The popularity of eCommerce sites has driven the growing trend of mCommerce app development. Is mCommerce an unfamiliar term? mCommerce stands for mobile commerce. The ubiquity of mobile devices in our daily lives has led to the development of eCommerce mobile apps or mCommerce apps.
mCommerce is still eCommerce, but, as the name suggests, mobile commerce is conducted on mobile devices. As a percentage of total eCommerce sales, mCommerce has been steadily rising for years. Experts estimate that mCommerce accounted for a majority of eCommerce sales in 2021. Thanks to the convenience of mobile commerce and the proliferation of mobile devices, this trend is expected to continue.
Your business needs to understand where its customers shop and create customer experiences tailored to their needs. There is a lot of competition in the eCommerce industry, and if your brand is not delivering impactful customer experiences, you will lose customers to your competitors.
This post will explain the advantages of having a mCommerce app and highlight some of the HiTech innovations that can be included in your organization’s eCommerce mobile app.
The Advantages of mCommerce Apps
If you sell products online, you need to understand the value of having a mCommerce app. When you understand the advantages of mobile commerce apps, your organization can dedicate the appropriate resources to developing mobile shopping experiences that delight users and drive sales. Here are the top advantages associated with mCommerce app development:
- Immediacy
- Better UX
- Personalized shopping experience
- Better customer support
- Direct marketing channel
Immediacy
A significant benefit of mobile apps is that they are easily accessed by users. Whenever your customers have a need, they can open your mCommerce app and quickly make purchases. Mobile apps are immediately available in a manner that even websites are not. Mobile commerce apps give customers direct access to your brand and product offerings.
In addition, mobile apps are faster and perform better than websites. This is because mobile commerce apps are designed to integrate with the mobile device’s hardware and utilize speedier frameworks. Furthermore, mobile apps can store data directly on a customer’s device, further speeding up the app’s operation and facilitating offline access.
Everyone has a mobile device. A mobile commerce app can help your business reach its customers where they are.
Better UX
Do you want to provide a better User Experience for your customers? A mobile commerce app will give your customers a better User Experience than a website. There are many reasons for this. We have already highlighted that mobile apps are faster than websites and take advantage of native hardware. In addition, a mobile commerce app can deliver a better User Interface than a mobile-responsive website.
However, the most important aspect of eCommerce that mobile commerce apps simplify is the checkout process. With an app, you can enable your customers to create profiles and enter their payment information that can be saved for expedited checkout with a click of a button. This simplicity reduces the rate of cart abandonment and increases sales for your organization.
Plus, users feel more secure storing their sensitive payment information on a mobile app because of the strict security standards that must be met to list an application on the two major app stores.
Personalized Shopping Experience
Mobile commerce apps are better at remembering customers and delivering unique experiences than websites. As we have already highlighted, mobile apps enable customers to create profiles. As a result, mobile commerce apps can deliver personalized shopping experiences to customers based on the items they regularly view, past purchases, and more.
A personalized shopping experience can help drive sales by increasing the total value of individual purchases by suggesting products that might be good to purchase in addition to the items in a customer’s cart. Furthermore, product recommendations and other personalizations might bring a customer’s attention to a product they might have otherwise missed.
Better Customer Support
Sometimes getting customer support can be an exercise in frustration and futility. Poor customer support can damage a brand’s reputation and drive customers away from a business. A mobile commerce app enables your business to provide better customer support directly from the app.
Good ways to provide customer support in mobile apps include direct chat, AI-powered chatbots, and call buttons that connect users with a support specialist. Enabling customers to simply contact your business with a click of a button enhances your brand reputation and strengthens your organization’s position in the market.
Good customer support and service can encourage users to shop longer and spend more money, which is beneficial for your business.
Direct Marketing Channel
In addition to all of the convenience mobile apps offer, a mobile commerce app is a direct marketing channel to your customers. There is no easier or more immediate way to reach your customers than through a mobile app. After all, people always have their mobile devices on them.
When you have a new product or sale that your organization wants to highlight, you can send your customers a push notification through your eCommerce mobile app. Through this effective marketing channel, you can increase customer awareness around products and promotions and drive more sales.
HiTech Innovations to Include in Your eCommerce Mobile App
If you want to create a mobile commerce app that truly delights your customers, you should consider including some of the latest innovations, such as:
- Augmented Reality
- Artificial Intelligence
- Big Data
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the most exciting technologies to add to your eCommerce mobile app. AR can be used to help customers virtually try on clothes, accessories, and makeup or visualize how a product will look in their home. Customers that can visualize how a product will look are more likely to make a purchase. Additionally, you can use Augmented Reality features to enhance your in-store shopping experience too.
Augmented Reality is a feature that consistently delights users when executed properly. If you want to create memorable customer experiences on your mobile app, your project management team should strongly consider adding Augmented Reality features to your mobile commerce app.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence can be used effectively to create personalized shopping experiences and assist customers that need help. While AI might not seem like a natural fit for eCommerce mobile apps, Artificial Intelligence is an important tool that can be used to power chatbots, create personalized recommendations for customers, and help your business optimize prices based on goals and forecasted market conditions.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the most popular tools being used in mobile app development. AI-powered features might not be as noticeable as AR to end users, but the results it produces for your business will be noticeable.
Big Data
Big Data is not a flashy feature that will excite users, but it will deliver valuable insights that help boost sales and drive customer engagement. Big Data tools will help your business collect and analyze the vast amount of customer data your mobile commerce app will generate. By using the insights your organization gets from Big Data, your team can optimize the User Experience of its mobile app, improve customer engagement levels, and increase sales.
Final Thoughts
mCommerce is more than the future of eCommerce. It is the ever-expanding present landscape in which your business must compete. If you don’t have an eCommerce mobile app yet, it is time to start developing one. If you want to learn more about mCommerce app development, reach out to an experienced app development partner to get started.
