E-commerce is no longer confined to the realms of the web as omnichannel is the need of the hour. Unless you are present across diverse selling channels, you cannot expect to meet your sales targets. Mobile is one channel that you cannot afford to ignore because it is undoubtedly the goldmine of selling opportunities, considering the huge number of shoppers who prefer to access online stores via their smartphones. Even though sellers generally have responsive websites, mobile apps emerge as a business imperative for e-commerce stores today. Before you invest in mobile app development for your online store, there are a few things that you should bear in mind to get the best returns. Let us list some tips that will be of help.
Start with a clutter-free and appealing UI
Before anything else, the user interface of your mobile app matters, all the more if it is replicating your online store. Since you will probably showcase hundreds of products, the users should find them visually appealing and easy to search and explore the app. When ideating the mobile UI design, ensure that you are the focus on the screen size of the devices. Also, the content, buttons, and menus should be placed in such a way that they are uncluttered. At the same time, the design should be consistent with your brand.
Onboarding and checkout should be simple
When the users have to go through a series of steps for onboarding your mobile app, they are bound to get irritated. Online shoppers are impatient and may even abandon or uninstall your app to explore other options. Make sure that the sign-up and login processes do not require them to fill multiple fields. Similarly, a long-drawn checkout is a killer for mobile commerce and should be avoided at all costs. Providing social media login is a good idea as it makes these processes fast and frictionless to a considerable extent.
Simplified navigation with shorter steps
With mobile devices, navigation can be a major challenge considering the number of menus and submenus that e-commerce stores typically have. The idea is to come up with simplified navigation that facilitates the discovery of products through categories, sub-categories, and sections. The steps to access specific products and categories should be minimal and uncomplicated as well, considering the screen space constraints.
Integrate with the device features for exceptional experiences
The best thing about going mobile with your e-commerce store is that it facilitates the most amazing shopping experiences, provided the device features are leveraged properly. For example, you can integrate with the GPS system to send across location-based push notifications while the camera and microphone can be accessed for enabling visual and voice searches respectively. Simply speaking, you can take advantage of the capabilities of the device to elevate the user experiences and create engagement and interest. You can also integrate advanced technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality with the app for creating compelling experiences.
Ensure strong security for the app
Security is a key concern for e-commerce buyers and sellers, whether they transact on web stores or mobile apps. Since the shoppers are required to share their personal and financial details, they would want it to be secure at all times. So the next step to ensure while investing in an e-commerce app is the security of user data it fetches during the shopping transactions. Similarly, the security of payments through mobile wallets like Google Wallet and Apple Pay should be assured with the app.
Personalize user experiences through data analytics
Mobile apps can serve immense benefits to e-commerce sellers because they are empowered with analytics. When shoppers browse an app, their activity is tracked and recorded in the form of data logs that can be used for understanding the behavior, preferences, and demographics of the individual users. You can leverage this information to know the users better and personalize their shopping experiences with auto recommendations that match their preferences.
Give special offers to incentivize app usage
Another useful tips for merchants who want to make the best from their mobile investment are to give special deals and offers for incentivizing the app usage. You can share them with the user on a milestone basis, for example, one for onboarding, next for shopping a specific number of times, another one for referral, and more. Not only will this strategy improve the retention rate for your app but also help you grow your market reach.
Conclusion
Besides following these tips, you should also ensure fast loading of the e-commerce apps to keep the shoppers engaged. With the countless options that they have, users would be quick to abandon an app that takes even a few seconds extra to load. The best approach would be to hire mobile app developer who understands the requirements of sellers and expectations of buyers well enough and replicates them all in the e-commerce app.
At Mobibiz, we are a leading mobile app development company with extensive experience in the e-commerce domain. Over the years, we have developed and deployed several e-commerce shopping apps successfully, which makes us capable of creating apps that sell. Share your requirements with us and we will create an app that adds value to your e-commerce business.
