Category: Mobile Apps

So it was Sunday!! I woke up and had my cup of coffee while flipping through the newspaper. Later I thought of pampering myself with sumptuous breakfast, I went into the kitchen and started looking for things.

I have not gone for grocery shopping from a month and ran out of tea, sugar, butter, flour and few other necessities. The thought of driving 20 Kms away on Sunday and then wasting 3 hours while choosing things, standing in bill payment queue almost horrified me. But then there was no option!!

The entire scene I narrated above is actually 5 years before, but now, we have options of Mobile Shopping and Apps. Today if I realized I am running out of some necessary items, I just open my smartphone, go to my Kiraana wala app and place an order and he delivers directly at my doorstep.

The Kirana guy next to my building has registered himself on some portal where customers place the order for a daily item, guys from the company pick up and deliver things and this is now he has three stores in the city.

Grocery shopping is something we do on day to day basis. With cultural advancement, we have migrated from Kirana stores to Malls and Supermarkets where we get everything at same place —“ You name it and they have it”.

Grocery is a time consuming and tedious task and thus come up culture of ordering online and getting things delivered at your doorstep. With the help of mobile apps, mobile shopping sites, eCommerce sites, it becomes really easy to order things while you are at work and get them delivered when you are back from office at home.

Why people prefer grocery shopping on Mobile Apps ?

The ideal time for grocery shopping is on weekends for a full time employed a person and with this “Click, Order and Get at Home” thing they can utilize this item for fun and entertainment or relaxing on weekends.

Less time consuming and less tedious

Grocery shopping is different from apparel shopping where you don’t need to try things, you have fixed brands, things and items in mind and that list you can give directly to a erchant and he can process your order.

The penetration of internet and smartphone is also one thing why people prefer shopping online or on mobile than going and trolling with shopping baskets for hours and hours around the mall.

The Untapped Opportunity

The retail market in India is expected to hit $725 Bn (about INR 43 lakh crore) by 2017. Retail consultancy Technopak estimates online grocery business to grow at a rate of 25-30 per cent y-o-y basis in major cities of India.

• India is the 6th largest grocery market in the world.
• Only 5-8% of grocery stores are organized corporations. The vast majority are “mom & pop” type shops that are similar to convenience stores in the US and are referred to as “kiranas”.
• The online grocery market is growing at 25-30% annually in metropolitan areas and large cities
• Margins are below 10%.
• 43% of the country’s roads are not suitable for vehicles. Paired with checkpoints, and duty collection points that slow down traffic, infrastructure is an obstacle.

(Source- Inc4.com)

With India shifting to more organized retailing, mobile apps can be one option for Kiranas to continue their traditional version and also cater to people looking for online grocery shopping.

Many traditional merchants (Kirana stores) hinder to take this up because of lack of technical knowledge and they have enough local and daily customers to keep their business going. But with introduction of mobile apps for their stores, they can get more orders and customers on day to day basis and can increase their sales tremendously.

With mobile app, you can directly place all your products online, people can browse it on their phones, tabs or other devices, will place order and transfer money directly into your account. Along with this, you can promote your Kiraanastore on Mobile apps using promotional banners, sliders, giving offers to regular and loyal customers and in many other ways.

One such case is of Kiraanastore.com, who registered themselves on Mobile App and experienced soaring sales. Click to read full story of Kiraanastore.com

Register & Schedule Your Personalized Grocery App Development Demo.

We have come across a lot of clients who always wanted to have their online store in the form of a mobile application but they even had a fear of investing a huge amount in building the application and not sure if Apple would approve the application. As we all know publishing an application on the Apple’s App Store is a big deal… yes a real big deal. With millions of apps in the app store they have tighten the policies and security to avoid any tom, dick and harry create anything rubbish and publish it on the app store hence lowering their standards.

Their discriminate review process makes sure all the apps that are published on the app store are the best in all the aspects be it content, user friendliness, navigations and application design. No doubt it gives a tough time to the developers while making the improvements and resubmitting the apps expecting it to get approved. Hence everyday thousands or may be lacks of applications get rejected by Apple.

While being a premium mobile commerce solution company, MobiCommerce was successful in listing down few top reasons why application gets rejected over Apple and a few tips to take into consideration while submitting your app to the App Store and increasing its chances of getting accepted in the first effort itself.

Engaging Content:

Make your app engaging while creating an interactive content that users would love to read. You may write about the wow features of your app, the usability that will entice users to use the app. Do not use content as similar to any regularweb content, attract your users with content that makes them download the application and user it regularly.

The User Interface:

Make sure the application you have created has a user friendly interface and it is tested thoroughly before submitting to the App Store. Make sure the app is bug free.

Erroneous Descriptions:

Make sure the description of your app clearly mentions the purpose of the app and the functionalities. The description acts as a guideline for those who browse through your app details before downloading. Hence the description should be precise and up to the mark before making it live.

Broken Links:

Each and every link on your app should be functioning properly. All the contact details, email addresses mentioned in the app should be functional. If any information is missing or found faulty, the application will definitely get rejected.

Images:

Make sure to upload all the application screenshots and app images before submitting the app to the app store. Applications without images will definitely get rejected.

Since the App market place is growing, it is obvious for Apple to be selective and strict in verification process. Hence once needs to be creative enough when plan to submit the application to the app store.

Creating an effective online and mobile presence is critical for businesses to stay competitive and relevant to their customers. Ecommerce and Mcommerce are two ways in which businesses have stepped closer to their customers and kept them digitally engaged. Mobile Websites are responsive designs which enable websites to be available to users accessing a website using a mobile. Mobile apps are the application designed to run on mobile devices.

People believe that a mobile website will suffice their need and they do not need an application. A user trying to access a website using mobile can easily be satiated with a responsive website which is designed for smaller screens. They are not wrong. A mobile website is important and has many advantages like it’s easier to maintain, cheaper, easy to setup and works on all the devices.

But a closer look will let us to myriads of reason why one should also go for a mobile application. There are various features which an application can provide and a mobile website cannot. These are as under:

• Push to notification
• Offline access
• App Store presence
• Optimization
• Performance
• Design and Usability

At a small extra expense and set up overhead there are immense benefits lying at disposal via a mobile app. It helps in building customer loyalty and keeps the customer engaged. Any new notification can easily reach your audience, thus providing an easy way to market your new product/service.

Does this all means that mobile application is the Winner? No, not at all. It is just a way to say that they complement each other and it is always beneficial for businesses to go for both and open up to the benefits of both a mobile website and a mobile app.

The emerging eCommerce business has taken the shopping experience of customers to the next level. In order to design and develop an amazingly swift eCommerce store, Magento is the best platform. Being a free Open Source platform it gives immense customization capability. To keep up with the increasing customer demand and fulfill their needs. It has become a must to have a mobile app for an eCommerce store.

According to experts if your business is not investing in a mobile eCommerce solution, you are probably missing on attracting potential customers and directing them to the competitor’s business. 43% of smartphone users claim to find mobile shopping quick and easy rather than shopping through the site.

Mobile App is one such platform which allows a shopper to make the decision whenever required. Making your webstore available in the form of Mobile App would definitely increase your store availability at the same time increase exposure of your products and your brand. Having a Magento mobile app would provide the advantage of easy integration with your existing Magento store. This enables you to manage your web store and your app all from the administrator’s panel. An integrated mobile app builds trust factor among the shoppers as it allows them to compare products and prices and take advantage of promotional offers all through the mobile app.

The advanced version of Magento is categorized into two parts Magentowebstore with an XML Connect extension and a native application. The new version comprises of several features that are beneficial for both consumers and merchants. Some useful features like online payment, gift cards and credit card acceptance while purchasing are now available. Easy access to the order details and also a facility to write product review and rating through the smart phone is now available on the maganto mobile apps. Magento Mobile App comes with default features which are already available on Magento eCommerce site. And also add-on features like push notification, mobile shopping cart and many more which enhances the mobile shopping experience of the customers.

Hence it becomes a must to adopt a mobile application for your eCommerce store as the number of people searching for products online using the mobile shopping apps has been tremendously increasing. Shoppers prefer mobile apps in place of ecommerce sites as there is less navigability. A recent studyby Comscorestates that shoppers who search for products over mobile app 78% of those shoppers place an order right away through the mobile app. The amazingly high conversion rate builds high opportunity for eCommerce business and has been cementing roles of mobile applications like ecommerce magento iPhone app and magento android app as the backbone of the modern eCommerce.

Magento Mobile apps play a major role in leading the mCommerce business and all the foremost eCommerce businesses can leverage the technology and earn high ROI while attracting more and more customers to the online store.

If you are uncertain about the co-relation between mobile and business, it is high time you accept the fact that Mobile is no longer a future but it is the present. Our day today activities are getting mobile rather than stagnant the conventional way, however the wearable device is yet to take off the market,the statistics say it all. A leading Media states that ”The mobile industry will be valued for more than $1.6 trillion and the numbers are expected to rise up to multi-trillions in next 10 years” from now.

With the increase in mobile usage, there has been a vast change in the consumer’s shopping habit. With increase in the number of various payment options and the security protocols consumers find it a better preferred source to shop through mobile. Now this puts a lot of online businesses into pressure to create a prominent mobile presence. For any business to attract customers over the mobile app it becomes a need to deliver a user-friendly mobile app which is as easy as using the desktop site. Studies by tech experts say that “76 per cent of shoppers so mobile shopping while at home while whereas 31 per cent of mobile users shop while at work”.

• Around 67 per cent of mobile users have installed an ecommerce app on their smartphones
• 30 per cent of mobile app users have more than four applications installed in their smartphones

Ecommerce experts recommend not to compromise on mobile applications however put efforts in making them more user friendly to enhance user experience. A usual mobile shopper use mobile to search the store information, compare pricing, check for discount coupons and read the reviewsand rating of the product.

What is it that businesses need to do to enhance shopping experience?

Enhance Mobile experience:

Although your online store has the best of brands available and best of support you might provide but if the mobile app is not that user friendly all the other efforts are worthless. 43% of shoppers claim that they prefer purchasing on ecommerce sites that are available on as a desktop version as well as a mobile application.

Create a prominent social media presence:

While retailers struggle to achieve sales numbers through social media, studies reveal one third of the sale has been made by being influenced through social media or friends sharing their purchase over social media. Hence a prominent social media presence is required where you can promote your products; share discounts and offers whereas customers can give the rating and review of their overall purchasing experience with you. This real time active social media sharing helps a lot in boosting up the sales numbers.

Add Push notification:

Apart from providing the mobile experience it is good to send alerts when the sale is about to begin and this will boost up the sales.

Ensure Data Security:

No matter how user-friendly your app may be, if there are security issues then it will create a negative impact. Ensure your clients of the data security which will give them confidence of a safe financial transaction.

Multiple Payment Options:

Facilitate customers will multiple payment options for their convenience.

With increase in the number of people using mobile app days are not far when mCommerce will take over eCommerce for the only reason as it gives flexibility and mobility.

MobiCommerce the smarter way of moving your e-commerce business to m-commerce is all set to cater to the needs and demands of the industry. The easy App builder enables you to start your mobile store within just few minutes without any professional training. The robust platform comes with dynamic themes to choose from based on your line of business. An application built over MobiCommerce platform functions as smooth and easy as any other e-commerce website and gives all the basic to intricate functionalities a customer might use while making an online purchase.

New App Features

• The Application will support all the languages supported by the site
• Supports all the payment options which will be there on the web store
• The App also supports PayPal Mobile payment option

Content Management System:

• Site Admin can link the App with their social media pages; supports almost all the popular social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Blog.
• Site Admin has access to updating the below company information:
  • Company Name
  • Address
  • Enter Email Address and Phone Number at the front end for users to call the store owners directly.

• MobiCommerce provides total 7 pages to be managed;admin has all the rights to enter information based on the requirement. Any page left blank will not be displayed at the front end.
• Admin has the controls of defining below pages:
  • Page Title
  • External Page (Yes/ No options)
  • If it is external page than admin can enter the site URL in the “URL” field which will appear while browsing the App
  • If there is no external page than it will have a “Content” fields with HTML editor (with limited features) to enter the info.

User Module:

• User friendly user module enables a user to login and sign up without the checkout Process
• A systematic order history and order details can be viewed by a user upon logging in
• Facility of adding favorite items to the wish list for future purchase
• Product search via entering Keyword in the search box facility available
• End user can enter the promotion / discount code while checking out for Payment