List of benefits that enterprises can gain by building a business app for their e-commerce store

Buyers have gone smarter than ever. As much expected, they want their service providers to be ahead of their expectations and serve them with the best solution. A favorable business entity is one that is more reachable, more proactively involved with customers, or is available exactly when needed. Businesses can have all these virtues by switching their work base from physical shops to e-commerce stores or e-commerce websites. e-commerce reaches customers right at their fingertips in the form of web and mobile apps. It is the reason why e-commerce website development experts propose having an application too.

In this post, we intend to walk you through:

1. What are the uses of a business app for an e-commerce store
2. How enterprises can benefit from these business apps

So, let’s start.

1. What are the uses of a business app for an e-commerce store?

Website development services offer a wider suite of services to their business clients. As is evident, a website is the online address of a business, and an e-commerce feature allows buyers to make purchases from there while exploring the merchandise or services. Previously, all this required a desktop primarily. The lack of mobility did come with its challenges. But the situation changed entirely when the concept of having a business app started making rounds among the innovative solutions providers.

The business app is designed in both web and mobile app styles. Those who want to access any business on mobile devices can simply write the business URL on the search bar and start doing activities of their choice. The other way is to download the business app from the app stores on mobile phones.

Imagine this scenario. We are around our mobile phones all 24 hours of the day, literally. This level of ubiquity of mobile phones makes them an enviable interface for businesses to reach their customers. Thus, the very first thing that an app does to any business is to enhance its reach. An e-commerce store manages to reach the customers right at their fingertips and be available more easily than any counterpart. Apart from providing reach, the other business purposes that E  commerce developmen services through the app are:

• Share important updates

Business apps can work as one-stop company news resources. Through notifications, the businesses keep the audience informed about the new offers, new store launches, discount offers, freebies, new combination packages, etc. These updates can help in keeping the momentum around business alive and kicking. The customers as well as all stakeholders stay informed of the latest events via a common and unbiased interface provided by a business app.

• Give better control to users

Applications have helped the offices work outside the cubicles. People are connecting, interacting, and sharing ideas with each other over mobile phones and tablets. If we talk about E  commerce development company in USA, in a company environment, where e-commerce is at the core of operations, all stakeholders can have control over their share of information. The biggest advantage is the access to information provided in an authority-based manner. Thus, the salespeople can keep stock of inventory, marketing experts can understand how and when to launch new schemes, and operations specialists can get all orders-related information in one place, and in a workable manner.

• Provide much-needed data analytics to e-commerce owners

Here is an overview of what data e-commerce ventures collect through the app:

1. Sephora, a beauty app, registered 8.5million visits and offered 200mn shades of lips, lashes, concealers, etc.
2. Asos, a UK fashion e-commerce retailer, registers 80% of traffic coming from the mobile app. While handling such huge traffic, they get all possible data of customers, providing them about 850+ brands in return, based on the preferred choices.
3. Glasses, by Warby Parker, is an online eyewear retailer. Right at the launch, it was having a huge base of 20,000 customers waiting to be served.

Such a deluge of information is not possible to get from any other method; it is where the beauty of a business applies.

The e-commerce stores utilize this information for:

1. Offering tailored product range to end-users
2. Helps them design user-centric promotional campaigns
3. More customer-centric advertising and personalized message delivery
4. Integration of all user-oriented tools such as payment gateways, delivery methods, product display methods, etc.

Thus, the overall effect of an e-commerce store is more impactful and serves the business’s value-creation needs for its patrons the best.

• Provides businesses a tool to keep going despite challenges

The world needs to embrace new-found realities, as the need for a contactless way of doing business has reached an all-time high. Online ways of doing business, understandably, are affecting both the B2B and B2C work ecosystems. Almost the whole of the transaction process starting from sifting through the products to getting them delivered at the preferred location is now preferred done online.

This change does reflect in the way new e-commerce scripts have come to the fore and getting the attention of CMS development services. CMSs are also getting specialized keeping the characteristics of business entities involved. Some of the crucial decisions that are affecting the CMS choices are:

1. SEO visibility needs: Now, the CMS developers have to shun bad practices like meaningless tags and URLs, poor design, etc. Every element used to develop content has to contribute to the SEO-friendliness of the e-commerce site so that it remains functional and in sight despite the competitor’s presence.
2. Online branding support: CMS development company creates a web of information around the e-commerce store using an app as an offshoot. The apps may serve as an online branding tool, and create additional layers for a multi-channel campaign. Thus, the e-commerce businesses can ride on the resources of the business app and position themselves exactly according to the personality traits of the end-users.
3. Ease of expansion: Every business, e-commerce or otherwise, can do well when it has created conditions of progressive nature. The business owners need to expand capacities, and for that plug-ins prove their worth the best. It is a well-known fact that WordPress is one of the most sought-after CMS systems as it offers a wide array of plug-ins to help businesses meet their objectives and create the best experiences for end-users too. Thus, a business app allows e-commerce stores to act and behave in the most time-relevant manner, making them fully capable of handling all sorts of changes, both at the micro and macro level.

It is clear from the above points that business apps offer the e-commerce stores a much-needed push that they need to survive, sustain and succeed eventually. Taking a cue from the functions performed, let’s move on to the benefits that businesses can derive from the app’s various roles.

Benefits offered by business apps to the enterprises having an e-commerce store

Business mobile applications offer benefits of both operational and marketing nature. While as an operational tool, it offers a wholesome suite to work, as a marketing tool, it takes care of all the ways businesses can establish themselves as the ultimate solution available to the users. Some of such benefits are:

1. Close-to-real augmented experiences to end-users

Imagine the whole of your fashion merchandise store shrunk to a mobile app. You will be scrolling endlessly, and also while applying filters. And, you will do all this without leaving your office or house. Such a level of convenience is truly encouraging for the customers to come to the app often and try more shopping.

The additional features like a virtual dressing room, AR/VR-enabled trial solutions, 3D modeling for fitness of materials on the body, etc. are some of the augmented experiences apps allow e-commerce businesses to create for their end-users. In the present time when everything ‘at-home, and ‘contactless’ is sought-after, these solutions bring the in-store experience to the users right on their devices.

1. Geo-targeted marketing and direct communication

Apps allow businesses to access the customer location through GPS-enabled devices like mobile phones. The location can form the best food for marketing campaigns, allowing businesses to make those more personalized and localized in nature. With geo-targeted marketing campaigns, the e-commerce business can:

• Speak in the language customers understand
• Provide delivery solutions best-suited to customer locations
• Offer currency choice to enable easy payments.

Since the app data capture complete information of the customers, the businesses are able to establish more direct communication with the end-users, extending them messages tailored to their needs.

1. Click-and-go convenience

The business app of an e-commerce store offers a pure click-and-go experience. Users can browse through products or services, create their carts, and buy them in one go. If not found suitable, they can make as many changes as required in their shopping list. Further, apps offer the convenience of making payments through desired modes.

Most importantly, the buyers can select the delivery date and time too. Thus, businesses need not wait for the working hours to accomplish their sales objectives. The sign is ‘Open’ at a business app 24 hours. With the inclusion of maps APIs, delivery tracking systems, etc. website development services can keep the shoppers truly in the loop. The experience is similar to someone reliably carrying goods for you. This kind of customized support wins one thing for e-commerce businesses – deep customer loyalty.

1. Quick sales and revenue generation support

Immediacy is everything in the present time when the competition is too tough. Online is a vastly populated space now; the slower you are, the more customers you are going to lose every hour; it is that tough!

Apps offer the best solution to this problem. The business apps appear like a solution right when the customers search for them. These apps are available as progressive apps as well as native apps. With a simple feature like desktop notification, the apps can keep customers aware of the e-commerce existence.

Further, with the introduction of IoTs where apps can be connected with sensors, it becomes easier for businesses to trigger needs-based selling instances. Thus, a more tech-savvy customer in such a condition may not even require placing orders every time. They can set the frequency of purchase, repeat past purchases and get reminders of the past purchases made too. Thus, the apps help e-commerce businesses stay in action and in the eyes of their loyal customers, always.

The immediate effects of these positives are more sales and higher revenue generation possibilities. Thus, the ultimate result is better sustainability of e-commerce businesses.

1. Bridging the gap between offline and online

Apps offer the best of both online and offline worlds to e-commerce businesses. There are several apps dedicated to retail, banking, games, news, etc. that store the customer’s vital data and offer offline access to it.

The users can browse through the news feed, updates, merchandise, and previous services’ availed information both offline and online. Thus, the customers can make more informed choices. To style up the experience further, the apps can restrict the need for online access only to the point of making a payment. Hence, a major part of the shopping experience need not depend upon an internet connection now.

The best implication of this facility is deeper engagement, better customer experience, and more queries per day. Apps data collected even during offline usage time can help e-commerce businesses send personalized alerts, reminders, etc. If you have just added items to the shopping cart, the reminders can help businesses convert those explicit interests shown into sales, sooner or later.

1. Ability to ride on the strengths of devices

If a brick-and-mortar showroom provides businesses with the advantage of location, personality, and service personnel, the business apps leverage devices’ strengths to create a pleasant customer experience. For example, the apps can utilize device cameras, GPS, storage, etc. to extend support for:

• Scanning PFDs, Barcodes, etc.
• NFC for payments,
• GPS for localized content and matching with the nearest services
• Fingerprint scanning for highly secure access

The overall impact is the reduction of the shopping time. Users may not even require punching a button to complete the process. The strengths of coding tools like Xamarin, or that of platforms make it quite easier for the buyers to complete the action without much fuss, or external support. In essence, the apps offer truly DIY support to the buyers and extend the finest and happiest experience. It may not be that easily available in other avenues like city kiosks or shops.

1. A proven brand ambassador

Apps work to support functions of all sorts. There are features like drag and drop, swipe, tap, hold, and several others that add to the apps’ overall personality. The swifter the solutions are, the more caring the image of the app comes out to be. For example, a senior is most likely to feel impressed by the auto-reading and submission of OTPs as it takes away all the possibility of an error by making a transaction. The same is applicable for a very busy youngster too, who may be managing several things at once, and still won’t want to go wrong on any.

The other most important function related to building a brand image is that of ease to switch between various skins. It may not be that financially or practically feasible to change the design, color, and elements of a city store. But it is just a matter of a few drags and drops when it comes to redesigning the app. The app owners can pick from various branding designs, screen colors, icon styles, etc., and create a perception in the consumers’ minds.

Read the blog- 5 Key Ways to Diversify Your Ecommerce Store

Thus, there are several benefits that enterprises get to enjoy with the use of business apps for an e-commerce store.

Before winding up, let’s take a look at one more business app types these days, that is drop-shipping apps. These apps can be owned by anybody and every device having this app works as a connecting link between an e-commerce site owner and the end-user.

Just by giving a small profit percentage, the e-commerce stores put the drop shippers’ networks to expand their consumer base.  The ultimate benefits are – more reach, more queries, more responses, and eventually, more sales. Thus, a drop-shipping app acts as an extended store for an e-commerce store.

Going inwards, the operations-based apps like supply chain suites, ERP planning tools, employee management apps, etc. are doing their bit in streamlining the daily affairs of e-commerce business owners. Easy reporting, better accountability, timely updates, and all security-driven updates and backups have helped e-commerce become more responsible in business processes than ever. It ultimately has meant winning more confidence of investors too.

All these discussions bring us to conclude that business apps have become the dire need of e-commerce businesses and not just an additional idea to fiddle with. Reach the best web development company that offers fully-tailored support for e-commerce businesses. With this simple step, you may bring to your businesses the advantages like better visibility, readiness to serve, more reach, better user-friendliness, payment security and ease, and a fully customized shopping experience. Hence, think of the business app right away, if e-commerce is something you have eyed next to keep going with your business objectives.