Why You Need a Mobile App for Your Online Store

20 Aug Why You Need a Mobile App for Your Online Store

In present times, mobile apps are taking the market by storm. Gaining a lot of users and increasing sales to a substantial amount, mobile apps are changing things for good.

According to statistics, the number of mobile users had reached up to 2.3 billion by the end of 2018 and it is expected to reach 2.8 billion by 2020. With this increasing number of smartphone users and growing e-commerce activities, the mobile retail market was expected to cross 151 billion dollars last year. These stats show that several mobile users appreciate online shopping and the advantages provided by mobile phone apps.

Keeping aside the numbers, let us look at the practical reasons why mobile apps are favorable for an online store. What is the difference between a desktop shopping experience and a mobile shopping experience? Why users prefer a mobile app over a computer or desktop to buy online? Why should you consider developing a mobile app for your online store? We shall answer all these questions in this article.

So, let’s get started…  

1. Shoppers prefer apps over sites:

According to some stats, 78 percent of the surveyed customers claimed that they would prefer a mobile app over mobile or desktop websites to access a store. Reasons are quite obvious:

• Applications are easy to operate and provide convenience while shopping.
• Users don’t have to remember the URL or login credentials when they are using an app to access the store.
• One can shop quickly using an app compared to a web browser.
• Mobile apps provide better security while shopping online.

2. Apps provide customer loyalty:

Customers who download your apps are much likely to purchase from your store while those visiting your website have fewer chances of buying from the store. Customers spend 3 to 4 times more hours on a mobile app rather than on websites. The explanation of this goes here:

When you have a business icon for your app on the customer’s mobile, chances are they will be inclined to make the next order from your store. In addition to this, there are push notifications from your app going to their mobile phones. So, your online store does remain a preferable choice on a subconscious level.

Mobile app users are likely to return to the store within 30 days as compared to those who shopped from websites.

3. Apps respond faster:

Response time plays a crucial role in driving customers to a website or app. Mobile apps generally take less time to respond to user action compared to websites. The reason is apps only store a part of user data on the mobile devices. Although apps and websites connect in a similar way to the servers, the data transmission between a server and an app is ten times less compared to that between a server and a website. This suggests that apps also retrieve data faster compared to websites. Additionally, users often set their preferences on the mobile apps that allow it to fetch and load only the required amount of data.

4. Apps provide a better user experience:

The fact that apps have less number of buttons, navigation, banners and other annoying stuff for users make it a favorable choice over websites. This helps in driving customers to your store over and again. The reason is they will remember your store and how easy it was to purchase from your store. The apps provide a fuss-free experience for its customer while shopping and this call for driving a loyal customer base for your business.

For example, the ASOS mobile store offers a better experience to its users with simplicity and minimalism of design. It has discrete filters along with a simple heart-shaped button on the top is the screen to view saved items easily.

5. Apps take advantage of mobile phone’s inbuilt features:

A mobile app for your store can take advantage of the device’s inbuilt features like GPS.

• GPS: allows locating users of your app. It eliminates the need to add shipping address manually. This again calls for a better user experience.
• Microphone: with the integration of artificial intelligence, microphones allow to verbalize the search process.
• Camera: users can take pictures of their purchased items and share it with apps to increase your sales.

6. Apps have a lower abandonment rate:

Stats reveal that only 20% of the mobile app users leave their shopping cart without making a purchase. While 68% of desktop site users leave a store without buying anything and 97% of the shopping carts are abandoned on mobile sites. This clearly suggests that users are more likely to make a successful purchase using apps rather than any other medium.

7. Apps bring higher average order value:

Mobile apps offer 140% more revenue than mobile sites for your business. The reason for this has been already discussing in the above points. Summing up all, we can say that apps provide easy payment, one-click ordering, push notification and other facilities that ultimately help in gaining higher ordering value to your business.

Conclusion:

Growing a business is not easy but having considered all the above points, it is obvious that apps only help businesses to grow and establish a strong customer base by increasing sales.

What your thought regarding this, please mentioned in a comment section!