Interested in increasing sales through development of an eCommerce platform? Find out why moving into retailer apps is the best decision for your business.
Recently, a study by Criteo caught our attention. In a whitepaper that analysed billions of unique eCommerce sales, it discovered retail apps could convert upwards of 300% more consumers than a mobile website counterpart.
The results of this study may seem mind-blowing, but they aren’t actually that surprising.
As mobile app developers, we’ve seen first-hand the benefits an app can have on a business. We know all about how they can impact sales and channel a powerful sales process. Even so, 300% seems excessive, right? Well, not when you really consider the implications of owning and selling through a retailer app.
Retailer Apps Create an Unparalleled Marketing Platform
People are very good at finding ways to avoid what we’d call interruptive marketing — a method by which you directly approach an individual with a sales pitch, such as through TV ads, leaflets, emails, etc.
This traditional form of marketing, however, is so widespread because it works. It’s a simple and fundamental part of sales: if you can put your product in front of people, they’ll be more likely to buy it. But with so many brands pushing products, people look for ways to avoid such methods, from blockers to skipping ads on TV. So how do you market your retail products in a world that doesn’t want to listen?
You follow new paths of marketing.
Mobile phones have built-in functionality known as native features; features packaged with the phone that any app can take advantage of. There is one native feature in particular that can serve as powerful marketing tool: push notifications.
A push notification is like a text message. A ping on a user’s home screen with a message. So how do push notifications work in conjunction with boosting sales by 300%?
- Awareness: A push notification can be used to notify a mobile phone user of a sale, a new product, a piece of news, etc. All they have to do is have your app installed and you can send them messages like a person sends another person a text. This is a direct form of marketing that you cannot get through many other mediums.
- Complete the Sales Funnel: In online retail, shopping cart abandonment rate is high, often above 70%. This is a major problem for online retailers and costs them a lot of money in lost sales. Push notifications can be used to remind people of their abandoned carts and help them complete the sales funnel. They can also be used as ways to incentivise people to finish purchases, such as offering free shipping on orders that have been left — 61% of abandoned orders are done so due to shipping costs.
- Strategy: Push notifications can create powerful marketing strategies when combined with other in-app sales elements. You can use GPS, weather trackers, and internal clocks — more native features — to send push notifications at opportune moments. For example, if you sell coats, you could use your retail app to send a notification about deals on coats when it’s cold outside. If you sell lights, send a ping when it’s dark, or if you have a local brick-and-mortar store, notify customers when they are nearby.
- Unavoidable, yet not intrusive: A big problem with direct marketing is that it bothers people. It gets in their way, like a salesman on the street or an annoying phone call. A push notification, however, is a minor interruption. The person can see it and choose to act or ignore it. Like a text, it’s almost unavoidable, which means you’ll usually be able to engage with your customer, but they can easily not engage back. This ensures you have a clear and direct channel of interruptive marketing, but that you also won’t aggravate or alienate your audience — providing you don’t send them notifications every five minutes.
Developing a Retailer App Gives Consumers What They Want
Retail apps are, by their very construct, more accessible than a mobile website. They exist on a user’s phone as a small icon that, with one tap, provides a portal to your products and services. No searching, no traversing other apps to find what they are looking for; it is right there whenever they need it.
And customers know this.
85% of people prefer mobile apps to mobile websites. They find them more convenient, faster, think they provide a better experience and claim they are easier to use and easier to shop on.
As a result, people are more likely to use a retailer app over a retail website if they have access to it. So if you have a retail app, your sales will see a boost, as it is simply the platform people prefer using.
Retailer Apps Provide an Adaptive eCommerce Platform
In sales and retail, versatility is key.
Being able to offer a customer the best service, one that is unique to them is the ultimate way to make a sale. Mobile apps provide strong eCommerce platforms thanks to their ability to use consumer data to offer bespoke shopping solutions and suggestions. By monitoring app use, an app can be designed to display certain products more prominently or point users towards items that match their browsing habits.
Retail apps can also access more processing power than a mobile website, which means they can include better functionality, including more diverse shopping experiences, filter and display options, and powerful visual sales elements like augmented reality.
Being able to offer users a more advanced and diverse eCommerce platform, more so than a website is crucial to increasing sales. Retailer apps can have these results and push conversions up.
Want to build a retailer app and boost your profits by up to 300%? The Apps4U team are mobile app development specialists who can create a stylish, high-quality, feature-rich app for an affordable price.
Interested in building an app? Book Your Free Consultation Today
