Mobile Commerce App: 20 Features That Will Step Up Your Retail Business

Mobile commerce applications have been the talk of the town for the last few years. The relevancy of mobile commerce applications is increasing with a spike in the number of smartphones being used all over the world. Many retail businesses have turned towards mobile commerce app development to get an application for their firm. It can be said that mobile commerce applications play a major role in boosting sales for ecommerce businesses. 

The main reason behind the same is that mobile applications have a higher conversion rate as compared to the mobile web. Recent stats suggest that the ecommerce sector reached a sales figure of $3.56 trillion, and 72.9% of the sales happened on smartphones. This clearly shows the amount of importance mobile commerce holds in growing mcommerce apps. 

Suppose you are an organization that is looking for a mcommerce app development company. In that case, you should check whether the ecommerce software solutions provider is giving features like location tracking, social media integration, user profiles, and others or not. 

As a client, while finding an Android app development agency or iOS app development agency to build an application for your business, you should make sure that the company is well versed with the latest tech trends and is ready to offer the necessary features to skyrocket your mcommerce application’s growth. That said, here we will mention the top 20 features that a mobile commerce app should have to upscale retail business. 

Top 20 features for mobile commerce apps that will help in upscaling your retail business:

Push notifications

Imagine none of your existing customers know about the new stock that you introduced despite having the mobile commerce app. Here, push notifications come into play; they help a business establish contact and provide necessary information to the users at the right time. If the timing of the push notifications is on point and they contain relevant material for the users, then the businesses will surely register sales growth. 

According to the latest stats regarding the same, 70% of the push notifications are deemed useful, and around 40% of the total audience interacts with the push notifications in an hour. Only 8% of the total audience of a business completely ignores the push notifications, which means they are still left with a larger chunk to woo and convert the opportunity into a sale. Push notifications can be used for multiple purposes like providing an update to the customers for their orders, new promotions, any new product arrivals on the application, etc.

Location targeting

Location targeting is another prominent feature that mcommerce app development companies should offer. This feature is closely related to the push notifications feature too. A survey revealed that around 26% of users want to see push notifications based on relevant locations. Additionally, around 54% of smartphone users all over the world give location permissions to apps. Now, using the location data of the user to send the right push notification at the right time is going to increase sales. 

For example, suppose a user is visiting a cricket stadium every day. In that case, the app can push notifications related to the sportswear and accessories, whatever relevant they have, to make the customer purchase something. Mobile commerce app development agencies can use geofencing technology while creating an application for their retail clients. 

It will help the client’s business in sending relevant push notifications based on the real-time geofence of the user. Not only this but a user’s location can also be used to customize the home screen of the apps. For example, Any customer living in Florida should not see the same offers as someone from New York City. 

User Profiles

To personalize the experience of customers, user profiles work as an amazing feature. They let users log in and purchase items according to their preferences. The best part about user profiles is that it has amazing benefits for both users and businesses. For example, an ecommerce software solutions provider that uses user profiles feature allows the business to get deep insights related to the choices of the customers. 

Furthermore, the business will be able to recommend products that are relevant to the users with user profiles on the basis of browsing and purchasing history. Customers also feel intrigued when they get to see personalized offers. According to the statistics, 90% of the users feel a sense of exclusivity with personal recommendations. Not only this, but the user profiles make the experience of consumers better as once they save transaction details and other information; they are not supposed to provide the details to the application every time.

Customer loyalty program

Any mcommerce app development company should not forget to add this feature to their client’s app. This feature allows customers to track their loyalty toward brands through their user profiles. Multiple ways can be adopted to promote the customer loyalty program. Moreover, businesses can also introduce a reward system based on the usage of their app by an individual.

For example, there are multiple applications in the market that offer cash back, convertible in-app points to purchase subscriptions, and other stuff to the customers. It can be said that a large amount of the audience takes a keen interest in the loyalty programs if they can easily get their status on the app. 

Fast-paced checkout process

Most of the users get irritated and leave the purchase in between if the checkout process of a mobile commerce application is too complex or slow. Any mobile app development company working on a mcommerce app should make sure that the checkout process of the app provides a seamless experience to the users. Ideally, the customers should be able to complete the purchase in a few seconds, and not more than a couple of clicks should be required to do the same. 

One of the most important pieces of advice for custom mobile app development firms is that they should not ask the user to fill out an irrelevant form or any other information to make an easy purchase. Same goes for the information that the user provides the first time. For example, suppose the user entered all the details like address and payment options at the time of the first order; then he/she should not be asked to enter the same details for their next order.

Customer support

Customer support can be dubbed as one of the most crucial features of any mobile commerce application. Even if the user interface of the application is easy to use, customers still need personal assistance related to their orders and other stuff. There can be questions related to anything like products, payments, returns, navigation, and more that your customers must be seeking answers for. 

A survey conducted regarding customer support suggested that around 90 percent of users will pay a higher price if they get brilliant customer service. On the other hand, decent customer support also contributes to creating a sense of loyalty in the customers and boosting customer retention. The ways to deploy customer support can range from emails, and ticket support, to phone calls, and the feature should be easily explorable in the application.

Product descriptions optimized for mobile

Any custom software development firm building a mcommerce application for retail businesses should optimize smartphone product descriptions. While desktop users have the upper hand as they can see the product descriptions on a larger screen, it becomes a little bit tricky on smartphones. So, if you have large paragraphs written in the name of the description, then it can be difficult to optimize according to a smartphone screen. 

Recommendations are that businesses should use bullet points for product descriptions. For this, the clients should break the product description written for the website of their business into pointers and remove the content that is not adding a lot of value to the description. From a customer’s point of view, the bullet points are easy to read, and a user can get all the useful information regarding a product in brief.

Application analytics

Any Android app development agency or iOS app development agency serving a retail business will forget to offer this feature. App analytics help businesses in making constant enhancements to mobile commerce applications. Things like product page conversion rates, types of smartphones being used, daily app usage per user, app crashes, bugs, error reports, geographic location of app users, popular payment methods, screen section that is clicked the most, and duration of app usage per visit can be tracked with the help of app analytics. 

This data can be used by businesses to grasp important points related to the behavior of the application of the users. Currently, most of the flagship mobile commerce applications have app analytics as a feature and rely on the data received to make the necessary changes. Same can be the case with any business, as no application is entirely perfect, and app analytics help in finding the things that are bugging the user.

Mobile-optimized product images

Similar to the product descriptions, mobile optimized product images are also necessary for any mcommerce application. Any mcommerce app development company should use the most appropriate product images to let the customers know exactly how the product looks. The mobile optimized images offer a better view to the customers, and it also helps them in making their buying decision. 

Another major reason behind offering optimized product images for mobile is that it is the only source for the customer to judge the product, as they cannot feel or sense it in real time. A good mcommerce app should offer multiple images of a product from different angles so that the customer knows how the product looks in reality from different angles. A case study revealed that product images with a 360-degree view could skyrocket sales by up to 27%.  

Discounts and promotions

No customer on earth can deny the fact that discounts and promotions make them use any application more than the ones that don’t have any offers going on. Several studies regarding the subject have stated that around 67% of people worldwide use mcommerce applications just to get their hands on lucrative deals and offers. However, while deploying the discounts and promotions feature, mobile commerce app development firms should consult their clients regarding the overall image of the business and pricing strategy. 

For example, there are multiple premium-level brands that offer no discount and want to work in the same way in the near future. Most of the apps start giving discounts as soon as the journey of a user starts on an application. For example, we have already seen multiple brands that offer a set amount of discount on the first purchase of a user on the platform. Without any doubt, providing discounts and promotions on a regular basis is going to drive more audience to mcommerce applications.

Hassle-free returns

It doesn’t matter how good quality products a retail business adds to its apps; some of the users may not like them. This results in raising a return ticket related to the product. Making sure as a mobile app development agency that your retail business client’s app has smooth return ticket raising options is a must. Stats show that around 92% of the customers come to purchase from a brand again if the return process is a hassle free, and around 67% of the users first read the return policy and then make a purchase on the application. Offering free returns could be a great way to leave a positive impact on the users. 

Social media integration

There have been multiple researches and surveys that show how important social media integration is for a mcommerce application. On an average, 75% of shoppers worldwide get influenced by social media while making buying decisions. All businesses should have a strong social media presence, and integration of social media handles with their mobile application. This will help the businesses get the best they can from their social media handles and generate sales from there too. 

A major reason behind the same is that the customers will not open the mcommerce application every day, but at least they will open social media apps every day. Once a user follows you, they can see all the updates through social media channels. Moreover, the integration of social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and others motivates the user to follow the businesses and stay connected with them.

Multiple payment options

While building a mcommerce application, the mcommerce app development companies should offer multiple payment methods. A rigid reason behind the same is that if a customer visits your application and is on the way to purchase products, the absence of preferred payment methods can negatively impact the sale, and maybe the customer will immediately ditch your platform and go to another one that accepts payment according to their preferred mode. 

Offering only traditional payment options like debit and credit cards is not going to sail the boat of purchasing alone. The audience nowadays, despite having debit and credit cards, prefers making payments from other sources due to cash back and other rewards. Some of the most used payment methods that every mcommerce application should have are PayPal, Google Pay, Debit cards, Credit cards, and Venmo. Most of the mainstream applications don’t have the option to make payments via cryptocurrency. However, speculations are that a couple of years down the line, we may also get to see high use of cryptocurrency for making every sort of payment. 

Product search

Product search is a feature that serves one of the most important user-focused purposes in a mcommerce application. The feature allows the user to enter a search query related to the product they want. This helps the users get straightaway to the desired product and add it to their cart instead of hovering around in the application to find the product they need. Most of customers want the minimum amount of resistance while searching for particular products. 

Businesses should focus on offering advanced search and filter systems in their mobile commerce apps. Customers prefer getting no results instead of seeing irrelevant products for their searches. So, the business should have a highly optimized product search that delivers accurate results. Reports say that around 60% of all the transactions made on a mobile commerce app come from the sessions that use the product search feature. 

Retail integration

Any retail business with a strong physical presence should definitely have the retail integration feature on its mcommerce app. In simple terms, the app and stores of a retail business should not be considered different entities. The first should let both of them complement each other. And the same can never happen in the case of a mobile or desktop website. Multiple studies revealed that customers even prefer using their smartphones while going through a physical store. 

It can be said that some of the shoppers’ research products first hand before visiting the physical stores and finally purchase them after seeing the product in real-time. Similarly, some users may see an item first at your physical store and later on decide to order it online for better discounts. Keeping all that in mind, ensure that your apps have proper retail integration.

Bar code scanner

If you are a retail business and are working with a mcommerce app development company for your app, make sure to ask them to add bar code scanning feature. This features allows the application to use the camera of a smartphone to scan the QR code or the ar code of any item available in the shop. Moreover, the application will also display details like pricing, previews, special offers, customer reviews, just after scannning the code successfully. In this way, both the shop and the customer will save a lot of time and money as well. Not only this, but the feature also helps in enhancing the customer experience and prociding them seamless results.

Ratings and feedback

This feature can be said to be one of the most underrated features in the mobile commerce application development. As the name suggests, the feature allows the user to give ratings and feedbacks regarding the  products they have purchased from a mcommerce application. Rating and feedbacks help the businesses and unserstanding the loopholes of a product and work in order to overcome them so that they can provide maximum user satisfaction. 

Moreover, an easy to understand ratingd and feedback system is always going to encourage the users to share theirt opinions regarding the products available on the app. From a retail business point of view, do ask the mobile app development agency building your app to add the ratings and feedback feature.

Use of Augmented reality

A lot of mobile commerce applications all over the world are offering Augmented Reality (AR) based features. This feature allows the users to test how a piece of furniture will look in their house or how the makeup or specs will look on their face before buying the same. Applications like IKEA and L’Oreal already offer the mentioned features. Speculations are that we will get to see more apps adopting the AR based features in 2023. Moreover, after the complete transition of 4G to 5G, we will surely get to see Augmented Reality (AR) principles getting implemented in multiple mcommerce applications.

Membership options

All the mobile commerce applications that offer VIP memberships or exclusive access for products get easily noticed by masses. Creating and deploying a membership program is going to help a business in strengthening their relationship with customers. Not only this but the membership options also help in developing loyalty in customers towards a particular brand.

Item availability reminder

Imagine a user visits your application and looks for a particular product. With your product search feature, he/she gets the product but it is out of stock. Now, with the help of item availability reminder feature, you can notify the customer as soon as the product is back in stock (only if they have opted for the notify me option). This helps in stopping the user from going to other alternative mobile commerce applications in the market. So make sure that the mobile app development agency working on your app should add this feature too. 

Conclusion

Any mcommerce app development company should make sure to offer the above mentioned features in mobile commerce applications so that the businesses can get the best out of it. Some of the features that are going to be adopted by multiple mcommerce apps in 2023 could be the integration of augmented reality (AR), QR code scanning capability, multiple payment options, etc. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is mobile commerce?

Mcommerce or mobile commerce is a term used to describe the buying and selling of goods via wireless handheld devices, mostly smartphones and tablets. It can be said to be a part of the ecommerce ecosystem that allows the user to do shopping and purchasing without the requirement of a computer for it. Not only this, but mobile commerce apps also allow the users to pay their bills, initiate financial transactions, and even manage their bank accounts on your device. 

How many types of mobile commerce applications are available in the market?

The mobile commerce app development companies have divided the mcommerce applications into three categories. Here we have mentioned all three categories to make you understand the concept better:

Types of mobile commerce apps:

Mobile banking: This kind of mobile commerce applications allow the users to get control of their bank accounts and even get their hands on brokerage services too. With mobile banking apps, customers can do financial transactions, pay bills, and even trade in stocks. All these things are done via the help of an app that includes tight security features. These mobile commerce applications may also rely on SMSs to alert and track the account activities of a user. 

Mobile shopping: This type of mcommerce apps let the user purchase any product according to their preference with the help of a mobile application. These kinds of applications are in high demand these days and most of the retail businesses are opting for mobile shopping apps to grow their businesses. 

Mobile Payments: These applications allow the user to purchase products and then pay for them using digital wallets and stitch traditional payment methods like checks, debit and credit cards. Some of the best examples of mobile payment applications are PayPal, Xoom, Venmo and digital wallets like Apple Pay. 

What are some of the examples of mobile commerce applications?

As of now there are multiple mobile commerce applications in the market. Some of the best examples are Amazon, Samsung Wallet, Google Pay, Apple Pay, applications developed and deployed officially from a bank’s side to keep a check on your account and even initiate transactions, etc. Most of the applications are already in extensive use by the customers all over the world. Predictions are that the use of mcommerce applications is going to increase in 2023 and beyond with the introduction of new features and better experience.