Why a mobile app is crucial for company success in e‑Commerce in 2022

When brick-and-mortar stores shuttered, shoppers rushed to the Internet to buy things they needed, and their expectation and demands for online service have grown considerably. We studied the latest reports and industry-wide statistics on e-Commerce tendency and are ready to share the benefits businesses can get from creating their own mobile app, along with the reasons they should do it in 2022.

Modern and successful businesses based on sales can not exist outside the digital field. And the only way to stay competitive is to use the existing technology to leverage the business and strengthen the brand. By providing direct interaction with the end consumer, e-Commerce allows for shortening the product supply chain. This allows businesses to be closer to their customers by offering products and services according to individual preferences of the target market, which results in increasing productivity and competitiveness for companies.

As e-Commerce has been on the rise in recent years, there comes another major channel, m-Commerce, entering the world arena by changing consumer habits. Both large and small companies find out numerous advantages of mobile commerce to scale their businesses, as mobile devices have become the key in the consumer buying process.

E-Commerce from the outset has been in shopping online through a desktop computer and then has expanded to sales using mobile devices, which is now known as m-Commerce. As convenience and speed are the top priorities for today's consumers, mobile apps provide these possibilities just under their hands. So e-Commerce retailers either need a mobile-friendly website or a customized mobile app.

The numbers exactly show how beneficial having a mobile app for your business is. As reported by Statista, Android is controlling the mobile OS market with a close to 70% share, while iOS accounted for around 25% of the market.

When deciding to develop a mobile application running on one or more operating systems, keep in mind that choosing cross-platform development saves up to 40% of time and budget compared to the development of native applications. However, this approach has its own disadvantages.

People are on their mobile phones for almost everything they do: order food, book flights, pay bills, etc., because with mobile apps they can make everything with a single finger touch.

Searching the Internet directly from a computer is more time-consuming and requires being at home, but most of the time people are online from their phones outside their homes choosing products and comparing them when the need arises. As a result, a mobile app tends to have a higher conversion rate than websites on mobile browsers.

Furthermore, a custom mobile app can introduce newcomers to your business and better serve existing customers in promoting new products and services, special offers, loyalty programs, etc. Business, in turn, gets brand promotion and a possibility to learn more about its consumer base and their preferences. By going mobile, companies will only benefit, making their goods and services more accessible and easier to get and use.

A basic mobile application will cost around $80,000. Medium complexity apps will cost between ~$160,000. The average cost of custom software development ranges from $40,000 to $50,000.

A mobile app opens up a variety of advantages, from increasing user engagement and providing great marketing opportunities to boosting average purchase price, increasing revenue, and building brand loyalty, allowing businesses to stay ahead of the competition. Let's look at the most crucial benefits of having a mobile application for a company:

Improved customer experience.

A mobile app is designed to meet the needs of consumers by providing comfort and ease of using the offered services. It is much more reliable and personalized as compared to traditional websites. Being handy and straightforward, it caters to the consumers’ "need for speed", making any step to achieve their goals as easily and quickly without having to go through a series of clicks.

Customers have become accustomed to getting a rapid answer to their questions, and the faster they can convey their inquiries and issues and get a response, the more satisfied they remain. And mobile apps are designed and developed to simplify this procedure, eliminating the communication cycle across websites, helpdesks, and call centers. Based on the particular business FAQs, these processes can be automated with Chatbots - a solution that is dedicated to simulate human-like conversations with customers via text messages on chat.

Data analytics and enhanced marketing campaigns.

A mobile app provides an efficient way for businesses to collect, analyze, and leverage customer data, being crucial for marketing and advertising as the data collected allows you to take insight-driven decisions to improve your services. By understanding customers' product preferences, search trends, and feedback, apps provide businesses with the ability to use data-driven marketing tactics to offer their customers a highly personalized experience. For example, special offers and promotions. An app can quickly remind consumers about your products and services whenever it makes sense with push notifications, significantly increasing mobile app engagement.

According to Google research, 91% of people interviewed find shopping notifications on mobile useful if they provide value.

Moreover, mobile apps allow for getting vital insights on the time customers spend on the app, which functionality is most used, which is less, that makes it possible to customize the app content and features to deliver content to the customers more effectively.

Strong connection with a brand.

Developing a custom mobile app gives the possibility to reach out to a new group of consumers who choose to use apps over other channels. As mobile apps are always there on everyone’s phone, they are a one-stop point for getting all the relevant information related to the brand as well as showcasing new products and services. This certainly builds a brand image digitally and enables businesses to establish closer relationships with the customers.

Convenient payment.

Most mobile applications allow linking one or more of your existing financial accounts to the integrated payment system. Such linking enables paying for goods immediately from the application without additional authentication with other resources. This saves customers a lot of time as they won’t have to fill in their data multiple times.

One more advantage of mobile app payments is their development with a secure payment option as biometric authentication, that identifies users by their fingerprints or through facial recognition. According to the latest mobile app development trends, biometrics define users’ expectations of how security should function for mobile applications. This allows your consumers to enjoy an additional level of protection for their data and money.

Loyal customers.

Mobile apps require minimum efforts to search, explore and order desired products or receive services within a few minutes, therefore, providing the best possible shopping experience. The more people engage with your brand, become satisfied with your business and services provided, the more they reciprocate by increasing brand visibility, recommending you to their friends and as a result maximizing profits.

Integrating loyalty programs and personalization tools into the mobile app is an excellent way to establish and maintain a customer community. By sharing applicable promotions, discounts, or bonuses, customers are far more likely to return if they are rewarded for their purchases. Building reciprocated relations with customers leads them to become loyal users and brand advocates.

To get all the aspects of an eCommerce mobile app development, here are some things you must consider before proceeding to the development step:

There’s no doubt that mobile commerce is changing the way consumers shop. From the branding perspective to customer service and marketing, nearly every section of your business will benefit from incorporating a mobile app. Having a mobile app becomes a necessity rather than an option for e-Commerce retailers, if businesses want to stay successful on today's competitive market.