Is it worth to spend in Mobile app for my eCommerce store ?

As per the current trend, 1.6 billion people to use a mobile app for shop online and about 68% of the companies have a mobile app for their success in the eCommerce business.
There are several reasons for a consumer to buy from mobile phone and it will give clear direction why such investment becomes necessary:

More personalized, more enhanced user experience

Building a mobile app as an online retailer will give you peerless scope to reach out straightway to your target audience and engage with them personally. You can set up multiple channels to communicate, interact and engage customers; for example, you can integrate the app with social media sites, provide in-app chat or texting option, etc. You can also send personalized discounts and vouchers to specific customers. In short, a mobile app offers numerous opportunities for personalization, which ultimately lead to more traffic, higher conversion and improved ROI.

Customer Loyalty with real-time customer service

Using notification pop-ups or directly sending the text message to their devices, an e-commerce mobile app lets you stay constantly in touch with your customers, thereby building a more loyal customer, unlike those who accidentally visit your desktop sites after being redirected from ads or online searches. Ability to contact the retailers in real time using in-app tools or features like live chat has gone viral among shoppers. Real-time customer service which can be achieved by integrating with AI (Artificial intelligent) systems and business analytics software can help online retailers grow in customer relationship management.

With Cross-channel targeting, accelerated customer acquisition

Allowing customers or prospects to seamlessly shift from one channel to another like smartphones, tablet devices etc., e-commerce business today can flourish from a slow-moving one to be counted amongst the top ones. Acknowledging that apps are not just an add-on to your cross-channel selling, these also form the most important element which you can’t ignore adding to the network.

With the Increased conversion rate

As per a recent study by Responsys, the in-app promotion seems to offer higher conversion rates compared to email newsletter campaigns. Offering special discounts to customers who install their apps or while customers shop from their apps instead of shopping from their desktop portals, eCommerce merchants strategically trap their target audience. Engaging features like how to videos, style tips, customers’ recommendations, and reviews are embraced by a mobile app more, which ultimately help you get the higher conversion and higher sales.

Augmentation of the in-store purchase experience

As a retailer for a brick-mortar store, location-based personalization will be ideal for you because for a customer who just steps into your store while at the same time browses your app in his Smartphone can opt to be open to any sales message from you. For instance, when you send an invite to customers nearing your store, you can stimulate them to visit your store and purchase. Setting of in-store mode’ into your app with cutting-edge features like mobile payments, maps, and stock/inventory updates would lead to a closer conversion.

Improved Usability

With high definition images, various animations, and sophisticated interactions for your users, your app can improve interactivity unlike a web page which takes time for a page to load or you have to go through such a process whenever you need to buy or shop for anything, thereby, allowing smoother navigation and thus save time.

Ability to Use Built-in Smartphone Features

GPS, inbuilt camera, microphones are some interesting features which enhance your app’s usability helping you promote your business.

Specialized Apps

As your business specializes in a particular product or e-commerce domain, you can have a unique app for it, for instance, different apps for clothing, footwear, perfumes, and beauty products if your company offers clothing and beauty products.

Conclusion:

Thus under the light of the above significant reason, it is worthwhile to invest in mobile app development in this competitive age which leaves no area of the industry to ace business profits.

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Top eCommerce Platforms for your Business

Arguably the most important aspect of any online retail experience is an eCommerce platform which cannot succeed – or even function – without some kind of checkout solution. For many businesses to effectively implement these solutions in-house can be difficult, expensive and even outright impossible. It can be very difficult to figure out which shopping cart software best meets your needs, especially in a market as saturated as the eCommerce platform market. E-commerce companies continue to innovate and deliver increasingly powerful features of their platforms due to increasing competition and the growing demands of customers for ultra-convenience.

Additionally, new entrants with non-technical backgrounds can be seen in the market as the simplicity of these platforms is tremendously growing. Under the light of these trends and changing requirements of the modern e-commerce business, here are the 5 best eCommerce platforms that are likely to serve a range of entrepreneurs (from individuals to established merchants) most effectively in 2017.

BigCommerce:

BigCommerce launched in 2009 currently hosts over 55,000 online stores and the platform ideally caters to stores of all sizes from big names like Martha Stewart & Toyota to SMEs. It is often considered the best option for those who have little to no technical knowledge, or simply don't have time to mess with the code. Lack of free themes is one big concern with this platform by currently offering only 7 free themes, while most of their immediate competitors offer more than 20 free themes. Unless we give them our email and sign up for their 15-day, themes previews will not be available to you. Potential users find their themes pretty out-dated giving the feel of 2008’s usage with lack of the ‘WOW’ factor.

Woocommerce:

Created by the developers from WooThemes (and acquired by Automattic) WooCommerce is a plugin that doesn't deliver any specific design traits on its own, providing you the means to sell products and services online. However, the design part is left to your current or future WordPress theme. There is a chance that it may not be compatible with your existing theme, although it is easy to install on a WordPress site. And if you’ve already set up your site, changing the look of your entire site can be a hassle. It doesn’t have the advanced functionality as some of the other e-commerce options because WooCommerce is a plugin for an existing a platform and not a platform of its own. Also, multiple languages or currencies is not supported or neither thus it allows users to set up more than one storefront. Even features like reporting and analytics aren’t very strong, either. Thus, WooCommerce is a no-brainer if you’re a small business owner or if you just want to sell a few products on your existing WordPress site.

Opencart:

This steadily growing platform has quietly become one of the best eCommerce platforms out there. It still boasts a strong developer community though it might not be as large as Magento. Though its speed to market capabilities is good, one of the biggest disadvantages of the OpenCart is that it hasn't good hook system like in the Drupal or Event system like in the Symfony.OpenCart 2.0 is trying to cover up such issues but they are still at the early stage of development without which you can do nothing programmatically from your module. Without editing the OpenCart core code, you can't even add the new menu item. Using vQmod or manually is one solution for editing but is prone to changing the core files using string functions and causes a lot of conflicts.  

Prestashop:

Prestashop officially launched in August 2007 for small and medium-sized businesses, is a free open-source eCommerce solution for Web 2.0. that uses the Smarty template engine for PHP. Though it provides free download-able versions from their website, additional elements like modules, templates, and themes must be purchased from the PrestaShop store. An absence of official support channels for its users has been annoying customers to its core when it comes to resolving any issue related to the platform. Bug fixes and new options about twice a month are released by the script programmers, which makes it known to everybody what kind of vulnerabilities there are in older versions so someone could use it on older scripts. When it comes to security issues an update is required, but unfortunately applying those fixes takes a considerable know-how. Automatic updates which, as of yet, are not available in PrestaShop can only break this vicious circle. Another big concern before one picks this platform is that built-in functionalities in other free scripts can often turn out to be payable in PrestaShop. So it's worth considering if the paid functionality you're after is really that necessary or maybe another script could offer it for free? Even hindrance is found in the scripting architecture can at some point or it can prevent a programmer from further developing the cart.

Magento:

The way Magento is set up makes it easy to use it for search engine optimization and you can even use it as a catalog-management tool. A recent partnership with eBay makes the system even more powerful and adds more developers to the community.

Magento Vs PrestaShop 

• From small to medium sized business are the main target for Prestashop, while Magento caters to the medium to large business.
• You will find Magento a better fit if you’re knowledgeable of technology and web design.
• While Magento has 15 versions, PrestaShop only has seven. 
• In the Twitter world, Magento kills PrestaShop with three times as many followers. 
• Over and above, Magento’s SEO features cannot be found in any other eCommerce solution

Magento Vs Woocommerce

• All in all, for small businesses, WooCommerce is the best solution. Magento 2 is perfectly suitable for both big and small businesses.
• Magento 2 surpasses Woocommerce with Advanced product search as well.
• Being a system for e-commerce purposes, so it performs way better than WooCommerce if a number of complex needs have to be satisfied.

Magento vs Opencart:

With worldwide recognition for its ability to do just about anything you like and build the store of your dreams, Magento offers highly customizable shopping experiences, unlimited design options, powerful SEO resources, and unlimited plugins and integration. Even if it’s not on there, then surely a talented and certified Magento developer can create that solution for you. On the other hand, OpenCart has a smaller community basis and will be a pitfall if giant companies rely on them.

Magento vs Bigcommerce:

14% of the group in the top million eCommerce sites have running Magento 2 and the stores building up with BigCommerce is only about 4%. While BigCommerce users go down to 1% amongst the top 10k e-commerce sites, both of Magento 2 Community and Enterprise editions account for 20%.

Conclusion:

Thus we arrive at a consensus that Magento with plenty of features is an open-source eCommerce solution with all kinds of flexibility. You have the control and can change the look, content and how it functions by using this magnificent platform. Founded in 2001 and backed with plenty of experience, you won’t struggle to find answers to your questions. Our smooth journey with Magento is another reason for you to choose this number one e-commerce player for a long-term growth in business.

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