Top 11 Reasons Why You’d Need an E-commerce Application

More and more users are favouring e-commerce web/mobile applications as they are easy to use, handy and versatile. E-commerce business is seeing a surge in the development of web/mobile applications to fulfil the end needs of the consumers. These applications are comfortable and offer speed. Mobile application/ web application development company is here to stay for e-commerce business.

E-commerce business is booming by the day. The sky is the limit! Consumers are preferring online mode of shopping than ever before. And this is true world over, not limiting to geographies. The power of internet has made possible for your business to reach consumers anytime, anywhere and on any device. Also, the type of devise you target your end consumers on, will have a direct bearing on the profitability of your business.

Also, if you are aware of the pace with which the business is transforming now-a-days you’d notice that having just a website is not enough. Today mobile/web applications are playing a major role in engaging with the users on an everyday basis. These applications are known to know their users better as they are just a “tap “away. With e-commerce mobile/web apps businesses can engage with their consumers anytime, anywhere.

What do statistics say?

Statistica ran a survey to understand the mindset of mobile/web app users and came up with the following observations:

• While shopping offline, consumers compare the prices of the items available on e-commerce websites.
• In US alone about 30% of the consumers use their mobile applications to purchase items online
• In 2021, approximately 72% of the profits are generated through mobile applications
• It is proven that 50% of the revenue of the e-commerce websites is generated through 10% of its consumers using a mobile/web application
• More than 75% of the users prefer a mobile app despite having a dynamic web/mobile e-commerce site

If you are the owner of an e-commerce business and are not having a mobile/web app then you probably are missing out on several consumers who’d any day prefer an application over websites. You may be selling cosmetics, clothes, electronics, grocery or anything, you’d hugely benefit from developing a mobile/ web application development company.

11 key benefits of web/mobile e-commerce application

Let’s discuss what advantages users and business gain out of shopping through an e-commerce web/mobile application and why should you consider having one for your online store.

• Apps offer speed and agility

Applications are known to be 1.5 times speedier than the websites. They are also capable of performing the activities quickly. Applications can store all the information locally on the gadget hence recovering the past information is quick and easy. On the other hand, mobile/websites may take some time in retrieving the past information as it is stored in web servers. This may take some time depending on the speed of the system and the bundle size. Alternatively mobile/web applications use JavaScript framework which is quicker than the web/mobile sites. This happens on the backend the consumers can experience quick and seamless functions on the frontend.

• Improving your business’s marketing communication

It is possible to stay connected with your consumers 24/7 with the increased use of gadgets now-a-days. This is brining improvement in the way consumers communicate with the brands they prefer, gain information on new/old products and shop. Hence e-commerce business needs to incorporate such devices strategies in their marketing communication. This will hugely keep the end consumers engaged and entertained! Brands and business will need to be steadily and consistently be in touch with their users through the support of mobile/web applications. Apart from engaging with your consumers you will also be able to offer discounts, coupons, cashbacks, etc more efficiently. Push Notifications are one of the examples of remaining engaged with your users regularly.

• Enhanced brand visibility

One of the significant reasons to consider e-commerce web/mobile application is to gain increased brand visibility. Applications provide this support. With mobile/web applications ecommerce brands can stay in touch with their consumers who spend quite a chunk of their time on their devices. Hence, they’ll be able to interact with your business more if you support them with seamless and hassle-free user experience.

• Leveraging competitive advantage

Without web/mobile application the ecommerce websites are at huge disadvantage. Consumers prefer shopping on web/mobile applications hence the businesses yet not on apps, stand a huge disadvantage. Also, the users who are currently using mobile/websites may soon stop going there. So being an early mover to build your own e-commerce web/mobile application will definitely give you a competitive advantage over the other ecommerce business who are not yet doing so. If consumers are confused between your ecommerce site and competitors’ ecommerce site, having the advantage of application will make them inclined towards you.

• Offering personalized shopping experience

Personalization is significant when it comes to e-commerce business. For example, if consumers reach out to you for queries you can divide them based on age, demography, demands, etc and then use these stats to send them personalized offers, items etc. This is an example of some of the personalization that all the ecommerce business are running now a days. With ecommerce mobile/web app you can take the personalization efforts to the next level. It is possible to track the users browsing and purchase history with the help of applications. This can be used to offer them custom recommendation. This is possible from mobile/web sites however the dependency is upon the users to be always logged in. Hence this is quite easily accomplished through an e-commerce application. Along with this, business can also combine push notification campaigns. And these notifications can be targeted based upon the users’ segments. With an app the consumers have their entire purchase history in front of them and so they can quickly reorder if they need to.

• Delightful customer experience

Users are motivated to spend more if they can gain better customer experience. They are also expected to shop for longer. Hence this is something to keep in mind while building your mobile/web application. So, you can make it easy for the consumers to locate your “Contact Us” section. You can also have an action item” Call Us” or “Chat With Us” visible in your mobile application. This way your users need not navigate the whole of the web/mobile sites pages to navigate to the contact us section. Implementing live chat feature is also possible through the mobile/web application. The users will experience better UX if they are navigating on the application than on the website.

• Customer loyalty is increased through an application

A customer loyalty program will initiate your users to spend more money on your e-commerce website. With the use of a mobile/web application the chances for consumers to spend on your app is highly increased. With an app the consumers are able to see their status on the loyalty program real time and easily than on the web/mobile sites. An incentive plan will allow your consumers to spend more time and money to reach to their next reward stage. It is proven psychologically that loyalty and incentive programs coax the users to increase their order value. You may have such programs running on your mobile/websites however having them on the mobile/web application bears better dividends.

• Increase in the average order value

A web/mobile e-commerce application has the potential to increase your average order value. With apps users are able to view more products per second. This allows the users to browse through categories of product easily and more frequently on the apps. This will let them also see more and more of what you are offering. This will allow them to order more in every transaction.

• Apps offer higher conversion rates

Numbers matter. Every effort you put needs to boost your bottom-line Tracking conversion can be beneficial. You can begin by tracking the conversion rates on your web/mobile sites vis-à-vis you web/mobile applications. Consumers are expected to add more items (by 85%) to their cart and view products more (by 290%) on an application than on the sites. This can let your brand have better exposure. A user may want to buy more than what they’d initially planned for. With mobile applications the conversion rates are 130% higher than what is up on mobile/web sites. More apps drive higher conversion rates and add more consumers with increase in profitability overall. (The statistics are by Statistica)

Less cart abandonment rate

E-commerce business face one of the biggest challenges: shopping cart abandonment. It is one of the challenges that most of the e-commerce businesses want to tackle. This is quite frustrating especially because the user is just one or two click away from making the purchase. So then why did they abandon the product?

There could be number of reasons like extra costs of shipping, longer delivery time, forced upon creating an account, complicated check-out process, web/mobile site crashing, credit card trust issues etc. Bad user experience is one of the most common reasons for cart abandonment. However, app mobile/web cart abandonment rates are quite low in comparison with web/mobile sites. Ecommerce mobile/web apps remove the bottleneck that consumers face during check-out process. When users add items to cart, their details are also saved. So, when they return back to make the purchase decision there’ll not be any more additional steps except moving towards check-out. Also, mobile/web e-commerce apps support many payment options like UPI, Credit/Debit Cards/ Wallets etc. These experiences make for better buying decisions that are hassle-free. With additional steps that are on the web/mobile site the chances of consumers abandoning the cart is more than the minimal steps available on the apps.

• Higher retention rates

It is significant to have repeat customers. Anytime you make a sale upon your e-commerce website, it isn’t enough. You should be able to keep having consumers returning back to make purchase. Also attracting new consumers can be more expensive (about 25%) than making sale to the repeat consumers. With mobile/web application the retention rate is quite high. This is because the consumers keep visiting the apps frequently as it is readily accessible. There are chances that the users will return within 30 days window of making a purchase on the applications. Even If users are not returning as much as we’d want them to, we can always use push notifications to have them back. We can offer exclusive offers and deals to encourage them to buy from your e-commerce mobile/web application. These opportunities are not available on the desktop sites.

Ending Note:

It is true that consumers prefer application over web/mobile sites. Mobile/web apps offer the convenience when the users are short of time. Apps also offer seamless user experience for consumers to make hassle free purchase. The modern digital landscape is dominated by mobile/web applications and your e-commerce business is likely to gain many folds from developing and launching your own e-commerce mobile/web application.

We’ve explored the many benefits of owning e-commerce mobile/web application in this article. Along with better experience of the users, these apps have the potential to increase your revenue and improve profitability overall. Developing a mobile/web app may call for initial investments however if you look at the long-term perspective it is definitely worth the efforts. Considering all this you may take the call of developing web application for your e-commerce business with the help of offshore software developers if it’s the best and the relevant move for you at this juncture.