“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job daily to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.
Digital apps are vital for your business to work in a profitable manner even though you already have a super-functional eCommerce website.
Still, there are fewer chances of customers buying from a website. But, are most likely to use an online shopping app for convenience. Besides, they will arrive on the website to learn more about the business rather than try out the products.
One of the important reasons to create a shopping app separately is to touch the wide shopper’s market. Moreover, prior to understanding the app development process, it is crucial to know why it is a great decision to get a shopping app for your business.
It’s time to kick-start your journey towards building an eCommerce app that can help you to win through the market.
Why it is Crucial to Make an eCommerce App for Your Business?
In this world of automated technology, when everything is at our fingertips, e-commerce is not the thing that is left behind. The current best shopping apps like Amazon, ASOS, Rakuten and alike them have paved the way to success by giving various features to shoppers
Though, the mobile retail app is to gain sales of 710.42 US billion dollars. Remaining mobile orders through smartphones will reach 112.29 billion dollars by the end of this year. Hence, much more scope will be around going digital with the retail businesses.
The best online shopping apps are taking a giant leap toward the current retail market because convenience, discount, and quality are the primary customer expectations. Hence, developing an app is a fruitful idea to give broader scope to the business.
Now, let’s directly jump into understanding the steps to create an eCommerce app development process.
How to Create a Shopping App: Here is a 7-Step Development Process
The stepwise procedure is here discussed below for going ahead in making the shopping app:
1) Extensive Market Research
As an app owner, you must start researching the app idea for your website’s shopping app development to understand and make a list of additional and desired things by customers.
Taking market research as a first step can also help you find the potential audience by creating user personas to understand the needs and pain points of the customers.
It is necessary to do extensive research and peep into competitor apps to get more references for the market to get the perfect software development ideas.
2) Finalize The App Idea & Features
After the in-depth research, it’s time to finalize the app idea after conducting extensive research as it is understandable to customers and their expectations from the market at this stage. The study forms a clear picture of the app that they want to establish the design app concept that can strengthen long-term success in the market.
This step will ensure the best mobile app development strategy and can help put the first solid step towards creating a shopping app that brings an exclusive online store experience to the customers.
And then, start with the eCommerce app development process of features like authentication and security, build an account and admin, database, and integrate the payment gateway for better app development features.
3) Technology Stack That Can Be Used for Developing Your Online Shopping App
Tech-stack means the collection of programming languages, frameworks, and other technology. It is divided into two categories: front end and back end.
Moreover, choosing the best tech stack will help you give scalability and flexibility during shopping app development. The business requirements you are considering in your app play an influential role in developing the app.
Choose the tech based on your app requirement. For instance, whether you’re going for Hybrid or native app development. The app development company you hire will give you the best suggestions on choosing the tech stack.
4) Professional UI/UX design
Time to create the UI/UX proforma to provide users with a seamless experience. Besides, collect excellent e-commerce app design tips for better app UI design to gain a more fantastic user experience and build exceptional app features.
This phase of your shopping app development contains sub-steps like creating wireframes, prototypes, app design, and much more. In short, your app idea will come into reality for the first time with this phase.
5) Online Shopping App Development
Beforehand deciding on the app concept is essential, but the app development approach is also necessary. And it depends on which platform you will launch your app on, whether Android or iOS. These is the main process that is required to be considered while in the path to create a shopping app:
This first part mainly includes the server side and database mobile app functionalities. Moreover, using the existing back-end platform may require you to make the perfect modifications per your shopping app requirements.
The second part includes the API, a communication method between the back-end server and the database. It allows you, as an app owner, to create a scalable interface for the secured exchange of data between the front end and back end.
The front end is a built app and is expected to run smoothly when the user installs it. It is an experience to know whether data transmission between the front-end and back-end is established correctly or not. Mainly, this part ensures the app’s scalability and helps gain a real-time experience for the end-user.
These three integral parts for creating a shopping app are crucial to building a successful app in the current eCommerce market.
6) Testing & Launching of the Shopping App
Your customers expect a high-performing app that takes no time to load and works without glitches. If you serve them exactly what they want, nothing can stop your app from being number one in the current e-commerce market.
After the development process, it is necessary to test the quality and functionality before thorough completion to build a shopping app for Android and iOS.
Hence, before you put them on the app stores for the user to experience and download from google play, ensure it has an on-point quality to survive this cut-throat competition.
7) On-Time Updates
Then, with team support, you include time-to-time market updates to make it more user-friendly if necessary for the business. The team of developers will provide you with the same before they completely hand over this online shopping app.
Hence, these seven step processes will thoroughly help you to create a shopping app that is highly accessible and convenient.
Types of Online Shopping Apps to Choose the Best for Your Business
These are the four main types of online shopping apps that can help in offering a dynamic experience to customers:
1) App Giving Deals on the Products
It is the kind of app that will help your customer find the best local deals near their location for purchasing various products. This shopping app integrates different apps and brands to give customers the best price and help them save a chunk of money.
It is one of the best ways to create a shopping app experience for people who love shopping but prefer to spend less on products; they tend to rely on discounts.
The best shopping apps offering the great deals and discounts are Krazy Coupon Lady, ShopSavvy, and everyone’s favorite Groupon also gives convenience to all the crazy shoppers out there.
2) Social Shopping Apps
Rather than going for a standard e-commerce app, you can also prefer one that mainly gives a clear idea of products. An app owner of a social shopping app offers enormous benefits, like giving users a personalized experience.
Also, if you build a social shopping app, you can get benefits like enhanced customer engagement, improved customer loyalty, boosted conversion rate, and many more. Some well-known apps are Taggshop, Pinterest, Facebook shops, and many more.
Hence, building a shopping app is one of the most scalable and intriguing. And will help give an enhanced experience for the product shoppers.
3) Huge Marketplaces
The best example of such apps is Amazon, the biggest marketplace, and there is a need to make a mark here for every brand to reach their potential customers. After creating an extensive app for your e-commerce website, making your mark is essential.
For this reason, irrespective of the fact that you are about to create a shopping app, it is also vital to develop your presence in massive marketplaces for the app and brand to get a better reach. And also gain a wide range of customers from such humongous marketplaces.
4) Live Video Shopping Apps
A recent trend in the e-commerce market is the video shopping app that helps customers to gain the opportunity to shop with the help of live-streaming videos.
It gradually improves customer engagement and experience, boosting brand awareness, understanding, and many more.
The best and most successful live eCommerce apps in the current market are Amazon Live shopping platforms, Bambuser live commerce stream shopping, and many more.
Hence, building an online store app with live video shopping app development will help redefine your customer’s shopping experience.
Now that you have understood the different types of online shopping apps let’s know some essential and advanced features of developing an eCommerce app.
Features to Consider While Building an Online Shopping App
While building an online shopping app, these features are essentially crucial to integrate for creating a stir in the current eCommerce app market:
Essential Features That Should Be Kept in Mind while doing an eCommerce App Development
While using this app, customers expect a hurdle-free process to get access. Hence, a single-step registration with proper authentication and security is necessary. And any shopping app owner must keep this in mind during the shopping app development process.
Many apps give enhanced search options in which the shoppers can filter the products and their prices per their choice. Hence, this is the main reason the enhanced search is an essential feature to offer the customers.
The enhanced search will help enable and make shopping on the online store app very comfortable, and that will gain better customer support.
The customers need to have both options, like buy now and add to cart, so they can get through the checkout process quickly within a few minutes and possibly buy whatever they want. Hence, always include this feature in the shopping app development process for the customer.
It is essential to add the wishlist feature in the online shopping app to create a list of products that the customers desire to buy but not now in the future. Hence, this feature is essential to create a shopping app per the current market analysis and for better customer retention.
Most payments are online, and rarely do people prefer the option of cash on delivery when you can already use other payment methods. Hence, security in the payment gateway is necessary to build a shopping app.
Advanced Features That Can Help You to Stand Out in the Current eCommerce Market
Though, it is still not a very regular feature except for Amazon, which is trying to integrate the same within its app. Suppose you are trying to offer a high-tech app to your customers. In that case, the AR and VR shopping feature is exclusive to shopping and integrated into your mobile shopping app development.
Moreover, only a few renowned apps tend to offer the voice search feature on their eCommerce app, as it is available in multiple other markets but not here.
Then, enable voice search to make an online store app to help you become pre-eminent in the current hardcore competition.
An explicit feature that will help in gaining the boost in sales as they understand the customer requirements and offer the relevant products available in store with them. Hence, you can integrate chatbots into your feature list to create a fantastic shopping app development experience.
The multiple payment options available for the people to integrate are the best way to gain higher user retention. This feature will enhance user reliability and convenience in many ways.
Moreover, the simple payment options will enhance the chances of people, which will help to create a shopping app that is successful and amazing to use.
After a bit of success in the market, you can also integrate the features like express delivery, one way Amazon did by integrating prime features. And by subscriptions, you can give them the necessary explicit features while developing the best online shopping app development.
This feature is quite common as all the numero uno apps are already providing it, as transparency is the only key to gaining more customers. The tracking status will help the customers be available earlier than usual to collect the product.
Now, as we know, these modern features are necessary, but for the best user experience, eCommerce application development with the best technology stack also plays a vital role in customer order tracking.
Final Note: Build a Market-Friendly App for a Successful Run in the Current E-marketing Place
If you plan to create a shopping app for your eCommerce business, follow this extensive guide and hire the best e-commerce app development services. And it is a crucial task in the long run to intricate digitisation in the long run for a better business approach.
However, the answer is quite long for the people to understand the whole process in-depth while there is enough information about the features, process, types, and many more.
Though expert guidance is still necessary, you can connect with our expert developers at Excellent web world that can help you get the perfect app solution as per the current eCommerce market.
Let’s discuss your eCommerce app idea!
FAQs
Some features are necessary to be taken care of while you are about to create a shopping app:
The estimated cost to make an online store app as per the current market:
Reasons that shopping apps fail:
Yes, an amazon clone for your business is possible as explicit profits help making shopping app. A cloned app like amazon can become a fantastic combination for customer retention. This will help create a seamless user experience for the mobile apps.
Building an e-commerce app for online shopping can be compiled in these three points:
