Understanding your customers is the biggest step towards selling more and growing.
Successful businesses pay attention to how their customers behave, and how they prefer to purchase products. That information is used to optimize selling processes and products. This helps create a business that is aligned with the demands of your customers and, hence, helps you grow.
With changing technology, customers are moving towards mobile-based purchase options due to convenience of use and choice.
With such changing trends, businesses are using app makers online to convert their existing Woocommerce and WordPress websites into apps.
This helps the businesses selling through e-commerce websites or the publishers distributing content through online platforms deliver products as their customers desire.
Reasons why customers prefer apps
A large segment of customers, these days, prefer using mobile apps for various reasons, while interacting with content and purchasing online. Here are some of the reasons why shoppers and other consumers prefer apps over web browsing on mobile phones.
1. Ease of access
Customers prefer using apps on mobile devices, as it’s easier for them to just tap on an icon on their mobile screens than to look for a website through web browsers. Web browsers work well on mobile phones for simple searches, but for shopping and repeat content consumption, apps are preferred due to their efficiency.
Apps reduce the time in which users can access your products and content. This is also a boon for businesses, as customers visit online platforms more frequently through an app.
2. Better user experience on mobile devices
Websites can run very inefficiently on mobile phones due to their complicated features that do not fit well on mobile screens. A lot of web features also become sticky when used on mobile phones. This calls for creating a mobile platform that uses features of mobile devices to offer an efficient and interactive user experience.
Moreover, native apps that are especially designed for mobile devices optimize navigation and search options in a way that the user experience becomes smooth and effective.
3. Better engagement
App features are generally designed to engage customers for a long time. Push notifications are very effective in bringing customers back to your platform. Order history and other activity logs keep customers informed about the activities they undertake on mobile apps.This enables businesses to mould customer behaviour to get desired results.
In-app features like geo-fencing, smart search options, interactivity, wish lists, bookmarking, add-to-cart and content subscriptions helps keep customers engaged and enable businesses to modify app flow to their advantage.
4. Ease of payment
Mobile apps can now be equipped with very versatile and easy payment options like credit/debit card payment, mobile wallet integration, net banking, one-touch payment and cash on delivery. These help customers in completing more orders through their preferred payment options.
Customers, who have access to their phones almost all the time, prefer using mobile payment options that are quicker and trackable in real time.
There are myriad other reasons why customers use apps of individual businesses. Some businesses offer loyalty programs, online order features, discount offers, cash backs, etc. through their apps, which attract customers towards them.
Customers are increasingly getting access to better mobile devices and internet connectivity. This enables more and more users to shop and access content easily, as per their convenience.
As more customers have access to mobile devices, businesses also benefit from making mobile apps to get access to a large customer base with ease.
Why you should develop a business app
You should use an app maker online to build a mobile app, as your business can achieve various objectives through the app, for long term growth.
There are myriad opportunities in terms of revenue growth, customer retention, effective marketing, customer engagement and operational efficiency that can be explored and achieved with mobile apps for customers and businesses.
Here are a few reasons why you should develop an app for your customers:
1. Higher customer retention
Once an app is downloaded on a user’s mobile phone, they tend to use it more that they would use a website through a mobile browser. Also, after downloading, customers visit the app more often to purchase products or access content.
Apps help engage and retain customers for a long time. Businesses need to plan their apps well to ensure that their customers do not only return often but also stay for longer or purchase larger baskets of goods.
2. Ease & cost-effectiveness of marketing
Businesses can use various native app features to easily market events, products and campaigns to users. Push notifications, geo-fencing, in-app notifications, SMSs integration, etc. can help marketers send marketing messages to users with ease.
As all the customer data is available to marketers through app’s database, the marketing process becomes very cost-effective. Analysis of customer behaviour and preferences available through the app also helps in creating effective marketing campaigns.
3. Easy re-marketing
With the help of app features and data collected through apps, re-marketing also becomes easy and effective. You can send focussed marketing messages to your users to encourage them to complete their orders or action that they started on your app in the past.
An effective re-marketing campaign can help increase conversion rate for a business with ease and in a cost-effective manner. Again, user data collected on apps can help formulate impactful re-marketing campaigns.
4. Low operational cost and high conversion
Businesses that allow users to place orders and make payments online are able to decrease their operational cost substantially. This also helps businesses to save a lot of effort and time for other important tasks like strategizing and creating an effective product.
Easy payment options, intuitive app flow and effective marketing touch points achieved through an app help in converting a higher percentage of app users. Businesses can study user behaviour from time to time to optimize their conversion rate.
5. Operational efficiency
With orders being placed through apps and with free flow of information among all departments through real-time updation of delivery status of orders through apps, businesses are able to achieve efficiency in operations. This helps in reducing delays or errors in delivery.
Real-time order information flow also helps each department to equip itself with the right resources to achieve cost-effectiveness and the best results. For example, purchase department can stock the right amount of goods, revenue department can price products aptly, and so on
6. Business analytics
With the help of user apps, businesses are also able to collect valuable customer data, that helps optimize products, prices, packaging, delivery, etc. to match customer expectations and to get the best results. Business analytics helps different departments take valuable decisions.
Data related to customers’ contact information, purchase behaviour, preferences, etc. is collected through apps in real time. As apps are used by customers over a long period of time, apps also help understand how customer behaviour changes and can be influenced over time.
Convert WordPress site to mobile app or make a Woocommerce mobile app to take advantage of the above mentioned opportunities for your online business or content website.
Mobile apps offer you the most easiest access to your customers, and it is justified to dedicate some resources to it to capture or tap opportunities of achieving revenue growth, effective marketing, customer retention and operational efficiency.
