How To Grow Your Online Brand With Mobile Commerce Applications

Mobile commerce or m-commerce is the next unstoppable thing that has taken the ecommerce world by a storm. Won’t you agree that today we are dependent on our smartphones not only for connecting with friends and family but for every little thing we can imagine? From ordering food to ordering essentials to finding our partners to healthcare. You name it, you have it! Everything you need and desire is just a mobile tap away :)

With online buyers gravitating towards mobile commerce it is extremely important that your brand’s website is either primed for mobile viewing or equipped with mobile apps. There are 5.31 billion unique mobile phone users in the world and more than half of the internet traffic comes from these mobile phones. In fact, m-commerce accounts for up to 73% of ecommerce orders now.

The numbers speak for themselves. M-commerce is no longer an option for brands. Businesses planning for exponential growth need to think about a mobile-first approach while building their online presence. 

Mobile apps and how they have changed our everyday lives 

When we think of mobile apps, from an e-commerce perspective there are mainly three types of apps needed to run the show:

• Mobile shopping: It includes dedicated apps and social media that allow in-app purchasing through mobile. 63% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from a brand with a mobile shopping app or mobile website
  

• Mobile banking: These are dedicated and secured apps that allow customers to carry out banking transactions through mobile. Mobile banking apps make digital payments faster, secure and easy. The global digital banking market is expected to reach a value of around $13.9 billion by 2026
  

• Mobile payment: Cashless payment through mobile using digital wallets and apps like Paytm, PayPal etc is mobile payment.  The global mobile payment market is forecasted to reach $273.1 billion by 2028

Source: Global Data, BusinessWire

Put together, all the above data underlines the fact we already know. You have to rely on mobile commerce applications to grow your online brand!

Mobile commerce: The new age mantra for your business growth

Mobile devices have not only changed the way we live but have also changed the marketing strategy of online brands. Reaching new markets, engaging your customers and finally converting them has become so much easier with mobile apps. 

Mobile apps benefits to capitalize on 

A mobile shopping app is an excellent tool for brands planning to create a niche for their business. Here are a few major benefits of mobile apps:

• Broader scope: Since brands need to target their audience where they are, targeting them on mobile phones is the best sought after solution. Build an app or transform your store into a PWA, reach a wider audience and grow your conversions

• Omnichannel experience: Online buyers want their favourite brands to be on all the channels they keep hopping in and out. Omnichannel is the way to go for enterprise brands and mobile apps offer one of the most lucrative channels which brands need to add to their omnichannel strategy

• Enhanced customer engagement: The one thing that matters today is your customers’ engagement and their loyalty. With apps your brand can virtually open a 24x7 shop in your customers’ mobile devices. This means you can engage them anywhere and also gently push them towards conversions whenever they are active on the app

• Insightful customer data: Mobile commerce allows you to collect user behaviours and purchasing pattern related data extensively. Brands can leverage these consumer insights in sending personalized messages that trigger conversions

Mobile commerce trends: Why m-commerce is key to success

Let's take a look at the growth recorded by mobile commerce.

• $3.56 trillion is expected mobile-commerce sales by 2021

• 3.5 X revenue growth from m-commerce sales in 2021 as compared to 2016

• 75% of total online purchases are done through a mobile device 

• 69% of the internet users prefer checking reviews on their smartphones to visiting an offline store

• 60% of shoppers say the possibility of shopping via mobile is a deciding factor when choosing a brand

Source: Statista

Mcommerce sales jumped a whopping 250% from 2016 levels to what they reached in 2021. Enterprise brands planning to have unrestrained growth need to have a well-defined strategy to grow their business using various m-commerce channels like mobile apps and  PWA stores.

5 Proven strategies to grow your sales through mobile apps

There will always be an increase in the number of people having and using smartphones, providing a thriving market to all brands. Your brand can also reap rich dividends by planning a smart, conversion-oriented mobile commerce strategy. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Create a mobile buyer persona 

Target your ideal customer by creating buyer personas through research and surveys. Knowing your audience is vital for creating seamless user experience and buyer journeys. The demographic data, lifestyle factors, and buying behaviours cumulated together create a UX persona that helps you truly understand your users, their perspective and purchasing decisions. 

Now that you understand your buyers' needs, you are able to put the right content in front of them through your mobile apps and mobile stores. With personas at hand, you can use it strategically in your inbound marketing efforts to push for higher engagement and conversions.

StoreHippo helps you to gather lots of inputs about customer behaviour with its built-in reports and also lets you integrate with popular analytics tools like Google Analytics to help you gather detailed inputs for building your buyer personas.

2. Develop a mobile commerce app

If you haven’t yet invested in a mobile app, it is time you prioritise the area. Apps help you create a better and more direct interaction with the customers. 

One of the reasons why customers prefer shopping on mobile apps is personalization. With apps, you can help your customer store their preferences, and add items to their wish list for future references in a single click.

Apps powered by StoreHippo are hybrid apps that run seamlessly on all devices. StoreHippo powered stores are Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which means these e-commerce websites look, feel and work as mobile apps. PWA stores help your brand reach even the distant areas where internet connectivity is not so fast. Apps and progressive web apps stores put together have the potential to grow your conversions manifold.

3. Implement omnichannel marketing strategy

A poor shopping experience is something you never want your consumers to have. Customers nowadays want to interact with their preferred brand across channels and mobile is one of their most loved channels. Creating frictionless omnichannel journey for your buyers by building mobile apps in their native language, offering easy shopping experiences through PWA stores, offering special discount codes for sharing your products on social sites etc. are ways in which you can grow your conversions through mobile apps. Implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy allows the customers to experience best-in-class buying journey across the channels. 

Here is how being omnipresent helps you gain potential buyers 

• Deliver a retargeting ad on your customers social media

• Remind them to revisit their abandoned cart through email marketing 

• Send a promotional text message with personalised discounts and offers when a potential buyer is near your offline store

StoreHippo helps you build a more holistic experience for the customers with mobile ready online stores, PWAs, mobile apps etc. By using 300+ API endpoints, StoreHippo helps you create a personalized experience for your buyers. It means you can reach the right audience, at the right time, on the right channel.

4. Seamless online payments

Give your customers convenience and they will return. With a variety of mobile payment options on your mobile apps and stores you can make your checkouts frictionless thus building loyalty. 

Mobile purchases are known to be impulsive, and with the right kind of personalized offers along with fast mobile payment options on your m-commerce channels you can nudge your customers towards buying more. 

StoreHippo solutions has more than 60 domestic and international payment gateways to choose from. It offers a full stretch of payment methods like UPI, wallets, pay later or subscription based payment methods among others to help with easy and quick checkouts.

5. Personalised experience

The millennial customer fancy a personalized shopping experience. The new and modern technologies like AI, machine learning etc at hand, you can gather an ample amount of insights on your customers and their preferences. Using these data along with the right technology to customize your mobile apps, landing page, product pages etc. you can grow your sales manifold.

StoreHippo’s decoupled headless platform powered by MACH architecture and mobile-first approach helps brands build extremely personalised experiences for their buyers. With StoreHippo you can track your users, design multi-theme apps, device-specific themes and discounts, sell to your customers in their preferred language, have individual apps for each sub-store and much more at your disposal to grow your sales.

M-commerce moving forward 

With technology, everything is easy and available today. It's time to grow your business with mobile apps that make your customers want you over your competition.

As an online brand, you need to catch hold of every opportunity that comes your way. The good news is, that you don't have to wander places because StoreHippo offers all the solutions for you to leverage the next-generation technology.

Headstart your B2B or D2C business with StoreHippo’s robust mobile commerce solutions. The mobile-ready e-commerce solution provider is built on the next-generation technology stack. StoreHippo is here to take away all your m-commerce worries with device-specific personalizations, mobile apps, PWA. 

Stand out from the e-commerce crowd with future-ready mobile commerce solutions from StoreHippo. Begin planning to take your brand to new heights of success. Start your 14-day free trial to explore the widest range of features, tools and marketing solutions.