How to Build a Successful E-Commerce Mobile App

The e-commerce industry has become increasingly popular over the past decade, but due to the current social distancing measures, it’s booming more than ever. 

According to the latest stats, it’s expected that the global online sales will amount to $6.54 trillion by 2022. However, this tremendous opportunity also means that the e-commerce landscape is extremely competitive. 

To distinguish your store in such a crowded market, you should make online shopping a convenient experience for your customers, and having an e-commerce mobile app is one of the best ways to achieve this. Especially if we bear in mind that predictions say that mobile sales will account for 54% of total e-commerce sales in 2021. 

But, it’s not enough to build an e-commerce app just for the sake of it – it’s crucial to create a successful e-commerce mobile app. 

Opt for a Clear and Intuitive Design 

It’s crucial to help your potential customers to find the product they want and buy it without having to click back and forth. 

This means that you should remove any friction on their way to the checkout by allowing them to explore different categories and search for the item they need. To do this, you have to understand the way people use smartphones and use this logic for structuring your user interface. 

Your design is somewhat limited by the screen size of a mobile device, and that’s the reason why the UI design should be simple, with a clear layout and intuitive navigation. Every element of your UI, including buttons, menus, and content, needs to be well-organized and properly positioned. 

Don’t make your potential customers think too much while they’re using your app. Ensure seamless browsing and navigation by:

• Avoiding too complex designs containing a lot of text and animation
• Using simple, minimalistic, or monochromatic schemes that are easy on the eyes 
• Paying attention to spacing and shadows in order to accentuate different sections of your app
• Using a single typeface to prevent your app from coming off as cluttered and unprofessional.

All this will contribute to a great user experience, which is crucial for the effectiveness of your mobile app.  

Pick a Reliable Mobile App Backend Hosting Provider

You want your e-commerce mobile up to run smoothly, without any glitches or hiccups, as well as that it’s secure, scalable, and fast. 

All this happens behind the scenes, that is, on the server-side, so this part of the process has to work like a well-oiled machine. Hosting the backend of a mobile app is a demanding and resource-intensive task. In other words, you need to be an expert in the field of server-side programming, big data, and database management, to name just a few. 

If you don’t have the expertise or if you simply don’t want to invest too much of your time, it’s a good idea to pick a reliable MBaaS provider and trust it with managing this aspect of your mobile app. 

This way, you’ll be able to focus on the frontend while reducing your development cycles, easily integrating your app with different social media platforms, having access to better backup options, and eliminating the complexities of managing your own backend infrastructure. 

Facilitate LogIn and Checkout 

People are impatient when they want to start using your e-commerce app right away, which means that asking them to provide too much information on sign-up, log-in, and checkout will make them give up and churn. 

Don’t forget that touchscreens tend to be very fiddly when it comes to entering information. Similarly, if your checkout process consists of multiple steps, your potential customers will get irritated. 

You can, for example, enable social media sign-up and log-in and allow your prospects to start buying without having to input any additional information. 

Optimize Your Shopping Cart 

Almost 70% of customers abandon their shopping carts for different reasons such as hidden extra costs, too complicated checkout process, trust issues, or limited payment options. 

First of all, it’s essential to help your customers make their purchasing decision by answering all their potential product questions or solving payment issues in a timely manner, and that means right away. Instead of hiring additional customer support reps, you should connect your e-commerce mobile app to a conversational chatbot. This way, you’ll offer 24/7 live chat support and assistance. 

Chatbots can provide the necessary information and guidance in such a critical moment when your customers are still on the fence about whether to complete the purchase or not. 

Another crucial factor is making it possible to add, remove, change the quantity, save a product for later, and calculate an estimated delivery date. The key is to allow your customers to update product details such as the size or color without leaving the shopping cart and continue shopping after adding the product.

Finally, make your cart button prominent and visible in order to simplify the buying experience.

Provide Secure Payment Options

Don’t let your customers start wondering whether their sensitive information is safe with you – convince them that it is. Credibility plays an important role when it comes to whether they will decide to submit their credit card number and share it with you. 

Besides actually opting for a secure payment gateway, it’s crucial to display trust badges across the checkout process so that your customers understand that their information will be safe. 

Offering alternative payment methods such as PayPal, Stripe, or ApplePay will significantly boost your conversion rates. 

Unlike using credit cards, which means having to fill out a lot of information, APMs come with increased convenience and flexibility. For example, to make a payment with PayPal requires only providing your email ID and confirming your purchase – all your information is already stored on your account, and you don’t have to submit them all over again. 

These tips will point you in the right direction and help you build an e-commerce mobile app that will make a difference and prompt your potential customers to head to the checkout and click the “Buy Now” button. 

Jennifer Wilson is a writer at Qeedle.com She knows business processes and operations management inside out. As she understands all the challenges of running a small business firsthand, it’s her mission to tackle the topics that are most relevant to entrepreneurs and offer viable solutions.