Six important features all ecommerce apps must have for better user conversions

On first glance, the features of an ecommerce app seem fairly obvious. Even a normal user can list out some of the essential features such as buy now, add to cart, and so on.

However, a closer look would reveal a slew of features which quietly improve user experience.

Over 85% shoppers prefer mobile apps over mobile websites. What is the reason behind this overwhelming presence? After all, most websites these days have mobile-friendly versions that essentially work like mobile apps.

WordPress is a prime example. Almost every WordPress website performs well on mobile devices provided all other factors are optimal. By extension, WooCommerce websites are mobile friendly as well? Why then do people still prefer shopping on apps as the stat above suggests?

The entire point of shopping on mobile apps is that users get to have a better shopping experience. Mobile-friendly websites are built to perform well on a mobile browser.

Mobile apps on the other hand are built for the device they’re running on. They’re like software for a device’s operating system. This is a key reason apps can provide much better features which ultimately improve user experience.

These reasons drive the need to develop apps as well. From coding an app from scratch to using app makers to create WordPress app for Android and iOS, companies take a number routes towards app development.

This piece covers six essential features every ecommerce app must have for better conversions.

Table of contents -

#1 - Guest checkout
#2 - Push notification features
#3 - An incentive-driven referral program
#4 - Location tracking
#5 - Variety of payment options
#6 - Analytics infrastructure

#1 - Guest checkout

The first essential feature is enabling the guest checkout option. It is a fairly easy feature to introduce, and yet many apps don’t have it.

There are many viable reasons companies don’t add a guest checkout feature. User onboarding as an exercise locks a user into the app ecosystem and has some great long-term benefits. Furthermore, much of app personalization is based on knowing the name and email of a user. These reasons alone point to the need for disabling guest checkout.

Here is another truth. Users are not very fond of user onboarding. They would much rather skip the entire process and proceed directly to the app. The apprehension behind user onboarding can also be based on security. Users may feel uncomfortable providing their contact information to a new app they download.

The simple way to bypass these issues is enabling guest checkout. After users have made one or two purchases and trust the service of the app, they will voluntarily create an account for the sake of convenience. This improves user conversions as well as the overall shopping experience on the app.

Even app builders provide users the option to enable guest checkout these days. If you build a WooCommerce app without coding for Android and iOS with AppMySite for instance, you can easily enable guest checkout.

#2 - Push notification features

Notifications are an important part of making a successful app. A lot of people download an app. However, not each of them regularly open an app. This makes for poor user retention.

Notifications can help make dormant users aware about an app.

Simply sending push notifications is not enough. Nailing the content and timing of the notifications is also a challenge.

Nailing the content is a matter of crafting the right CTAs and adding interactive features. Many apps these days send image notifications to their users as well. This shows how far push notifications have come. Companies should push for getting these features in their notifications as they help improve CTR and overall conversions in the end.

Getting the timing right is about studying CTR patterns. The best way of finding the right time is to send notifications is using the best app analytics tools.

#3 - An incentive-driven referral program

Most apps, not just shopping apps, have referral programs for their users. The goal behind having referral programs is to use existing app users to increase the user base.

The problem here is the incentives offered in the program. Most referral programs offer incentives which are fairly late-term. Late-term incentives refer to rewards which bear fruition later down the line. For example, if your referral programs offer users a 25% discount when the new user they refer completes three purchases, the incentive can be classified as late-term.

Late-term incentives are the biggest reason behind the failure of referral programs. This also decreases conversions as less users are converted into becoming customers.

The solution? Offer early incentives to quickly scale app users. Once your users hit critical mass, scale back early incentives to make the math work.

#4 - Location tracking

Product preferences can change on a number of demographic factors. Location is one of them. Imagine if you can alter the home screen of your app users based solely on location. This would lead to a direct improvement in user experience as shoppers would get recommendations personalized to their specific needs.

Location is not the best predictor of product preferences. Nevertheless, it is one part of the recipe. You can shore up your app personalization level with simple location tracking features.

#5 - Variety of payment options

If a large part of your prospects have debit cards, does it really make sense to offer only credit cards as the sole payment option?

Offering a variety of payment options is one way of eliminating a key reason why shoppers abandon their cart - payment options.

In India for instance, people don’t just make payments through debit and credit cards. Payment through online wallets and UPI is also fairly popular amongst shoppers, It thus makes sense to offer a range of payment channels and ensure that a lack of checkout options is not the reason behind an abandoned cart.

#6 - Analytics infrastructure

A shopping app is built to fulfill one purpose - get more sales. However, getting sales is not a simple task. Companies have to adopt a myriad of different tactics to get sales from all possible channels.

There are a lot of purchase paths users follow before making a purchase. The job of a company with an ecommerce app in the market is to identify these paths and push customers on them. This is only possible with the help of the best app analytics tools.

Ecommerce apps must have a serious analytics infrastructure in the background. Doing so helps the inner-workings of how shoppers are behaving on the app. This user behaviour can be studied and analyzed to be used as a base to make the necessary changes.

In conclusion

On the surface, ecommerce app features look fairly commonplace. However, a deeper reading shows the essential features every ecommerce app must have.

This piece covers six important features every ecommerce app must have. Whether someone builds an app with code or uses a free online app maker, these features are crucial.

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Created on Nov 9th 2020 06:00. Viewed 491 times.

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