Why are retailers so obsessed with shopping apps?

Many of the biggest retailers in the world are obsessed with apps. While fulfillment, product acquisition, and supply chains move into the background, the state of their apps is their utmost concern. Why?

For anyone who has been in the industry for any length of time, the reasons should be obvious. Back in 2015, something momentous happened in online user habits. For the first time in history, people did more product searches using their mobile devices than they did their PCs. The age of the mobile era had begun. 

Mobile computing brought several challenges and opportunities for retailers. First of all, they had to create compelling ways for their customers to interact with them on mobile devices. Mobile browsers, even today, are incredibly clunky and awkward to use - they just don’t work well. 

The opportunities were also there. Retailers could finally track where their customers were (with their permission) and offer them advertising based on their location. This wasn’t something that had been possible before. They could also do things like make product suggestions and incorporate their branding into their social media accounts - stuff that wasn’t easily done in the era of the desktop computer. 

In this article, we’re going to take at some of the reasons why retailers are so obsessed with mobile apps and what it all means for your business. 

Customers love mobile apps

The first and most obvious reason for the explosion in retail apps is the customer love affair with them. People like the fact that they don’t have to go into their browser every time they want to order products from your company. They can fire up the app and get a user-friendly interface that makes shopping easy. HTML just isn’t that friendly, no matter how much automatic form-filling you do. 

Mobile apps also include things like GPS, Bluetooth, and multi-touch support, according to www.xibis.com. All of these technologies combine to give users a powerful experience. More than 57% of people use mobile apps while in-store says www.retaildive.com, underscoring their importance in the marketplace. 

You can provide timely offers 

Apps don’t just provide your customers with a portal to your products; they also enable you to collect data. Big Data. The great thing about data is that if you collect enough of it, you’re soon able to make predictions about what your customers are going to do next.

You can use this knowledge to deploy timely advertisements to get people to buy from you at the opportune moment. Targeted, real-time advertising is finally possible with notifications through your app. If you spot an opportunity, you can instantly send a notification to your customer’s phone. What’s more, because you’re relying on data to make your advertising decisions, they’ll appreciate it. It’s a win-win. 

You make mobile shopping easy

It’s much easier to make a purchase through an app than it is in a browser, especially on a mobile device. Retailers, therefore, can take advantage of impulse purchases and the desire to have a product right now.