The time to go mobile has arrived. Mobile has entered all the sectors and it is dominating the economy. Mobile has entered the retail field and most of the retailers have started using mobile apps for their business to happen in the easier way. A research has found that almost half of the online retail sales in the largest EU markets will take place on mobile devices by 2018. It is expected that the phone and Tablet commerce is expected to grow more than 50% in the U.K. the Deloitte survey found that about 80% of people use their smartphone within the first 60 minutes of the day. In the case of the retailers, the question is not about whether to focus on the mobile, but the question is how.
Often, retailers think that mobile is “good to have”. Shoppers are moving faster than expected. They are actively shifting from device to device. Only the retailers who evolve at a shopper’s pace will thrive through the business.
Retailers will have their own website for their business, then why to invest in the app? The reasons are as follows.
- Apps will perform better than websites
One face that is undeniable is that motive mobile apps will provide more reliable, faster experience to the users. Compared to the websites, apps will provide more responsive service and they will have very few connectivity issues. Mobile apps provide the customers the new way to relate and coordinate with customers. By using mobile apps, retailers provide convenient and personalized shopping experience to the customers. Most of the customers will use their mobile within the first 1 hour of the day; it will be the better opportunity for the company to place their logo at the front or center of the user’s device. Moreover, a native app will allow the retailers to send promotional push messages to the customer’s inbox. Push messages are the strong marketing channel for the company’s brand. They have higher rates than email; they can directly reach the customer wherever they are. This communication tool can be combined with location-based technology, with this, the retailers can reach their customers at preferable movements and they can increase the customer journey with the company. Apps will also have the features like GPS, address book, Bluetooth, and camera for credit card scanning and processing. Native apps will also get benefits from the App Stores. App Stores are the place where they will be discovered by new customers.
- Apps serve cross-channel customers
The rapid growth of smartphones and tablets allowed customers to shop through the multiple channels. Mobile devices are at the customer side throughout day and night. Apps have become a matter of merging in-store efforts and digital into the logical retail experience, which will engage all the shoppers at home and will create a digital experience.
If the divisions between the online and offline blur further, then there are chances for more and more retailers to adopt a cross-channel approach. Retailers who qualify customers to move easily between varieties of channels are at the first place of cross-channel commerce. Most of the retailers accept that customers spend more time when brands sell through different well-connected channels. It is confirmed that customers who buy products from the company over mobile, online, and in-store spend more than five times as the one who normally buys only from the desktop. The brand’s e-Commerce app will be the important part of the business’s cross-channel retail presence. The top e-Commerce apps are the integral parts of a much larger marketing strategy.
- Satisfy customer demands
About 96% of the internet retailing top 25 retailers and 125 retailers of 43% retailing have transactional mobile apps. Why do they so? The reason for this is simple, customers demand them to do. Mobile apps are becoming the favorable way for brands for interacting with customers. Weve, O2, Vodafone, EE’s joint mobile marketing network conducted a survey, in which, it was found that about 46% of the people between the ages 18-34 said that mobile was their first screen and 17% of them said that TV is their first screen. And some of the brands invest heavily in the television marketing too.
- Accomplish sales targets
The Juniper research expects that the m-Commerce market will reach 2 trillion pounds by the end of 2017; whereas, it was 93 billion pounds in 2013. For retailers, success depends on, how they predict, embrace and adapt themselves to the changing customer behaviors. Apps are the fastest growing factor in e-Commerce. A study has found that retail apps occupy 42% of the mobile revenue for the top 500 retailers. And it was also found that iPhone app sales have increased to 67%, iPad sales have increased to 58% and above all, Android has increased to 206% in the aspect of sales.
- Enlarge conversion and window shopping
Most of the customers feel that conversion and the transaction value are higher on the apps than the mobile sites. Tablets apps are showing the gradual increase in both profitability and conversion. The customer apps will enhance the conversion by about 1.75%, whereas the website increases by 0.98%.
The fact is that mobile apps may not achieve much revenue as desktop or mobile websites, but brands should not discount the window shopping function of mobile apps. ABI research surveyed the US customers, in which, 40.4% of respondents said that they have downloaded the retail apps and they buy more and more products because of the reliable and friendly service and 45% of the respondents have said that the app caused them to visit the store again and again. Walmart said that customers who use retail mobile app spend 40% more time than the customers who don’t use.
- Increases customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is the most important factor that every brand should possess. In the aspect of customer loyalty, the app, which is installed on the phone, provides a great way to keep in touch with their customer. Push notifications have 50% better open rate than promotional emails. Push messaging gives a special power to the retailers to connect directly and personally with the customers. Push messages are not like emails and they appear right on the smartphone’s lock screen and the recipient must respond each message, either by tapping it to open or to dismiss. If the push messages are tied up the iBeacon technology, then they can greet customers when they walk into the stores and they can send any useful information about their outfit, offer special discounts to the customers who have downloaded the company’s app.
- Personalize the shopping experience
Mobile apps provide a great opportunity to the retailers to engage with their customers personally. It can create a special conversation between the brand and the customer. New innovations in the mobile technology enable the retailers to push messaging, in-app messaging and many other such tools such as interactive notifications to send and receive relevant and personalized communications with the customers and some useful widgets as well. The mixture of push notification and in-app rich messaging has created a true and valuable solution that has been proved to improve engagement, conversion, and revenue.
Having a mobile app not only allow the retailers to engage with the customers but provides a path to understanding their behavior. Customers, on the other hand will use the app to find out information on every aspect about the brand. This will help the retailers to personalize their app-based interactions with customers.
Author Bio:
Anand Rajendran is CEO and Co-Founder of Zoplay.com, best PHP scripts development company located in India. Zoplay is a part of Casperon Technologies a leading social and mobile development company which developed a Zoplay Scripts. I'm a Tech geek, Digital marketing expert, Entrepreneur, and Atheist who loves to write everything about PHP Scripts and mobile application development.