As technology is advancing, people are becoming more and more reliant on online platforms for their everyday needs. Online shopping is undoubtedly the most popular platform with massive demand. One can sell, buy and interact with the audience with a single click.
Mainly due to the advent of the recent pandemic, people are relying on online shopping platforms more than ever before. Almost everything can be purchased online today, from medicines and groceries to luxury products, making it an effective substitute for offline shopping. Speaking factually, over 2 billion people purchase goods online, resulting in global e-retail sales summing up to 4.9 trillion US dollars.
M-commerce and e-commerce, which are the two major forms of e-retail, have become a routine for a large audience, as everyone needs easy and fast solutions.
Wondering What Is E-commerce and M-commerce?
There is a very basic difference between e-commerce and m-commerce. In simple words, e-commerce is performed on web browsers, while m-commerce takes place on mobile applications. Factually, mobile devices amongst people are creating a new buzz in businesses. As a result, the demand for m-commerce is on the higher side compared to e-commerce.
Now let’s come to the subject of why your business needs a mobile e-commerce app.
Reasons Why You Should Use Mobile E-commerce for Your Business
As a matter of fact, there are numerous reasons why you should invest in mobile e-commerce. Below are a few significant points of why developing a mobile e-commerce app is a worthy investment.
Wide Market Reach
One of the major benefits of creating an e-commerce app for your business is that you can target audiences out of geographical boundaries. This is in contrast to offline stores, where the target market is highly limited to local buyers. Owing to this factor, the businesses not just gain competitive advantage but also generate higher revenue. This is specially useful for businesses looking to create a global presence.
In-Depth Analytics
Knowing your customer base is vital for every business, as it helps in delivering a better buying experience. The key to this client understanding is analytical insights, which are possible through an e-commerce app. The apps make it easy to track user activity and provide valuable information about where the traffic is being generated from. Moreover, integrating AI technology with analytics helps in delivering a personalized user experience.
Automatisation of Operations
Running a business involves various operations, which consume manpower. An e-commerce application can be highly useful to automatize these laborious tasks such as inventory management, finance management, data entry, and more. As a result, having an e-commerce application can increase the overall efficiency of your business operations and help you save costs on human resources.
Increased Customer Loyalty
Every business strives for customer loyalty for its long-term success. E-commerce apps deliver this need by providing a customized shopping experience. E-retail strategies like personalized product recommendations and promotional offers ensure that the customer stays loyal to a brand. Moreover, the machine learning aspect of AI further gives a personal touch to the overall shopping experience. This results in satisfied and loyal customers, that generate repetitive revenue for the business.
Here’s a blog on strategies to boost customer loyalty for your e-commerce business, to help you increase the customer loyalty of your e-retail business.
We are sure that by now, you are pretty clear on how mobile e-commerce is helpful to your business.
Let us also see what makes e-commerce apps popular amongst buyers.
How Your Customers Will Benefit from the E-commerce App
Customer satisfaction and loyalty are the essence of every business. Let’s see how e-commerce apps increase customer satisfaction and contribute to their loyalty.
[Note – This is apart from the subject but necessary to note while working on a mobile e-commerce app]
Wider Payment Options
These days, everyone prefers online payment methods, as they are easy, speedy, and secure. E-commerce apps are integrated with numerous payment gateways like PayPal, UPI, credit cards, debit cards, Stripe, Braintree, COD and many more. This enhances the overall buying experience, as users have numerous options to choose from.
These methods have specially gained popularity during the pandemic period when people have resorted to contactless transactions.
More Features
Ecommerce apps are equipped with various features like review, 24×7 customer support, easy return policy, multiple payment options, and many others, depending on the business. These features simplify the buyer’s shopping experience, deliver a wonderful user interaction, and ensure the buying process is smooth and hassle-free. This results in users preferring online shopping more than offline ones.
There are various high-tech features which are liked by the audience:-
- AI chatbots
- Voice shopping
- Augmented Reality
Accessible Customer Support
Online shopping platforms are known for providing extensive customer support. Businesses can interact with their customers and provide support to their queries, feedback, and concerns. Various app features like AI chatbots, FAQ section, support options (call and email) etc. make it easier for customers to reach out to brands, enhancing their overall satisfaction.
Now that we know about the advantages of mobile e-commerce apps for businesses as well as customers, let’s look into the working models (channels) of e-commerce sector.
Different E-commerce Channels
Indeed, most people think e-commerce and m-commerce is the platform to purchase and sell goods via internet. While this is true, there are many ways (channels) through which online shopping takes place.
Let’s dive into the three main categories of e-commerce
(C2C) Consumer to Consumer
The name itself defines a consumer connecting to the consumer to sell or buy goods. In simple words, consumers sell used goods to other consumers through digital platforms. This purchase and sale of goods takes place through third-party platforms.
Example – Etsy, eBay, Amazon
(B2C) Business to Consumer
B2C is one of the most commonly used e-commerce channels. It is also known as retail e-commerce. It is the process in which businesses sell products directly to the consumer. This channel enables entrepreneurs to develop a more personalized relationship with their target market.
Example – Alibaba, Walmart, Amazon
(B2B) Business to Bussiness
B2B e-commerce is one of the fastest online channels for buyers and sellers. The goal of B2B is simple, to sell goods online directly between two businesses. Generally, B2B sellers work with wholesalers, large retailers, and resellers.
Example – Amazon business, Aliexpress, Rakuten
This is the end of the blog on why it is important for businesses to have an e-commerce app. If you want to know how to build an online shopping app for your business, you can go through the below-given steps.
(If you have an app already, you can skip the following steps)
Process of Developing an E-Commerce App
Step 1: Analyze Your Market and Target Audience
Make sure to do a market survey, as poor understanding of the market is the foremost reason why apps fail. Market likes and dislikes, reasons to dislike, similar products being used, presently what is trending, etc., are the few points to be noted. All these points will guide you entirely while developing an app.
Step 2: SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a tool for businesses to know their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The target of SWOT analysis is to grow with your strengths and decrease your weakness. Moreover, it is also useful to realize current opportunities and acknowledge potential threats. As a result, conducting a SWOT analysis is useful for businesses planning e-commerce app development, as it provides insights on the brand’s focal areas.
Step 3: Plan a Business Model
Now, as you are done with SWOT analysis, you are aware about the market and targeted audience. Keeping that in mind, one needs to plan the business model before developing an application. Creating a Business Model Canvas (BMC) can help organizations to plan and summarize their short-term and long-term objectives. In addition, thoroughly planning a BMC will help you to know about various factors such as value proposition, customer segment, and brand revenue in a better manner.
Step 4: Select a Development Option
There are numerous options to develop an e-commerce app. You can build an app by yourself (DIY development), use an app builder, appoint a freelancer, hire an in-house team, or even outsource app development to an agency.
We usually suggest to outsource to an app development agency. The advantage of choosing this approach is that outsourcing agencies have a team of professionals for each step. But, while outsourcing to an agency, make sure to choose a company that holds expertise in delivering excellent service. Nevertheless, a few other advantages of outsourcing e-commerce app development to an agency are less cost, less app development timeline, specialized team, high-quality output, etc.
With all the given reasons, you might have realized that a mobile e-commerce application is a boon to a business. As a result, even though the time and cost of developing an e-commerce app appear to be high, the returns are worthwhile in the long run.
Owing to these factors, investing in an e-commerce mobile application can be a million-dollar opportunity that can help businesses to stand out in this tech-savvy world.
