What’s so amazing about the booming m-commerce trend?
The fact that I cannot seem to find a single domestic utility that is not tradable online. Apps for every utility appears to have flooded the app stores.
Here are the average number of Android apps made each day:
Majority of these would fall in retail and entertainment category. With years of app usage experience, people have learnt to filter out the waste and have understood what to keep on their mobile phones.
Retailers in this regard seem have formed the lucky clique of entrepreneurs.
So here’s to the retailers who have made through the digital disruption, running successful businesses around the city in stores and insides of the houses with apps and websites. You are the smarter commercial heroes!
Taking into account the fast-paced lifestyle that has derived from the digital revolution, people are not only willing but also enjoying the advantage of a more accessible, tech-advanced means of shopping.
So precisely having an app is the next important thing after having a business.
So how exactly does that trigger your sales and what are its other benefits?
Benefits of M-commerce
From Consumer’s Perspective
Convenience
An app that brings home food, clothes, grocery or even furniture, without you having to step out on streets is like a panacea. So, convenience is the quite obvious reason why a customer will choose to buy something.
Customers can buy products from any corner in the world without having to leave their workplace or home, through the internet. Even a bad weather isn’t an excuse to procrastinate shopping now.
Time-saving
It’s an undeniable fact that smartphones have made our lives easier and time efficient. This is the era of speed and ease, and the retail industry is smartly making the most of it.
Let’s take an example here: you take inspiration from others in fashion and clothing. The idea is that you directly contact the person whose clothing you liked, ask to take a photo of what they’re wearing, upload it and then present it with the same or similar options to purchase within the app right away. You won’t have to go down every lane in the market to find it. That’s a whole lot of time saved.
The hunt is a fashion app that lets you upload photos and type in a few details about an outfit you’re looking for, and your peer Hunt members. This is how it looks like:
More widely-used examples of time-saving when shopping via app include; the capacity to shop on-the-go, an often distinct and smarter user interface, saved favourites, and social media sharing.
Highly Personalised Experience
The retailers who are reaping the benefits of being “mobile-ready” such as high revenue and consumer retention; are those who are using advanced personalisation technology.
Amazon started this trend of personalisation back in 2013 when it began doing product recommendations to its customers, based on their past orders and browsing history.
Nowadays retailers are going that extra mile to offer a personal touch to a shopping experience, a step that is welcomed by consumers.
Retailers are advancing their tech to create better and personalised experiences which are having a great deal of effect on sales as well engagement. This is the evidence that the shopper is reacting to personalisation in a positive way.
Money- Saving
The overhead cost inclusive of middleman’s profit falls on the consumer. Since middlemen are not required, the customer is free from bearing this cost. To pull customers and to fight the competition, several business organisations offer product and services at a cheaper price.
Certain goods like e-books, music audio clips, the software can be bought and delivered through the internet. It saves cost for the buyers.
From An Entrepreneur’s Perspective
An e-commerce entrepreneur is at an edge with respect to following benefits offered by mobile applications.
Staying 24/7 Updated and Connected
Accumulating large customer base is just the tip of the iceberg. The real task is staying connected with them at all times. The e-commerce mobile application helps you do just that. It also gives you an additional benefit of providing the improved user experience.
Integrating social media platforms into your e-commerce app will help you leverage your customers’ social network channel to obtain a new audience. The recommendation chain can do a great deal of work in increasing your customer base and improving business functionality as users are able to share their feedback and the products that they’ve liked.
Leveraging GPS and Push Notifications
Giving everyday product and offer updates to your customers is the best way of gaining higher sales. You can create your mobile e-commerce app integrated with push notification features such as flash sales and deals, new arrivals, product updates and stock availability.
Mobile apps have much better opportunities for marketing. Front and rear camera, scan codes, a positioning system for location, compass, accelerometer, gyroscope and other built-in features can be used for commercial purposes. One of the top advantages of m-commerce solutions is navigating users to nearby stores in their vicinity via GPS using Geofencing mobile apps. All you have to do is share your location with the trusted apps.
Reducing Cost and Increasing Productivity
By reaching your customers faster with a mobile app, you cut down marketing campaign costs. If an app has social media integration, users will do their bit too in spreading the word. You can even earn revenue from placing ads in your app after it gets popular.
Besides app development, maintenance and support are cheaper as compared to a web store or other selling points. For example, average app support cost is 15% of initial development price. So, for an app that has cost you $50,000 you would have to shell just $7,500 annually for support. And with all customer data collected, you can boost your business up to 40%.
Understanding Deeper Analytics
Knowing your customers equals prosperity in business. Knowing customers demands data., Fundamental information like age, sex, location, shopping history are few to be named. Within your mobile app, you may build and set user analytics of different levels of refinement. It is based on your business strategy and a budget to make an app.
With such data, you will understand your target audience much better and will be able to improve sales. Names, phone numbers, emails, buying patterns and lots of other items in the store. For example, Walmart app that has 22 million of customer base every month, uses mobile data, online data and sales data combined to deliver better customer experience. It is a big infrastructure.
Smarter Monetisation Model
Below are some methods through which you can monetise your app, apart from selling products online:
Subscription Model
Based on the type of app, subscriptions are a wonderful way to build up a consistent and reliable revenue stream.
You have to offer your customers valuable content that they can keep coming back to. The key to success of this monetisation strategy is to keep content fresh.
Customers won’t see the value in buying your subscription if the content isn’t updated often. Reducing your app’s update cycle can offer more important to customers, entice them to visit your app, and motivate them to spend more time using your app.
Data Monetisation
Having privacy laws in mind, there are legal—and lucrative—avenues for selling the customer data you accumulate. Even if you don’t sell your data directly, it can still be used to influence non-mobile business decisions, and create hyper-targeted marketing campaigns for existing buyers.
Every mobile app is different, with unique desires and customer journeys; which means mobile app revenue models do not work with “write once and run anywhere” protocol all the time. To figure out what is best for you, consider what is least disruptive to your customers’ in-app experience first hand.
Whether you have your mobile app monetisation strategy all ironed out or are still in the process of solidifying a plan, keep these revenue models in mind as your app and business evolves.
Do More Than Just Making an App and a Website
Here’s a quick guide to getting a headstart in your mobile app strategy:
- Define who your customers are: Who is the target demographic for your business and your app? For example, if you’re observing a good deal of revenue from millennial age group, then social media could be a good marketing channel for you. You can gain insight into who would be your target demo by revisiting your buyer personas and coupling that with analysis of your purchasing patterns— who is buying what? This is a great way to start.
- Define your goals: Don’t jump into getting an app with zero goals or because everybody else is doing it! Nailing down a goal is crucial so you can measure your ROI. If the goal is email signups — note it. If the objective is increased sales of a particular product — note it. Outlining this at the start will save you a lot of overheads down the road.
- Define your acquisition funnel: Chalk out your acquisition funnel: attract, acquire, nurture, convert and retain. Take worst-case scenarios and see what you’re going to do in times of crisis.
- Track every metrics from day one: You must begin tracking everything from the beginning so that you can start collecting data on your customer buying pattern. Making early updates in low-performing steps of your marketing strategy can be a great way to pivot and re-route you to a successful m-commerce experience.
Conclusion
Retailers need to do more to satisfy the needs and behaviours of customers wherever they are, be that on mobile, desktop, or social.
Setting up an online portal and then expecting the revenue to flow in simply won’t work. M-commerce is about being proactive in getting in front of customers when they’re likely to make a purchase.
So lay down a perfect strategy and find your developers who’d guide you in real-time.
