1. Why do my customers buy from me?
Is it because your products are low-priced and enjoy a prominent position on a shopping comparison site? Are your customers usually random browsers who buy impulsively, and probably don’t even notice or care who the supplier is?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, it indicates that you don’t need a mobile app. However, if your customers are wowed by the uniqueness of your offer, your additional services, or have fallen in love with your brand, then read on.
2. Do you care about creating a great brand experience?
Is building long term customer relationships part of your strategy? Would a tool that allows you to better engage with them and reward loyalty be of value?
Then an m-commerce app may be the solution.
3. Do people visit your e-shop regularly?
Do people make high value purchases from you that require a lot of thought and research? Or, conversely, buy small items that they need to re-purchase every week? In both cases, applications can ensure a seamless, barrier-free buying and browsing experience.
Some folk say that applications only make sense for e-shops where customers buy frequently. But our studies have shown that this is not the case. For example, a customer may only buy one guitar during the course of the year, but he will continue to visit the e-shop regularly because he likes to keep up-to-date with what is on the market. An important consideration is, therefore, not repeat purchases, but the frequency of interactions with the e-shop.
4. What % of visitors come from mobile devices?
A value below 10% indicates that your target audience is not smartphone friendly and that it would be complicated, and perhaps expensive, to motivate them to use an application.
A visitor rate of above 20% from mobile indicates that your m-commerce app is likely to quickly find a committed audience.
Remember – mobile apps are not for everyone
Even if you’ve met the above criteria, an application still might not be the best option for all of your e-shop customers.
Whenever a customer needs to solve an acute need quickly, is looking for the lowest available price, or has to purchase goods which they don’t really have strong feelings about, they have no compelling reason to install an application.
Generally, e-shops have had two types of customer:
- Passers-by, which make up the majority
- and loyal customers, whose total is significantly less
The first group is bought in by high reach, perhaps you ran a successful advertising campaign and as a result are attracting a high number of one time customers. But loyal customers are the gold standard. They will keep coming back again and again so, you don’t need to spend money trying to attract them, and they are not as price sensitive. They are the most valuable type of shopper and should be kept happy and engaged.
Here’s an example: The Metalshop saw only 5% of its mobile e-shop visitors install its app, which at first glance doesn’t sound great. Yet this 5% generates the same return as the remaining 95%. That is true success.
You primary goal is to make buying easier
When thinking of a mobile app you should reflect on it’s actual purpose. It exists to simplify the purchasing process for you and your customers.
Sometimes, e-shop vendors want advanced features like personalized content, targeted according to user behavior or geofencing. But they forget the most important basic benefits of applications. Maybe the key benefit is that the user does not need to open a browser and punch in the URL. Or that the customer is able to buy in 3 seconds with just one click.
It’s these basic benefits that attract consumers, not the fancy technology you can offer. Just look at the data. Putting to one side the positive relationship with the brand, it clearly shows that customers downloaded the application because they were attracted by the promise of hassle-free shopping.
Easy purchase through mobile = turnover booster
E-commerce is a tough market. And at the end of the day success is measured by how many orders are placed and how much money flows into the company coffers.
We’ve developed over 100 m-commerce sites and everyday we witness e-shops that double their turnover from mobile traffic – with no extra marketing costs! It’s as simple as running the application and smart banner on a homepage, then encouraging mobile visitors to download the application.
Does that make sense to you?
If you’d like to find out more about whether your business is suited for a mobile app, drop us a line and we’ll give you an honest friendly assessment.