About 60 % of users around the globe are mobile users. This is so because smartphones are easy to use and are more accessible. If so many people use mobile phones, creating an online shopping app like Amazon must be the first and easiest investment that a business-minded person might think of. If this is one of the first articles you are reading about mobile shopping app development, then you are at the right place. We will talk about:
- Key trends to follow to create an online shopping app
- Most popular shopping apps
- Features that should be included
- Tech Stack of a Shopping App
- Cost to build your own shopping app.
Equipped with this information you can go on with your search and come up with an idea that may bring you good money, I don’t want to tell you millions, although that might also be the case. Just a small figure: the mobile e-commerce revenue was $3.56 trillion in 2021. Want your piece of the pie? Let’s get started!
Key trends to follow to create an online shopping app
In this part, I will give you a list of trends to follow in mobile shopping app development. I can even create a shopping app like Amazon if you are watchful of these trends. Have a look. Each trend may need deeper research and consideration:
- 5G technology
- Progressive web apps
- Wearable apps
- Edge computing
- Beacon technology
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- mCommerce
- On-demand mobile apps
- Blockchain
- Wallet for mobile
- Chatbots
- P2P apps
- The Internet of Things
- Virtual and augmented reality
- Smart hubs
- Biometric identification.
Most popular shopping apps
Here is a list.
What is amazing in the list is that Amazon ranks only 4th and Alibaba is the 9th. What makes a shopping app popular? Why do people download one shopping app more than others?
Forrester research shows that there are 3 main reasons why some apps are more successful. These are speed, convenience, and personalized experience.
But my question about why some apps are more popular than others is still valid. After all, most apps recognize that they should provide a speedy, convenient, personalized experience.
For example, why is Meesho ranking number one? When I was researching the topic, I found several reasons. One is that Meesho is easy to use. Second, it offers low prices. It also offers affordable shipping and returns. And it has a very specific market – India.
But what amazed me more was the idea that only those companies succeed that have the right work culture and vision to follow.
It may seem unimportant but to me, exceptional individuals running the business determine its success. And that’s true. Just read biographies of CEOs and you will see that they are the ones that push the work culture and vision at their companies. To name a few. Tim Cook (Apple). Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Andy Iassy (Amazon), Elon Mask (Tesla), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta (Facebook)).
Features that should be included
You can read about detailed lists of features to be included when you create an online shopping app elsewhere. That’s not my task. I want to ask a simple question. What features bring you success?
And here is what I found.
Simplicity is number one on the list. It should be super simple to sign up, navigate, add to a cart, get access to multiple payment options, add to wish lists, etc. To tell you frankly, the commerce market has created a lot of lazy bone customers. And I mean that! Once they feel the slightest discomfort while creating a profile or browsing the images, they are likely to leave you.
The second thing that I found is that you have to stand out somehow. For example, you can offer discounts or coupons, or special membership offers.
Easily accessible customer service is another thing to consider. Chatbots are not enough! You should have a team that cares!
And finally, customized and interactive user experience. We live in the age of AI and Machine Learning. It’s so easy to collect user data. If you make your offers based on consumer preference, you are likely to have them continue using your retail application regularly.
Tech Stack of a Shopping App
It’s hard to say which tech stack is the best for a shopping app because the best tools depend on several factors. For example, the complexity of an app is a determining factor. Some tools like Java are good for large projects with complex tasks. Another thing is niche characteristics. In the case of e-commerce, a combination of Angular and NodeJS frameworks works bests. They are scalable, flexible, and very available.
In order to decide which tech stack is good for your case, you should ask a number of questions.
- What is the number of users I expect?
- Is it better to buy or build code?
- What does your team know the best?
- Are there enough developers for that tech stack in the market?
- Is the package good enough in case you scale up?
Cost to build your own shopping app.
Now we come to the big issue. How much money should you expect to spend? Sure, I will not give you the answer right away but I will come up with a list of shopping apps with their budgets. You can make your own judgment based on this data. Maybe you want to create a shopping app as big as Amazon. Or, maybe you want to build a small app just for your small town. Let’s have a look at some figures on the cost of a mobile app.
The average cost of development for an e-commerce website like Amazon is about $60,000 – $80,000.
The approximate cost of the development of an app like Alibaba is USD 41,000.
The total cost of a retail app may be as low as $10,000. You can find such in India.
Wrapping up
Ok, so you now have an idea of what it is like to create an online shopping app. I highly recommend you keep on your search and find out more information. But if you have a fabulous idea already, it’s high time to put the idea into a nice and neat shopping app and jump into the crazy market to make crazy money. Those that don’t try never win!
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