By October 30, 2014

Four Lessons on Retail Shopping Apps

It is not unusual to see strangers on the street staring at their mobile phones or tablets or looking busy reading something. When attending concerts, you may have seen several dots of light emanating from handheld devices. Like you, they may have been trying to take pictures or recording the song at that juncture. There is no denying that we are moving fast into the digital age. Mobile phones have not only changed the way people communicate. It has also changed the way individuals live and shop.

Many are still using laptops and desktops at home, but handheld devices are becoming computers on the go. The internet has revolutionized mobile technology and shopping app. According to Tech Crunch, research firm Forrester expects online retail to grow at a 10 percent compound annual rate, with the money involved to reach $279 billion by 2015. A Nielsen study found that at least 48 percent of children between 6-12 years wish for an iPad for the holidays. The Nintendo Wii U comes in second, then the iPad Mini. The focus might all be about fun and games, but they want the flexibility of mobile devices more and more than fixed gaming consoles.

Adults in the US also have this affinity for mobile devices with just over a third of the population owning a tablet, according to Pew Internet. Not only do these tablets and mobile phones provide a means of contacting friends, family members, and colleagues. They have become computers on the go. Tablet devices are becoming a prime choice for shoppers looking for both necessities and luxury items. The key is for business owners like yourself to harness this information. This way, you can start integrating online storefronts into your current setup. Shopify has the technical capability to help ease your company into the digital age.

Ease of Navigation

Online stores can take their queue when sales are not picking up as expected. Marketing the site may have been the easy part. But if sales remain low, you may have an online store that is keeping customers from hitting the buy button. Does it take the customer forever to complete the transaction? Are their way too many next buttons to go through that customers end up abandoning the sale? Try timing how long it takes to complete a transaction. Ask friends to go to the site to do beta testing and ask for their opinion.

Clutter-free Web site

You may have several items to sell, so organizing them in different categories helps. You can even opt for a setup where customers can go to a page to answer some quick questions. This will help narrow down the item choices to what they want to take a look at and then buy as soon as it fits their requirements. Understanding that it takes a savvy developer to help you get that website right, you also need to know how the final look should come out. Some retail businesses point to costs as the main reason for not getting this one right. One must prepare to take on the extra cost for now to reap more profits later.

Smarter Shopping Cart

Although online shoppers may appear to be buying items in an instant, they do prepare for them. This means they go to websites to check out the items and compare it to a competitor site. This will include shopping based on the pictures posted, prices and shipping options. Taking all these factors together, they then make the decision to buy online. The problem is that they may close a website by accident without saving their shopping cart. This will mean going through the entire process again and worst case, they just end up at the last online store they were looking at. But if you have an app that allows customers to add items to wish list, they will likely find their way back to your store again.

Explore all the ways you can reach your customers with an online ordering solution from this site https://revelsystems.com/pos-systems/type/retail-pos/. Increasingly a staple for point of sale systems for small businesses and growing enterprises, an online ordering option will allow you to expand your footprint beyond the walls of your building.

Payment Options

The customer has finally decided to buy the item, except there’s one drawback – the payment method. It could be that the customer gets redirected to another site to encode their credit or debit card information. This raises security questions for some customers and might make them abandon the sale. It could also be that you only accept card payments, but they may only have a checking account available. Again, this could appear as another dead end to the customer.

With the booming industry in online retail selling, many companies have found ways to post their online stores and they are also offering lots of coupon codes to offer their customers discounts, you can check here and get all the details. What some of these businesses missed out on is the customer experience that could spell the difference according to Tech Crunch. Do some research on which developers to go to for your online store to get a piece of the market share. It may entail some cost, but you can get a quick turnaround for your buck if you do this right. Cutting corners may work if the risks are not as high. Get this right, so your efforts will be worth it.

Posted in: Editorial

About the Author:

More than 20 years in the IT industry. Blogging with a passion and thirst for new technology since 2005.
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