account. Even if there’s a decent budget involved, companies often straighten out to save money while building an app. This is not always a bad thing and there’s even a tendency to outsource software development to countries with lower rates and better tech talent pool.
As an example, if your choice is to build an Android app, you would need to find and hire an Android app developer which can be done in many ways. Choosing a service provider to handle building a team for you is a good fit for mid-level companies because it would help to get the same quality and save a bunch of your money on taxes.
On average, mobile app development lasts from 4 to 6 months but it all really depends on the complexity of technical requirements. In addition, after the release of the new application, most likely, support and further UI / UX improvements will be required.
So why should advanced e-commerce enterprises actively invest in mobile application development and its further improvement?
Mobile Apps Growing Popularity and Functionality
The intensive growth of mobile devices and the number of mobile apps of all kinds available on the market as well as continuous enrichment of the functionality these apps provide encourage us to increasingly use mobile devices in everyday life.
We had Internet before and e-commerce market has a history but mobile commerce (m-commerce) is relatively new and it’s very promising already. In 2018, mobile devices were used to access a web page more than in half of all cases — by Statista.
There’s an obvious tendency and there’s a reason this is happening. It’s no secret that modern smart devices allow their owners much more than simply enjoy social networks or buy all kinds of goods and services.
There are mobile apps that make it possible to conduct banking operations (online banking) or even use a phone as a digital wallet (Google Pay and others). You no longer need to wait in lines when shopping or paying your bills, you can do all that while sitting at home holding your device in your hands.
The role of mobile apps in e-commerce
Since there’s a solid tendency according to which people use mobile devices to access the web more often each year. No wonder mobile devices are considered as the most popular way people use to shop online and the share of e-commerce sales to mobile users as well as the total e-commerce sales constantly increase.
To be more precise, mobile users (smartphones, tablets, etc.) make 67% of global e-commerce sales in 2019, and that is 2.32 trillion US dollars – the source. Well, the share of people buying via mobile devices is rapidly growing and seems like there’s no stopping this in the nearest future.
4 Major Benefits Mobile Apps Bring
Any business, regardless of the products or services it sells, has a target audience. It makes it possible to target any advertisements and the marketing campaign as a whole. At the same time, there’s a great number of various factors that influence the size of sales.
In addition to the quality of products or services and your brand image or popularity, most buyers very much appreciate their own time, quality of your customer services and how they were treated in the process. In other words, you want to make your buyers happy with your app, otherwise don’t start building one at all.
1. Better UI and UX Grow Customer Trust and Satisfaction Rate
The design was always a crucial part of mobile application development. Its quality will define the first impression, ease of use and almost anything else that can influence conversions. The user experience of any application should be as smooth, thoughtful and organic as possible.
This can be achieved only by using the best UI practices and high-quality design jobs done on the application. Even better results can be achieved if you can have the application tested by your customers. This way you will get feedback use can use to improve the application in furthermore.
2. Apps Are Faster and Easier to Use
Doing shopping through an app is much nicer and easier, pages load significantly faster, any user action is performed almost in no time so – your customer is not left waiting. Most online stores offer many products from different categories.
Usually, so much data means lower loading speed. Sometimes a low performance can stop a user from finding the right product and making a purchase at all. When a customer/visitor is shopping from a mobile app, then he/she can fully enjoy the smoothness of the interface and the performance of the app.
While applications perform almost instantly, they also use less Internet connection compared to websites.
3. Apps Provide Even More Personalized Experiences
Mobile applications often have a wider functionality and can use a device and its capabilities (camera, GEO-location, etc.) more efficient. With the help of special analytical tools, such an application greatly simplifies the process of data collection and analysis of behavioral criteria.
The results of data analysis can show how to even further personalize the experience of each user. The idea is to make your regular customers feel like home. It is also possible to interact with the user through push-notifications. Websites can’t deliver the same experience as mobile apps can.
4. Different User Activity Patterns
Most of the online purchases from PCs are made at lunch while mobile users most often buy in the morning and evening. The conversion rate is much higher and users behave differently when they are purchasing goods through apps.
There’s even more, every successful experience means better chances to see your customers return for new purchases. In any case, a mobile app is another channel you can use to grow your traffic and, as a result, increase sales and revenue.
Conclusion
Mobile-friendly websites are not the best you can give your customers, mobile comes first on the web and all the big players on the market already have apps for their stores. It seems that moderns smart devices will sooner or later take the form of something more similar to a personal assistant.
Such a change totally makes sense, especially taking into account the fact that IoT technology is rapidly evolving too. Eventually, we will spend even more time on our smart devices and they will help us manage all aspects of our lives as convenient and efficient as possible.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that all this is happening right now and it has become possible so quickly. Still, what we already have is still far from what’s possible and mobile app development services are in great demand among different industries.
The only thing that remains unchanged is that the use of mobile applications allows the user to cope with everyday activities much easier and more conveniently. Online purchases via smartphones are far from know-how, but rather a completely ordinary method, increasingly used by an average buyer.