Tag Archive for: e-commerce

Solving Consumer Problems With The Right Mobile App

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Many of the most popular apps in the App Store and Google Play do a great job of solving consumer problems. They make it easy for users to connect with companies and purchase goods and services. And the right mobile apps allow users to launch inquiries and receive the necessary feedback quickly and efficiently. Undoubtedly, this is great for retaining users as long-term clients and for those companies that offer aftermarket services. 

Furthermore, there is hardly a business or market segment that doesn’t benefit from mobile apps aimed at solving consumer problems. Whether it’s a booking app for a restaurant, a makeup app for a beauty store, or a car listing app for a dealership — the mobile app plays a profound role in boosting business. 

But what does this mean for your business — can the right mobile app make a difference? We’re willing to bet that it can, but we’ll delve deeper and give you some examples of known problems that an app can solve effectively.

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Making Mobility More Efficient And Standardized

Consider how companies such as Bolt and Uber have radically transformed mobility. Gone are the days when one had to call a cab or brave dangerous and rainy sidewalks to catch a taxi. The business models and mobile apps that Bolt and Uber have introduced allow users to order a ride whenever and wherever they want. 

All users need to do is open the app, choose a destination, select their preferred ride, and confirm. And if users encounter any issues, it’s just as easy to submit a report and have it resolved by the relevant support team. A hassle-free approach to solving consumer problems is one of the cornerstones of these services. 

However, these services come into their own when one travels to a foreign country. And that’s because both Bolt and Uber have specific guidelines and standards that drivers must meet — regardless of the country they operate in — even if it’s one with an incompetent local taxi industry. Thus, in most cases, travelers won’t experience dangerous driving, rude behavior, or unroadworthy vehicles.

Bringing Online Shopping To The Masses 

While the internet may have introduced online shopping to an unsuspecting public — this had limited impact. And that’s because only those that owned a computer or had access to one could order online. Furthermore, many people, particularly the elderly, were rarely computer literate.

But the introduction of smartphones opened the floodgates to online shopping. And with the proliferation of user-friendly apps covering every shopping niche imaginable, anyone could order online with a few swipes and taps. Moreover, these mobile apps alleviate the need to use web browsers, which often have security issues that place less-experienced users in danger. 

Selling Digital Products And Subscriptions

Digital products such as audiobooks, ebooks, games, printables, software, and web courses are ideal for distributing and selling via a mobile app. The mobile app can serve as the primary digital store portal for any brand that wants to sell directly to clients. 

And while it’s possible to sell digital products via a website, the mobile app has tangible benefits. The app can act as a client that enforces digital rights management (DRM) on all downloadable digital products. Thus, users can only access this content via the app and a registered account, which diminishes piracy drastically.  

It’s also easy to upsell other products and subscriptions via notifications and popup messages. And since users will always need to have the app available to access content, they’re likely to read most incoming messages. However, that’s not the case with a website they’ll only access periodically or only once.

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The Bottom Line

Solving consumer problems is almost always a satisfying experience for savvy entrepreneurs. But solving these problems with a mobile app is beyond satisfying — it’s the smartest and most efficient way to serve customers. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you build the right mobile app for your business!

Ecommerce and Apps: Should You Consider It?

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A critical facet for any e-commerce business is a well-designed and optimized online store. Nevertheless, despite the emergence of mobile applications in modern-day digital retail, most retailers still wonder whether they need to adopt a mobile app to accompany their online stores.

Google published research showing that 56% of smartphone users were highly involved in online retail. According to Google, 58% of smartphone users check prices, monitor trends, view customer responses, and evaluate client feedback. Most smartphone users were also involved in product and review comparisons and even buying products.

Further statistics revealed that 66% of smartphone users made online purchases once a week. For most smartphone users, online purchases were made by phone as opposed to desktop devices. The prevalence of mobile apps is driven by the accelerated adoption of smartphone devices, alongside higher internet penetration rates.

Therefore, although retailers are wondering whether to uptake mobile apps to complement their digital retail efforts, it’s important to remember that users first view products on their smartphone devices before making purchases on desktop PCs. Most importantly, with the emergence of highly optimized apps, making online purchases via apps is becoming more streamlined, making mobile apps the go-to option in the e-commerce marketplace.

So, here are the top reasons you should consider e-commerce and mobile apps.

1. Loyal audiences

One of the greatest benefits of an app is the ability to build loyalty with the targeted audience. 67% of online buyers prefer apps offered by their brands and companies according to data by Adobe. These statistics clearly show the impact of digital platforms in reinforcing customer and brand relationships. But how do you encourage your targeted audience to download and install your app? Well, focus more on the user interface and user experience and offer better discounts and more attractive deals.

2. Faster buying process

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have longer queues that point to a slow check-out process. Traditional check-out processes in brick-and-mortar stores are responsible for higher customer service costs, delayed check-out processes, and may inhibit customer retention. Luckily, the emergence of mobile apps has simplified the purchase and check-out process. Ecommerce mobile apps come with a payment gateway functionality that allows app users to purchase products and services from authorized vendors. That ultimately facilitates a faster buying and a timely check-out process.

3. Product listing

Product listing is a critical aspect of any e-commerce process. A product listing is what the customer sees when they search for a product online. For sellers, product categorization is one of the greatest benefits of e-commerce. Sellers can use categories to streamline the ordering and purchase process, allowing fewer errors in procurement and supply chain processes. One advantage of e-commerce is that customers can add products, product categories, product descriptions, images, pricing, and delivery date. Product categorization allows vendors to inform customers more about the product, allowing buyers to know what retailers have.

Product listing best practices:

The following are the tips and tricks of product listing and categorization:

  • Maintain image dimensions
  • Use a high-quality image resolution
  • Provide multiple viewing angles for your products
  • Use lipsticks when displaying or showing multiple product views
  • Consider UX-design and UI-design that facilitate a 360-degree product view.

Customizing your product listings makes them appealing and attractive, enhancing your chances of online retail success.

4. Improved marketing communication

Marketing is principally about communicating and educating prospective clients. Marketing outreach targets educating users and prospective customers about the benefits and drawbacks of products or services, including the drawbacks of competitor products. Mobile apps and eCommerce platforms act as central communication platforms, providing insight and knowledge to customer and client groups.

An e-commerce mobile application provides a communication channel for different stakeholders, including clients, prospective customers, and brands. This communication acts as an avenue for brand positioning and marketing excellence. So, complementing a mobile app with an intuitive online store helps deliver superior marking and outreach.

5. Efficiency

The intuitiveness, user-friendliness, and accessibility of mobile apps render them ideal for many customers. Today, online shoppers are leveraging mobile apps to streamline their purchase and procurement processes. And even though you might incur a substantial sum developing a solid app, be assured that it will generate incomparable value within a short period. A well-designed app with superior functionality has unmatched potential for long-term value. Apps’ overall functionality delivers superior performance, enabling businesses to be more agile and efficient in their routine business processes.

6. Reduced response time

Vendors and customers want a rapid, time-to-value service. A mobile app is smooth and streamlines the purchase process, saving time and money in routine check-out processes. The response time for mobile apps is considerably less than for web platforms or websites that retrieve data quickly. So, e-commerce stores with mobile apps are well-positioned to serve customers faster than online stores without complementary apps.

7. Personalization

E-commerce platforms and mobile apps have many opportunities for personalization. That’s because retailers can understand and use customer shopping patterns to build more personalized retail experiences. If personalization is well-planned and combined with push notifications, it can deliver superior marketing campaigns that touch the hearts of shoppers. E-commerce platforms and mobile apps provide retailers with countless opportunities for shoppers to connect with brands. Customer connection is reinforced through a solid personalization approach, providing retailers with fresh opportunities to revamp their revenues.

8. Multiple payment options

The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution has transformed the online shopping experience. The emergence of IoT, artificial intelligence, data analytics, big data, and blockchain has helped transform the digital marketplace. Nowadays, with digitally secured cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, Binance, or XRP coin, you can access limitless retailers. Cryptocurrency provides shoppers with numerous payment getaways, streamlining the online shopping experiences for millions, if not billions of online customers.

9. Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management is an evolving field of marketing. Customer relationship management is concerned primarily with building lasting relationships with customers by understanding their changing needs and responding accordingly to these shifting priorities. Long ago, brands and organizations approached customer relationship management by obtaining written feedback and evaluating based on demand shifts.

However, nowadays, mobile apps have overhauled the entire CRM practice, with advances in chatbots and online communication portals that collect information and feedback at-a-go. E-commerce platforms first ushered in a new, innovative way for customers and brands to interact and share problems. Mobile apps reinforce this relationship, allowing brands to mine insightful, statistical shopping trends. Consumer insight drives better customer relationships, especially regarding customer inquiries, refunds, and payment errors.

10. Competitive positioning

The Covid-19 pandemic signaled the start of a new dawn. The announcement of the Covid-19 outbreak was accompanied by stringent social distancing measures, an effort to prevent the spread of a global virus. Unfortunately, new social distancing measures discouraged conventional physical meet-ups as shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and public transport systems set measures to curtail physical contact.

These developments affected traditional shopping avenues and disrupted the office workplace. Businesses suffered blows due to shrinking purchases, and supply chains sustained bruises due to the collapse of the global market. Luckily, mobile apps defied the anecdotal narrative of an economic decline and beat the odds to become an alternative solution for retailers. Adopting mobile apps and e-commerce solutions provides a competitive advantage, allowing enterprises to respond to changing customer preferences.

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Therefore, as enterprises wade off this pandemic, it’s only wise to adopt with time by accelerating app adoption. For enterprises recovering from the pandemic, mobile apps offer an innovative way to ignite touches with prospective customers. There’s no doubt that mobile apps give a competitive positioning to enterprises adjusting to the post-covid digital marketplace.

Contact NS804 to optimize mobile apps and e-commerce solutions.

The Basics Of Shopify App Development With Python

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With its ever-growing popularity, Python has become the programming language of choice for many developers globally. We only have to peek at the TIOBE Index to find the language at the top of the list as of November 2021. An impressive feat considering Python has to compete with industry stalwarts such as C++, Java, and JavaScript.

But why has Python risen to the top and made it the talk of the town? Well, it’s an accessible language that even newcomers can learn in a matter of months. Python’s also incredibly versatile, allowing developers to work on machine learning (ML) projects and web apps. Furthermore, it’s a good choice for those that want to develop a Shopify app.

Why Shopify Matters

One e-commerce solution that has gained traction over the past seven years is Shopify. It’s an online store builder that allows merchants to set up digital storefronts with relative ease. Instead of dealing with the complexities of developing and hosting e-commerce websites, many merchants opt for Shopify’s more hassle-free approach. It shares many similarities to WordPress and WooCommerce, including an integrated blogging component, a store for professionally-made themes, and extensive SEO and analytics features. 

And, it seems that all the convenience that Shopify brings to the table is paying off. As of October 2021, over 3.7 million live websites use Shopify, with close to 70% of these sites registered in the United States. But what does this mean for e-commerce developers? Firstly, they can offer their services to merchants that don’t have the time or inclination to build their stores. And secondly, they can develop apps for these merchants, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

The Types Of Apps Shopify Allows 

There are essentially three types of apps that developers can create for the Shopify ecosystem:

  • Custom app – A bespoke solution requested by a single merchant
  • Private app – A bespoke solution with distinct requirements not met by a custom app
  • Public app – An application suitable for distribution to masses of merchants

Furthermore, developers can choose whether to create embedded or standalone apps. Embedded apps present the following advantages:

  • Easily accessible on both desktop and mobile.
  • They utilize Shopify’s standard user interface (UI).
  • Merchants get to use these apps in a familiar environment. 
  • Access to device hardware, such as the camera and Near-Field Communication (NFC).

In most cases, developers should opt for embedded instead of standalone apps for several reasons. Standalone apps require their own user interface, web domain and can’t access extensions.

App Development With Python

The building blocks of Shopify consist of a wide variety of tech stacks. And during its early stages of development, Ruby (Ruby on Rails) played an integral role. Nowadays, developers may opt from several supported languages, including Python, to build their apps. 

But to speed up development, it’s best to use Python with a web framework such as Flask. Flask will make it easy to interface with Shopify and allow your app to listen to calls and webhooks. Furthermore, it can store access tokens within the ‘server.py’ file. But it’s best to implement a dedicated database, as it’s a more robust solution. 

Both Python and Flask are lightweight and easy to work with, meaning that it won’t take long to create impressive apps. Moreover, Shopify’s documentation is detailed and well-written, allowing developers to deal with any roadblocks that may appear.

In Conclusion

Shopify is an excellent e-commerce solution for merchants that want to set up successful online stores. And with tools such as Python and Flask, developing apps for Shopify’s ecosystem becomes a lot easier. Contact us today to learn how NS804 can help you create phenomenal apps for Shopify and beyond.