Mobile App as Part of Marketing Strategy

The cell phone is one of the most indispensable attributes in everyone’s life. For many years, people have been using phones as small personal computers, always and everywhere, regardless of the situation. It is now almost impossible to imagine going out without a phone, but for most people, it is easy to leave a laptop at home.

In this regard, most owners of online stores have begun to pay more attention to mobile commerce to create their adaptive websites for all types of devices and to create their mobile applications. Such applications are adaptive to work on smartphones and all mobile gadgets. In this case, the mobile application is an additional interaction channel with the buyer and a tool to increase the audience’s activity. And the main difference between the mobile version of the site and the app is that the store’s interface is much more convenient and faster.

We decided to share the advantages and disadvantages of such a product for business and tell you for whom this solution is suitable and for whom it will be superfluous.

A mobile application is a software designed for a particular mobile platform (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, etc.). It is intended for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and other mobile devices.

In the context of an online store, the app allows you to perform all the critical functions, from searching and adding to a wishlist comparison to shopping.

Reasons for creating an app to create your store:

• Ability to work online
• Convenient order form
• Convenient method of payment
• Fast loading.

As well as a huge number of other benefits, which we will discuss further in the article.

Let’s start by looking at what tasks can be accomplished with a mobile app.

The Business Objectives That the App Solves:

Increasing the Average Check

Mainly through the application, registered users make purchases. These customers can be offered personalized promotions, special offers and discounts, thus increasing the average bill of the store.

Growth of Sales

According to the statistics, mobile applications generate much more sales— an increase in loyalty to the store. Applications allow you to download catalogues, it’s easier to consider the goods, and due to the convenience, the loyalty to the brand grows. For convenience and comfort, a customer will open an application he already has rather than search sites.

Repeat Purchases

You can use push notifications to inform about advantageous programs, promo actions and unique applications to stimulate new sales.

Cost Optimization

In the long term, despite the investment in development, the app will bring you a significant profit due to savings on advertising in some aspects and additional sales.

Options for Using the Mobile App:

As a Sales Channel

Your customers can view the catalogue of products, save their favourites, compare products, cart, payment modules, and all the necessary functions for a comfortable and easy purchase in one place.

As communication with the customer, with a mobile app, you can tell your customers all the Brand news, give coupons, engage them in interaction, collect feedback and do market research.

As a Communication Channel

You can incorporate many features into the app to make the user experience personalized. Customers can also collect bonuses or points when using the app, encouraging more purchases. Based on purchases made, you can remember customer preferences based on AI. The main advantage is adapting to the target audience’s needs, which increases the loyalty of existing customers and attracts new ones.

As a Competitive Advantage

If your main competitors have a mobile app, it’s a reason to think about creating your app; the main thing is to understand the matter and weigh the pros and cons of creating your own. You can implement many functions, thereby getting ahead of your competitors.

Reasons to Create a Mobile App for Your Online Store

Content Loading is Faster Than the Website

You know very well that customers hate slow sites and often go to other marketers because of the lack of a positive user experience. In speed, a mobile app has a huge advantage over a website. The app only sometimes needs the internet for essential functionality such as price and product comparisons.

By the way, you can read our series of articles on speed optimization and find a lot of statistics on this topic. After reading the articles, you will definitely be convinced of the importance of optimizing site load speed.

Apps Have a Better UI

Apps allow you to load heavy animations or high-definition images much faster than the website, making the design of the eCommerce app stylish, modern and vibrant.

Apps are Packed with More Interactivity

Every loyal customer with your mobile app automatically becomes a live platform for advertising your online store on social networks such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. People admire exclusive things. Make a special offer to those who have installed your app, and they will be happy to share a few links to your site.

Must-have Features for Your Mobile App

We’ve prepared a list of must-have features we advise you to use in your mobile app to bring you more profits for your business.

Fast Process of Customer Adaptation to the App

User onboarding is introducing a customer to a digital product, which helps convey the company’s main benefits to the user and keep him.

Thoughtful onboarding helps the customer to solve his task with the least effort and achieve the desired goal. It helps to communicate the product’s core values, benefits and features to the target audience and to retain them to build a long-term relationship. Familiarize yourself with the main objectives of onboarding.

* Welcoming and educating. Onboarding helps to win the user’s favour from the first seconds of acquaintance. Greetings, demonstration of product benefits and strengths, and cues to help the customer reach their desired goal faster give a positive interaction experience and make a pleasant first impression.

* Engagement. User onboarding helps convey a digital product’s core values to users and tell them about its main benefits. Sophisticated interaction tactics with the customer and his “immersion” in work increase engagement and the company’s competitiveness.

* Retention. Thoughtful onboarding helps teach the customer how to use the product and win loyalty. It disposes of the customer and sets him up for a long-lasting relationship, reducing the user churn rate.

To build a long-term relationship, the user needs to be led from point A to point B, helped to solve the problem and retained with a communication strategy. See what onboarding tools are used for this.

* Registration form. It helps to collect valuable information for the preparation of relevant content. In the registration form, you can find out the purpose of using the product, interests, and gender of the client. To get the user, he is offered to choose a communication channel and subscribe to the newsletter at this stage. However, keep the registration form manageable. It should remain as simple as possible because no one wants to go through a whole questionnaire before using the product, no matter how good it is.

* Video tutorials and training materials. This user onboarding tool helps your target audience get acquainted with the product’s functionality, learn more about its benefits and get valuable tips. If the training materials are exciting and beneficial to your customers in achieving their goals, they are likelier to stay with you.

* Email newsletters. In emails, companies introduce users to the product and share tips and helpful recommendations. Regular and relevant mailings help keep customers engaged, increase loyalty and build long-lasting relationships.

* Online Chat. This is a pop-up dialogue box on a website or in an app. This onboarding tool allows you to retain your customer, answer questions and help with problem-solving. To make the online chat 24/7, a chat bot is connected to it, which communicates with users based on a pre-designed script.

Pop-up notification

Push-notification – the pop-up notifications give the possibility to communicate directly with users. According to statistics, users who receive push notifications in the first 90 days have a 190% higher retention rate than those who do not. More frequent messaging increases mobile app retention rates by 3-10 times.

Convenient Categories, Filters and Sorting Feature

The primary purpose of this feature is to minimize the complexity of selecting and searching for products. It allows your users to narrow down the list of products they would like to see. Intuitive categories, filters and sorting will make it easier for your customer to find and scan products, leading to a faster purchase.

Multiple Payment Options

We’ve often told you the importance of adding multiple payment methods to your eCommerce store site; mobile apps are no exception. In addition to the most popular payment methods like American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and pay on delivery, add popular solutions like PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and Klarana to your app. Statistically, 50% of customers only buy if they can find a convenient and preferred delivery method.

Linking a Bank Card

So that your loyal customers don’t have to worry about entering their data each time they place an order, it will significantly reduce the time it takes to process an order and leave a pleasant impression on the shopping speed. But providing a reliable authorization system and taking care of user protection is essential.

Recommendation System

The recommendation system will help you increase sales and help users quickly find the needed products. Advice positions can be based on items already selected, bought and viewed by suggesting related products. The recommendation system is built on a single scenario: analyze the user’s behaviour, compiling his needs based on the information obtained. The potential buyer can only accept if you offer him something precious and necessary.