Introduction
It is of no surprise that in the last few years the e-commerce industry has grown remarkably. There are approximately 24 million e-commerce sites in the world, with more being created every day. Everyone loves to skip those long queues and shop at their leisure. However, with the introduction of mobile apps, this industry has witnessed even greater success.
Smartphones have sneaked into our lives so well, that it has become a necessity more than being a luxury to many people. The number of smartphone users, worldwide, has grown up to 3.5 billion, which indicates that approximately 45.04% of the world’s total population owns a smartphone, these days.
People who prefer mobile apps over websites are increasing day by day and this is because mobile apps are a lot more convenient to use than websites. With mobile apps, users can buy their favorite products anytime and from anywhere, even on the go. As per Statista, mobile apps could rake in some $3.5 trillion in the e-commerce industry, which is almost three quarters, or 72.9 percent, of the total e-commerce sales.
Having a mobile app for your business does not guarantee success, or gives you surety for higher profits, but yes, it definitely increases user engagement and visibility. The main reason why mobile apps are preferred over websites is the personalization that they offer to users, using them. Also, if we talk about the most surfed apps, retail apps are among the top four categories. With the change in technology, people tend to adjust their lifestyle accordingly and are always in search of options that can make their life easier. Mobile apps have made their shopping experience better. They offer a better user interface, to shop upon, and more pleasant user experience. Apps offer a great user engagement rate, which results in some genuine lead generation.
Importance of eCommerce Mobile Apps to Expand Your Business
Just having a mobile app for your e-commerce business is not enough. It is very important that your app is updated according to all the latest features and is compatible with the latest version of the OS. If you want to have a profitable and successful e-store and focus on drawing consumers and increasing sales, you must know the importance of mobile app development. There are a lot of ecommerce app development companies in the market, that can develop a fully-functional and feature-rich mobile app, for your e-commerce business.
Now that we have seen, in brief, about the importance of mobile apps, let us talk in detail, about the top reasons why eCommerce mobile apps are important to expand your business:
Brand Identity
Mobile apps are a great option to make your brand famous and popular among your customers. They help in building healthy relationships with customers, giving constant engagement with brands. E-stores can integrate their social media accounts into their mobile apps, which help increase their brand awareness. This way people can talk about the products which they like and can share their experiences on various social networking platforms. They can also share the link of their favorite product with their friends and family via WhatsApp, Facebook, Gmail, and other social media platforms.
Moreover, mobile users can get notifications of special offers, ongoing discounts, upcoming deals, and giveaways. Some e-commerce sellers provide discounts just for mobile app users, and this way, users get attracted to these offers as this saves money. So, if you are also planning to expand your e-commerce business via mobile app, you can hire dedicated Android developers or iOS developers, who can develop a mobile app, attuned to your business goals.
Customer Loyalty
Most users prefer shopping via mobile apps, as they are a much more convenient option than websites. Users are not required to remember lengthy URLs of their favorite eCommerce website and log in every time they wish to shop. Also, mobile apps are much faster and responsive as compared to websites. This accounts for a better and very pleasant user experience.
Also, people download only those apps that they actually love and are interested in. Whereas, if we talk about websites, people browse the products, and leave the site. Customer retention is one of the major obstacles which almost all e-stores face and mobile apps help combat this.
Increased User Engagement
Mobile apps can be personalized as per the taste and preferences of the user. Through advanced analytics, users are prompted with similar products that either they have liked in the recent past or they are interested in. Mobile apps work on consumer behavior and offer a way better user engagement, as compared to websites.
Also, apps provide their users with a better navigation experience. They have the option to store your information like payment details, delivery addresses, etc. facilitating a faster shopping experience. You can also offer 24/7 support to your users and solve their queries via live chat or chatbot. This helps build a healthy and strong relationship between your brand and customers.
Push Notifications
Buyers, these days, have become very smart. Before purchasing any product, they always tend to compare the prices, with other stores selling similar products, and then make their decision. Push notifications are a great way to send users all the updates related to the e-store within the app.
Users can get notifications related to any discounts, great deals, personalized discounts, promo codes, etc. They can be notified about the product going out of stock, transaction details, or the status of their current order. This way you can stay connected with your users and users can also avail of discounts and offers offered by your store.
Better User Interface
The way you present your business in front of your users plays a very vital role in user engagement. It helps represent your business goals and intentions clearly. When we talk about mobile apps, they offer a much better user interface and simple navigation.
For an interactive app, you can hire mobile app development services from a good app development company, that can develop a feature-rich and responsive app, using the best UI/UX elements, keeping the user’s all the requirements in mind, for your e-store. Easy user interface and simple navigation help users to focus on the products and keep them engaged. This will eventually result in higher revenues.
Detailed Analysis
Mobile apps facilitate data tracking and data collection very easily. Businesses can easily track users’ interaction and all the important information about their users, like, users’ persona, their buying behavior, reviews/feedback, and many more such things. They are the best way to have in-depth knowledge about your users and help in analyzing market demands as per the current needs.
This helps brands to improve and implement new strategies in their business. This also helps them to stay updated as per customers’ demand, create new and advanced marketing strategies, etc.
Increased Visibility
Increased visibility is one of the most important reasons to opt for e-commerce mobile app development. According to the sources, an average adult spends approximately 3.5 hours on their mobile phones, and this is the reason why brands should have an interactive and engaging app, which users can love using.
Great design and impressive elements leave a lasting impression on users and this helps retain them on the app. So, if you are looking to expand your e-store operations and increase visibility, then you can hire app developers who have the right expertise and experience of developing an e-commerce app for you.
Increased Conversion Rate
An interactive and good interface, which is simple and easy to use, increases the conversion rate. People are too much busy in their lives, and they need everything to be done in a few simple clicks. Mobile apps facilitate a faster shopping experience. Experts believe that mobile apps provide 1.5 times higher conversion rates than desktop websites.
Easy navigation and simple to use features help users to stay longer on the app thereby, increasing the conversion rate. Also, brands can track the products that are added to the cart and not being processed, they can send discounts and deals on those products, which might increase the chances of successful purchases.
Conclusion
Having a mobile app for your e-store is the beginning of building a healthy and on-going relationship with your users. Mobile apps are profoundly based on deep analytics and help in observing consumer behavior. This way you can know what your users want, what are your most selling products, or even where your brand is lacking so that you can improve all the flaws. Mobile apps eventually turn out to be a profitable investment for e-commerce businesses as they help in maximizing return on investment by increasing sales.
Also, apps can be accessed by users anywhere, anytime, and some apps can be accessed, even when users are offline. A well built mobile app, having all the latest features and technologies, great designing elements, depicting brand intent, is surely capable of attracting more customers and helps in increasing profits. With the above-given reasons, one can surely determine the importance of mobile apps, and how they can turn out to be a boon for your e-commerce business. So, if your e-commerce store does not have a mobile app to date, go get it developed soon so that you can also enjoy all the benefits that an app offers.
