6 Advantages Of Using Your Own E-commerce App
With COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, people started staying at home more and going out less. Using mobile phones to shop, including buying groceries online, is quickly becoming the norm. The digitisation of shopping, growing fast pre-pandemic, has already accelerated now. Customers are buying everything online, from clothes to electronics to food to jewellery. Mobile usage surpassed desktop years ago. Here is the percentage of global mobile traffic, 2011-2021. From 2017 to 2021, the percentage of mobile usage occupied more than 50%. In 2021, mobile usage has taken the lead to 56%. [1]
The graph shows that in 2017 it became more than 50% (eMarket). Companies are calibrating their online strategies to pivot towards mobile apps and mobile web, focusing on online strategies-mobile apps and mobile web. By 2021, sales made via mobiles are predicted to reach 54% of all online sales. This is equal to as much as $659 billion! According to Forbes, mobile commerce is about to grow 68% by 2022 as more people use mobiles to shop online. M-commerce is the use of portable devices like mobile phones or tablets to do business activities. It is a type of E-commerce.
“For any strong consumer-facing brand, like fashion is a great example, apps are incredibly valuable because you have a piece of real estate on someone’s mobile phone, so you always come front of mind,” said Jenny Griffiths, founder of Snap Fashion, during an interview with CNBC. [2]
Let’s check out the advantages of M-commerce.
Advantages
1. Push Notifications
Reach out to customers even when they are not at your store. Push notifications can contain information ranging from the newest promotions, limited time sales, discounts and new arrival products. It is an excellent way to lead customers back to your store.
2. Add Customer Retention On App Page
“Mobile time is mostly app time. “ People in the younger generations have a different shopping pattern. On average, they spend more than an hour on the phone and most of the time on an app. Indeed, browsing on the mobile app can let customers spend more time in the store because of quick loading time and easier product searches! Sellers can see which are the most popular items and use insight analytics to see session duration, conversation rate, buying patterns, customer behavior and cart abandonment.
3. Reach Customers Wherever They Are
People are able to shop everywhere when they have a mobile device. With m-commerce, it is even easier and more convenient for customers to make purchases. No need to search for your business on Google. Just open up the app, and they can shop right away. People who live in the countryside can also access an E-commerce platform. This removes long distances and a hard journey to purchase something. No need to go to the physical store to get what they want and pay by cash. Customers can have their orders delivered directly to their homes and make life easier. [3]
4. Know Your Customer
In war, know thy enemy. In retail, know thy customer. Understanding customer patterns and preferences is key to driving future sales growth. A sophisticated E-commerce solution can allow customers to sign up as members, and by observing customer behaviour, artificial intelligence can be employed to predict product recommendations. For example, by analysing a customer’s wish list, we could infer their preference towards other related products. A well-timed push notification/email marketing, like days before a major holiday, can push those customers “over the edge” and make that purchase. Couple this with a loyalty point reward system and customers can be encouraged to keep coming back.
5. A More Comfortable Buying Experience
Mobile apps tend to provide a more comfortable buying experience than a website. The customer can open your app and make a payment with Apple Pay with Face ID. Contrast this to a more fragile experience on a website, where they would need to open the browser, enter your URL, and enter credit card details and be careful not to hit the back button while processing. The ease of purchase in an app, more easily allows customers to make impulse purchases. Apps can reliably store search history and preferences, while on a website, all these could be lost when the customers closes their private browser tab. When it comes to consumers, convenience always wins.
6. Customer Is Always Number 1
Customer experience can affect customer retention, which can affect a company’s bottom line. Advanced E-commerce solutions allow customers to easily reach out to businesses through live chat, calls or messages to fix the problems and answer the questions. The better customer service a company provides, the higher conversion rates may generate.