Mobile applications have become an essential part of any business, and the retail sector is no exception. However, we see many retail apps failing badly. And the reason behind the failure is several pitfalls that you knowingly or unknowingly carry with you during the app development journey.
In this blog, we will see how you can avoid the most common retail mobile app development pitfalls.
Retail mobility solutions have almost eradicated the traditional methods of the retail market. While on one side the retail industry is welcoming newer trends with every passing day.
On the other side, there are a good number of consumers who had a poor experience.
The poor experience eventually makes the user abandon the app, leaving behind a question on the entire retail mobile app development process.
The moment that killed entire plans
Behind every retail mobile app development, there’s huge planning, efforts, and cost involved.
However, the fact can’t be denied that a regular customer of yours can not necessarily be an app user.
To get the later formulated well enough, you need to come with a well-planned user-friendly e-commerce mobile app development project.
A minute disregard can ruin the entire retail app development cost and effort you and the retail mobile app developers invested all through the time. Question arises:
What disappoints retail mobile app consumers?
To ascertain the reason as in why users, delete retail mobile apps. The survey was organized solely for the iPhone owners in the US, 92% of respondents mentioned crashes and freezes as the primary reason behind deleting an app, while 89% and 86% said they deleted it because it was too slow or they don’t use it often, respectively.
The figures clearly state the major reasons for abandoning a retail mobile app. But this is just an outer view, let’s have a look at the entire list:
- Having too many messages
- Privacy concerns
- Excess data usage
- Problem loading
- Too many fonts and colors
- Outdated Information
- No Contact Info
- Lacking functionality
- No search option, etc.
These were a few more to add to our list of above mentioned three. We have a few major reasons behind disappointed consumers. Now I believe the time has come to learn;
How to fix these retail mobile app development issues?
1. Keep it engaging and simplified
This implies the User Interface. Ensure that retail mobile app developer pursues your e-commerce mobile app development keeping in mind a simple and engaging design.
This includes everything starting with the login process, till the user finishes his/her purchase.
Don’t ask for unnecessary information at the time of sign up, this often turns to be the reason behind frustration and eventually they uninstall the app.
Design the pages and share the features in a way that they engage user positively, creating a long-term bond.
2. Personalized interaction
Notifications and messages are undoubtedly important for the growth of your retail mobile application.
However, this often backfires due to improper implementation.
Despite a heavy retail app development cost incurred, you won’t be able to stay in the hearts of your users without personalized notification and messages.
Ping them what they like, notify them about the offers which might interest them, and this is possible when you track their usage and purchase.
3. Add discounts, rewards, and incentives
In a survey, it was revealed that around 71% iPhone owners downloaded a retail mobile app to earn loyalty and reward points for downloading.
However, keeping the same to the extent you don’t run in the loss, is indeed a better practice.
Avail offers and incentives with certain milestone; let’s say invite your friends and get 5% discount. This was just an example, and you can accordingly add what suits you best.
4. Features to enhance UX
Poor User Experience is one of the most important reasons behind user retention.
Smartphones today have numerous features, which you can use to enhance your users buying experience.
At this point, you need to think from user’s perspective and accordingly take the initiative.
Believe me, they didn’t get that $1000 smartphone just for the sake of it. Users love to use the smart features that come with the application.
5. Security
Keep this on utmost priority. Without any second thought, your users will leave your mobile application upon finding any sort of security threat.
This includes security of their personal information, bank details, and other tracking activities which might make them feel insecure.
6. mPOS (mobile point of sale)
Mobile payment has become an essential component of any of the retail mobility solutions.
This feature is helpful for the customers as it allows them to pay the bill without any cash in crucial situations.
The trend of cashless payment is quite popular among the tech-savvy and modern-day shoppers.
In this the user only has to enter the credit card information into the app.
For implementation of mobile payments in your mobile app you can use Stripe for iOS devices.
Similarly, for Android you can use the Android libraries which ensures the integration of the payment service.
Another way is to develop your own customized payment system which would require some additional fees.
While going for the integration you must keep in mind that all of it will require many back-end modules.
These modules are needed to be built and are quite costly. So, you’ve decided between “buy” or “build”.
Apart from that you also need to decide whether you need the mPOS system in which with just a single touch the smartphone can read details such as: the number, owner’s name, expiry date, and the transaction history of the card.
7. Location-based services.
Another way to ensure that your retail mobile app doesn’t fail is to include the location-based services.
For this you can use the iBeacons that would provide you with great amount of opportunities to improve your interaction with the customers.
With iBeacon, any user who comes to the right place and at the right time will receive all the information that you want them to receive.
This feature is helpful as the retail store can inform their customers about special offers, deals, and other vital information as soon as they enter the store.
Moreover, Beacons also accept payments, engage customers in in-store games, and create virtual guides.
Conclusion
The above-listed reasons and solutions are a sneak into the integrations which you can discuss with your retail mobile app developers.
The features mentioned above won’t add much to your initial retail mobile app development cost, however, the application productivity will for sure increase.
