The Ultimate Guide to E-Commerce Mobile App Development

by Emma W. Web Designer

Mobile e-commerce is exploding.

Game-changing platforms are disrupting antiquated industries, such as Uber and AirBnB. Mobile shopping is on the rise, with new options such as InstaCart and JackThreads. Retail juggernauts have already made the jump to mobile and are seeing lucrative profits. Games like Clash of Clans and Trivia Crack have hooked millions of users.

These platforms have been successful and raked in heaps of cash thanks to mobile commerce. Our generation is now comfortable not only paying online, but with mobile as well. Today’s faster technology and smoother interfaces have eliminated the e-commerce friction.

The Ascension of Mobile Commerce The percentage of retail traffic, mobile versus desktop, 2011–2014 (link)

The most eye opening proof is that consumers now spend more time with online retail on mobile devices than desktop and laptop PCs. Further, global mobile internet users have surpassed desktop internet users, this year.

Here’s The Ultimate Guide to E-Commerce Mobile App Development. Below are all the building blocks needed to plan and develop your mobile e-commerce technology. Starting with the concepts, market insights, payment technology, analytics, and more.

If you’re just getting started, read up on the concepts below and explore the resources. If you're already familiar, then review these options and choose the right solution for your business.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is an interface or outlet to your payment system. A digital gateway can be the screens and buttons of an online shopping cart that accepts input payment information. An analog gateway is a physical credit card reader.

A payment gateway is important because it provides a secure path from the customer to your payment system. It does this by encrypting the data and handling the connection to the payment processor. Without a gateway, your credit card numbers and banking information would be at risk. Or you would need to build your own security systems (which is a lot of work). We all saw how many times Sony has been hacked — protect your data!

A payment gateway can be an embeddable form or secure SDK that a framework lets you drop into your application. For example, the Pay with PayPal button, or your checkout flow pages on your website. Those elements are the gateway that secure and transmit payment data to the payment processor.

What is a payment processor?

The payment processor is the part of the payment system that executes that actual transaction. The processor sends an authorization request to the issuing entity (customer’s bank or credit card) with the transaction details. It then receives an authorization response whether the transaction was approved or denied. If approved, the funds are later transferred when the day’s batch of transactions clear.

What is a payment marketplace?

A payment marketplace is a platform for connecting buyers to multiple sellers. Amazon is a good example, where some products are sold by Amazon, but many products are also sold by other businesses and independent sellers.

A payment marketplace enables sellers to place their products on a platform alongside other vendors. Here a customer can buy from multiple sellers, and the funds are then split and transferred. Usually the marketplace itself will take a cut of the transaction.

Uber and AirBnB are other good examples. Uber has many drivers (sellers) on their platform, who each need to be paid separately by riders (buyers). AirBnB lists properties of many hosts (sellers) to the guests (buyers).Top Mobile App E-Commerce Blogs

Get Elastic, Mobile
http://www.getelastic.com/category/mobile-commerce-multichannel-marketing-marketing/