How Does a Retail Mobile App Can Be Impactful To Your Business?
In this age of digitization, everything is going mobile and this concept has proven to be so true to modern retailers than anybody else in this world.
Not agreed with me?
A decade ago, have you ever thought of buying products using Voice commands, operating electrical devices with IoT integrated smart devices, or trying your jewelry virtually? The increasing number of smartphone users and mobile applications have dramatically changed the shopping habits of the customers. And being into the retail business, it’s essential to keep monitoring your customers’ changing psychology if you really wish to see your brand in the next decades.
“If you’re not using mobile marketing to attract new customers to your business, don’t worry- your competitors are already using it and are getting those customers instead.”
(Jamie Turner — Founder and Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second Marketer)
In fact, it won’t be wrong to say, from teenagers to adults, moms to grandma, businesses to enterprises, everyone has become smartphone holics.
Here’s the critical Statistics of the market that brings the truth to you…
Market Insights of Mobile App Users, Downloads and Revenue
- According to the studies, over 3.2 billion smartphone users worldwide are spending 88% of mobile time on the applications.
- The leading mobile app stores (Android or iOS) are expected to have 33.6 billion app downloads in Q1 of 2020 and expected to generate over $935 billion in revenue by 2023.
- A survey has discovered that 21% of millennials open an app 50+ times each day whereas 49% of people open an app 11+ times each day.
- The average smartphone users access 10 apps per day and 30 apps in a month.
- Consumers have downloaded 204 billion application in 2019 that is 45% higher than in 2016 and that numbers are climbing high.
And with the prediction of taking a steep jump from $205 billion in 2020 to $488 billion in 2024, it is safe enough to say that m-commerce is poised to burst into the mainstream. And all thanks to the emerging technologies and innovations that mobile app development companies are blending into the retail business application.
Why Have Mobile Applications Become a New Hue In Retail Business Industry?
The market statistics and projection of mobile applications portrayed a progressive path for m-commerce. They turned out to be a major channel of shopping these days and fulfilling the customer’s changing needs. With the increasing responsiveness and highly interactive UI of mobile applications, now more than half of the internet traffic is preferred shopping from a smartphone as compared to the PC.
According to the statistics, 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device in the last 6 months.
And the number of online sales will keep growing at the fast-paced as the majority of leading social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or even Instagram has launched the “Buy Button” to allow shoppers make purchases without having to deal with any complicated procedures. In addition, these apps are already integrated with in-app payment modules that allow you to leverage a highly secured payment gateway.
According to the survey, it has been discovered that US online retail sales of physical goods and Apparel & accessories retail e-commerce in the US is projected to generate $476.5 billion and $153.6 billion in 2024.
With all these facts pointing out that app usage will continue to grow and will be a significant contributor to online retail sales growth. The modern tech-savvy consumers have the ability to boost sales volume, as they are likely to do a substantial percentage of shopping from their smartphones.
Besides, with the prediction that mobile share of global ecommerce will be 58% in coming years, making an investment in the retail business app has become important for all retailers.
Undoubtedly, mobile applications are becoming more and more popular these days in retail. And if you really wish to keep your business up to date with the market trends, then it is the time to consider retail business mobile app development solutions. So before you drill straight into learning how to hire the best mobile app development company, it is worth knowing about the best frameworks to develop retail business app for Android/iOS platforms.
How To Create a Cross-Platform Retail Business App Using Top Frameworks & Tools?
When it comes to developing an application for your business, the first and most essential question is to determine whether you are planning to target users on any specific native platform or try to reach out the wider market with multiple apps?
With 3.42 million and 3.04 million apps available in the Apple App Store and Google play store, respectively, undoubtedly, both of these platforms are capturing 92% of the share of the app store. And these statistics are clearly pointing to the fact that creating an application for both of these platforms can help you target a large segment of users.
Coming to the other side, hiring app developer to create a cross-platform app will cost you less than developing a native app for both platforms. Also, there are a number of frameworks and tools available in the market that enables you to create an application that seamlessly runs on multiple platforms.
So here are the few top choices of frameworks and tools that you can choose to create a retail business app compatible to run on all major platforms:
1. Google’s Flutter
With blending years of experience along with hard efforts, Google has again surprised the mobile app development industry with the launch of Flutter in 2017. Flutter is an advanced software development kit that provides you with powerful mobile UI and widgets that make the entire development process easier, simpler and faster.
Google has defined Flutter as a UI toolkit that has been widely used for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web and desktop although by using a single codebase. Being based on Google’s programming language DART, one thing is safe to say that Flutter will not be going anywhere in the future.
This is why, despite being a new framework, it is being deployed by the biggest ecommerce platform — Alibaba for their application and leveraging 50+ million users.
Key Features of Flutter
- Ensuring quick and easy development
- Reduce app maintenance and testing efforts
- Offering a wide choice of widgets on Google’s material design
Pro Tip:
The average cost to hire mobile app developer can be ranging from $50 to $150 in India, USA and Europe.
2. Facebook’s React Native
React Native is Facebook’s contribution and an open-source framework that is widely used to create cross-platform applications.
React Native, as its name suggests, it is offering an intuitive native app development platform fundamentally based on React that is one of the popular libraries of JavaScript and widely leveraged by Software development companies to build Native UI interfaces. Being based on JavaScript, offering a built-in library of components and a community-driven framework, it has quickly taken the world by storm and secured its position as a top choice of framework.
However, the major downside of React Native is that it is not recommended for the novice. To develop an app using React Native, you need to hire an app developer having strong command over JavaScript. But Startup and enterprises can create any scale of the retail business app with React Native.
Key Features of React Native
- Ensuring easy integration
- Developers can use it for building powerful mobile apps
- Developers can leverage large communities.
3. Microsoft’s Xamarin
Xamarin is an open-source platform that is being supported and launched by Microsoft. It is also a cross-platform app framework that is based on “write once run any model” (WORA). Basically, this open-source cross-platform mobile app development platform, that was launched to resolve the problems associated with all native technology stacks.
Further, if you plan to develop an app using Xamarin, you need to hire an app developer having experience handling .NET development projects.
Key Features of Xamarin
- Providing seamless support for the latest APIs, libraries and programming languages.
- Offering a mobile UI framework that delivers excellent user experience across the different OS.
- Developers can access to native APIs and NuGet packages.
Best Supporting Technologies For Creating Retail Business App That Makes You Profit
Undoubtedly, the mobile app wave is sweeping worldwide, but the rise of online shopping is completely dependent upon the brick-and-mortar of your retail store. The prime aim of eCommerce is to capitalize on consumer’s needs and add a great level of convenience and allowing customers to get everything ordered with just a click on the app.
So with the changing market scenario, if you really wish to stay active and competitive in this digital wave, it has become essential for retailers to revolutionize the way they reach customers.
According to Brian Solis, a principal analyst at Altimeter Group, “despite being launching a mobile application, so many retailers are failing as there’s still a disconnection with who the customer is, what they shop, why they shop and how they shop”.
In other words, if you really want to survive in this cut-throat competitive market, you need to deliver a good customer experience. And many companies try to implement emerging technologies to deliver excellent user experience without understanding why. So the retailers who have been trying to digitize more of the physical experience to connect with the customer more effectively, it’s important for them to integrate the right choice of technology in the application.
And here are the best choice of technologies that you can choose to integrate in your retail business app:
AI Voice Commands For Seamless Shopping Experience
Have you ever thought of asking Google’s Siri to search for the best online items? Whether its Google’s Siri or Alexa, voice controls have gained immense popularity in the retail space and contribute to further enhancing the customer experience.
In fact, according to the survey, it has been predicted that 94% of searches are done by using voice commands by 2025. Smart speakers integrated with virtual assistance like Amazon Alexa can allow customers to search and order their stuff right from their application and saves customer’s time and energy while shopping.
AI Chatbot For 24*7 Customer Support
A chatbot is one of the most well-familiar applications of AI in ecommerce application development that can help you deliver 24*7 customer care support to the users. A chatbot is a computer program that simulates a human to communicate with customers and provide support during the purchase process. Basically, they are designed to streamline the process and optimize the customer experience.
This technology’s remarkable feature is it automates order processes and provides 24/7 customer services by simply tracking the customer behaviour, collecting and analysing the data. Since chatbot is proof to be an effective tool in improving customer experience, therefore, it is expected that Chatbot will generate more than 8 billion US Dollars by 2022. Business apps developed with AI technology will provide excellent customer services and enhance their experience.
Blockchain For Secure and Simple Payment Methods
These days, retail apps are already offering some of the convenient payment methods such as Cash On Delivery (COD), Unified Payment Interface (UPI), PayPal, Payment Wallet, Net Banking, wire transfer, debit/credit card and more.
Customers have been using these payment methods for a long time, so they might not prefer to change the way they make payments while shopping online. But, Blockchain as a decentralized and secured payment method, can change their behaviour towards payment in future.
With Blockchain, customers can send money directly to the retailers without bearing any transaction fees. This method allows customers to make instant yet clear payments and ensure speedy shopping experience. Since Blockchain is based on decentralized payment procedure, there is no risk of storing data on the third party server and can’t be hacked.
How Much Does It Cost To Develop a Retail Business App in 2021?
“Developing a retail business app in 2021 integrated with all the leading technologies and features can cost you somewhere $15,000 to $50,000+ and can go to any expensive cost depending upon various factors.”
While estimating the retail business app’s development cost, several app development companies can claim you to develop it under $5000. But before you fall for this marketing trap, it is advised to ask for the breakups.
Since mobile app development cost is driven by various factors (features, functionality, the complexity of the app, development team, location, and more), it is hard to conclude the final cost without analysing the clients’ business requirements.
At last, launching your retail business app is somewhat like introducing a movie. With your app design, its structure, product categorization, colour theme, loading time, integrations and features- users will decide whether they want to continue with your app and make a purchase or not.
Also, the biggest concern with the retail business app is, it should look and feel authentic to the user and deliver a satisfying shopping experience.
So, if you are expecting a blockbuster of your movie, then instead of relying on freelancer or student work, it makes sense to hire a professional team of developers in India with $25 to $50+ per hour cost.
Conclusion
Whether you are a startup or a leading entrepreneur who has been planning to create an online presence of your brand, can hopefully make their first step towards realizing the potential of your business with a new retail app. With the help of various studies and researches, I’ve tried to round up all the information that you may need while developing an app. So if still, you have any doubt about estimations or features that you can integrate into your retail app, then it is recommended to get in touch with a software development company to attain best app development ideas and suggestions.
