A great inventory, a user-friendly sales portal, a seamless checkout process – these are all things any e-commerce site needs.
But what about a mobile app?
Apps have taken the world by storm, and you may have noticed that most of the big-name e-commerce sites out there have them. But are they necessary? If your site is doing well and has a good design, is it really imperative that you enter the mobile market?
Online shopping and mobile apps are popular for the same reason – they both provide quickness and convenience for basic functions like buying what you need or sending a message to friends.
Does this mean the mobile app is unnecessary when it comes to e-commerce sites? Not exactly – though the lack of an app won’t kill your online shopping business, you may be missing out on a lot of potential customers if you don’t have a presence in the mobile market.
Why Have a Site and a Mobile App?
Most people have had the experience of trying to open a desktop site on their mobile device. Sometimes it works, but sometimes there can be problems.
A page may not display correctly in one view or another, leaving some of the information cut off and requiring the user to adjust the zoom to compensate. This, in turn, can lead to frozen phones and even accidental clicks that put the user someplace they don’t want to be.
The reason many websites have a mobile version is to avoid these problems. Mobile app development company specialists know that users will leave a website if they can’t access it comfortably on their device of choice. For the person with the e-commerce site, this can mean lost business.
A person may not be able to scroll through a list of products to find what they want, or they may have trouble moving through the checkout process to complete a transaction. Desktop sites don’t always translate well on mobile devices but having both a site and an app lets you reach customers on the device they prefer.
One of the main concerns e-commerce companies have about Android or iOS app development is how they can implement the buying and browsing processes into a mobile setting.
E-Commerce and Mobile Mesh Well
People like shopping online, and they like mobile phones – this means developers figured out quickly that they needed to combine these two technologies.
With over half of traffic coming from mobile devices, it is imperative e-commerce site owners learn how to translate their site to this platform as well. App developers have become highly skilled at helping all aspects of the e-commerce experience make their way to mobile devices.
Consider the category function of a shopping site. Being able to narrow down your search based on certain parameters like brand or price makes it much easier to find what you’re looking for – even if you aren’t sure about exactly what that is. Good mobile apps make it easy for users to browse on their device of choice, without presenting aspect problems or other common issues.
There’s also the checkout process, which is important for both transaction authenticity and the protection of a person’s private payment data. App developers can create secure setups that make it easy for a person to buy what they want and do it seamlessly and safely all the way through the transaction.
Businesses of All Sizes Can Benefit
When a company is involved with e-commerce, they may be local, regional, national, or even global in their scope.
No matter how large an organization is, they can still benefit from supplementing their e-commerce website with a mobile app. All the inventory and payment information can be displayed through the app, giving it the same level of functionality as the desktop site.
An enterprise app development company can help even the largest business excel in the mobile market, optimizing their apps for nearby locations and ensuring they offer the same level of convenience as the company’s desktop site.
Apps can also help smaller companies get the necessary reach to grow, while providing the stable e-commerce controls they need. Whether the app should accommodate multiple payment plans, offer discounted shipping for members, or tailor a person’s search to their previous preferences, app development professionals can make it happen.
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