One of the most profitable niches in the world today is eCommerce. According to this report, the global eCommerce market was valued at around US$9 trillion in 2019 and is projected to progress at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 14.7% until 2027.
The eCommerce industry is convenient for consumers to make financial transactions at the tip of their fingers. Consumers can choose to transact on their mobile devices over traditional buying and selling methods. As a result, there is a high demand for skilled people in eCommerce application development.
This article discusses some of the most important things to do (and the ones to absolutely avoid) before you create an eCommerce app for your business.
Do’s for eCommerce Application Development
1. Use Great Images
Nothing makes a good and lasting impression like image quality. A high-quality image will give your customers the impression that you pay attention to details and that you mean business. A low-resolution image, on the other hand, will sell the idea that you are not ready for business.
Therefore, before you commence your quest to make an eCommerce mobile app, one of the first things you need to do is to invest in a quality camera and hire a professional photographer so that the images of your product catalog will look sharp, crisp, and clear. You won’t get a second chance to make a first impression if you use low-quality images for your eCommerce app development.
2. Make the User Interface Friendly and Easy to Navigate
It only takes a very little time before a user decides whether your app deserves valuable storage space on their devices or not — and one of the most influential factors is the user interface of your app.
As you create an app for eCommerce, keep in mind that phones generally have a smaller screen than laptops and tabs, so you must design your app UI to fit the phone screen size while displaying all relevant information.
Furthermore, besides looking beautiful and professional, it would be best if you designed your app’s interface to make it easy for your target audience to use and understand. Avoid unnecessary texts and animations; they can be distracting to your users. Also, try to make navigation around the app as simple as possible.
3. Make Your App Responsive
In addition to making your app look and feel great, you want to build an eCommerce android app that is responsive. What this means is that you want your app to adapt to the different screen sizes that are featured across all mobile devices.
For your app to gain traction and widespread acceptance and support, it should be very responsive, and the experience should remain the same regardless of phone screen size.
4. Make It Easy for Users to Sign Up and Checkout
About seven out of ten users do not complete their orders. Many factors contribute to this high cart abandonment rate, including pricing and seeking better alternatives. Failure to make your checkout button conspicuous will give your potential customers another reason to abandon their carts and go elsewhere.
Therefore as you create a mobile eCommerce app, ensure that your sign-up process is straightforward. You can make the procedure more accessible by allowing users to sign up through their social media accounts. Secondly, make your checkout process easy and make the button noticeable. Integrate features in your app that save customers’ details for future purchases, and increase the options for making payments — you can also add the option for cryptocurrency.
Don’ts for eCommerce Application Development
While you can simply flip the do’s to know what not to do, here is a list of pitfalls to avoid in the development of eCommerce applications.
1. Don’t Forget Personalization
The use of social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp to market products and services can pose a significant threat to an eCommerce app that lacks personalization. Because now, customers can easily buy a product online without downloading any app.
Therefore if you must develop an eCommerce android app, make sure you personalize it. Users want to be engaged and feel like they’re being spoken to directly in their interactions with an eCommerce app. Failure to personalize your app will make it less used in favor of better apps.
2. Don’t Squeeze All the Web Functionalities Into the App
One common pitfall in mobile app development for eCommerce businesses is creating the app to look just like a website and, consequently, cramming all the website’s functionality into the app.
Not only will the app look and feel horrible, but its similarity to a web page also will not go well with users. Remember that a mobile app needs to be different from a website in appearance and functionality. Users like to see something other than just a replica of the website on the company’s app. Keep this in mind as a plan to create an eCommerce application for android.
3. The App Should Not Be Slow
A delay of only a few seconds is enough for some users to uninstall an app from their android devices which is why you must make an eCommerce mobile app that is fast and responsive.
To do this, you must optimize your code and avoid code redundancy. If longer loading times cannot be avoided, instead of showing a blank screen, you should have your app display gifs that tell the user that it is working. Also, it would help if you integrated a feature within your app that notifies the user if the longer loading time results from a poor network connection.
4. Don’t Over Notify Your Customers
While it is essential to notify your customers about offers, deals, and available coupons, you must try not to overdo it. Apps that constantly push notifications will oftentimes be silenced or deleted.
As you plan to develop an eCommerce application in android, it would be best if you added features that enable the user to choose whether or not they want to get notifications and how often they want to get them.
Final Thoughts
Application development, especially eCommerce application development, can be quite expensive. Furthermore, it takes careful planning and effort to develop an eCommerce app in android. Therefore, you must gather all the relevant information you need on how to make an eCommerce android app before investing in creating an android application for your eCommerce business.
