Talking about ecommerce has been one of the hottest buzzword, especially since COVID-19 has hit and forced businesses to opt a more remote approach. Hence, never has been a better time than now to create an ecommerce mobile app for your business.
According to Statista, more than 3 billion users use smartphone today, and the numbers are only going to grow in the near future.
In 2019, mobile commerce was responsible for the 67.2% of the total ecommerce sales globally. And industry experts believe this trend is only going to continue and reach almost three-quarters of global ecommerce revenues.
In this guide we’re going to talk at length on the dynamics and future of ecommerce mobile apps and learn how businesses can leverage the rise of contactless delivery technology for a better user experience.
Types of ecommerce mobile apps
Business-to-business (B2B)
B2B ecommerce mobile apps work for selling profits and services to other services. Mostly these processes are carried out between businesses, as the name suggests.
Hence, if you feel you have a great app idea to unite two or more businesses under the same platform, put that into action. Given the fact that business clients are officially reliable, hence, the chances of producing a consistent stream of income through a B2B app are better.
Business-to-consumer (B2C)
Apparently, the most popular type of ecommerce app. B2B is an interaction between a business, and an online store, to the end users (consumers).
Most online stores operate through the B2C model. Besides typical stores such as groceries, clothing, etc., businesses such as automobile dealers, software developers, insurance companies, etc. are also willing to adopt this model to sell their offerings to their target audience.
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
In C2C the sale of products and services are confined between the consumers only. Consumers typically meet on third-party platforms for example, conducting online auctions, social media collaboration, money transfer, and more.
Back in early 1990s, when internet started to emerge, the C2C model was quite popular as people were keen to sell their products to other consumers within a limited exposure.
However, today also many solo individuals, or homemade businesses such as organic skincare, local cuisines and bakeries, to name a few use C2C ecommerce apps to approach a small pool of target audience.
Consumer-to-business (C2B)
As the name indicates, C2B is the reverse of B2B, not any typical ecommerce business model. For example, creatives like graphic designers marketing their work, and businesses can buy them if they are interested in acquiring the ownership.
If you wish to create a C2B ecommerce platform, you need to see which platform to create that could attract people to promote and sell their product.
Why you need an ecommerce mobile app for your business?
Mobile commerce is gathering momentum
Sales from mobile phones have risen drastically, especially since COVID began earlier this year.
Businesses are advised to keenly observe on what device their customers are mostly browsing from. Unsurprisingly, there’s a healthy chance your customers are using smartphones and tablets right now to browse their favorite products.
Apparently, the graph indicates that the mobile commerce growth is on a consistent rise.
This is where businesses, who don’t have any sound digital presence at the moment, can leverage the rising trend through an ecommerce mobile app for their target audience.
Moreover, shopping mobile apps have been growing at a rate 54% year-over-year. The average year-over-year growth rate of mobile app usage has been about 6% across all different sectors.
This make the shopping app usage category in the highest rate as compared to any other type of app development.
Consumers moving towards mobile apps
Apparently, there are many companies that are producing ecommerce sales without having a mobile app. In this case a mobile-friendly website does the job.
In fact, around 85% of people think that a website should be as friendly and aesthetically pleasing, if not more, than its desktop version.
Moreover, 88% of users are less likely to return to a mobile website after undergoing a bad experience. 47% expect a mobile site to load within 2 seconds.
Hence, having a responsive website is the initial step towards producing some considerable ecommerce sales. Still, businesses are missing a lot more than what could have been achieved with a powerful mobile app.
78% of consumers are more inclined to purchase from an ecommerce mobile app than a mobile website.
Understandably, there are many reasons why consumers would purchase from an online store than a mobile website. The most notable reasons include its more convenient and faster; plenty of rewards, loyalty programs, etc. in store; access to more personalized content and deals; a better user interface and engagement.
Generally speaking, mobile apps offer a superior, optimized shopping experience. Something that retail businesses should leverage as the market is highly dynamic, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Related content: How to create an app when you can’t code
Acquire a competitive advantage
With around 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, the use of mobile apps is only going to grow. The case with ecommerce apps is no different, especially when businesses are out there fighting to acquire a mighty competitive advantage of their rivals.
Even if a consumer is pleased with your mobile website, still a rival with a great mobile app will have an edge over you in luring the customer to its business.
At the moment, every ecommerce platform in the world is operating within the shadow of Amazon, where you can buy everything from the most convenient, everyday use to exclusive, boutique products.
In US, there are over 95 million people who have the Amazon Prime membership.
Selling your uniqueness is the key. There’s a chance that a customer can obtain something similar from another brand on the Amazon app.
Therefore, whenever someone visits your app, most probably he/she will take the Amazon shopping experience along. And if you’re unable to provide the same level of experience, consider losing the customer for good.
Hence, a great mobile app might give you a competitive advantage, but it won’t last forever. In the future, the app development will be plenty saturated, making it more difficult than ever for you to capture a decent target audience then.
Seemingly, moving now and creating an ecommerce mobile app can provide you an early boost in your market.
Enjoy better conversion rates
Whatever campaigns we run, at the end of the day it’s all about meeting and exceeding the KPIs. And tracking conversions is the key.
You need to know the difference between tracking mobile app conversions and mobile website conversions.
Now, unboxing the figure is not that difficult, the app is the clear winner here from what the differing statistics indicates.
In other words, consumers view 286% more products and add items in the shopping cart at 85% higher when browsing through a mobile app as compared to a mobile website.
Seemingly, the app is providing your brand and products are better, prolonged exposure.
Yes, the views per sessions and add-to-cart rates are tempting when we talk about engagement, but eventually what matters are conversions.
And the figure also tells us that conversions from mobile apps 130% than that of mobile sites.
Clear, transparent marketing correspondence
When you’re in the board room meeting to make strategic decisions, it’s easy to get carried away by encouraging sales numbers.
Given the use of mobile app, the benefits goes much beyond the revenues generated off ecommerce sales.
Without a mobile app, businesses need to depend on customers navigating to their website in order to generate leads, and eventually conversions.
But it doesn’t make any sense of asking your visitors to keep coming back to your site. Even your most loyal customers won’t be buying from you every other day.
Hence, you’re forced to spend your marketing budget on social media and email marketing campaigns and reach your customers through them.
On the other hand, a mobile app will tempt you with a better communication channel with your customers, i.e., push notifications.
A push notification puts the message directly on the user’s smartphone’s home screen, just how a text appears. When the user opens the message, it access the app putting him/her right at the intended landing page.
Imran Abdul Rauf is a Digital Marketing Strategist, employed at CMOLDS, and specializes in content marketing, email marketing campaigns, lead generation, and other aspects of digital marketing. A content enthusiast by the day, and hardcore gamer by night, Imran is also a regular guest contributor at some of the top tech and digital marketing platforms.
