Our world is powered by mobile applications. Because smartphone apps can conduct the majority of our job, they have rendered our daily lives much more accessible.
In today's mobile-driven world, owning a mobile application has become critical for organisations. Mobile apps not only boost client interaction but also contribute significantly to income generation. According to Statista, global app sales will exceed USD 935 billion in 2023.
Every year, the number of time individuals spend on their smartphones increases. As our gadgets develop increasingly smarter, the amount of things we can undertake on mobile is also getting smarter, implying that we will use it more frequently.
Businesses consider establishing their mobile phone app to confront stiff rivalry, and to stand out is difficult. Many features influence how effective your application will be, but implementing a few essential things that customers want and anticipate that you will get for them in the first place.
As a result, we have compiled this comprehensive list of functionalities that you may incorporate into your e-commerce app if you are failing to interact with your intended audience and are unable to provide the greatest purchase experience.
Personalization
Brands are looking for approaches to enhance user experience and make it more personalised, so it should come as no mystery that customization is as crucial on mobile applications.
According to a recent eMarketer poll, the #1 expectation of the application users from their applications is personalization. Using demographics, contextual, and behavioural targeting, you may provide customized experiences to your users.
In demographics targeting, you target the audience in terms of age, ethnicity, and gender.
In context-specific or contextual targeting, we target people depending on their context, such as what gadget they are using, what periods of the day they are using it, and where they are located.
In behavioural targeting the app analyses users' past activities to present related content in behavioural targeting. Amazon employs this successfully, and you will get alerts connected to things you have recently looked for on the app.
With the introduction of technology such as IoT, ML, and AI, the personalization experience in applications is projected to be increasingly powerful and rewarding, assisting in the development of a better customer/user experience.
Easy navigation
As per e-Marketer the another most common reason customers claim for uninstalling a mobile phone app is that they simply don't utilise it. However, even if people continue to use your app regularly, this does not guarantee that you will not be removed. 14 percent of smartphone users acknowledged removing a hard or complex app. Clear navigation and general usability are crucial features that your consumers expect from mobile app experiences.
So, how do friendliness and accessibility appear on a mobile application? Reducing clicks & activities is a significant victory for smartphone accessibility. It is significantly more difficult to select things and input values on a smartphone than it is on a workstation because there is no mouse or keyboard. Scrolling is very important on mobile devices. So consider that when designing the structure and contents of your application. Your app must be tailored in minimum clicks & field inputs without reducing performance & functionality
Quality graphics
Despite how fantastic your mobile app's performance is, most customers will remove it right away if they see low-quality, poor-resolution photos. We graze with our sights foremost. Make certain that all of your graphics are properly produced and also that you are employing the highest resolution graphics or images.
Low-resolution visuals throw doubt on your credibility. When customers begin to question your mobile phone app, they will begin to question your brand as well. High-quality photos are required for your application to be effective.
Realise that no matter how wonderful your application is, it will not be successful until it attracts people. One sure-fire strategy to catch users is to provide high-quality graphics. As a result, the most important criteria for an effective application is to never overlook image quality.
Search bar
That's such a fundamental function that often people forget to include it in their application. The functionality is quite important, especially when it pertains to commercial applications and networking apps rather than traditional gaming apps. The benefit of being able to search for precisely what you want never be overstated. As you continue to add items or information to your smartphone app, customers may find it difficult, if not impossible, to find a product, person, or information without an effective search feature on your app.
App analytics
You may have a fantastic app, but unless you continue to work on upgrades and changes, you will ultimately run into problems. Your app's analytics function ensures that you are constantly up to date on important facts about the performance of your app. It provides you with a clear image of user behaviour, friction areas, and aspects that appear to operate brilliantly for your brand.
When you have these useful insights, you can concentrate on fixing the components of your application that are performing against the brand while also knowing the ones that are performing in favour of your brand.
Push notification
Push notifications are highly beneficial than other types of alerts such as emails and Text messaging. Push notifications allow you to communicate instantly with your audience. Push notifications are indeed an efficient approach to keep your consumers engaged at all times. To keep your clients engaged, deliver either one-two push alerts every day. Push notifications enable you to interact with your audiences on a profound level & provide them with the information they would like to consume.
You may, for example, send customised push alerts to your consumers when paired with data analytics. You may boost your conversion/retention rate with push notifications and accelerate the success of your mobile application in this manner.
To get the most out of this function, you must be extremely creative. With developing innovations like Artificial intelligence & machine learning, you may gain a deeper understanding of consumer behaviours to send relevant notifications.
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Loading speed
The average individual has a shorter attention span than a jellyfish. If your program takes too long to load, you will alienate users. Users will become bored and abandon an application if it doesn't load promptly. If customers have to stay longer than a couple of seconds for your application to load, there is a strong probability that they may exit the application in dissatisfaction or frustration.
Security
Many internet users are concerned about data protection. To answer your consumers' concerns, offer them the clear choice to opt out of data collecting. While we understand that data privacy isn't the most exciting aspect of your application, it is perhaps the most crucial one. You can boost your application's trustworthiness by providing your users with more control of the data. Winning your consumers' confidence is key to ensuring your mobile application's protracted success.
Organisations must exercise greater caution here, protect user information, and comply with established standards. As a result, sustaining the application with a secure login method while guaranteeing mannerly verification for key business data will continue to be vital.
Product recommendations
Do you know that 63 percent of customers want to purchase from a business that provides tailored buying recommendations? You should be tracking the user's browsing history in some way, based on the main functionality of your application. Incorporating a customised element into your application will also enhance your company's revenue. Creating a mobile app is an easy method to add this functionality to your application by yourself.
To ensure your application success, you must enable data caching, keep as much data as possible on local device storage, and utilise personalised recommendation algorithms to deliver recommendations that users instantly click upon.
Push notification automation
Manually creating and delivering push notifications is time-consuming and might confound someone who is in charge. Manual sending can disrupt the entire process since incorrect messages may get transmitted to numerous clients. As a result, you should automate the push notification procedure.
When a consumer joins a segment, automated communications are delivered to a designated client base. When a predefined rule is engaged, the message is routinely sent. For example, when a consumer enters a geographical location, views some pages, inquires about specific items, and so on. With automated push notifications, you just configure the triggers and sit back while your notifications are sent at the appropriate moment.
The night mode
It is critical to highlight "Night Theme" while discussing the elements that make your mobile application effective. Why is the night theme becoming popular? Where are the vibrantly colored mobile application screens? If you want to develop a mobile app to create a contemporary app, you should surely keep a watch on the newest trends that will make your app appealing to consumers.
Because the night theme minimises the amount of light reflected by phone displays & making it a little less stressful for consumers to use apps. This happens by autonomously altering the application's UI based on the time of day or night, it is extensively utilised by smartphone users.
This element has nothing to do with an application's functionality, it does allow users to remain engaged with the app screens longer since the auto-adjust illumination feature limits battery waste and data usage. As a result, installing this functionality will be a significant choice for your company.
Multi-platform payment methods
Providing cross-payment in-app functionality, irrespective of app complexities can enable customers to effortlessly make a transaction without juggling cumbersome banking operations.
Providing the option to make a payment with different payment choices to an e-commerce mobile app, would undoubtedly minimise the cart abandonment percentage. Incorporating this functionality into your application, may provide users the opportunity to enter credit card/debit card information, link account information, and use payment channels such as Google Pay, Stripe, PayPal, and others. To make this function work, keep the UI clean, intuitive, and simple to use. Also, ensure that all data is safe and secured using your application.
2FA
Adding the 2FA (Two-factor authentication) feature to your application will protect critical data saved in the app. Any user who registers with you will provide some private info, such as their name, contact, email, banking information, credit card or debit credit card info, or Google Pay details. As an application owner, it is your obligation to reduce the possibility of data loss by incorporating a two-factor authentication system into your application.
Whenever users intend to undertake any behaviour to make payments, ensure that the application sends an OTP to another platform and confirms that the payment is performed by the same individual. By including this functionality in your app, you may provide high-level security, and acquire the faith of your consumers. 2FA inclusion is an excellent way to safeguard e-commerce applications.
Offline access
Currently, most mobile applications provide offline access to content without requiring connectivity to the internet. If your smartphone doesn't have offline access, the interruption of connectivity leads to loss of internet and interferes hampering the execution of the operation. As a result, offline access is required. If your mobile application allows you to save and synchronise tasks when later connected to the internet. The inability to access the internet can result in data loss and hinder the continuance of operations.
Add social-networking buttons
Today, social networking is the greatest potent and effective tool for any brand's success. The presence of social media buttons in your mobile app will undoubtedly provide you with an advantage in engaging immediately with your intended consumers on multiple networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and many others.
AR
Augmented Reality is a new technology that enhances our experiences. It is a smartphone app functionality that excels at engagement and client pleasure. Virtual reality is a real game-changer. It allows clients and purchasers to see how an item looks and operates before making a purchase. Customer interaction/experience with the mobile app and the products will become as real with AR. With the latest emerging mobile app features, AR is included as core functionality to be included in the aspect of mobile app interactivity.
Feedback form/comment or review section
If you wish to include your users and customers in determining the next step with your brand or business, incorporating a feedback mechanism into the functionality of your mobile application might do wonders. This smartphone app feature enables you to simply gather and analyse particular data that you can utilise to enhance your brand's user experience, goods, and solutions for maximum development.
Chatbot
If you're creating a mobile phone app that needs chat capabilities, the real time chat bot is the best solution. Chatbots are computerised programs you may communicate via messaging, chat sessions, or voice service applications. These clever digital assistants respond to client inquiries in an efficient, timely, and sensible manner. Chatbots are crucial for accepting developments in digital customer service.
Bots are beneficial in a specific scenario where customer service queries are specific and utterly predictable, monitoring a big frequency of similar requests, and providing programmed answers.
Choosing the appropriate functionalities for your smartphone app is a strategic approach that is required to establish the brand's purpose, aim, and intended outcomes. As a result, you must devote all of your efforts on precisely describing the application. This contributes to the achievement of your marketing and product objectives.
This blog highlights some top features that you must have in your mobile app, yet they are just few. If you are still confused about what to integrate feel free to contact us and our experts will guide you with the same.
