There is no question that mobile commerce is the priority now for online business and retail exchange on the go. There has been well over a 400 percent jump in the number of smartphones moving and traveling around every day, and each one of them is a potential sales point for purchase and financial transaction. In the same time period, the number of desktop computers only grew a paltry 40 percent, approximately. Just on these statistics alone, if all remains constant, commerce will continue to move in the direction of the mobile platform without hesitation.
For any business looking to leverage the mobile space, an effective mobile app is critical. Web browsers on phones don’t work well, and people really get irritated with how slow they operate as well as having to zoom to read them. The mobile app is ideal and crafted to the user who needs to read fast, digest faster, and engage easily.
However, that is the simple part of realizing this tool is a needed step. The harder part is determining what exactly is needed in the app, and how it will be designed for the given business. Granted, the custom-tailoring makes one app unique for one company versus another all the time. But there are key aspects every good to have, and companies moving into the m-commerce platform need to be aware of as well.
M-Commerce Features that mobile app needs to include
1. A Good Focus
Your objectives for an m-commerce app need to be clear and defined in detail. A general mission statement or ambiguous set of requirements are not going to cut it. Your app must address a very clear goal, have a specific target of who will use it and why, and what value the app will provide them. Your focus should also be specific to new customers or existing ones, whether it’s just for information or sales or both, and what makes the app far better than a website for the same purpose. Without these answers, a mobile app is just poking in the dark and will cost a lot of money without the same in return.
2. A Unique Proposition
The mobile app needs to offer something that your competition does not. The value provided needs to be unique enough that it stands out and makes your app the place to go to digitally versus other options. If the app is just a copy of someone else’s mobile app, the copy becomes obvious quickly and ignored. The good news is, 3 out of 4 businesses don’t have an app, so the competition is thin, for now.
3. Pick a Development Platform to Stay With
There are lots of choices here, but the development platform a mobile commerce app is built on needs to be stable, reliable, and likely to be around for a while, so a company doesn’t get any nasty surprises with premature obsolescence. There are also issues with security and the ability to work with multiple operating systems. Go too obscure, and your app won’t work on the major app-providing markets.
4. Don’t Forget Your User Devices
The customer base uses a lot of different smartphones and devices. Some are up to date and new, others are older. Many times, the given device even depends on the demographics of the customers with some favoring older phones and other favoring new. If a mobile app doesn’t allow for flexibility here, it could block out an entire portion of customers before they even decide to buy or not. Use the technology that is common and available to ensure compatibility with your app.
5. Require Testing Always
Never take for granted any guarantee or promise about an app’s development. Testing is essential to ensure the app prototype matches a company’s business model as well as its expectations. If the results do not, then it’s proof positive to refine and improve. Too often testing these days is downplayed or avoided outright as a time-killer. It is a critical mistake in any mobile commerce app choice brought to fruition.
There will always be different aspects of technology or new phones to consider that push the boundary of what’s possible for communication. But an app platform choice should still meet the above criteria regardless to maximize success potential.
