Retail apps have officially come of age. In the year 2022 alone, Americans spent more than a billion hours shopping on smartphones, drawn in by big brands like eBay and Amazon, as well as traditional brick-and-mortar stores. But it's not all about the big brands. Independent retailers also see a significant increase in in-app sales revenue. Some of this can be attributed to COVID and the overall rise in online shopping, but mobile shopping was already on its way to dominating eCommerce before the pandemic struck. In-store, nearly 57% of shoppers use their mobile phones to look up product or pricing information.
According to Deloitte, digital interactions now influence 56 cents of every dollar spent in physical stores. The mobile app in the retail industry includes functionality designed specifically for in-store purchases, despite how crucial the mobile channel is to the in-store purchase experience. Using the mobile format to enhance the offline experience can provide significant competitive advantages for companies with native applications.
What exactly do we mean by retail mobile application trends?
While they come in various shapes and sizes, they all do the same thing, providing access to a retailer's inventory via a mobile app. Apps are simply software written in a programming language that a smartphone operating system such as iOS or Android can easily read and interpret. They make it easier for retailers to improve their online shopping experience while also enabling vital opt-in data collection so that retailers can learn more about their customer's preferences, habits, and proclivities.
How can a retail mobile app help you grow your business?
To succeed in any trade nowadays, simply going online is not enough, you must also go mobile. It may not be easy to build a mobile app for your retail business, but it could benefit your business in a variety of ways.
- Expanded reach
The most significant advantage of any retail mobile app is that it can reach the buyer at any time and from any location. People nowadays are almost inseparable from their gadgets and do a lot of things on the go. As a result, the demand for applications grows by the day.
- Better client loyalty
As a result, through notifications and recommendations, you can keep customers connected to your brand and engaged. Furthermore, special offers, discount programs, and gamification can all serve the same function. Each client can then decide how to benefit from your solution.
- Increased effectiveness
Modern applications make it possible to efficiently track financial aspects and manage inventory. In the modern age, mobile clients expect end-to-end support, so retailers must comply with all modern standards in addition to selling goods, processing payments, and shipping orders.
Sales-boosting features for retail mobile apps
A mobile solution should improve customer flow and enhance the in-store shopping experience. For your product to be effective and successful, we've identified the seven most important features that bring out the real uses of mobile apps in the retail industry.
- Quick and simple registration/authorization
You may lose customers if your mobile app registration and authorization processes are lengthy and complicated. If your registration form requires too many details from the client, interest may wane. Reduce the number of details you collect as much as possible.
- Various payment methods
Everyone prefers the payment method to which he or she is accustomed. As a result, it is critical to understand the preferences of clients from various categories and locations.
- Ratings and reviews
Today, real-world user reviews are far more valuable to existing and prospective customers than official product descriptions. The rating and review features of your product can either be integrated with popular review platforms, or you can create your own. They add credibility to your app and business as a whole, so don't be afraid to use them.
- Push notifications
Notifications are an excellent feature for increasing engagement. They may serve as a reminder for users who have recently installed an app and have forgotten about it.
- Mode offline
Nowadays, everyone values a continuous experience with a variety of solutions. By enabling offline mode, you improve not only the user experience of your app but also its overall performance. However, the task may be difficult because the process necessitates pre-caching of large amounts of data.
Tips for successful retail mobile app development
- Effectively utilizing smartphone technology
The app must make use of the most recent smartphone technologies in a way that is simple to use. Several new technologies, such as gesture control, multi-touch, and so on, help to make the application more interactive and responsive.
- Development of a cross-platform application
Companies must consider developing cross-platform apps that can run on any device, regardless of the operating system. Developers will also be able to save a significant amount of time because a significant portion of the source code for various platforms will be retained. Adhering to current trends and technologies will also be a good idea when creating online retail applications.
- In-store and online functionality should be supported by the app
The app must support customers' experiences, and their online and in-store purchases must be coordinated. The stores should accept anything they have purchased as well as all items purchased from the outlet. Any product purchased through the store or application can be returned, exchanged, and reported by customers, so coordination between in-store and online shopping should be encouraged. Users should also be able to navigate from one location to another without having to navigate back and forth on the app or website.
- Customer experience evaluation
Retail companies and developers need to ensure that customers have a valid reason for storing apps on their mobile devices. Companies can use testimonials to promote their outlets and activities. For a variety of reasons, developers must evaluate user experience. Clients will uninstall the app if the developers does not evaluate it and the customers continue to experience issues.
- Appropriate design
The app's design should be simple and appealing. The app should not have too many features so that it runs smoothly for the user's convenience. Users should be able to switch between categories without any difficulty. Clients will continue to use the app for a long time if the layout is easy to communicate with. Clients will be more motivated to purchase the app this way.
- A social feature that allows users to share their experiences
It will be critical for developers to create a vertical for consumers to share their experiences. Interacting with clients will become easier in this manner. They will be able to share anything on social media that they want. Instead of just being a shopping app, the app must also be a social shopping platform. It should be able to support both video and image content, allowing them to be uploaded. Users should not be forced to use social features because the majority of them prefer to shop in peace.
A Shopping App's Technology Stack
Once you know which features to implement, let's get into the technical details. During this retail app development section, we will discuss the technical stack and team composition needed to create a shop app. Your technical stack is determined by several factors, the most important of which is the platform you choose. Would you like to develop shopping apps for Android or iOS? Would you be interested in running apps on both operating systems? The development of cross-platform apps is one of the options here. Coders can create cross-platform Android and iOS applications by using a single codebase, which can prove to be slightly less expensive. Platform-independent development has the disadvantage of limited functionality and poor performance.
The backend of a mobile app is everything that happens behind the scenes, such as the database, servers, and everything else that keeps the app running. Node is the most suitable backend JS runtime environment for developing a shopping app. It is quick, scalable, adaptable, and simple to use. A shopping app, whether cross-platform or otherwise, requires an admin panel. For the front end, we strongly recommend ReactJS. This JavaScript framework is well-known for producing excellent user interfaces and allowing for code reuse.
By collecting data from their customer's mobile devices, beacons, and GPS devices, retailers can forecast when a customer will need a final push to make a purchase. A customer may also be able to purchase an item without leaving home with the help of an app that provides additional information about any item. You can also use our vast library of resources to learn how to create your app without any difficulty.
Conclusion
To attract consumers' attention and differentiate themselves from their competitors, retailers need to incorporate the elements aforementioned into their applications. Concurrently, this can determine the cost of your mobile app development project. Are you eager to create an app for your retail business? Way2Smile Solutions is the best mobile app development Dubai which empowers users with the ability to create real-time mobile apps. We create mobile apps for app stores and optimize them for the best performance.
