Knowband Blog | Ecommerce Modules

Why does your eCommerce business need its own mobile app?

Joe Parker

The mCommerce is expected to become as big as the eCommerce. Hence, having an eCommerce mobile app for the shopping site is not a luxury anymore, but an inevitable aspect. While most of the companies have already started upgrading their sites into a complete eCommerce mobile app, a wide gap still exists.

In a world where there a lot of competition at every step, having a website isn’t going to get you the desired revenue. You might have optimized your website to make it mobile responsive, but have you ever thought of having an eCommerce mobile app? Are you still on the fence for trying your hands in mCommerce? Here are some stats that can convince you to have your own eCommerce mobile app.

In case you are intimidated by the complexities involved in eCommerce mobile creation, then, you need not worry anymore.

These alluring statistics are enough to motivate the e-merchants to upgrade their online stores from desktop to the mobile platform. If not, then, here are some of the reasons that make eCommerce mobile apps are a must-have. Check them out.

Change in the consumption behavior

Along with the stats mentioned above regarding the buying behavior of the shoppers, the numbers related to mobile commerce is something the eCommerce store owners need to watch out for. The m-commerce is expected to make up to 50% of the total online purchase. Moreover, Google has brought forth the ‘Right now’ expectation of the mobile phone users has increased. As per a report shared by thingwithgoogle.com, “53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load.… We’ve actually seen that for every one-second delay in site load time, conversions fall by 12%”. Keeping this in mind, eCommerce mobile apps is surely one of the solutions to deal with the changing behavior of the customers.

Mobile experience can affect your branding

Latest research have proved that the mobile brand experiences are crucial to customer satisfaction. Speed, relevance and personalized contents are few of the factors that affect the overall user experience. Besides, people today have twice as much interaction with brands on mobile devices than the other medium such as desktop computers, TV and others. Thus, the eCommerce mobile app is one of the most intuitive media for the marketers to build their brand equity. Every time a consumer has a good experience with your mobile store, it raises the bar of your brand image. In addition, it even raises the expectation of the consumers. Countering this expectation of the online shoppers is easier with an eCommerce mobile app. Easy browsing, simple navigation, filters and site search saves the time and effort. Thus, boosting the brand recognition of the store. Moreover, the easy accessibility of the store increases with an eCommerce mobile app. Thus, it boosts the chances of store browsing as well as conversion.

Cultivate customer loyalty

Customer interaction and engagement is one of the best ways to get the much-needed customer loyalty. This loyalty, in turn, is the key factor in the customer retention. Bringing the entire eCommerce store in the pockets of the customers is one of the best ways to engage them. The options like reward points, gift cards and others are some of the features that are built around to cultivate the loyalty. The online shoppers are increasingly making last minute plans. Keeping pace with the expectation of the customers who wants everything at their fingertips is nearly impossible without an eCommerce mobile app store. In addition, 46% of the consumers say that they would buy if they find the mobile experience uninterrupted. Achieving this loyalty is not an easy task when it comes desktop websites.

Tap the gen-next target audience

The online companies need to focus on the tech-savvy younger generation. They make the marginal portion of the target audience. The issues such as fat-finger problem and others are not a concern for the next-generation shoppers. This is when a mobile app can come handy for the eCommerce store owners. Along with the factors like load time and easy navigation, there are many other expectations that can be fulfilled with the help of a mobile app. The voice search technology, location-based searches, incorporated GPS are some of the features that can be catered with the help of a mobile store. So, upgrade your site with a robust eCommerce mobile app maker and tap this customer base.

A better promotion tool

The fact is that the handheld devices is the quickest means to reach out to the customers makes it the most proactive marketing tool. In addition, the mobile app includes the option of push notification. It may be considered as annoying by some, but is still the most effective promotional tool. Other than this, the social sharing options can even enhance the visibility of your store on the social media platform. There are some mobile apps that can even work offline. Thus, it provides a 24/7 interface to keep the customers informed about the offerings of your store.

Outperform the competitors

The number of eCommerce websites is on the rise. However, not every site is upgrading for the mobile platform. Thus, the store owners who have already tried their hands in the m-commerce scenario has an undefined edge. The mobile apps not just boost the businesses, but it can even help you find the competitive advantage. With the ease of online transaction and personalized marketing strategies, you can outperform your customers who have still not entered in this field effortlessly.

Apps vs mobile sites

If your goal is to offer user-friendly content to the widest range of target audience, then, a mobile website is perfect. Mobile websites have a broader reach and are accessible across platforms. Online shoppers want web pages to load quickly. However, mobile browsing is usually accused to be slow. This is one of the reasons what gives an edge to the native eCommerce mobile apps. Moreover, the hardware features of the mobile devices are accessible with the apps. The features and like animations and high-resolution images may take a bit longer to load when it comes to websites. An app is an easy means to incorporate them. 10 major reasons why mobile apps are better than mobile websites are discussed here.

Excellent direct marketing channel

One of the biggest positive points of the eCommerce mobile app is that it offers a direct marketplace channel to the store owners. With an app, you can constantly stay in touch with your prospective customers. Moreover, the push notifications of the eCommerce mobile app is a much easier option to reach out to the shoppers regarding the various offerings of the store. Investing in an eCommerce mobile app will definitely cost you a lot in the beginning, but as a long-term investment, the benefits that you’ll have are countless. Moreover, there are budget-friendly solutions available allows the CMS based sites to have their own mobile app. There is eCommerce mobile app maker for Android/iOS for Prestashop, Magento, OpenCart and other platforms. The Prestashop Android/iOS mobile app builder, Magento mobile app maker, OpenCart eCommerce mobile app maker can effortlessly create an eCommerce mobile for the respective platforms. Top ways in which push notifications can increase the sales of your store are discussed here.

Better connectivity with your customers

The motive of your online business apart from converting the visitors into customers which can be achieved only by keeping them actively engaged with your site. While designing an eCommerce mobile app,  try to go for such responsive UI which keeps you stay connected with your customers. If you look closely, you can stay connected with your customers through Push Notifications about the fabulous deals currently being offered to the shoppers. In fact, personalized offers and discount coupons are a part of mobile apps that make your customers return to you time and again.

Final words

Can you deny the fact that the world has gone mobile? You won’t deny that the majority of shopping and browsing is generally done on smartphones. With the newer technologies available in smartphones, people have stopped spending a lot of time on laptops and desktops. If you take a look at the stats, you’d know the number of apps on Google Play, Apple App Store, and others has increased remarkably. This makes sense because people are going mobile and in order for companies to reach out to their potential customers, a mobile app is absolutely necessary.

It won’t be wrong to state that a mobile application can rekindle the user experience of an eCommerce store. KnowBand understood this concern and has brought automated Mobile App Builder plugin for various eCommerce platforms like PrestaShop, OpenCart, Magento, Magento 2, WooCommerce and Shopify. All the eCommerce store owners out there who are running their online business on these platforms can now easily go mobile. With such pre-configured solutions, they get complete access to design the mobile app and control every bit of its working. Here, is the simplest process to create an eCommerce mobile app in a few clicks:

Step 1: Purchase the automated Mobile App Builder module from the KnowBand store.

Step 2: Share all the specifications/requirements regarding the app with us.

Step 3: Get the APK/IPA in no time for publishing the same on app stores.

Moreover, for hassle-free publishing of mobile apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, refer the following articles:

How to publish an app on Google Play Store?
How to publish an app on the Apple App Store?

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