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Developing an e-commerce app is more than just transforming your website into an online store. You need to understand the audience you want to serve with your ecommerce mobile app. Even then, there’s a lot to consider, research, and understand.
The ultimate goal of e-commerce app development is to deliver the best user experience and improve conversions. Without doing the research and market study, there’s no way you will meet your goals.
But don’t worry. In this blog post, we will discuss everything you need to learn about e-commerce app development and more.
Let’s start.
When planning your e-commerce app development project, you don’t just hire a mobile app development company right away. You look at the industry and see what other similar businesses are doing.
And if you do that, you will find that the e-commerce industry is constantly on an upward swing.
This growth means that there are opportunities for you to develop a mobile app for your e-commerce store, and it will bring you returns.
Here are a few more statistics to look at.
All these marker insights ensure that investing in ecommerce app development is a strategic move that will ensure bigger ROIs in the future.
Before delving into the nuances of ecommerce app development and the market trends, let’s understand the types of ecommerce apps.
Understanding this distinction helps you plan your project better.
These types of ecommerce apps allow a business to sell its services and products to another business. It could be anything from raw materials, machine parts, or even SaaS products and services.
A few examples of these types of apps are Amazon Business, Alibaba, Quill, etc.
Here, a business sells its products or services directly to customers using an ecommerce mobile app. Anyone who has a product or service offering to sell can develop B2C ecommerce apps to reach customers anywhere in the world.
Amazon, Walmart, Flipkart, etc., are some of the top B2C ecommerce apps.
Here, consumers use the C2C platform to sell products and services directly to other customers. The consumer is not a registered business entity, and there is no third party involved in selling.
A few examples of C2C ecommerce apps are OLX, Craigslist, eBay, etc.
In C2B ecommerce, a business is the one seeking service or product from a consumer. It could be a review blog that a consumer uses. The business can pay the customer to publish a review on their blog for compensation. Or a customer with unique photographs that a business wants to buy.
A few examples of such e-commerce apps are iStock, GitHub, etc.
The ecommerce industry is constantly changing. Thanks to advancements in technology, changes in user preferences, and other factors, the industry is never static.
Here are a few top ecommerce app development trends in 2024.
Every industry in the world is using AI to improve its sales and bottom lines. The ecommerce industry is also on the move to do that. With AI’s extensive analytical capabilities, ecommerce businesses can hyperpersonalize shopping experiences on their applications.
AI helps businesses collect a lot of user behavior data, such as purchase history, browsing patterns, products viewed, etc.
Analyzing the data can provide unique insights into what the customer wants precisely. You can use this data to personalize the offerings on an individual level.
Customers online are increasingly using voice search to interact with ecommerce apps and find products they are looking for. This opens a variety of benefits for businesses.
As more customers prefer voice search over typing, businesses must integrate voice search into their ecommerce apps to make in-app searches easier.
In voice search too, ecommerce apps need the support of AI solutions and Natural Language Processing capabilities.
As you use these technologies and make it easier for your users to browse your store, conversion rates will gradually improve.
The generative AI wave has taken the world by storm. One area where it has been extensively used is the mobile chatbots on e-commerce mobile apps and solutions.
These chatbots, powered by GenAI capabilities, allow customers to interact with the brand conveniently on the app itself. With added AI capabilities, the chatbots can answer all the questions like a human sales agent.
More businesses are demanding to add chatbots with generative AI capabilities to their ecommerce apps to improve customer engagement and conversion.
Using cash to pay for online orders through COD is highly inconvenient. Even using credit and debit are quickly becoming obsolete as digital wallets become the trend.
As Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, etc., become more prevalent and used by the majority of online shoppers, the industry is seeing a huge increase in mobile payments.
Being an e-commerce store, you need to integrate these capabilities now to meet the changing needs of your visitors.
Failing to do this will lead to consumers going to other ecommerce stores that offer these added conveniences.
Ecommerce businesses have been using data to improve their services and build personalized customer experiences to the customers for years now. With each year, the technologies become better and better.
As machine learning and AI become more accessible, this will help businesses use these analytical capabilities more efficiently.
Apart from using the data to personalize and improve customer services, businesses can build products based on customer choices. Ecommerce businesses can understand what customers want and deliver it.
The benefits of building an ecommerce are numerous. Here are the top 5 benefits businesses can enjoy with ecommerce apps.
While developing an ecommerce app, it is crucial to ensure that it has all the essential features to help your customers. These features make the user experience better and easier for visitors to use your app.
Here are a few top must-have features for any ecommerce app.
The navigation must be clear and make finding new products and navigating through the store easier. When customers can find products more easily and move freely in your store, they are more likely to buy from you.
Also, ensure that you label everything clearly and accurately, leaving nothing to the imagination of the users.
When your customers can move around your store freely without hiccups, they will not just buy from you; they will keep coming back.
When developing an ecommerce app, you must aim to help the customers find the products they want faster. In-store search option is the best way to do it.
In addition to providing this feature, you can also add auto-complete features, auto-product suggestions, etc., to the search bar. You can also use NLP and Machine Learning technologies to improve these suggestions.
When customers can find the products they are looking for faster, you can lead them quickly to the checkout page for purchase.
Informing your users about new product launches, promotions, and product restocks is a great way to improve your sales. Push notifications are the best way to do this.
Push notifications have been handy for businesses, with an overall conversion rate of 37.41%.
You can also time these push notifications and personalize them according to the user’s behavior and browsing patterns.
Social proof helps an e-commerce business sell more products as it helps the users find out what other customers are saying about a product. Exploding Topics says that 92% of customers are not comfortable buying products with no customer reviews.
These reviews help the customers answer a lot of questions about the product that your product descriptions cannot.
Customer reviews with images and videos are the only thing that your prospects can experience online. They consider social proof to be the next best thing.
After purchasing a product, your customers are anxious to receive it. It is your responsibility to help them track the products easily on your app.
This allows customers to not depend on a third-party app or service provider to check where the product has reached. Adding this feature helps the customer understand that you care about their needs.
With push notifications, you can also alert customers about the status of the shipment, where it has reached when it is out for delivery, etc.
A confusing and longer checkout process is a chief reason for cart abandonments by 22% of your customers. And if you force them to create an account at the checkout page, 26% will leave your site. The best way to address this issue is to ensure a fast and easy checkout process.
Enabling autofill details can reduce the number of details you need from customers. Also, make sure that the checkout process can be completed as a guest.
The less time a customer spends on the checkout page, the better it is for a successful purchase.
Another vital feature to have on your e-commerce app is the option to pay using multiple payment methods.
Some customers like to pay using credit or debit cards. Others prefer using digital wallets, mobile wallets, or bank accounts. Many others want to use COD or EMI options. No matter how the customer wants to pay, your app must make that happen.
According to a report by PR Newswire, small businesses that offer multiple payment options are likely to increase their revenue by 60%.
Except for the core technologies used for e-commerce development, the process for developing an IOS and Android app remains the same.
Here is a quick step-by-step development process.
This is the preliminary stage of an e-commerce app development project. Here, you need to research to understand what the customers want, what are their pain points, and who are your competition.
In this stage, you set your app and project goals. This allows you to define what you want from the app and how you want to serve customers. Setting your goals also helps you with the overall customer service strategy of the app.
In this stage, you are required to pick a platform for the app development. This allows you also to choose the technologies that will help you in the development process.
Apart from IOS and Android platforms, you can also develop cross-platform apps.
In this stage, you work with an ecommerce app development agency to define the functionality of the app. You also get to refine how the customers will be served within the app. When doing this, you need to include the must-have features we discussed above.
Designing the UI/UX is another vital part of an ecommerce app development project. The design needs to be finalized by keeping the overall user experience of the users.
also mind the trending design and UX elements to incorporate into the app.
In this stage, an MVP is developed before it is fully developed. This app is the minimum viable product with minimum features to meet the customer’s immediate needs. The app is then released to the market.
In this stage, the app is closely monitored. Data is collected about how customers interact with the app, how they use it, and what challenges the users have. All the data is analyzed to drive unique insights.
The app development team improves the app based on the insights generated. Based on customer feedback, various features may be added, and some functionalities may be removed.
Once the app is live, it is maintained regularly. In this stage, you will expand the app’s functionalities and improve its UX elements. You can work with the same agency for maintenance or hire a new company to provide you with custom app maintenance services.
Ecommerce app development is an integral part of any ecommerce business that wants to grow. While the opportunities are plenty with an app, there are equally intimidating challenges.
Here are a few challenges and how to tackle them.
There are several things you need to keep in mind when developing an e-commerce app for your business.
Here are the top 5 things to keep in mind to be on the right path.
What is the cost of an ecommerce app development project? This is a common question that we constantly get from our clients. And it is a tricky question to answer.
The exact cost of an ecommerce app depends on factors such as:
Approximate ecommerce app development cost
| Sl. No | App Complexity | Average Costs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basic | USD 9,000 – USD 20,000 |
| 2 | Average | USD 25,000 – USD 40,000 |
| 3 | Complex | USD 60,000+ |
| Sl. No | Operating System | Average Costs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | iOS | USD 30,000 |
| 2 | Android | USD 25,000 |
| 3 | Cross-platform | USD 45,000 |
Developing an intuitive and user-friendly ecommerce app takes a lot of time, effort, and planning. Even then, it may not proceed as you may have expected. That’s why you need to understand all you can about ecommerce app development. We believe that this guide has helped you clear most of your doubts regarding it. Just like working to understand the project’s nuances, you also must work hard to choose a reliable ecommerce app development company to help you. And if you are searching for one, Fullestop can help you.
With over a decade of experience in creating top-notch ecommerce mobile apps for different platforms, Fullestop can meet all your expectations. Our team of ecommerce developers offers custom services according to your design, development, and budgetary goals. At Fullestop, we also use the best technologies and frameworks to create an app that delivers the best user experience for your customers.
