E-Commerce App: Features, Cost, Benefits

As of 2021, mobile apps have played an important role in customer acquisition and helped businesses grow tremendously. Findings by Statista reveal that the total mobile e-commerce sales rose from $1.36 trillion in 2017 to $3.56 trillion in 2021 in the United States. Mobiles make up a total of 72.9% of the e-commerce shares in the United States as of 2021 in comparison to 58.9% in 2017.

If you wish to strengthen your hold in the e-commerce industry and bring in more success for your business, a business app for mobile devices is a must! Read below to find out some key features you should consider when developing an e-commerce app for your business and how an app can benefit your business!

Key Features for your Mobile App

According to research, about 32% of mobile app users tend to get irritated quickly when it comes to using apps on small screens and as a result uninstall the app, leading to a negative user experience for the said brand. Therefore, when you decide to develop a mobile app for your e-commerce website, there are a few key features that you must ensure are implemented in your app to ensure better user experience and engagement and to increase the conversion rate. These are:-

1)     Authorization of Registered Users – You need to give the users a choice to register and authorize themselves through their email addresses or through their phone numbers. Users should also be allowed to use a social media account for the same.

2)     Profile of Users – This space is for registered users and consists of all the necessary information. To improvise this space, you must add the payment method options here as well.

3)     Search Feed – Mobile apps have the mobility of facilitating anything and everything and therefore, search features should be paid special attention to in order to ensure that users can search whatever they are looking for easily and the feed should be updated regularly with preferred and relevant products and content.

4)     Payment Methods – Backend developers must ensure that the payment options and methods are quick, easy and uncomplicated. It is also good if the payment services are accessible through the user profile and the payment system should offer uninterrupted services and a choice in payments such as debit/credit cards, net banking, COD, etc.

5)     Tracking Orders – Users prefer to know the status of their orders and therefore, offering the facility of tracking the placed orders can give the users as well as you as the business owner a hassle-free and much more relaxed order fulfilment process.

According to reports by Econsultancy, about 24% of customers tend to abandon or cancel their orders if there is uncertainty in the delivery date and shipment tracking of their orders.

6)     Customer Service and Support – This is an essential feature for your app to ensure that all customer complaints and issues are resolved and attended to timely. Besides, it is also important for a good user experience and for your business to have content and satisfy customers. Chatbots serve as a great customer service and support option.

According to a survey conducted by Drift, 50% of the participants admitted to purchasing desired products from a website’s chatbot that was applying conversational marketing strategies with the visitors.

Major Benefits of E-Commerce App Development

Now that we have read through some of the essential features you should take care of when developing a website for your enterprise, let us finally explore some of the major benefits of e-commerce app development:-

1.    Increased Brand Awareness

Increased brand awareness and recognition is one of the primary benefits of developing a mobile-friendly app for your business. With an e-commerce mobile app, you can reach out to your new and already existing customers in a much more convenient and easier way.

With better connectivity with your buyers, you can promote your brand, products and services more rigorously and be more successful. Make sure that your app offers flexible and easy navigation through the app to help the users explore your brand better. Invesp revealed that 53% of tablet and mobile owners make purchases on apps that are company-specific and from brands known to them.

2.    Improved User Experience

Customers nowadays prefer ease and flexibility in use such as being able to access the business’s products and services at any time and anywhere. Having a website restricted to desktops or ones that aren’t mobile-friendly would not help you create a better user experience. Although a mobile-responsive website will get the job done, the performance and expectations would be met only at a satisfactory level.

To improve your user experience, use the latest technological advancements such as Virtual and Augmented Reality, Machine Learning and more to create an app for your enterprise and offer quality services and user experience. Not only will it help you in customer retention, it will also help you get better insights into the preferences of users. You can use these insights to improve your business’ sales processes, marketing strategies, and other areas of work.

3.    Increased Conversion Rate

The most important thing for any ecommerce business is growing revenue resulting from an increased conversion rate. If you want to increase your conversion rate, having a mobile app is a necessity for you because many features contribute to more sales. One such feature of mobile apps is push notifications which increase conversions.

Other such features are easy to use apps because they are usually less complicated and make processes such as placing and tracking orders, smooth checkouts, and integrated wallet for payments for the purchased items easier and smoother. According to reports by Marketing Land, conversion rates tend to be three times higher in case of mobile apps as compared to mobile-responsive websites.

4.    Lesser Cart Abandonment

Mobile apps seem to have only 20% cart abandonment rate as compared to 68% rate on websites on desktop and about 97% on mobile websites. Mobile apps clearly register lesser cart abandonments because they have easier payment and checkout processes. When you begin e-commerce app development, ensure that the checkout process happens in just one click and it is quick and easy.

This increases the chances of visitors completing their purchase rather than abandoning it. Cart abandonment rate is highest in case of mobile websites because they tend to have too many distractions in the form of advertisements or multiple landing pages that lead to a completely different website. This can really agitate the buyers and push them towards discarding the purchase.

5.    Better Customer Retention

Having a mobile app for your enterprise can definitely help you improve your customer retention. One such way is by carrying out certain activities and implementing programs where users can only participate through apps and offering special rewards and discounts for doing the same. Loyalty programs with points and coins rewards are very common practice.

Besides, offering good customer services and support through chatbots as mentioned before can help you retain customers as well. The more you are able to resolve customer complaints, the more the chances of them making purchases with you again.

6.    Revenue Growth

Besides customer retention, mobile apps can contribute to increased customer acquisition as well. Increase in customer acquisition results in increased sales and growth in your company’s revenue. Increased number of orders and sales can really help you in boosting your profits.

If you have a simple yet catchy mobile app offering easy navigation, purchase and payment options and methods, customers will enjoy using it and are likely to recommend it to others as well. Pair these factors with offers, sales, and discounts and update your app users through push notifications, emails and SMSs and watch your sales go up!

Google has revealed that 73% of potential buyers tend to switch to a mobile app that facilitates ease in purchases as compared to poorly designed and complex websites. Furthermore, OuterBox revealed that about 40% of all the sales that take place during the holidays are done through mobile phones.

We hope that these statistics and the article were helpful in understanding how valuable e-commerce app development can be in the current scenario. Can you think of some more benefits of app development? Let us know in the comments section!

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Team EMB

Our team of expert writers is committed to bringing insights on topics ranging in the fields of technology, marketing, and business. With a wide-reaching range of services on our platform, we help businesses achieve digital transformation end-to-end.