Since a few years, online purchasing and transactions have drastically increased. Now, most of the transactions that we do are digital and in this COVID era, mobile commerce apps have become a necessity giving rise to the age of M-commerce and M-commerce applications. M-commerce is a broad term that describes the purchasing and selling of goods or services through the use of mobile devices. Mobile commerce is a trend that will not slow down any time soon. As we all know the number of smartphone users around the world grows, and so online buying and selling will grow as well. If you’re thinking of building an mobile commerce app, then this blog is for you. Here we’ll see all the details of m-commerce app features and trends. But before digging into the m-commerce features, let’s see Type of mobile commerce app.
Most of you might be familiar with mobile banking applications or the ability to conduct bank transactions through bank websites from your mobile device. Mobile banking still has room to grow.
Websites that offer the ability to make purchases on the desktop have also upgraded that function for m-commerce as well. Mobile shopping is not limited to web browsers though – it’s also found in apps particularly designed for m-commerce shopping.
Bill payments with the help of various applications come at mobile payments. Popular mobile payment applications are- Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Paypal etc.
User profiles are personal accounts of users who can log in and get personalized notifications, updates or offers. When a customer sign-ins for the first time, his information is stored like name, billing address, payment mode and details, shipping address, phone number, email address. So every time the customer shops, he/she has to click on the buy option and all information is automatically filled which saves his time and energy.
Push notifications can be explained as sheer marketing strategies. It will be a profit for the company, if the appropriate message is sent to the user. More than 60% of people find notifications useful. With this, a mobile commerce app connects with the customer through notifications. You can send notifications like discounts, sales, and new products. Percentage of information that is transferred through push notifications are- Geo-targeted information- 26%, promotions- 34%, New developments- 26%, other- 14%.
As the name suggests, location tracking understands the location of the user. And the device can send notifications according to the location. For instance, suggesting the best restaurant in a specific area is possible because of the location tracking feature. Or the mobile shopping application can offer their nearest outlet as per the user’s location. Useful notifications can also be sent with the use of geofencing technology.
Important part of any purchase is searching for the right product that appeals to the customer. There can be thousands of products available in the app or may have a limited edition, but the customer should find the appropriate product he is looking for. Best way to do this is by sending notifications according to the past searches and buying history. There should be provision of adding a filter bar while the purchase is being made- filer about style, color, size etc. Today’s leading apps like Amazon, Walmart etc. have highly efficient features to fulfill customers’ desires.
With this feature, users get personalized notifications about offers and deals that have been curated only for them. 65% Of users like these customized offers and discounts. It improves the overall product sale and image of the company.
Whenever a customer visits the applications, selects a product that he loves. He just needs to add the product to the cart and is ready to purchase it. In payment options, there should be lots of options by which payment can be made so that targeted customers do not leave just due to the lack of the right payment option. Popular payment options are- Debit card, Paypal, Google Pay, credit cards, App wallets, Apple pay etc.
Product return is another important part of online shopping. There can be various reasons for returning the products. But the important thing should be that he doesn’t have to pay for return. Return must be comfortable and free. If the return policy and experience were favorable, 92% of the users would buy again.
There should not be delays when the customer is checking out. It should be done very quickly. Frequent options should not be asked by the app to the user while he checks out.
It is important to use analytics for apps so that it improves continually. With the help of analytics, following things should be taken care of- Mode of payments, error reports, trying to find which part of the screen is mostly used, how long the app is used, for how long the app is used per day.
Since a few years, Siri voice search has become extremely popular. Now, voice search has entered the ecommerce market. According to the report, 51% of people use voice search and 22% use it for making purchases. Mobile apps will become more customer friendly by introducing voice shopping .
These days, Augmented reality and virtual reality are popular in the tech industry. Online shopping applications like selling glasses have used AR technology to visualize how they would look by wearing the glasses. Like this, all other kinds of products, the customer can see it in visual, before making a purchase. This eases the purchase decision of customers and thus makes the customer-brand relationship more reliable.
Omnichannel means selling the same product via different channels. Other mediums can be websites, mobile applications and a physical store. Most of the time, we see the product on the application and then buy it in a physical store, whereas some find it in the store and buy it online. So the customer can get the hint of the product from different sources.
These days, M-commerce apps are expanding their roots especially in this COVID crisis. So it will be beneficial for your business to develop an m-commerce app and increase sales.