Category: Online Store

The greatest challenge for an ecommerce mobile app builder is to make shopping a pleasant and fun experience for the customers. Now, with the fear of Covid-19 pandemic still hovering on us, online shopping is gaining more momentum than ever before but now, with shifting feature priorities apart from a pleasant shopping experience.

The expectations in the mobile shopping experience in the present times are changing slowly to more value than just happy shopping online, which is why we have listed some must-have features that customers expect in a mobile shopping app during the COVID-19 which an online ecommerce store app builder can expedite for your online business success.

Online payment

With cash-on-delivery disabled due to the fear of the spread of the virus, an in-built secured payment option is a must in your app. Also, with so many online thefts happening, people are more careful in using online payment modes. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that your app has different choices for payment methods like paying by Credit/ Debit cards and Wallets along with the security of trusted payment gateways. By offering a selection of trusted payment methods, you will gain your customer’s trust and encourage repeated visits to your apps.

Push notifications

Transparency can be a great motivator for a customer to trust your app. Due to panic buying amid Covid-19, it is natural that you may run out-of-stock and to maintain the trust of customers in you, it is important to inform them whether a product is available or not while at the shopping page itself, rather than them finding it out-of-stock on the check-out page later. A push notification feature about the product’s non-availability, thus, will enable your customer to decide quickly if he/she wants to wait or look for another product.

Great user experience

Seamless navigation throughout the app is what defines a great and incredible user experience. Now with too many users flocking to online shopping all of a sudden, your app must be designed in such a way that every step right from browsing the store to checkout must be simple yet exciting without any glitches. Choosing a responsive design for your app is the best thing as it will fit whichever screen size customer is using.

Rating and feedback

Customers feel privileged when they are able to rate and review a product they have purchased as well as the service they got. It also gives them the satisfaction of helping other customers in deciding to buy a product. By adding ratings and feedback sections in your app for a product and your service, customers will get to know all aspects of the product and your service before making a decision to go with your app. This also gives room for improvement for you and the vendor to maintain quality.

Emerging technologies

Augmented Reality is the new thing used in the virtual world of online shopping and it can be put to best use in times of Covid crisis as it will give customers a sneak peek of how a product looks before they make a purchase. From groceries, apparels and furniture to everything, this will be one of the most useful technologies to implement in your eCommerce app.

Recommended Blog: PWA for Online Marketplace: A Right Technology Investment?

Easy checkout

This is where the visitor of your app actually becomes your customer. Therefore, you definitely do not want to lose your customer at this stage. A simple checkout is when half of the information is auto-filled based on the profile information of the customer like name and shipping address. Keep it really simple with only the necessary information being asked on the check-out page.

Wishlist

Time restriction, indecisiveness or budget constraints keep a customer from buying a particular product at a given point of time. A wishlist feature enables a customer to come back and make the purchase whenever one is ready.

Checking item availability

It happens that some products might be seen available in the inventory but delivering it to a specific location might have its own restrictions due to lockdown and various other reasons, to avoid that; it is important to include a future that enables the user to check the availability of the product by entering his/her location or pin code. This feature might look insignificant but it is a feature as small as this that gives a customer incredible shopping experience.

Easy registration

Covid-19 has triggered panic buying and stocking of products among customers which might stay for a long time and during such times, no one likes to go through a lengthy registration process. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you don’t have the registration until the checkout page. This makes it convenient for customers as they would be registering only if they are buying the product. Moreover, an easy and simple registration process will ensure you have your customer on-board for check-out. Also, saving user information to cut short the login time in future is recommended.

Conclusion

An eCommerce app has been a saviour in Covid-19 crisis and will continue to be one no matter what the situation is. So if you are looking to create a mobile app for an online store now, you know what features are trending and should be included in your app.

“Necessity is the mother of all inventions”, goes the old saying and life post-COVID-19 pandemic will see the advent of various online businesses.

We have seen many financial recessions in the current and past centuries; however, few budding entrepreneurs took the tide on their side and emerged as great businessmen during those crises. HP was started soon after the recession of 1937-38, Fed-Ex overcame the challenges of promoting a new and unheard concept of that time and became the pioneers of courier services right after the recession of 1969-70, whereas Hyatt was launched during the recession of 1958 when travel was at its lowest due to tough economic times. These and many other companies across the globe are inspiring examples of entrepreneurship that started during acute crisis.

Similarly, COVID crisis appears to be staying for long and has also transformed the way we live our life, our habits, our thinking and so on. Hence, if you too have a business plan and are waiting for COVID to end or fear to take the step at all then you are simply wasting your time because online is today’s way and is going to be the future too.

The emergence of online businesses amidst pandemics

The current pandemic has also triggered a global recession but one cannot forget that while China was fighting the SARS Pandemic of 2002-04. Ali Baba group which was a small eCommerce store at that time emerged as the biggest retailer in Asia. Its growth was accelerated by the fear of human contact, quite similar to the situation we are facing today.

The world is expecting to see technology replacing the physical movement of people in the upcoming months or maybe years until the spread of the virus is contained fully. Therefore, companies that choose to capitalize on the inevitable changes post lockdown will be the ones climbing the ladder of success. Taking a shift from brick and mortar business system to online business will be the key factor of staying relevant in these changing times.

Why shift to the online business model?

A lot of IT and non-IT companies have started giving work from home guidelines to employees as they do not want to take risks with their lives. Many fun activities like playing board games and even visiting a bar have been developed as apps to minimize boredom in this isolation period. Shopping online for everything under the sun has also risen in the past decade. All these apps have been well received by people, especially the millennial. A reasonably good section of the older population also has started using social media and shopping apps. This trend will catch pace in the post lockdown phase as people prefer to stay at home as much as possible.

With most of the businesses trying to reach their customers amid this challenging situation, new ways of functioning will start. It may be possible that we see online appointments being made for almost every service so that crowding can be avoided or services being delivered at the customer’s homes itself. Either way, technology will play an integral role in the future of business. So, we have made a list of top business ideas that are most likely to catch up in the online market post lockdown phase.

Online grocery shopping app– Groceries is a part of our daily essentials. Most of us buy our groceries from super and hypermarkets which have the maximum number of people at any given point of time. It is where you are likely to get in touch with a lot of people, which is why; people are showing more interest in getting home delivery of groceries, veggies, dairy products and all other daily usage items.

With a supermarket app, you can turn out to be a life-saviour by providing them with features like doorstep contactless deliveries of groceries, digital payments etc. Therefore, grocery shopping app development for supermarket or even single shop owners is one and top-most business that you may see a boost very soon.

Recommended Blog: COVID-19 Effects: Time to Switch to Grocery eCommerce from Offline Grocery Business?

Online pharmacy app– With a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy food choices, health problems have increased amongst the people. Medicines, therefore, have become a necessity for all age groups, not just elderly people. If access to medicines is not made available to people on time, it could be life-threatening for many. Therefore, if you are a medical shop owner, online pharmacy app development can make you have a wider reach of customers. You will be able to deliver medicines and other essentials to your customers right at their doorstep or even take orders online so that they don’t have to stand for a long time with other customers in front of your shop.

Online automotive ecommerce solution- This is a great option adopted by the automotive industry for its customers. Features like finding parts of the vehicle, VIN search, wholesale order tracking and garage management have now become online services which can be accessed by customers without coming physically to the shop. A robust online automotive ecommerce solution will be the thing customers will be looking forward to and which can bring in more benefits for all as well.

On-demand professionals– Be it doctors, nurses, plumbers, electricians or even salon experts- getting their services at your home will be a common thing in the future to avoid unnecessary human contact. A common app can be built to book any of these professionals or for a particular industry like a beauty salon mobile app solution to provide the professional service safely at home.

Online food delivery– With restaurants being one of the hardest-hit sectors by the coronavirus pandemic, shifting to online food delivery will be the wisest way to sustain and gradually progress too. Even after upliftment of the lockdown, places, where major crowds gather like restaurants, will take time to start functioning fully. People might be not coming to your restaurant but they are definitely craving for that unique and favourite dish of your eatery. So why not start delivering your dishes to their homes by developing an on-demand food delivery app and satisfy their taste buds?

Wrapping up 

We all know how badly this global pandemic has taken a toll on our lives but, this doesn’t mean things won’t change and you have to give up on all hope. Getting an online business developed can be done easily while you are at home and hence; you make use of this time to prepare for the future. So, whether you are running a business already or have plans to invest for better tomorrow, the above-mentioned business ideas can work great for you in the future whose development you can leave at the hands of the experts like Mobicommerce.

We all know life would never be the same after COVID-19 as it has shaken us to the core turning our life upside down. Everything from the way we think, act, go out, interact, in short, our entire way of life has been changed and the most drastic change that we are witnessing and will continue to see in the future is the twist in the consumer’s behaviour. Will it bring good or bad for business, is what we have to observe.

The Brutal Effect of COVID Pandemic

The mounting cases of COVID-19 are creating an impact on every dimension of our life – Physical, Mental, Social, and Economic and the worst affected among all is the economy. With countries going under complete lockdown for months, the livelihood of many came to standstill causing a large void which may take years to recover. Those with traditional bricks-and-mortar retail have slipped into darkness coming out of which will cost their entire life savings.

Due to the COVID crisis, people began to shop online due to the closure of all but essential retail outlets (supermarkets/grocers, pharmacies/drug stores, post office and banks) thereby crippling the offline retailers by all means. The fear of coronavirus bought a sudden change in the shopping habit of customers which is now posing the question of whether the current surge of eCommerce will remain the same post-COVID or not? Let’s understand.

The Changes Observed in Buyer’s Behaviour

• The priorities changed. The COVID pandemic made people realize the importance of basic essentials and hygiene products for survival, hence; categories like groceries, medicines, toiletries, has now become the top priorities for customers who were into shopping fashion, beauty, electronics and other non-essential items like crazy earlier.
• The mode of payment has now become completely digitalized. COD is now temporarily disabled due to the fear of the spread of the virus from currency notes, which has given a push to digital payments.
• Due to the panic of lockdown, people are becoming frequent online shoppers in order to stock up the basic essentials in their home, which is causing many eCommerce brands and marketplaces to go out of stock.
• The eCommerce market is turning into a battle. With more and more online shoppers emerging from all over the world, meeting their demands and delivering the essentials to them on-time is becoming challenging for eCommerce owners day-by-day. Therefore, the competition among them is getting fierce and it is also inspiring a lot of entrepreneurs to come with unique and creative eCommerce startup ideas which will boom within a short span of time.

The Future of eCommerce: What to Expect?

As per the COVID-19 e-commerce data, the numbers are plateauing – but at 63.6% higher than before. Although the world has not yet become free from the deadly pandemic, many countries have begun to remove stay-at-home orders and re-open their societies, as we can’t stay locked up the whole time. Thus, it would be interesting to see if the convenience and safety offered by moving online will remain as popular as it is today.

If we look at the present scenario, the virus doesn’t seem to leave us soon until a vaccine comes into light and also some experts are predicting a second wave of the virus accompanied by shut-downs, so there is a high possibility of eCommerce to continue booming in the coming years, with or without COVID.

Moreover, many local retailers are accepting the fact that a crisis like this can arise anytime in the future and during such tough times, an online presence can help them keep going to some extent than putting shutters to their business for a very long time, henceforth, a lot of small local retailers, as well as national providers, are finding innovative and digital ways to cope by switching to eCommerce development or b2b ecommerce software solutions. 

In short, a continued strong growth of eCommerce over the coming years, which will be mainly driven by the further adoption of mobile shopping can be expected.

Recommended Blog: 5 Benefits of Getting an Online Business Presence during COVID-19

The Digital Approach

Taking a jump online is not as easy as it sounds, there’s a need for implementing tactical solutions to help you get through the immediate crisis, but they have to be in the context of a broader digital strategy. So, let’s check out which digital approach can work and how those digital experiences need to be carefully and seamlessly managed across all customer touchpoints so as to get the most out of it.

1. An eCommerce Business Model 

There are various eCommerce business models among which you need to decide what would you prefer, for example, B2C, B2B, or B2B2C, and according to that, you can pick the software solution that works best for you by all terms.

2. Select the right eCommerce development partner

Behind the success of an eCommerce platform lies the hand of an experienced ecommerce website and mobile app development company, hence while you have time due to the lockdown, you can search for a seasoned eCommerce development partner to build a productive platform for your business.

3. Enhance if you already have one

If you already are into eCommerce you can enhance the credibility of your store even more by implementing some latest features like; chatbots, voice assistants, real-time contextual personalization and merchandising, a combination of both – headless commerce and CMS etc.

Conclusion

We have no idea how shopping will be in the future, will things get back to normal or will we have to live with the new-normal, anyhow, investing in an eCommerce platform was, is and never will be a waste as eCommerce game is definitely going to go strong in the future.

In a nutshell, to match the current buying behaviour and to meet the future growth, you will need a well-designed e-commerce solution developing which none other than Mobicommerce is the best.

Single-vendor stores and multi-vendor ecommerce websites have brought the eCommerce domain into such limelight that the graph of online shopping is skyrocketing and the number of online shoppers multiplying with every passing second. But also, there is a competition between the two itself, where a model like a multi-vendor marketplace is winning why?

Already multi-vendor marketplaces were doing great before COVID hit us all and now it is evident from the current online shopping demand that the post-COVID phase will see a rush of offline entrepreneurs setting up their apps and websites to stay relevant with the changing business needs and demand from the customers.

If you are aiming high and look at the world’s richest business entrepreneurs, you will find most of them are owners of e-commerce websites. The most commercially successful way to run an e-commerce website is a well-designed Magento multi-vendor marketplace model as it aims at aiding the buyer, seller, as well as the admin, equally to gain smoothly and efficiently by all means. Visit now to find the top BigCommerce web designers.

So, what is a Multi-vendor Marketplace?

Just like a mall, where you find different sellers, a multi-vendor marketplace or a store is an online mall where multiple third-party vendors display their wide range of products and buyers get to choose as per their preference. Whereas, the admin is the link between the buyers and sellers. The core responsibility of the store admin is to provide online support to both buyers and sellers. This model is much preferred than single stores because of its array of products, cost-effectiveness and ability to reach out to a maximum number of people without the hassle of creating and managing their website.

A commission revenue model is designed for the marketplace owner for setting up the infrastructure, processing payment transactions and order fulfillment. So, let’s understand to create a multivendor e-commerce store, what features are required?

We will see this separately from the Admin, Buyer and Vendor’s point of view.

Admin/ Store Owner Features

Revenue Model: Store Admin’s core responsibility is to provide the vendors and buyers best UI experience, lucrative marketing strategies, quick problem-solving tools and data security. For this, the admin can charge a fee. There are various revenue models from which the owner can generate revenue-

• Commission on the profit from each product sold on its website.
• Registration fees for the vendor to access the services of the website.
• Featured or Top Listing fees for those vendors who want to list their product on the top of the page.
• Advertisements by PPC (Pay Per Click) or Bulk ad buying

Automated CMS: The website should be such that the admin can easily access without any technical help. He should be able to customize, sort the catalogue, generate reports, calculate taxes, shipping charges and commissions with one click.

Product Inventory: A well-presented catalogue with good quality images preferably 3D images is the first thing a prospective buyer sees when he visits the website. Therefore, this becomes one of the most important aspects of the website. Also, the website should provide clear information about stock availability to the customers as no one wants to see a product out of stock after hours of browsing. Email notification, once the product is available, can also be added on the website.

Performance and Scalability: Opportunities can come anytime and you should be always ready to grab it. Some advertisement technique might have worked in favour of you and you suddenly start getting heavy traffic on the website. Therefore, your website should be always equipped to efficiently handle a sudden increase in volume, especially during festivals and holidays. If the page loading takes even a second’s delay, it will result in massive financial losses and you will lose the customers too.

Reviews and Feedback: Surveys have revealed that other customer ratings and reviews are the key factors for a consumer to decide before buying a product. This feature enables the admin to validate the quality and reliability of a particular product which can be pushed forward for better revenue generation.

Advanced Reports Generation: Indeed, a must-have feature as it enables the admin to fetch various reports like daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sales. It also allows generating reports on customer data, products that are on high demand and a statistical report on how the website is performing and its improvisation.

Recommended Blog: Reasons Why You Should Have a Multi-Vendor App for Your Ecommerce Marketplace like Amazon

Buyer Features

Friendly and Responsive UI: Online shopping should be as thrilling as a mall shopping experience can be and for that matter, a great UI makes a lot of difference for the customers. Navigation should be like a cake-walk.

Simple Checkout Process: Transparency is the key to a smooth checkout process. Customers should be able to know how many steps will be required to complete the process on the first page of checkout itself. The page should be informative yet look clean. Delivery date, shipping charges should be informed before the checkout. There should be no hidden charges popping out at the final checkout page. This builds trust and increase in the conversion rate in the check-out process.

24*7 Customer Service: If you are a global market player, sales inquiries can come anytime, therefore a well-trained customer service staff should be always available to assist the buyers at any point of time through live chats and voice calls. If you are limited to only one particular time zone then assistance during the regular working hours must be always available.

Easy Login: Many shoppers buy enormously from online websites but they do not want to go through a lengthy login process in every website and be bombarded with promotional mailers. Therefore, guest login or log in through social media accounts option is something most of the customers look up to in the initial choice of their shopping website.

Multilingual and Multi-payment Options: Shopping experience is enhanced if the customer can view the website in their preferred language and pay in their currency. Also, there are various payment modes used by customers like credit and debit cards, UPI, net banking, COD, gift vouchers and others. Ability to choose their preferred payment mode is a great way of retaining the customers. Therefore, the inclusion of various payment gateways like CC Avenue, PayPal, Amazon Pay among the others should be available on the website and with the auto-pay feature, you can enable your customer to choose the same mode of payment every time a purchase is made.

Order Tracking: As soon as the order has been made, an order tracking number must be given to the customer to track until the item is delivered. It keeps the customer informed via SMS/ Email notification of every update of the shipment which will cement the customer’s trust in you even more.

Easy Returns: Return Policy should be fair and convenient for the customers. All the wording must be mentioned on the website so that no ambiguity is faced at the later stage.

All these features will ensure that the customer enjoys shopping from your website and will always come back to you.

Vendor Features: Vendors or Sellers are equally important for a multivendor e-commerce store because customers will come on your website only if they get multiple options to choose from. So, it is very important to give your vendors user-friendly features to promote their business on your website.

Impressive and Easy Working Dashboard: Providing a dashboard to the vendor that is self-explanatory and convenient to use will make the daily tasks easy-going and less stressful for the admin. Vendors should be able to add new products, import any type of data from their system to the website, write accurate product information and generate reports from the dashboard.

Quick and Effective Communication: There must be communication channels available for the vendor to reach the admin or support for any technical or non-technical glitch. Also, there should be constant communication between the buyer and seller through the mediums of the detailed product description, shipping notifications, live chats, FAQs and contact information.

Promotional Offers: Social media like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have now become the largest platform to advertise for sellers. Pay per click on other apps and websites also generate traffic towards the multi-vendor store where the item is listed. Revenue generation can multifold by allowing the sellers to decide their marketing budget and duration of the campaign.

Wrapping up

Since we are talking about a multi-vendor marketplace, the list of features is never-ending and we have pointed out just a few important ones. You can make your marketplace even more feature-rich by choosing a Magento multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution which comes packed with many already and all you need is someone who is an experienced Magento marketplace software builder or a seasoned player in Magento multi-vendor marketplace development like Mobicommerce.

It will not be very late to say that the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought a 360-degree turn in the way we shop for our daily essentials, mainly groceries and also, it is an only retail category without which we can’t even pass a day. But, the thought of visiting a grocery store has built fear in people so much that it seems online grocery will take over even post-corona. So, is grocery eCommerce really the future?

The online shopping revolution for non-perishable commodities started way back globally, yet, many of us preferred going to super or hypermarkets and hand-pick our groceries for various reasons, mainly to choose the best of all options and having the ability to inspect the items before purchase. Now, the scenario is different. With Corona crawled into our life, the online grocery shopping seems to be the safe option which has led to the emergence of it and the sales of which are doubling up like never before.

Boom in Online Grocery shopping trends

Online shopping trend was picked up by consumers who do not enjoy the hassle of traditional shopping experience specially, to stand in long queues. Now, the current pandemic has further pushed consumers to buy their groceries online which are creating a huge scope for newcomers with innovative purchase models to create their own space in this global business market.

Recommended Blog: Know Why a Mobile App is good for The Health of Your Grocery Business

There is no doubt about social distancing becoming the “The New Normal” in the post-COVID phase, making most of the grocery shopping digital. We know that a business is all about trust and as far as grocery shopping is concerned, the majority of the consumers prefer to buy from the same Kirana store only because there is a trust for quality and service. Therefore, to get the groceries delivered by the same trusted local grocery shop at one click will be something consumers will look forward to.

So, if you are a grocery shop owner, you must consider the below points to act fast and expand your local business by opting for grocery store app development right now.

For business continuity post-COVID: The crisis is going to end at some point but we don’t know when and since now you are getting enough time, it is advisable to prepare for the future which will be nothing like before. Henceforth, if you want your business to keep going, thinking online will be the right thing to do.

To be safe for you and your family: Continuous interaction with innumerable customers also puts you at risk. You need to keep the business running and remain safe for your family at the same time as well as ensure safety standards are being followed by streamlining the logistics. Hence, going digital will help you have a win-win situation overall.

Foreseeing changing business trends with innovative digital marketing ideas: Your customers will remain loyal to you if you cater to their changing needs. Quick delivery options, safety procedures, lucrative discounts and innovations will ensure your brand gets the required foothold in the competitive market.

Making your brand: Your local supermarket or grocery shop can get a brand name by going digital. Word of mouth and good online reviews will attract new customers for your business. You can grow your business by catering not just to people living in your vicinity but beyond if you expand your delivery area limit. A good grocery website builder will help you structure your business with minimal investment and lesser workforce.

For customers, who are still not convinced why to forgo conventional grocery shopping practices in these testing times, here are the top 5 reasons why switching to online grocery shopping now and in the future seems to be the right option.

Keep you safe from crowds and thus getting infected: The last thing we want is to enter a crowd of strangers and risk our lives. Although you might take all the necessary precautions, you can’t be sure if the person standing next to you is healthy or not. When online grocery apps can give you verified and quality products delivered at your doorstep, why take the risk? Also, you have the option of sanitizing the container and the items without any hassle.

It will help you maintain your budget: COVID-19 has definitely slowed down the world economy and the repercussions have already started showing up with many people losing their jobs. In such a situation, you don’t want to overspend which is likely to happen when you physically visit a store. With online shopping, you have the option at any given time to cancel a product and keep a tap on your bill.

Encouraging Digital Payment: Digitalization in payment methods started over more than a decade with the introduction of credit and debit cards but, cash transaction is still a preferred payment method for small purchases in local grocery shops. In this period of Covid-19 spread, cash transactions have been identified as one of the main reasons for spreading the infection, so by opting for online payment modes, you can avoid that risk as well.

24*7 availability: With more women coming to work front, managing household chores has become more tedious in a nuclear family set-up. Grocery shopping is mainly planned for weekends which consumes nearly 2-3 hours of your day. Online grocery shopping gives you the convenience to shop at any point in time so that you can spend your day-offs with your loved ones, not at departmental stores.

Your bit for the environment: The world has undergone a renovation with humankind sitting inside their homes. Pollution levels have dropped and water bodies are much cleaner now. So, it is our responsibility to maintain this by reducing carbon emissions as much as possible. We can avoid commuting again and again by buying our monthly groceries at one go, thus protecting Mother Nature from unnecessary air and noise pollution.

In a nutshell, 

Whether you are a budding entrepreneur, an offline grocery shop owner or a consumer, we are sure that by now you can agree that a grocery eCommerce app is the most convenient and recommended way to shop or deliver groceries by all means, especially when such bad situation strikes.

We hope with these tips, you will now be able to make right and smart choices to stay relevant in this new phase. Our expertise in Grocery shopping app development will ensure that you get your app designed just the way you want and in time so that you continue to lead the business.

Ever since shopping through a mobile device has garnered popularity, eCommerce businesses across domains are going through their websites on mobile to see if the experience their customers have on desktops is similar to that on mobile.

Yes, it is 2020; however, the shopping experience on mobile is still not where it needs to be. There are still many eCommerce stores that deploy poor UI/UX design tricks (e.g., pop-ups) on their mobile sites to repel their potential customers.

Statista reports 3.8bn smartphone users by 2021, out of which 49% shop on mobile. Despite that, only 12% of consumers find mobile shopping convenient. That is a lot of room for improvement for eCommerce businesses.

When it comes to mobile, there are two options that they can explore, namely: Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and native apps. Interestingly, consumers spend 3X-to-4X longer on native apps as compared to the time spent on mobile sites and desktops.

Similarly, PWAs achieve 50% higher conversions in the eCommerce sector. The benefits of both options are in front of you. But what is most apt for your business? To help you decide, let’s do a comparative analysis between a PWA and a native app.

1. Look and feel

Native apps offer the best UI/UX experience through the right amount of animations and effects, efficient gesture control, appealing layouts. Users can instantly browse through the app.

Meaning, the design, and settings of a PWA are similar to those of native apps. It combines the look and feel of mobile apps and the best UX website elements.

2. Functionality

PWAs are responsive and load promptly, thereby eliminating any jerky transition that can hamper the user experience. They can be used offline. Native apps can take time to load and/or not load at all if there is no internet.

PWAs and websites share the same speed and responsiveness capabilities, complete with database access and automatic data. A native app functions separately.

3. Installation and updation

Users will have to visit the app store, search for your app, and download it. However, a native app is easily discoverable on the internet and also gets automatically updated.

A PWA eliminates the issue of app fatigue. It doesn’t need to be discovered, downloaded, or updated. Users can go to the browser on mobile and search for you.

4. Security and compliance

PWAs offer faster access to built-in device features such as camera, phone book, biometric sensors, a recent location, microphone, and more, which could be troubling.

A native app, on the other hand, makes use of device functionality and hardware responsibly and asks for the users’ permission before accessing anything on mobile.

5. Optimized for search

Since PWAs are web-based, each page on the web app is indexable. That means, PWAs enjoy a high searchability rate on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Further, users can share the PWA with just a brief URL.

A native app needs to be optimized for app stores, which includes using descriptive meta titles, using the right keywords, uploading high-quality app screenshots, encouraging positive reviews.

6. Learning and development

To develop a native app, one must know different languages such as Swift and Objective-C for iOS, C# for Windows, Kotlin, and Java for Android. This is time-consuming and expensive unless you opt for a Magento eCommerce development company to build you a customizable solution

PWAs save time and money because it needs to be developed once – irrespective of the operating system or web browser.

Successful PWAs in the market

PWAs sound feasible from all aspects – financially, discoverability, usability. Many eCommerce brands have deployed the technology, two of which are:

1. OLX

PWA of global online marketplace OLX allows users to avail of a chat option for negotiating product prices, along with features such as Add to Cart, push notifications, and offline functionality. OLX managed to improve CTR by 146% and reduce bounce rates by 80%.

2. Trivago

The Germany-based hotel booking marketplace app launched a PWA a few years ago that comes with multilingual support and features like offline functionality, push, speed. With their PWA, Trivago increased user engagement and CTR by 150% and 97%, respectively.

PWA vs. native app – the choice is yours

When choosing between the two, you must decide what purpose you are planning to serve for your potential customers. Sure, a PWA can offer an app-like experience to consumers on mobile. If you just want that, then it makes no sense to invest resources in developing a native app.

However, if a PWA can’t add anything to your existing mobile app experience, or if you want a specific feature to be available on mobile and PWAs don’t support it, partner with a mobile commerce development company.

Do your research and see how having either of the two apps will impact your eCommerce store.

Opening an online store is easier than ever. There are dozens of great e-commerce platforms that allow merchants with no coding experience to build up and run complex online store systems and reach customers from all around the world.

Since the use of mobile internet also saw a huge increase in recent years, many business owners decide to optimize their online stores for mobile users. This is another process that’s simplified by latest tech and platforms like MobiCommerce – ecommerce mobile app builder, which enable e-commerce beginners to easily target consumers who use mobile internet.

In this article we will analyze benefits that e-commerce brings to small local businesses and give you 6 reasons why you should add an online store to your business strategy

1. E-commerce overcomes geographic limitations

If you want local store to become global, you should upload its offer to a web server. Traditionally local businesses are targeting customers who live or work nearby, while online stores give them the chance to overcome geographic limitations and present their offer to people all around the world. Of course even online stores have their limitations when it comes to customer reach, and these are mostly determined by country customs and shipping rates. Even with these limitations ecommerce drastically increases business’ customer pool.

2. Online stores cut your HR spending

Online retail business could be easily run by one person. Physical stores on the other hand require at least one person per shift, who can’t leave the store during several hours. Bigger stores also require additional workforce that will cover security, bookkeeping, storing and merchandising tasks. Online stores that are run by production companies, don’t even need to hire additional staff.

3. Online stores can use less expensive ways of promotion

Internet retail entrepreneurs are usually much more open to new technologies, which means they use all benefits digital marketing brings. Online merchants usually share their offers directly on social networks and attract more customers with less expensive marketing strategies which include the use of search engine optimization, Google AdWords, local business mobile apps, Facebook Ads etc.

4. Online store requires less space and guarantees a smaller rent

E-commerce works on completely different premise and the whole project can be easily run from home or a garage. One of the reasons for this, is the fact that these stores use website’s product pages as their exhibition area. They also don’t need bigger storage space, because customers who shop in online stores are accustomed to shorter or longer waiting periods. This means that store owner can use this period to obtain ordered item or even to produce it (if the store is connected to production plant). Physical stores on the other hand need to have all of their goods ready and packed, because customers expect to walk out from the store with a product they just purchased.

5. They are open 24/7

Internet works 24/7, and online stores are no different. The moment after your neighbor goes to sleep, some college kid is just making a break from studying, by browsing stuff he/she would like to buy. This brings benefits to both merchants and customers. Merchants will receive more orders, and customer won’t need to rush after work or school and think whether their favorite shop is going to close.

6. Online stores save customer’s time and money

Most online stores offer free shipping, at least in local area, which drastically decreases customer spending. Location based stores require customers to spend time, money and gas in order to buy their favorite item, while online stores bring goods directly at their door. That’s probably one of the reasons why ecommerce is one of the fastest growing internet businesses in recent years.

In the end we should also mention a few disadvantages online stores come with. First and the most important lack of online shopping app concept is the fact that customer can’t see the item before it arrives to their address. Merchants solved this puzzle by uploading sharp, high-resolution imagery and providing extensive information about the product on their product pages. Some of them went few steps further introducing 360 degrees product view, adding links to manufacturer’s website or sending product samples to potential customers. This and many other similar practices will make your online store more competitive and popular among consumers.