Smartphones now have penetration across all spheres of life. Retail cannot be an exception in this regard. In fact, mobile devices have shaped the shopping experience of the vast majority of retail apps. For any eCommerce app development company, considering mobile user experience is probably the first and most important principle. Considering the experience and business dynamics of most retail apps, eCommerce app developers can easily learn about the most tested and tried development principles and measures.
Here we are going to explain 10 least painful and easily doable practices that mobile retail apps will find highly effective.
Engaging User Experience
Whether you have a unique and winning product range or you are just selling the old and established brands, engaging and immersive user experience is something you cannot do away with. A vast majority of buyers, around 93% of them consider the visual appeal and engaging experience as the two most important factors to shape their purchasing decisions.
While there are thousands of eye-catchy professional themes to shape the look and feel of your website, not all of them can fit the user experience your store needs. Let us offer here some of the most relevant and actionable tips to come with an engaging design for the retail store app.
- Have an MVP development approach to build the store bit by bit and start with the basic and most elementary features and design elements followed by gradual value additions over time.
- Make sure the design grabs user attention just at a glance and entice them with the store as they progress from one page to the other. Simple navigation, easy product search, and smooth flow are the three must-have elements of a superb app.
- Make sure your online store doesn’t create a lot of visual distractions. Ensure minimizing the cognitive load with the use of minimum use of images and text.
- Make sure users have easy on boarding with the option of guest login and social login. For signup, only make them fill up one or two form fields.
- Make sure the checkout page doesn’t involve a lot of steps to buy a product. Allow them to make an order as easily as possible.
- Make sure the contact information of the retail store is visible in a prominent position. Conventionally, it should be placed on the top right-hand side.
Give Priority To The Content
If you think retail marketing is just about displaying products and making marketing push to garner sales, you have missed the biggest success factor on the web. Yes, content is still the mover and shaker of any web application including the retail apps. This is why it is extremely important for retail websites and apps to create a business blog to take advantage of content marketing.
- Make sure the business blog is regularly updated with fresh and relevant posts loaded with SEO keywords and useful information for consumers.
- Make sure blog posts instead of focusing on the marketing of products or sounding as promotional content actually create values with expertise-driven content.
- Engage other industry stalwarts and leaders by allowing them to write quality blog posts and sharing their links.
- Use quality keyword research tools to publish posts on most relevant and search-friendly topics.
- Use Google Analytics and other SEO analytics tools like SEOMoz to detect the faults and shortcomings with your on-page SEO and address them frequently.
Don’t Compromise on Online Support
Many retail stores simply fail to garner reputation and enjoy customer favor and loyalty simply because of the lack of online support. Consumers simply refuse to buy products from sellers who are not accessible in case of any dispute. This is why providing robust and earnest customer support should be a priority for any store that wants to generate consistent sales.
- Consider providing live chat support by using partly human professionals and partly intelligent Chatbots.
- If you can afford, provide around the clock on-call support.
- Create a detailed FAQ page answering all common queries of customers.
Make A Robust Social Media Presence
Social media platforms allow almost free or zero-cost marketing options to retailers. Apart from creating social media pages try to create your own audience by posting on a regular basis and joining in relevant conversations. With the help of employees, peers and well-wishers try to create favourable conversation to engage more people and create social ambassadors for your brand.
Besides doing organic social marketing, take advantage of social media ads or sponsored posts as well. Run targeted campaigns on a region basis or for wider audience. Don’t miss the opportunity of targeting customers during certain popular events. To fine-tune your social advertising strategy, always use Google Analytics and similar analytics tools.
Build Credibility with Ratings, Reviews, and Feedbacks
You probably know that the vast majority of the retail sales are generated due to the recommendations and suggestions from peers and family members. Well, the credibility of a brand is also created by customer reviews and social media buzz. This is where a new retail store app needs to work a lot. Since online buyers cannot meet the retailers in person, building an online reputation through social proof, ratings and reviews is the only way to appear trustworthy.
In this respect, always remember that product reviews are most effective when they appear genuine and in large numbers. Organic and genuine reviews always sound balanced incorporating both positive and negative aspects as customers found them. You can also push customers to push reviews by offering small incentives against every review. User-generated content showing the product in real-life use is another way to build credibility. You can roll out contests or give incentives to encourage customers to share their images with the product purchased.
Conclusion
Obviously, there are several other tips and measures that equally deserve our attention to building a retail mobile app. But here we mainly tried to focus on the fundamental aspects that can help a new retail store prosper with assured steps.
Do you need to build a retail store app with a unique look and feel and instantly engaging user experience? You can count on us as we are into eCommerce development for years. You can hire Android app developers or iOS experts to shape your retail mobile app with the above-mentioned attributes.
