In the context of growing online sales, the eCommerce applications industry is witnessing the most significant growth in the development of mobile solutions, which is driven by the need to satisfy the wishes of customers. Consumers demand the freedom to purchase goods and services anytime, anywhere, even on the go. Hence, more and more online shoppers prefer e-commerce mobile apps over websites as they offer advanced speed, convenience and customization. How can retail companies operating in the digital space benefit from mobile apps? We’ll see.
From eCommerce to mCommerce
With the launch of the App Store and Android Market (now Google Play) in 2008, the mobile app development companies market has become a thriving place, resulting in a rapid increase in available apps.
As of the first quarter of 2020, the number of apps available for download on leading mobile app distribution platforms exceeded 4.4 million.
This is very convenient when consumers can place orders and pay for them through handheld devices (smartphones, tablets), having practically thousands of goods from dozens of stores right in their pocket, so this trend is gaining popularity.
Global mobile sales were estimated at $2.3 trillion in 2019 and are expected to reach $3.5 trillion in 2021, accounting for 72.9% of total eCommerce applications.
According to Shopify, mobile and tablets were the preferred shopping channels on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019, accounting for 69% of total sales.
Advantages of mobile app development for e-commerce
Mobile commerce is growing exponentially these days. If you want to build a successful business and focus on attracting customers and increasing sales, the importance of having a mobile eCommerce solution should be obvious. In fact, there are many reasons why you should have a mobile solution for your online store. We have selected the four most important benefits of eCommerce applications for your business.
1. Loyal customers
Although the mobile app is a copy of the existing website, it is highly optimized, personalized and well designed, which significantly improves the customer experience and makes it easier to acquire and retain new clients. They find themselves in a convenient online store, where they can choose goods and buy without any rush.
2. Brand recognition
Mobile apps foster a strong connection between brands and customers. For example, users readily share links to their favorite sites, ask for feedback, and describe their customer experiences on social media. You can integrate popular social media platforms into your app and allow customers to discuss your products and services.
These are powerful tools for building your brand reputation, promoting your services and attracting the attention of potential clients.
In addition, mobile users have amazing opportunities to receive push notifications with special offers, discounts and gifts. This means they can save money, so psychologically they are likely to interact with such stores regularly.
3. Better efficiency and higher returns
Mobile applications are usually more flexible and user-friendly. Although they are quite expensive to implement, they are likely to pay back quickly and increase sales. The connection is simple: a good app with the right concept and functionality brings more clients; more clients result in more orders, and your earnings increase.
In addition, push notifications are a cheap and effective channel for increasing sales and brand retention. Through push notifications, you can instantly deliver essential information to your customers and inspire them to make immediate orders.
4. Detailed analysis
Data is easily collected and tracked in the app. Mobile features allow you to track user interactions and provide you with useful information about them, such as responses to specific content and features, feedback, session length, and audience composition. This can help provide improvements and updates, create personalized content, develop an advanced marketing strategy and effective promotional campaigns and. Use mobile analytics.
5. Contactless payments
Individual smartphones can now replace cash and credit cards thanks to the invention of mobile contactless payment technology. Payment applications provide simplicity, speed and security. At the checkout, you don’t have to take your wallet out of your bag to pick out coins, bills or credit cards. Place your phone against the payment terminal and that’s it!
This has become especially urgent during the COVID-19 pandemic when people have to avoid touching things and try to reduce the time they spend in stores.
How to develop an eCommerce mobile app
Developing a native mobile eCommerce solution yourself is quite a challenge. You should follow certain steps and pay attention to a lot of details to get the process right. Here’s a guide with the main building blocks needed to plan and build your mobile eCommerce solution.
Strategy
First of all, you need a strategy. Define your goals, the market you want to cover and the target audience you need to reach. This will help you envision your future app, determine the functions the app should perform, and describe your ideas to the development team.
Design
How to create a mobile app that will generate profits and make your users happy? You need a thoughtful design that is pleasing to the eye and easy to use.
Most people rely on their first impression when evaluating something. It takes a person about 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about an object and decide whether they like it or not. Thus, an attractive mobile app layout design ensures a positive user experience, which significantly increases customer loyalty and accelerates ROI.
Development
It is a complex process of turning your ideas into reality and creating the source code. Due to modern trends, mobile devices should be compatible with Android, iOS and Windows without limitations. In this regard, think about cross-platform app development.
Marketing
Once your eCommerce mobile app is ready, you should think about promoting it. There should be a good strategy on how it will be distributed. You can use social media, newsletters, emails, ads and other tools to get apps widely adopted. You can also work with competent marketing specialists who will bring your app to the fore.
Maintenance
Since eCommerce applications are used for online shopping, security issues are critical during and after the development process. Make sure your developer provides multiple levels of security and completes project maintenance and support after launch. If clients don’t trust your system, they won’t download your app.
How much does it cost to build an eCommerce mobile app?
The cost of developing an eCommerce project consists of several components. To evaluate the approximate cost of your future solution, you should consider them all.
Development costs
- Salary for developers, project managers, designers, QA engineers
- Infrastructure
- web services
- Social media integration
Additional costs
- Support, support
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Update
The price also depends on the development platform:
- iOS apps can be created faster and are therefore cheaper compared to Android projects
- Android apps are more expensive and take more time to develop
The complexity of the project must also be taken into account. Roughly speaking, development costs can range from $1,000 for a simple iOS app to $150,000 or more for complex apps.
