The market for e-commerce mobile apps is rapidly expanding, so it’s important for developers to create platforms that differentiate themselves from competitors. It can be difficult to stay at the forefront of innovation, but there’s a collection of features that can create a state-of-the-art mobile e-commerce experience.
Augmented And Virtual Reality
There’s no doubt that this trend is here to stay. The benefits of technologies like VR and AR for e-commerce are endless. If you want highly engaged customers, then this would be your perfect solution.
With Augmented reality, digital elements come to live just with the help of your smartphone camera. It has an advantage over VR because it doesn’t involve any supporting devices. AR provides the missing piece for e-commerce that used to make customers doubt a purchase – the way it would look in real life.
Now they can learn about its features and benefits through AR showrooms and consider if it’s right for them. These showrooms are best for companies selling furniture, clothing, or accessories.
Augmented reality provides customers with the opportunity to interact with a product. The AR apps are almost unlimited and definitely can tear down barriers of buyer reluctance. Even physical stores now have virtual fitting solutions, which allow you to see the clothes on you, without actually having to wear them.
E-commerce businesses might like to adopt this technology as soon as possible, while it provides a competitive edge because, in the future, it’s going to be necessary for sure.
Voice Search
Thanks to the advancements in natural language processing, we can now do a variety of things just with our voice commands. For instance, Amazon, Google Home, and Starbucks have already recognized the potential of this technology and implemented it into their products.
What’s the deal? By integrating voice search into your mobile application, you’ll make it more convenient for your customers to place their orders. This is especially true if your customers are likely to be shopping on the go, or they are just too busy to type and scroll looking for the item they need.
Shoppable Videos
Though this trend was popular last year as well, today, it is still in great request among online retailers. It is a type of video content that a company puts on its website or social media pages. While watching such videos, users can point at the item they’d like to have with their cursor, and they can follow the link that is automatically displayed to buy this item. In this case, they will be directed to another page with the product description or details for placing an order.
The key mission of shoppable videos is to make a customer buy the product right away and reduce the number of actions he or she has to take to do this.
Chatbots
Powered by AI, chatbots are already helping companies interact with their customers without the need for hiring any human customer support employees. Chatbots can answer typical questions in a matter of seconds and guide the user through the whole search and purchasing process, all 24/7/365.
The key benefit of AI-powered chatbots is that they can simulate a conversation with your customers in a natural way. Besides, they solve customers’ problems faster. For instance, you must have some busy customers who want to get their question answered right now. If you satisfy their need the way they want, they are more likely to become loyal to your brand – it’s as simple as that.
Machine Learning
2019 is the best time to use the superpowers of machine learning. If you implement this trend, you’ll find out how good every customer’s experience is and what behavioral patterns this person follows.
One of the best use cases is using machine learning algorithms in email marketing campaigns. These algorithms will automatically spot those patterns. For instance, it can analyze the purchase history of your customers and determine that a particular person orders the same product every month. Then, it will send a reminder email to this person on a monthly basis, thus enhancing the chances of making more customers of yours loyal.
Internet of Things
IoT is making the world around us more connected than ever, and it can benefit you by providing tons of personalized data on each of your customers. All the devices connected to an IoT network collect information and exchange it, which allows machine learning-based algorithms to determine each person’s patterns of behavior more accurately.
The key perk is that you get data not only on online customers’ behavior but what they do offline as well. This means that you’ll be able to provide them with more tailored search results and make your marketing campaigns microtargeted and more efficient.
Cloud integration (used by the best eCommerce mobile apps!)
Cloud storage is not something only users with limited space on their phones are interested in anymore. Companies switch to hosting both their data and even their whole apps in the cloud as well.
New Payment Methods
As you probably know debit and credit cards are still the most common payment method when it comes to e-commerce. However, don’t stick to that. The more payment options you offer, the better and more convenient your mobile app is for the customers.
Today, digital wallets and instant lay-by services are also gaining popularity. Such include Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Afterpay. Cryptocurrencies are also becoming a preferred payment method among some targeted groups. With that said, you need to provide your customers with different payment options so that they are most likely to finish their purchase.
The benefits of this approach are the same for all mobile apps, not just eCommerce ones: you can streamline the operations (thus increasing your app’s performance) and reduce costs associated with hosting. And the faster your app is, the better the customer experience gets as well – no one likes lagging and slow apps.
On-demand apps
In this context, ‘on-demand’ is not that much about the technologies rather than the business model behind the app itself. On-demand apps are platforms that connect customers with sellers or service providers they need. Just have a look at such bigwigs as Taxify or Uber – they are the typical examples of on-demand apps.
The reason these apps are so popular is the convenience for the customer and the constant influx of clients for sellers/service providers. More and more industries welcome this trend. Although most on-demand apps are service-related at the moment, this is exactly eCommerce business owners can take over a very young niche with no competition at all.
