eCommerce Mobile App Development: Get it Right the First Time!

Over the past decade, mobile apps have won the hearts of many and secured a strong position on the eCommerce landscape. Did you know that 67% of all eCommerce sales on the globe come from mobile devices?

Mobile e-commerce alone makes 53.9 percent of the total annual retail eCommerce sales in the US and is expected to reach $3.5 trillion by the end of this year.

Today, it’s no longer an issue of why you should launch an eCommerce app; it’s a question of how to do it effectively and better than the competition.

At Appvales we help our clients design, build, test and deploy apps. We are a trusted eCommerce mobile app development company with a proven track record in both end-to-end product development and collaboration with client teams through dedicated mobile developers.

This article will talk about mobile app development for eCommerce, the features of an e-commerce system, and the steps to follow when developing eCommerce mobile app in 2024.

What are the core eCommerce mobile app features?

Before you focus on competitive features, you need to make sure that the core eCommerce mobile app development features are included. The eCommerce mobile app features are well-defined considering they are all primarily concerned with the buying and selling of goods or services. Let’s dive in.

1. Easy On-boarding

One of the most important aspects of any mobile app is getting users onboard in a seamless manner. Onboarding can be made as simple as possible with minimalistic design, perceptiveness, and customization.

Keep the design clean and basic so that your users can easily understand and onboard quickly. A complicated User Interface or User Experience(UI/UX) will not show your prowess but chase away potential users before they even get started. Everything should be organized and exceedingly straightforward, from registration and sign-up to checkout and payment. Also, give your consumers several signing up options, for instance, using their email, phone number, or social media accounts.

2. Search and filters

Create a search bar that allows customers to locate exactly what they’re looking for in just one search. Advanced filters should also be made available to help users locate the products they want. The ability to filter by numerous criteria including pricing, size, and delivery time will improve service quality and increase the likelihood of a sale.

3. Shopping carts and wishlist

While online, it’s still important that you give users the physical store shopping experience. For instance, you can allow users to select services or goods and add them to a shopping cart where they will keep all the items they like before making a purchase. The shopping cart feature helps your eCommerce app reduce cart abandonment rates significantly.

Furthermore, you can also make use of a wishlist. This is a collection of things that buyers have placed an order for but couldn’t finalize the purchase since the item is currently unavailable. This way you can effectively retain customers even if you don’t have what they need onsite.

Also, adding wishlists as a part of the eCommerce mobile app development features allows users to save and view their preferences, allowing you to have a deeper understanding of your customers’ demands.

4. Reviews and ratings

Let your consumers offer candid comments on your eCommerce application’s items and services. This will significantly increase your trust, reputation, and most importantly, sales.

Client reviews provide social proof. This way users understand that they are not being tricked with a convincing sales copy but there are genuinely other fellow human beings who have benefited from the product or service.

5. Targeted push notifications

Almost all mobile eCommerce applications today provide timely notifications. To retain your customers and keep them updated, you need to up your notifications game. Pun intended.  

You can alert the audience of new information and sale details, such as deals, new goods, and giveaways among many others. That means they don’t have to necessarily open the app to stay updated, you can reach your consumers anytime.

6. Simple Navigation

A clean and well-organized layout is nonnegotiable when developing eCommerce mobile app. Make sure it provides easy navigation and presents your business or items in the best possible light. The best option is a responsive design, which adapts to any screen size and quality, providing an immersive experience to the users regardless of the device they are using.

7. Payment

You are now a click away from closing the deal. Your payment process can make or break your sale. According to Baymard’s research, 35% of purchasers will abandon a transaction if they need to input gender or age information.

Checkout should be straightforward and quick, allowing the user to save their payment information for future purchases. Furthermore, you need to offer a variety of payment choices in order to accommodate as many users as possible.

Steps of building eCommerce mobile app

The eCommerce mobile app development process requires precise planning. Below are five detailed steps to help you get it right the first time and dodge the common pitfalls.

1. Idealize your eCommerce app and contact a vendor

Preparation is usually the first step. So, when you have an idea for an eCommerce app, you should select a vendor with whom to talk over its execution. The vendor can do a business analysis to determine your target audience and preferred distribution channel, as well as a full characterization of your business needs and difficulties.

You can also proceed to find out the target clients’ purchasing habits. If seasonal patterns exist, include them in the equation and conduct as much study as possible. You’ll also want to keep an eye on industry norms to help you create more realistic goals. The results of your market research will influence a lot of what you do in the next steps.

2. Choose Technology

Understand your business inside and out before deciding on a technology for your e-Commerce mobile app. Keep track of your development budget, inventory, and CMS, database, framework, and, most significantly, the back-end and front-end languages you’ll use to code your app.

Preferably, choose a hybrid app if you want a faster time to market, and a native app if you want it to be more sustainable. Equally, you must determine whether you want to release an Android app, an iOS app, or both at the same time, taking into account your target audience’s device usage.

3. UI and UX Design

By using relaxing color schemes, engaging graphics, and easy transitions for your customers from one page to the next, you can give your business the image it deserves. This will go a long way in improving your brand’s reputation and credibility. What’s more?

·      Simplicity

By UI/UX design simplicity, we mean content optimization for mobile devices and a structural architecture that allows for the simplest purchasing experience. Ensure you put the important items in the thumb zone when creating an eCommerce application to improve its usability and engagement.

However, according to a survey, 75% of customers navigate their screens with just their thumb. As a result, they prefer to touch the screen’s center. So, you can meet them halfway and include the main UI elements within the thumb zone to improve your clients’ shopping experience.

This is possible if you simplify the main screen, displaying only the most profitable offers, popular products, and the menu, which consumers should be able to browse instinctively. Make sure this is implemented following the rules of the visual hierarchy so that the user’s attention is drawn to a significant object right away. Increase the size of the chosen products and show them individually to persuade the buyer to check out.

·       Ease

To increase sales, you should create a user-friendly interface that encourages purchases. A good navigation bar should include immediately recognizable icons and well-designed filter settings to help clients discover what they need fast and precisely.

Design solutions that speed up the purchasing process, from product selection with auto-suggestions to ordering with address searching and payment card autodetection, significantly boost conversion. You may skip a drawn-out registration and payment process by implementing the guest checkout feature with a visual indicator.

·       Emphasis on sales

This approach applies to eCommerce mobile apps that are primarily focused on selling goods within the app. Since these apps are a digital version of a real store, their design focuses on using indirect tactics to get users to buy.

The search panel is where the user begins the shopping experience, thus it should be accessible and offer search by several conditions and query auto-completion.

Make sure to include an “add to cart” or “buy now” button to help with the pressing problem of incomplete purchases. Also, try to avoid distracting the user once they are at checkout. A good eCommerce mobile design should act as a watchful and prompt guide, guiding the user to the checkout.

4. Write backend code

This is the fundamental part of learning how to develop eCommerce mobile app. Coding the backend of an eCommerce application is a phase that must be done carefully. It’s essential to understand that the backend is responsible for the majority of the app development process. The backend is in charge of carrying out the majority of business rules, storing and retrieving data, and creating APIs.

To deliver the product within a shorter period, off-the-shelf software is applied for the backend. Depending on the platform’s choice, the development speed and available functional capabilities will differ, for instance, Shopify and WordPress make it possible to create a site many times faster than competitors. However, you may encounter problems with extension and clustering with these two.

Off-the-shelf software is used for the backend to deliver the solution in a shorter amount of time. The development speed and available functional capabilities will vary depending on the platform selected. While Shopify and WordPress make it easy to build a website much faster than competitors, you may run into issues with extension and clustering.

Here are three important parts to every e-commerce software solution’s successful operation:

·       Payment

Considering that you built an eCommerce software to make money, it’s important to get the payment method to work properly right from the start. The usual payment procedure involves an interaction between the payment gateway – a secure path for the customer’s funds – and the payment processor – that handles and completes the transaction.

To play it safe and wise as an e-Commerce business owner, you must accept a variety of payment options, including:

• credit cards;
• bank transfers;
• cash-on-delivery;
• E-wallets;
• Cryptocurrencies.

·       Security

Some of the largest crimes in today’s world occur in the digital space. However, if your clients lose money or personal data, it will significantly harm your company’s reputation and result in losses. Ecommerce app security vulnerabilities can be separated into two categories: local and network.

Be sure to include the following security measures to prevent the local level security issues:

• Gaps in cryptography
• Binary protection
• Encrypting the code
• Continuous support

For the network security measures, employ the following steps:

• Reliable authentication
• Anti-fraud procedures
• Change to HTTPS

When the app is deployed, keep reinforcing its security features by filtering user data and input, and mandating authentication for certain profile actions. You can also take the typical security precautions:

• use authorized APIs;
• follow the principle of least privileges;
• test the updated code regularly.

Both you and your users will feel safe when you’ve acquired effective protection.

·       Performance

With each additional second, an app takes to load, customers are scared away. This is because a large majority of your competition nowadays has lightning-fast processing speeds.

This load speed is influenced by data optimization and scalability best practices. You need to deal with the following issues to create an e-commerce software that has an architecture incorporating the two components.

• Application optimization

This will allow you to improve the application’s loading and performance.

• Scaling

It will give your system flexibility because scaling will be done pointwise and as needed.

• Domain-Driven Design

You can change server code into related components that are isolated from one another to find new ways to improve each component’s scalability.

• Native approach

Native mobile applications make the most of the phone’s capabilities to boost productivity and improve the user experience.

• Slow hosting

You must carefully plan the capacity of the servers and have reliable hosting to avoid crashes. Cloud hosting is an option that vigorously adjusts server resources, allowing pages to load quickly.

• Datastore configuration

Pay special attention to the datastore, since it is frequently the source of performance problems.

• Unoptimized images

Use compression tools to optimize photos and avoid adding images that are more than 50 KB in size.

5. QA and testing

The Quality Assurance department is in charge of product quality control. This is particularly important in the mobile app market, where bugs and crashes are the most common cause of the uninstallation of apps. To avoid future failures, QA specialists should be brought in early on in the project.

As the eCommerce mobile app developers work on the application code, the QA engineer simultaneously works on automated tests and code reviews. The QA Engineer makes product adjustments after collecting feedback from each test.

6. Deployment phase

Before the release of the application, the final phase is its deployment to your corporate website and app markets — App Store and/or Google Play. Please note that the platform review will take some time, and if vulnerabilities are found in your product, you will have little time to fix them — merely 2 days in the App Store.

The penultimate process before the app’s release is its deployment to your company’s website and app stores – App Store and/or Google Play. Please keep in mind that the platform evaluation will take time, and if susceptibilities are discovered in your product, you will only have two days for the eCommerce mobile app developer to repair them in the App Store.

Ecommerce mobile app development cost

You must consider the functionality as well as the hours spent on its operation when calculating the eCommerce mobile app development cost.

Add features like easy onboarding, search and filters, shopping carts/wishlists, targeted push notifications, and more, to create an eCommerce application that not only works well and does the core job but also fulfills industry standards.

Whether you want to start from the beginning, build a website, or keep developing at any phase, the Appvales team can assist you as our development method is flexible and personalized to each customer’s specific needs.

The UI/UX design which is one of the most important aspects of any e-commerce app takes 120-200 hours to complete. The back-end code takes approximately 130-170 hours to complete. And it takes 200-300 hours regardless of whether you choose an e-commerce Android or iOS app.

For non-development and meetings, an estimated 150-250 hours is required, giving a total development time of 650-900 hours. Do well to contact us for a quote at +380 66 006 0808 or book an appointment at calendly.com.

Ecommerce mobile app trends in 2021

Consumer purchasing habits have evolved significantly over time, and mobile commerce will continue to thrive in the future. As an eCommerce store owner, you need to keep up with the newest mobile commerce trends.

The following eCommerce mobile app trends will dominate in 2021.

1. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

For a long time, the terms virtual reality and augmented reality have been buzzwords in the tech world. AR is now useful in mobile shopping apps to improve the client buying experience.

As brands attempt to provide consumers a glimpse into how a product would fit into their life, Augmented Reality (AR) has grown in popularity. The use of augmented reality for online purchasing is far more convenient than customers having to buy via trial and error without these mobile commerce apps.

2. Mobile Chatbots

Meeting the needs of customers and fulfilling business requirements are top objectives for eCommerce merchants. With the help of AI-powered chatbots, this objective can be accomplished. Chatbots are commonly employed in eCommerce mobile apps, and this trend will continue in 2021.

Chatbots can be active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide excellent customer service. Chatbot technology is capable of managing 25% of customer care and support activities. Brands like Google and IBM Watson have improved communication by deploying chatbots.

Today, eCommerce organizations can utilize it to boost sales and make product recommendations. Customers can have a good time with chatbots because they swiftly solve their concerns and engage them. Small and medium-sized eCommerce firms can employ chatbots to create interactive experiences in real-time.

3. Voice Shopping

For many platforms, using voice commands to do everything with a mobile device has already proven to be a game-changer. Voice search on Google, voice command to search and play video on YouTube, voice messaging through a chatbot, and voice contact with smart assistants such as Apple Siri or Google Assistant to run the device have all become normal.

Voice shopping, or voice interactions to make purchases through mobile commerce stores, is becoming more popular as a result of this trend. The ability to search for products using voice commands and make purchases using voice commands will improve the shopping experience, speed up the process, and eliminate friction for on-the-go purchasing.

4. On-site personalization

Customers are more eager to buy from a company that provides personalized customer experiences. Online shoppers of all kinds — both B2C and B2B — want customized unique shopping experiences. A buyer can receive personalized product suggestions and detailed customer assistance because of the data acquired by AI.

Personalizing e-commerce experiences on apps and websites entails sending particular content, marketing emails, personalized recommendations, and other services based on specific shopping behavior, search history, purchase history, and other data. You will increase user engagement, conversion rate, and revenue significantly as a result of this.

5. Big data

Customers can have automated, individualized purchasing experiences thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI collects data on how customers shop when they make purchases, and what they’re seeking for in a product or service regularly. It’s a piece of technology that can’t be simulated in a physical location.

You may use AI technology to locate new audiences on Facebook and Instagram and make better ad spending decisions. As a result, your social media revenue will hit the roof, especially during the holiday season.

6. More payment options

Customers prefer quick and secure payment via digital channels such as eWallets, net banking, contactless cards, and more in this digital age. In the coming years, most eCommerce apps will have digital payment solutions that will allow users to make purchases safely and quickly.

Currently, several new industry participants have been introduced to provide eCommerce specialty solutions.

Google Pay and Samsung Pay are two examples of digital wallets that are changing the way people shop online. Cryptocurrency is another new solution that is increasingly being used to facilitate eCommerce transactions. New payment modes and techniques are becoming easier to integrate into a wide range of eCommerce platforms. Now, digital firms are no longer limited to traditional payment methods.

7. Increase in mobile shopping

It is an undeniable fact that eCommerce mobile apps are the future. Every year, the numbers of smartphone users increase significantly around the world. Reputable companies that handle mobile app development for eCommerce businesses are being approached or hired by several shops to target a large audience with an organized and user-friendly app.

Although developing mobile-friendly websites or progressive web applications (PWAs) to attract mobile-based buyers is a possibility, the mobile app is a more cost-effective and beneficial tool for promoting your eCommerce endeavors in the long run. A tailored mobile app will provide eCommerce business owners an advantage over their competitors while also allowing them to reap the benefits of increased mobile shop traffic.

Appvales will build an eCommerce mobile app for you

It is an undeniable fact that eCommerce mobile apps are here to change regular shopping habits, and they are not going anywhere. So, what are you waiting for? Why not visit Appvales to give your eCommerce platform the online presence it deserves.

Appvales is a boutique app development company that helps eCommerce brands build eCommerce mobile apps. You can contact us today so we can get started on your project.

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