Why Your Ecommerce Store Needs a Mobile App?

You have developed a responsive eCommerce website for your business with all the necessary features and functionalities. But are you getting the desired sales? Statistically speaking, there are an estimated 12 million to 24 million eCommerce websites operating globally with more being added to the list every day. Thus, even though developing a responsive website is an important step to bring your retail store online, it alone is not enough to drive huge sales. What you ultimately need in order to drive more traffic and sales is a mobile app to complement the e-store. The initial cost of development of the mobile app can be offset by driving greater sales in the long run.

The mobile app can help your business in reaching the next level of sales, improving customer engagement, and enhancing brand recognition. But why to craft a mobile app after investing in developing a website, you may wonder? Well, studies reveal that there are more people who use mobile apps to buy products compared to the ones who shop from a website. For instance, a revenue of $189 billion is expected to be generated through mobile apps by 2020 (Source: buildfire.com). Further, according to eMarketer, an average smartphone user is likely to spend more time (88%) on mobile apps than on a website. The share of mobile commerce among all eCommerce businesses is likely to reach 72% by 2020 (Source: Statista) – all the more reason for you to engage the experts of mobile app development services to craft a mobile app that complements your eCommerce website. Read the blog to know some more reasons as to how a mobile app can add value to your online store.

Reasons to develop a mobile app for your eCommerce website

Ecommerce website development is the first step to maximize your audience and expand your business. But an eCommerce app can take your business to the next level. There are a plethora of reasons as to why you should develop an eCommerce app for your online store. Let’s explore these one by one.

#1 Superior user experience: Every time a user visits your online store by using a browser, he or she can be prompted to sign in to continue shopping. This can be frustrating and lead the user to bounce. A mobile app, on the other hand, stores all the user details at the time of signing in for the first time. Thereafter, the user does not need to sign in to the app when he or she wants to shop. This delivers a greater user experience. Further, navigating a mobile app is relatively easier for most of the users when compared to a website.

#2 Use of phone-native features: The mobile apps of today may offer immersive and interactive experience through features such as augmented and virtual reality. Also, while using a mobile app the smartphone’s native features like the camera and GPS can be leveraged unlike in the case of the websites. Besides, thanks to the caching features, the users can browse various sections of the app even when it is not connected to the internet.

#3 Marketing & notifications: With mobile apps, you can send notifications and reminders to your target demography on limited-time offers, new product launches, discounts, etc. These notifications can be more effective in driving customers to buy your products compared to normal emails or SMSs. In fact, the highly mobile customers of today don’t want to be bombarded with emails or SMSs and such an approach may turn out to be counterproductive for your business.

Moreover, a feature like geofencing can generate notifications for the users when they are near the physical stores outside their neighbourhood.

#4 Seamless checkout: An eCommerce platform may face shopping-cart abandonment if the checkout process is cumbersome. On the other hand, with higher interactivity of mobile apps, the checkout process is remarkably seamless and quick. Besides, features like mobile wallets (PayPal, Google Pay, etc), facial recognition, and fingerprint scanning allow quick authentication and processing of transactions in mobile apps. Read the 10 pro tips to reduce shopping cart abandonment.

Further, mobile apps allow users to save their payment and shipping options. This makes the checkout process streamlined and seamless as the users do not have to enter their payment and shipping information repeatedly for making purchases. Thus, the better is the online shopping experience for the users; the greater are the chances of repeat sales.

#5 High conversion rate: The conversion rate mostly depends on factors like the platforms’ accessibility, usability, and efficiency. A conversion happens when the user completes the end-to-end transaction cycle. However, if the user faces any bottlenecks during the transaction process of an eCommerce website, the shopping exercise might be aborted. Whereas, mobile apps can increase the conversion rate by 3 times compared to mobile website rates and by 1.5 times compared to desktop rates (Source: Criteo).

#6 Faster response: The loading time of a website or mobile app can lead to a superior or an inferior UX. A mobile app delivers faster response as less data is transmitted between the app and the server as compared to a browser and a server. Also, users can set their default preferences, which allow mobile apps to load the precise content the users have set for themselves. This reduces the loading time of the app and faster retrieval of data.

Conclusion
With smartphones, our internet usage has changed for good, especially in the way we communicate, operate in our daily lives, interact with favourite brands, and shop. Mobile apps have brought a new dimension to our virtual interactivity and made shopping easy, convenient, and hassle-free. Increased competition has made it difficult for your eCommerce website to grab eyeballs and draw sales. As a business, you should explore every opportunity to reach out to the target customers and meet your business goals. So, develop a robust, feature-rich, and secure mobile app for your online store by engaging a top mobile app development agency in India and give the best shopping experience to your target customers.