People these days really prefer to use mobile apps for their shopping. From youngsters buying the next cool apparel, to spouses shopping for anniversary gifts, and everything in-between. You can find people from all walks of life, buying all sorts of things on shopping apps. Just how widespread is it, and why? When you understand some of that, it becomes clear that you should make shopping apps too! At least if you want to make money!
So let’s take a look at those questions, as well as how would one go about making a shopping app the best way!
Everyone, everywhere buys through apps!
Well, we did write about it recently too, that the e-commerce mobile apps are the leading platform in many markets already. But here’s another article from outerbox on mobile e-commerce statistics, and lots of them at that! In short, already by 2018 in America:
- More than half of ALL online traffic is coming from mobile devices
- Almost 80 percent of users order things through their mobile devices
- 10 percent of all retail happened on e-commerce channels
The trend isn’t different for great majority of the world: e-commerce in general, and shopping apps in particular, are on the rise. Some metrics have risen steadily, and others steeply since then.
This isn’t some fad… The popularity of shopping apps is real, and it’s here to stay. Moreover, this is evidently really convenient for users, and is a reason to choose a business for their shopping. Just ask thinkwithgoogle: “77 percent of smartphone shoppers are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps allow them to make purchases quickly”.
Why are they so popular?
Well first off, smartphones are almost omnipresent in our day to day lives. They either never leave our sides through the day, or even if they do we tend to leave them somewhere easy to see and reach for. Then, there is the fact from thinkwithgoogle we’ve shared above: they are just convenient.
Sitting in front of a bulky and/or stationary computer is becoming a thing of past for most of our online interactions. You have a short break? Reach out with your arm and grab the phone to check the net… you’re bored? Same… You suddenly thought about something you’d maybe like to buy? Yup, reach out to the phone and start searching for it, usually in your favorite e-commerce platform…
Besides, the apps can give the user personalized offers, which they tend to like! And by extension, giving the enterprise owner the power to offer those. Which neatly follows on to our next point…
Why make shopping apps? Why not leave it at a mobile web site?
That’s a good question, after all the mobile web is an extension of your already existing web presence, and they work just fine on all the mobile platforms possible. So why go through the trouble of creating and offering apps right?
Well the first part of the problem is, users often prefer apps over mobile web pages. Then, there is the fact that apps are just more, much more powerful. Especially for you, the business owner.
The reasons why users may end up preferring an app over even a mobile friendly website are many. First off, mobile websites are just clunkier, slower, and sometimes less stable. People, on average, use their smartphones to go online for almost four hours a day. Yet, only around ten percent of that time is spent on mobile web browsers. Especially when shopping everyone wants a hassle free, quick, reliable, and secure experience.
As important though, is why you, the business owner want to prefer it as well. Apps offer so much more than websites, even mobile ones. Location based services, smartly retargeting right people at the right time using push notifications, robust analytics and more. These all add up to a very powerful toolkit for you to leverage in multiplying the success of your business.
So it is pretty clear that these shopping apps are one of the best ways to make money today. But how do you make them? Let’s see below…
So how do you make shopping apps?
The most time and cost effective way possible, hopefully. As app development can be costly, depending on how you go about it. That is the same with all kinds of them, whether you want to make dating apps or make shopping apps. Keyword is “can be costly” though. Yes it can be, but doesn’t have to be costly.
While certain types of apps benefit from a custom code development, most doesn’t require you to do that. You can, infact, create your high quality apps with just clicks, like making a wix or wordpress website! App builder platforms let you do that! Moreover, they are often much, much more affordable and time efficient than trying to hire developers or try and code your own apps.
We can hear you asking “but didn’t you just say that some apps benefit from custom development?” Well, yes I did, but that is true for some types of apps. App builders are very much capable for great majority of app types, and luckily, shopping apps are among those! So yeah, you can make shopping apps with some clicks through an easy to use dashboard, and start enjoying the sound of virtual ka-ching as people keep shopping there!
Ok, so where do you start then?
Well you can start right here, and do so for free indeed! MobiRoller has been enabling app entrepreneurs to make their dreams into realities since early 2010s. Aside from features helpful for community apps and apps for content creators, another focus of features we have is e-commerce!
Our e-commerce module gives you all the building blocks for you to create your online store apps. Secure payment options, modern designs, responsive and stable app experience, and best of all no coding needed to create them. Moreover, you can benefit from platform features like push notifications to further empower your shopping apps.
While we are offering some of the best prices in industry, perhaps the best part is that it’s free to start! You can create your free account right away, and make shopping apps to start making some serious cash!