10 Must-Have Features For Your Ecommerce Mobile App Amid COVID-19
In recent times and the tech-savvy era, the boom in mobile eCommerce has led to the creation of mobile apps and platforms. The mobiles have given a very easy and seamless user experience to the users who are shopping freak. Now, with the fear of COVID-19 pandemic still hovering on us, online shopping is gaining more momentum than ever before but now, with shifting feature priorities apart from a pleasant shopping experience.
Big players from eCommerce are now focusing on improving end-user experience and delivering essentials and grocery items through their platforms as well. They are utilizing cutting-edge mobile applications to stand up to their customer’s expectations.
But before we proceed further, you must have a question - “Is Mobile Commerce Different From an eCommerce Website?”
We are pretty much sure, this question has taken everybody’s mind. They are still in a dilemma. But let’s clear the fog in the air now.
Yes, and No!!
Wait, we are not confused about this question or answer. But Mobile commerce is a natural profession of eCommerce. On some level, they are nearly identical, but there are also important differences between the two.
When you are planning to develop an enterprise-friendly mobile app with enhanced security, iPhone outpaces most of its Android counterparts, and it’s one of the reasons why companies prefer to opt for an iPhone app development company or hire iPhone developer to leverage the advantages of the iOS platform.
Even, the expectation in the mobile shopping experience in this pandemic time is changing slowly to more value than just happy shopping online. Therefore, we are noting down some of the must-have features that customers expect in a mobile shopping app during the COVID-19 irrespective of mobile platforms you choose - Android or iPhone or Windows.
What Are The Best eCommerce App Features?
As per the report by Statista, in 2019, 67% of mobile users purchased something online using their mobile devices. And the data is about to grow by 3.56% in the next year, which means approx 73% of users will purchase online by 2021.
Well, this reveals too much about the future of online shopping as well as mobile phones.
By now your online shopping store should already be accessible on mobile devices, but that doesn’t mean your business is ready for mobile commerce.
Top 10 eCommerce Mobile App Features:
Easy Login & Registration
When a user wants to purchase something from your app, he/she wants a smooth and hassle-free process, be it sign up or registration or shopping procedure.
Many of them would not like to fill out the lengthy registration form which has too many details and personal information to feed. They will be fed up and leave your app soon. The whole process from registration to checkout should be very simple and hassle-free.
Create a login and registration form process easy by enabling just needed fields. Because people will not prefer the apps that request time-consuming information to be filled for a casual registration. Or maybe you could allow them to login via external accounts such as Facebook or Google or with an OTP. That’s an easier way to access and will translate it into a higher conversion rate and sales volume.
Push Notifications
A significant benefit of your mobile eCommerce app is the ability to communicate and notify the users with an app. You cannot leverage this benefit if you are offering customers only a mobile site or desktop site.
Hence, due to panic buying amid Covid-19, it’s natural that you may run out-of-stock, and to maintain the trust of customers in your business, it’s important to notify and alert them whether a product is available and in-stock again.
If you implement this correctly, sending the right push notification at the right time can lead to sales. Apart from that, you can notify users with upcoming deals, discounts, offers, and product updates as well.
As we can see, 70% of app users find push notifications very useful, wherein, 40% of people engage with push notifications within an hour, compared to just 8% who ignore them altogether.
Here’s a breakdown of the most desired that content app users want from a push notification:
- Promotions — 34%
- New developments — 26%
- Geo-Targeted information — 26%
- Other — 14%
So, what are you waiting for? Do you wish to run a flash sale? Send a push notification. Or are you launching a new product today? Well, let us know with a push notification.
Multiple Payment Options
You may find a customer who is purchasing some items from your app, but if he/she is unable to find the relevant payment option which he usually uses, eventually, he will leave the process incomplete. This will drop the sale of your product. Hence having multiple payment options will help to increase sales.
So, your mobile commerce app needs to accept all major credit/debit cards. You should not bother if one charges you a higher processing fee, you still have to provide various payment options to the customers.
We can think about alternative payment methods as well.
You can use PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, and many more.
For security purposes, customers may not rely on entering their credit card details into an app. But they know these other methods help protect their funds/transactions. And you cannot deny this method for your better sales.
Even if you integrate cryptocurrency and start accepting payments in Bitcoin, you could satisfy their mentality of providing various payment options.
Even if every user has a Visa card, that doesn’t mean that they will use it. But they will feel safer if you use PayPal or Apple Pay, as these brands are known.
Real-Time Order Tracking
Whenever a user purchases something from your app, he cannot wait to get it delivered to his place. On a regular basis, he would keep on checking the status of the item. But if you - as a business owner - don't offer a real-time order tracking feature, then I don’t think users will visit your online store and purchase any item again. Eventually, you will be at a null place again.
Hence, real-time order tracking will let users know when the order will be placed, dispatched and delivered. Various and popular SMS gateways like Twilio, Clickatell, Plivo can notify customers when the direction is sent, managed, transported, etc.
Social Media Integration
Social media is the strongest tool in the tech world today. There are plenty of ways you can leverage social media to improve your mobile commerce app. Integrating social media into your app will help users with login, registration, and sharing details of products. Allow users to share products on their social media from your app. This will create awareness about your brand and will help you generate more sales.
This speeds up the onboarding process and makes it easier for your customers to purchase the product. Now, they don’t have to worry about creating a new profile also.
Apart from this, adding your social media channels buttons on your app can encourage users to follow you there as well. On this pandemic time, when they are not actively shopping, you can still engage with them via social media channels.
Easily Accessible Customer Service
If your product has a perfect description, search facility, and product images, people are still going to raise the questions while they shop on your mobile commerce app. You have got to be prepared to help them anytime and through any medium.
Give your customers multiple options to reach customer executives via their preferred mode.
- Live Chat
- Phone Call
These are the basic and necessary features for you to offer.
As per the research, customers who use live chat are more likely to purchase your products.
Easy Checkout
Quick and smooth checkout is one of the advantages of mobile commerce apps. It’s a great relief for users if you let them shop the product with minimum efforts. The single-click payment options have become the mobile commerce trends making the payment process as short and simple as one click. This one-click payment method is becoming a favorite of the users as they don’t wish to spend much time on the payment process.
Hence, the checkout process should always be simple as it allows the user to complete the transaction with less effort and minimum information. This process will help increase the sales of the business.
Rating & Feedback
One of the essential and common every mobile commerce app provides is to have a rating and feedback option. Customers feel privileged when they are able to write feedback and rate products they have purchased.
It also satisfies them when they decide to help other customers by putting reviews and ratings. Even as a business perspective, if you get any feedback, you can work on the respective product and improve it. Moreover, customers will get to know all aspects of the products and services, before they finalize the product to purchase, by adding ratings and feedback sections in your app for a product and services. This gives room for improvement for customers and the merchant to maintain quality.
Wishlist Button
A wishlist button is another must-have app feature. So, better don’t ignore it as it will be of great use for the users.
Let us tell you why it’s important. Obviously, your eCommerce app will have tons of products and therefore, it’s not easy to find the same product in which users have liked it and then closed the app. It’s kind of like the bookmark for the product which users would like to check again and purchase. Many eCommerce apps also give notifications to users when there’s an offer or discount on the product from the customers’ wishlist.
In this way, you can convert a visitor into a customer.
Customer Loyalty Program
Today, many online stores offer their customers to collect points through the application while online shopping and win product discounts.
Driving loyalty through a unique mobile commerce application is a smart business move. You can also utilize the app to distribute promotion codes to users, encouraging them to download and use the app at your stores.
Conclusion
A successful commerce mobile application is not only about the technology but also about the feature you offer to your customers. Mobile apps will surely enhance the growth of your business by providing unique features and giving an amazing shopping experience. Hence, as per discussed the mobile features for eCommerce apps are key to enhance the customer experience which in turn promotes online business success.
These were amazing and great features of the mobile commerce app that you can utilize. As a versatile mobile app development company, The One Technologies provides great mobile app development services. Let us know your requirements if you wish to integrate any of these features in your existing mobile app or create a new one.
If you want to have a successful mobile commerce app, you need to have these features.
