Benefits of a Mobile App for Your Ecommerce Business
Ecommerce is usually an extension of a brick and mortar store that performs business transactions online. With the advancements in technology, more and more people have access to the internet and mobile phones are the most commonly used devices to access the same.
With this rise in the internet audience, ecommerce businesses have shaped the online shopping behaviour. In that context, mobile ecommerce is gaining a lot more momentum. The convenience that mobile ecommerce offers by letting you shop for anything, anywhere, is one of the primary factors that attracts users. This is where a dedicated mobile application comes into the picture.
Everyone has a mobile device glued to their hands and they seem to be an integral part of people’s lives. They use it to browse for information, read the news, keep track of their day to day events, and even shop. For a business owner, this is a place to invest in. They have to understand the significance of these devices in a consumer’s day-to-day lives. It has reached a stage that it is not enough to have an ecommerce website running. For that ecommerce store to reach its full potential, it has become essential to have a dedicated mobile app.
It is predicted that by 2021, sales through mobile devices would hit $3.5 trillion. This is 72.9% of total ecommerce. So to stay relevant and to stay in the game, it is important for an ecommerce brand to build its dedicated mobile application.
Here are a few reasons why a mobile app would be a turning point for your ecommerce business.
Convenience
In this day and age, almost everyone owns a mobile device with internet connectivity. They are used to shopping using their phones. They love to do that from anywhere- at the convenience of their homes or while they are on a train or in a cab on the way to work.
Having a dedicated mobile app makes it easier for the consumer to find what they are looking for at a faster pace. This would mean increased customer satisfaction.
A large number of consumers find it easier to shop using a dedicated mobile app than using a website. The quality of the experience, speed, and the ease at which the transactions can be made are a few reasons. A mobile app would always provide an optimized user experience.
Competitive Advantage
If a consumer is torn between your website and a competitor’s website, a mobile app might make the consumer lean towards buying from you. Most of the big players are in that race already. So the sooner you get on that bandwagon, the easier it would be to garner people’s interest.
Conversion Rate
Numbers show that consumers view more products on a mobile app than a web browser. They also add more products into their carts and end up buying more than what they came for while using a mobile application. This is always good for business.
Improved Marketing Communications
These days consumers tend to click on push notification and reach a mobile app more easily than a website. It has been found that 60% of users click on push notifications while only 20% of users open emails. This just means that a major chunk of that marketing spend can be dedicated to pushing notifications since it is easier to direct the consumers to your ecommerce app. When a push notification appears on the home screen of your mobile device, the user has to just click on it and he is directly whisked off to the mobile app. This is not the case with emails. A lot of times, a user does not even read a promotional email. That is just wasted marketing money.
Personalized Shopping Experience
Personalization is the key to driving sales. With mobile apps, personalization is taken to the next level. When it is an ecommerce website, you can create a personalization based on their preferences as well as their purchase history. You can offer recommendations by tracking their browsing patterns. Since a customer would be logged in to an app at all times, this level of personalisation can be achieved on a mobile app rather than a website,where a customer may not have logged in, but might be just browsing. This can be combined with push notifications which would ensure that targeted push notifications can be sent to consumers based on their preferences.
Lower Cart Abandonment Rates
One of the major problems faced by ecommerce businesses is shopping cart abandonment. While there are 97% shopping cart abandonment rate in mobile sites and 68% shopping cart abandonment rate in desktop sites, there is only 20% shopping cart abandonment in the case of mobile apps. Ecommerce mobile apps makes the whole check out process easier. When a consumer has used the app to buy something once, his preferences get saved. So when he comes back for the next purchase, he does not have to manually type in all the details like shipping address, billing address etc. This ensures that the buying process is complete in just a couple of clicks. Also, with alternative payment options like Apple Pay, Google Pay etc., monetary transactions can be completed with just a single tap. The fewer the steps at the checkout process, the lesser would be the shopping cart abandonment rates, which can be achieved using mobile apps.
Higher Retention Rates
Once a consumer downloads an app in his mobile phone, the chances are high that he would use it to buy something rather than going to a website. Studies prove that 38% of users return to the ecommerce app 11 times or more after they download it. It is also possible that on multiple occasions as these, they would be buying something. In case the consumer is not coming back as much as you wish, it is possible to lure him back using push notifications. There can be exclusive deals or deals tailored to the consumer’s taste which would encourage them to come back to the app and make a purchase.
Enhanced Customer Experience
Unlike a webpage, ecommerce mobile apps do not take longer to load. There is no wait time, which is a big plus for consumers. Also, it is possible to provide a much more interactive customer experience using the best UI/UX features. The high definition images and various animations are a way for creating effective brand communication. The complex interactions for the users along with exclusive functionalities allow smoother navigation and thus makes it easy for the consumer to use the mobile app.
Conclusion
Ecommerce apps are the future of shopping and it is always good to take the plunge early on and reap the benefits of mobile ecommerce. With the convenience and exclusivity that an app provides, it would be easy to capture users and retain them.