Shopping Spree, Shopaholic, Fashionista, and what not! All thanks to Social Media Platforms for bringing in the fact that people love to shop; irrespective of the time; irrespective of the place. With the touch of digitization, the entire brick and mortar commerce arena revamped itself into eCommerce, wherein people started shopping online with the very ease provided by their devices, that too in the very comfort of their home.

eCommerce website, what once was a revolution has been commemorated by eCommerce mobile application. Indeed! eCommerce mobile apps with the slogan, “Shop on-the-go” are reigning over the smart users and their smartphones today. Amazon, the biggest player in the eCommerce game along with its counterfeits Alibaba, Myntra, Snapdeal, have become an integral part of people while malls and supermarkets are being lowered to “Selfie zones”, “window shopping fads”, and “Check-in” hangouts.

Who would want to spare the precious time of their weekends, standing in long queues at the billing counter, waiting for their turn while France is playing against Croatia! Well, with eCommerce mobile app, all they could do is shop and yet never miss the game. So, an eCommerce app is an awesome game-changer in so many different ways.

That’s eCommerce mobile app for you!

Who doesn’t have a dream of running a successful business with customers crowded all over the shop? eCommerce mobile app can be your dream come true business as you can target the customers from across the world and you don’t have to travel to market for your brand; that’s an added advantage.

Recently, there has been a great rise in the demand to build an eCommerce mobile app. Every single day, startups are getting into the eCommerce business and all they target is mobile-first, website-second!

Cutting it short, if you are an aspiring eCommerce businessman, you have landed on the right page. Let me tell you, developing an eCommerce mobile app is not a very big deal today, especially with the nascent of tools and technologies playing around.

And the future of eCommerce, AI and VR technologies are decked up to renovate the eCommerce ecosystem completely with unforeseen features like virtual changing room. Must say, even the future of eCommerce is way too bright and now is the time you should seriously consider building your very own eCommerce mobile app.

To start with, it is important that you define your eCommerce business goals with utmost clarity. What type of eCommerce mobile app do you want to launch your business – Android or iOS? What is your product going to be? Who is your target audience? Which brands are you targeting?

Once this is sorted, you can move to the next important step which involves defining the right features for your eCommerce Mobile Application.

Features are the reflection of your USP. That is going to make all the difference for your target audience, when it comes to an eCommerce app. Basically, they are but the deciding factors of whether your revenue grows or flows away to your competitors. Hence, it is important to plan the features for developing your eCommerce mobile app.
Below is a list of features extracted from the successful eCommerce Mobile App and you cannot afford to miss any of these:

A Simpler Registration Process

As easy as this sounds, it can be an exhaustive one for your customers and they might simply choose to uninstall the app with pages and pages of information to fill in. Who’s got time anyways! Ensure an easy registration process. With everybody having a Social Media Account today, you can enable sign up and login with two clicks at maximum and your customer is on-board! Plus, an extra brownie point for learning their preferences through their digital age on their Social Media Accounts!

Supports Multiple Payment Options

Let’s say, you have a big fat customer who mostly shops online and visits your eCommerce mobile app to give it a try. After dumping his stuff into the cart, he realizes you do not have the payment option that he prefers. You just lost a big customer. And many more who prefers the payment option that your app does not offer.

To play safer and smarter as an eCommerce businessman, you have to open the doors to the most popular payment methods. Credit card, debit card, net banking, and eWallets being at the top, ensure that you subtly push your customers towards using your app’s in-built wallet.

Push Notifications

Your customers have their needs and want, you have the required supply to fulfill them but how to bridge this gap of communication? Push notification is the key!

Push Notification is one of the most important features that map the success of an e-commerce mobile app. They enhance the customer engagement as it keeps them informed about the referral, discounts, sales, promotions, and offers, to keep them coming back for more. This, in turn, provides you with the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell for getting you better profits.

Social Media Integration

Don’t tell me that you do not want ALL the attention of your customers. You even want their social media time. And your demand is justified considering the fact that you are running a business.

Not only for one-tap login, Social Media integration will ensure that your eCommerce mobile app is right in front of your customers wherever they are; chatting on Facebook, Tweeting on Twitter, or pinning on Pinterest. This will also help them easily share your special discounts on their social media accounts. What better than word-of-mouth marketing and user-generated content! An eCommerce app that taps the power of social integration works – It’s as simple as that when it comes to an application of eCommerce.

Complete Synchronization

You have your eCommerce website and an eCommerce mobile app. You have come up with a very exciting feature that is sure to strike a chord with your targeted audience and take their buying experience to the next level. But you have to launch this feature before your competitor does. You want better time-to-market but with edits to be made in both the portals separately, time seems to have stopped. What would you do?

Speed up the process by getting our eCommerce mobile app synchronized with the website. Save plenty of time, beat the competition, and increase your sales.

Google Analytics

It’s just been a while since you launched your eCommerce business. You think you are faring well so far. But keeping your gut feeling aside, how do you gauge what is working for and against your business?

Ok, like every time, Google has the answer you want with Google analytics. Optimize the use of Google analytics to find out how your customers are really finding to be on your mobile app with the help of real-time data. Know which product of yours need a different packaging, what offers can make an appealing combo, and which demography is resonating well to your business, all this with Google analytics. Your application of eCommerce will definitely grow from strength to strength.

Review & Rating

Don’t shy away from the fear of getting bad reviews and poor product ratings. A wise businessman is the one who is open to both criticism and learning.

Empower your customers to review and rate your app and its features. The possibility is, the products that you are offering are nowhere in the wish list of your buyers and reviews will help you achieve this sense of realization. Again, after improvements do not delete the negative feedbacks, rather thank them and show what steps you have taken. This will make them feel important and who knows they will stick to your brand like forever!

Wishlist Button

It’s the end of the month. The salary is one week away and your customers don’t want to miss out on what they have recently found out. They want to buy it, not now but definitely after a week. Let wish list play its share.

Wishlist, at times, can be a savior to your sales. It helps your customers to save products they wish to buy later. Plus, you get an edge over knowing the preferences of your buyer and personalized offers and SOLD!

Easy Checkout

All the enthusiasm and energy of your customers is gone in making their choices and adding items to cart. Now’s the tough part – the payment!

To ensure that they do not abandon the cart, build your checkout process as easy as possible. Help them save their card and e-wallet details and take them faster through the payment gateways. As said earlier, your customers hate to wait in the billing queue, don’t let them wait with virtual billing system as well!

There are myriads of eCommerce mobile apps already in the market. You need to stand out from the crowd and these features will help you make a move. If you follow a customer-first approach by providing them the utmost ease to shop, you will easily be able to retain your customers. On the other hand, when your competitor has an amazing experience to offer in reference to features, your customers will be inclined to them.

In this situation, the smart way is to build an eCommerce mobile app with the right features and avoid any fluff that could possibly take away your customer engagement rate. Make them feel that you understand the issues they face while shopping with other mobile app and the solution. Give them the value of the time, energy, and money they spend using your mobile application. This is the only important key to win over your customers and has an upper hand over your competitors.

Things to Take Care of While Building an eCommerce Mobile App

Right from conceptualization of what USP of your eCommerce Mobile app is going to be to launch a Beta Version, there are many important aspects that are to be taken care of.

With time, experience, and analytical skills, I have collated a complete guide with elaborated information on the important aspects of app development.  

If you are a first-timer, you might feel the hardship right from the beginning. You might even end up scraping the entire business idea. But do not drop yet. We are here to help.

The basics of any eCommerce mobile app remain the same. All you need to add is that pinch of your branding and the spark of your USP to make your business stand out and stay at the top in the Google search engine results. Some of the fundamentals that you should consider basic while building an eCommerce mobile app are:

• Easy navigation
• UI/UX with right features
• Visual appeal
• Brands integration if at all you are into multi-store eCommerce
• Inventory management

Here is an ideal step-by-step process for creating and launching an eCommerce Mobile app that you should follow in your trail to run a successful eCommerce business:

Keep in mind your eCommerce business goal even before you begin with the development process. Know what uniqueness you bring in or what issue you are going to solve for your customers with your eCommerce business.
Do not go “all in” with the launch of your business. You need to know what works and what doesn’t. You need to know your real-time buyers. You need to know what gender you should target. You need to know a lot! Start small but concrete. Make expansion only when your business is ready. Get help from talents and app development experts to upgrade your business version. Take a look at this guide to outsource the best app developers.

In the urge to following the ABC’s of your eCommerce business, do not forget the M for Marketing. You need to reach out to your potential customers to help them reach out to you.

Attract them with on-boarding referrals, convert them with your USP, close your sales by keeping them engaged, and delight them with information about the products they need and you offer.

Ultimately, it all depends on the quality of development. Hire experts that are passionate about their work as much as you are about your dream eCommerce business. Retain them by providing them the perks and incentives that are best in the industry.

Trustable Ecommerce App Development Companies

Key Aspects for eCommerce App Development

Before proceeding any further, let me give you a detailed glimpse of the key aspects to focus on while developing an eCommerce mobile app:

Market Analysis and Buyer Persona:

The basis of an eCommerce mobile app development lies in determining the buyer persona for your business. Ask yourself, “ Who are you selling your products to?” Accordingly, carry out your research for your target audience.
Analyze the behavior and patterns of your target audience. Know their digital age and their likes & dislikes. This will help you create your app as relatable as possible for them.

Know your Competitors:

Extract a list of your competitors. Create a separate list of what they are into and what makes them the obvious choice for the buyers. Do not duplicate their features or their business model, rather research well about the business model and make the maximum out of your analysis.

Choosing Technology:

Know the ins and outs of your business so as to decide on the technology to create your eCommerce mobile app. Keep an eye on the budget of development, know your inventory and select the CMS, database, framework, and most importantly the backend and frontend languages to code your app.

If you want a better time to market, go for the hybrid app, if you want sustainability, go for a native one. Similarly, you have to decide whether you want to launch an Android app, an iOS app or both at the same time, keeping in mind the device usage of your target audience for designing your application of eCommerce.

UI and UX Design:

Give your brand the voice it deserves by soothing color schemes, appealing visuals, and smooth transitions for your customers from one page to another. Create options for your logo and leverage it to the optimum. That is going to be your business’ identity for your target customers. Play with the subconscious mind of your customers by leveraging smart branding tactics for creating a lasting impression.

Cost of Developing an eCommerce mobile app:

Ultimately, it narrows down to whom you are investing and how much you are investing. Without a doubt, the budget is the front of the mind concern for the app development. To save you from this budget dilemmas, I have created some pointers for you to remember while going forward with app development:

• Features: Whether you want to launch your eCommerce app with MVP, or a mixed bag with MVP and advanced features, or a full-fledged eCommerce mobile app with advanced features.
• Android or iOS? The price tag of iOS is on the higher side, decide what device you want to be primary for your business. You can always scale your business later.
• The low maintenance expensive backend development or the low budget high maintenance third-party APIs.
• A better time to market with hybrid app development or better sustainability with native app development? Make your choice wisely, you are in the business game for a long run.
• Outsourcing the resources has a visible effect on your budget and so you need to be very careful hiring them.

Again, a number cannot be projected with respect to the cost of developing an eCommerce mobile app as there are variables. However, to be as helpful as I can, I have put down an estimate on the basis of the trends I have witnessed considering the generic app development scenario.

• If we consider the most basic version of the app with only the MVP features and simple UI/UX design, the projected price can go to $60,000 just for development. However, there is very little support and maintenance required.
• If we consider a mixed bag of basic features including a few advanced features, the price an go up to $60,000 to $80,000.
• If we consider the app to be developed with advanced features, then the price can be as high as $80,000 to $120,000.

Outsource Developers for eCommerce Mobile App Development:

On the basis of your scope of work, you would want to outsource resource and skilled developers for building your eCommerce mobile app.

There are many different types of pricing models that you could choose from – time-based, scope based, fixed price and fixed time pricing model, or dedicated resource hiring.

Dedicated Resource-based Hiring

When opting for a dedicated resource based hiring, ensure that you know the scope of work and that you are not paying for an extra resource, when it comes to eCommerce apps.

To develop a basic version of your eCommerce mobile app, you will need –

• UI and UX designer
• 2 – 4Developers
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• Backend Developer
• Project Manager
  

To develop an advanced version of the eCommerce mobile app, you will need –

• Team Manager/Project Manager
• UI/UX designer
• 3 – 4developers for each platform
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• 2–3 backend developers
• Admin panel developer
  

After this virtual tour to developing an eCommerce mobile app, are you ready to step into the real world with real hiring of skilled resources for your to-be-real eCommerce mobile app?

Having helped in weighing all the angles of your eCommerce mobile app, we can be the partners in your endeavors with our rich experience worth boosting. We believe in work than words. Have a look at various case studies that are being written every time we faced a new challenge and the creative solution we provided.

Nothing better than a client talking to a client. Know what our clients have to say about our work and achievements. Yet not convinced? Here we are with practical and live applications that we have created for our clients. You can go ahead by testing these apps, who knows you might find your perfect app development partner!

We would love to be a part of an eCommerce mobile app development.

Please drop an inquiry about your needs and our experts will get back to you as soon as possible to make your eCommerce business possible.

Are we helpful to you in your venture of building that perfect eCommerce mobile app of yours?

Yup?
Nope?
Whatever?
Still in doubt?

We would love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment your views or confusions and we will strive to get them resolved for you. Drop your inquiries in the comments section below, or drop us an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com.

Talk To Us!

The post How to Build an Awesome eCommerce App? A Complete Guide to Developing a Mobile Application appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Want to know how? Here’s a case study.

What is Ondoor? What do they do?

Ondoor was established in 2014 as an indegenious local grocery store. By the end of 2017, they were a household name in 3 towns of MP – Indore, Bhopal & Mhow- with a 100+ outlets! If you happen to be from either of these 3 towns – you might’ve come across these outlets several times a day, or while searching for ‘grocery delivery near me’.

Now you might be wondering that a grocery delivery app isn’t a new concept altogether, but what is it that makes Ondoor different?

Well, it was back in 2016, when Ondoor had approached us, they had a functional website but they wanted to get into eCommerce to expand the scope of their business. We developed an android app for the company. Whilst the mobile grocery delivery app was made from scratch, their existing website was enhanced by us.

The context that led to the onset of the grocery delivery service project –

For working lads who’re buried head-to-toe in work from 9 to 5, going out on a weekly basis to shop for groceries is often a task. Forget going out, in addition to looking for the best quality, you have to sometimes just accept the fact that it’s not possible to bargain everyday for the right price and just jump on to the very first few deals that you manage to get.

Ondoor online grocery service was an idea, aimed exactly at reducing that effort of the customers, by offering the home delivery option, where virtually anything, be it Vegetables, Fruits, Household Items or Personal care products – they would be available at just a single click!

The challenges in the mobile app development –

While developing an app for an already well-performing offline grocery-store chain, the only major challenge for us was, to stand up to the expectations of the client with this key entry to the mobile-based-eCommerce industry. They initially wanted to become local competitors of BigBasket. In addition to that – UX had to be designed keeping in mind their pre-existing logo, website colour-scheme and font formats.

The aim was to build a mobile app by keeping in mind the website that was already there. The logo was already available and was provided by the client, so the colour schemes could be defined easily. By referring to the colour combination and the website, the font styles and the user experience was finally locked and passed on for development. For eCommerce solutions, and 2019 trends, you can refer to our previous blogs.

Coming to the development, the primary challenge was still there, the transition of a web app to the mobile app had to be made. We were asked to make minor changes to the website but at the same time, had to make the mobile app from the scratch. Also, we had to adhere to what the client already had in mind and had included in the website. By keeping those elements and modules intact, we had to enhance it even more to give the user and the client a memorable experience.

The approach we undertook-

Our Insight for the Client –

EngineerBabu wanted our users to experience a seamless, bugfree UI that would make them come back to place orders from the application, instead of going out to the market. We advised the client against going for the same model as BigBasket. Our argument was based on these facts –

• Since localites comprised of tier-2 city citizens, most of them wouldn’t be comfortable on an extremely tech-savvy application.
• For most users, a complicated purchasing method isn’t a viable option. In case the app doesn’t load within 3 seconds, they choose to opt out and not go any further with the process.
• We wanted the client to act global, but think local for the project to succeed. We suggested them to integrate local language – Hindi, in the application as well. They went ahead with our suggestion!

Development Model –

The approach that was used was the waterfall model. It took a team of 6 of our employees, hired on a dedicated hiring model by us.The requirements were understood by the sales team initially, and were then provided to the design team. After all the layouts had been created, it was the task of the developers to implement it.

Backend developers were working on the principle of modularity. The entire system and application components were divided into modules in order to carry out tasks on various elements at the same time without affecting the work of the other. Dividing the entire project into modules allowed various developers to work on the project at the same time in order to reduce the burden of doing the task on a single developer and in turn, reduce the time required to complete the project and hand over the product on time.

The Information Architecture –

As mentioned earlier, the mobile application was made from scratch, while the web application was altered. The APIs were made in order to provide the functionality to both the mobile application and the web application. The backend architecture for these APIs was made in OpenCart, a relatively new technology in the industry. The front end wasn’t a problem as the website layout was already there. As far as the mobile application was concerned, android was sufficient for both the backend API requests and the front-end client interface.

Wireframe –

During the designing phase of the project, tools like Photoshop and Illustrator were used. The primary reason for using them was to get access to a whole lot of features that are available for designing various elements of the overall project. Using such software and tools reduces the effort to make the core components of the project. This is because some of the components are already available and can be reused with ease without a lot of hassle.

Talking about the development phase, various tools were used by the Android and web developers to create what the designers had set in front of them. Usually, it’s the IDEs that are used in order to make it easy to code to get the desired result.

Results:

The process included- adding item in cart, choosing address, selecting time of order, payment method and.. Voila! Placing the order. Also, notification center – to get the latest promotional updates and the order status.

The business potential of the client’s brand name has been done justice to, by being complemented with this seamless online grocery shopping app. The user outreach of the brand has grown massively since the launch of the application. Old, as well as new users have forgotten about the hassle of going to supermarkets or vendors, bargaining and working hard to get the best deal for the products they wish to buy. Now, online grocery shopping is just one click away!

Learn more about choosing the right eCommerce development company, or reach out to us at mayank@engineerbabu.com.

Technology Stack for the Mobile App Development:

Followed here is a list of tools and apps that we used in the development of Ondoor grocery delivery app –

Android-

• IDE – Android Studio
• Build System – Gradle
• UI Designing – XML, Material design standards
• Web Services Calling – AQuery
• Image and Data Caching – AQuery
• Programming Language- Java
• Push Notifications – Firebase Cloud Messaging

Backend-

• Programming Language – PHP
• Database – MySQL
• IDE – SubLine

What do the users have to say?

This is what two of our users, Paritosh Dalei and Nehal Shah have reviewed on the Google Playstore for the Android app –

The number of installations and rating has also surpassed our own expectations!

Have you tried the Ondoor grocery shopping app? Let us know about your user experience in the comment section below. And if you’re looking for developers to execute your eCommerce ideas into reality, talk to us for a free consultation regarding the pricing and duration.

The post How we Developed a Grocery Delivery App with 1,00,000+ Downloads! appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

In fact, E-commerce integration has come as far as becoming a top priority for B2B business owners.

The growth of the global E-commerce market in recent years is simply mind-blowing. E-commerce accounts for almost 10% of retail sales in the US and 23% in China – a figure that is growing by upwards of 15% each year.
According to a recent statistics report – In 2018 retail E-commerce sales amounted to $2.842 trillion which is expected to hit $4.8 trillion by 2021.

The notion that E-commerce is a separate entity in itself is quickly evolving as a customer’s journey of buying a product or a service, now merge online and in-store. Nowadays a purchase cycle doesn’t simply end by making a purchase. There are swarms of marketing gimmicks to try and lure you into making repeat purchases.

You might have also observed that even if you made an in-store purchase you get bombarded with offers that are simply too good to resist. Great examples of such gimmicks are shopping festivals, Black Friday Sales, etc.

Enlisted below are the major 7 E-commerce trends to watch out for in 2019 and some important developments that companies should take into account this year to ensure the growth of their online business.

Omnichannel 

Omnichannel might be a relatively new term for some, but it is definitely one to reckon.
It is basically a multi-channel content strategy that businesses apply to improve the user experience. Its approach implies that communication mediums and their supporting resources are organised to work in unison rather than working in parallel.

In other words, It entails the integration of several platforms, online as well as offline, such that the experience of communicating across all the channels one prefers to use is as efficient and pleasant as using a single channel in isolation.

Pertaining to E-commerce, omnichannel is a thoroughly-integrated approach to trade which aims at providing shoppers with a unified experience across online and offline mediums. Through this approach, businesses are eyeing to intricately link digital and in-person purchases to create a symbiotic commercial ecosystem.
A real omnichannel shopping experience will extend way beyond brick-and-mortar stores encapsulating E-commerce marketplaces, mobile-browsing, social media, and even onsite storefronts.

“To Be Everywhere – That’s the Dream”

Although recent studies have shown a laid-back attitude of shoppers in embracing the omnichannel approach, it is definitely bound to change. According to industry insiders, it will be the single biggest development in eCommerce in 2019.

• Why are we so sure, you ask?

Major US retailers and tech giants are loosening their purse strings and going on a shopping spree all across the globe. For instance, Walmart’s acquisition of India’s largest eCommerce company – Flipkart, and Amazon buying Whole Foods indicates that big businesses are expanding their reach in order to combine different shopping experience.

The willingness of these corporations to squander indicates efforts to integrate the online and offline shopping experience. Big corporations are trying to establish a unified experience across online and offline channels. Understanding the need of the future, they are eyeing to link the digital and in-person purchases together to create a symbiotic commercial ecosystem.

For instance, IBM Enterprise Mobility Services can help retailers create an omnichannel shopping experience, using data analyzed and collected from mobile apps, social media, and in-store technologies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dg-ZGU3D9E

Thus, it is critical for any business to keep up with the latest online trends to continue boosting sales and at the same time stay ahead of the competition.

Trustable Ecommerce App Development Companies

Automation

One of the most likely trend that will likely disrupt not just E-commerce, but numerous sectors in the next half decade is – Automation.

Many industry experts believe that automation will likely become one of the most effective ways for E-commerce business owners to expand their business offerings. Automation tools will possibly take over a majority of manual tasks that derive no substantial ROI (Return on Investment), which will enable businesses to employ their manpower in doing more tangible and creative work.

• The Rise of Chatbots & Impending Layoffs

According to a survey it was found that over 50% of online shoppers prefer using messenger applications to contact businesses rather than traditional methods like calls or e-mails.

Therefore, AI-enabled chatbots would likely be incorporated by more and more eCommerce merchants for customer support and satisfaction.

However, according to reports, this development will claim as many as 2.3 million jobs that were earlier performed by humans.

Stringent Return Policies

eCommerce business is marred by its biggest advantage.
The generous return policies are proving to be a two-edged sword for eCommerce businesses. For instance, returns have hit a whopping $450B in 2018, up 53% since 2015.

Recommended Read: Best eCommerce Platforms for Small Business

During its nascent stage, eCommerce business owners introduced liberal return policies in order to increase conversions by reducing consumer uncertainty. But owing to the exceptional growth, free shipping, and generous return policies have produced a dangerous side-effect – The cost of managing these returns.

Witnessing this trend, in 2018, Amazon declared it would impose a lifetime ban on – “serial returners.” Serial returners are shoppers who have a habit of returning many or even most of their purchases. 61% of retailers stated they would do the same if they had better means to track returns and “serial returners”.

Hence, in 2019 it is likely to witness a multitude of retail initiatives that deter returns. These initiatives could include more complex or conditional return policies to even incentives to pick up items from store.

PWA

For beginners, let’s understand what PWA is.
The Definition…
Progressive Web App or PWA, is a term used to denote a new software development methodology. Unlike traditional applications, progressive web applications are a hybrid between regular web pages and mobile applications.

This new application model endeavours to combine the features offered by most modern browsers with the advantage of providing a fluid mobile experience.

PWAs (or Progressive Web Applications) will likely change how eCommerce & Mobile coexist.
Brands and retailers will soon begin switching from sites and applications to this new standard as it combines the upsides of each and simultaneously does away with the limitations.

It’s all about removing friction & making it easy for users to get to what they want.

– said an industry insider

The Advantages of PWA:

• Connectivity independence: PWAs can work on low-quality as well as offline networks.
• App-like interface: PWAs mirror navigation and interactions of native applications.
• Self-updates: PWAs are able to update themselves automatically, thus apps stay fresh.
• Safety: PWAs are served through HTTPS, so unauthorized users can’t access their content.
• Discoverability and easy installation: PWAs aren’t available on app stores. Although they can be shared through a URL, and therefore, are found easily.
• Faster: PWAs load 2-10 times faster than mobile sites.
• Push Notification: PWAs also allows push notifications, similar to other native applications.
• Responsive: PWAs are very responsive and are compatible with almost any browser, regardless of screen size and other specifications.

Many organizations, as well as E-commerce platforms, have already begun adopting PWAs and this trend is likely to continue. In 2019, we’ll see more and more E-commerce businesses shifting to PWAs to enhance shoppers’ experience.

Enter the Robots

China’s second largest E-commerce player, JD.com, deployed robots to improve their warehouse functioning, such as categorizing, packaging, and parcel sorting. They witnessed a considerable increase in the efficiency and speed of the sorting mechanisms and even the delivery schedules of the products.

AI and Machine Learning capabilities are already being extensively leveraged by almost all significant eCommerce players to better interpret consumer behaviour and concurrently provide personalized product recommendations.

But this isn’t the only use case for AI in 2019.
Apart from customer service and retention, AI-based solutions will most likely automate – The creation, classification, and translation of product content.

With hoards of products being added every second to the database, it has become extremely critical to keep up with the pace of content creation.
This change is extremely necessary as shoppers often abandon a purchase due to lack of product information. The winners in this race will be businesses with the best and most relevant product information and consequently end up acquiring customers.

Social Buying

Social buying is already a huge affair in China where 55% of users stated buying goods and services directly through social media applications.
No less than 11% online shoppers now purchase through their smartphones weekly, 35% also reported that it has become their primary purchasing medium.

This trend is likely to make a crossover; and markets like the US, UK, and Canada will witness an increasing number of transactions through social media platforms this New Year.

Private messaging services like WhatsApp, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger have a huge user base. Businesses will look to leverage their popularity and make these services transactional.
Major social media platforms have already begun implementing shopping features in their solutions,

• Instagram, for instance, is believed to be working on designing a standalone shoppable application. This development comes after their introduction of shopping features on its main platform, where they already provide options for businesses to trade through their platform – providing an image, product description and price information, along with a direct link to the website of the seller.
• Google, through its new offering – Google Express is aiming to consolidate retailers into a single cart for consumers, centralizing the purchasing experience, including in-store pickup – without ever being a merchant themselves. Google thus will capitalize on the vastness of its ecosystem.

• Snapchat also has come up with its innovative, “Shop and Cop” section, where users can scan through merchandise and buy directly through the application without being directed to a separate website.

eCommerce business owners should definitely consider leveraging social media platforms as this is the destination where they can directly interact with young shoppers who are already adept in purchasing online.
So, if you aren’t satisfied with simply getting leads and generating traffic – Social Media is the place to be!

Voice Search

Voice Search is set to take off this year.
According to studies, over 50% of millennial use voice search before making a purchase online. Voice search offers a lucrative opportunity for business to reach their audience in a much personalised manner. Also, with the exponential surge in adoption and usage of voice-activated devices such as Google Home and Amazon Echo – tech companies will definitely look forward to utilizing them in the future.

Popular voice assistants such as Google Assistant and Alexa will gain prominence in 2019 and would become a reliable medium for purchasing online.
Walmart and Google have already announced plans of partnership to allow shopping through their Google’s voice assistant.

Optimizing your online store for voice search is definitely a must in 2019 when one takes into account the projected increase in mobile commerce. Make sure you take the time to better understand the demographics of your business, your key customer persona, check out how they interact with your social media channels, and emulate their language.

Also Read: Top E-commerce Development Companies in 2019

Wrapping Up

The eCommerce domain is transforming dramatically every year.
As AI continues to further move towards enhancing the customer experience – We shouldn’t be surprised if our gadgets like Google Home or Amazon Echo analyze our needs and orders our stuff automatically.

Through omnichannel marketing and integration of payment services, you will be able to effectively and efficiently manage your eCommerce business and simultaneously reach more people.
Whatever strategy you wish to pursue in 2019, try and make sure you test your purchasing experience at all times.

Industry experts strongly recommend getting someone to go through your site for the first time or asking someone you don’t know to give their thoughts. As,

You’ll constantly find something to improve or amend that you may have never noticed before.

EnginnerBabu has proven its mettle by creating some of the best eCommerce solutions out there. Our solid expertise in the domain, along with relevant experience in building eCommerce products makes us an ideal tech partner for your business. Reach out to us for a free consultation call. We would love to guide you!

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The post Top 7 E-commerce Trends appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

According to Statista, In 2017, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to USD 2.3 trillion & e-retail revenues are predicted to grow to USD 4.88 trillion by 2021. The three major online stores’ revenues alone amount to almost USD 100 billion in 2017.

Online shopping being the most popular online activity worldwide, but this usage fluctuates vastly by region – in China, an estimated 19% of all retail sales transpire through the internet, however, in Japan, the share was just 6.7%. Desktop PCs still prevails for placing online shopping orders but smartphones, are rapidly catching up.

Thus there seems to be an abundance of incentives for businesses to leverage this lucrative industry in. For once, we would not like to end up late to the party, would we?

So, if you are on the lookout for a tech partner who can facilitate in bringing your ecommerce dreams to reality, then look no further.

A unabashed and unbiased list of the best ecommerce development companies in the US and India

1. Magneto IT solutions

Magneto IT solutions can be touted as the flag bearer of some of the finest ecommerce products of the industry. Having completed a decade, they have a vast experience of managing a variety of projects in this domain.
Magneto IT solutions, boast an impressive portfolio, collaborating and working with the likes of, Amazon, HP, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Race Chip, KTM, ESPN, and IBM being some of their star clients.

Their primary focus area is eCommerce which amounts to almost 60% of their service lines and their primary clientele comprises small businesses (<$10M), amounting to 80%.
They also provide services for Mobile Application, Customize Web Application, IOT, and Chatbot.

2. Brainvire Infotech Inc

Brainvire Infotech is an Award Winning Digital Transformation focused technology Consultant Company working in Mobile Application, eCommerce Stores with Omni Channel Solutions, .Net Application, and Hybrid Mobile Application.

Besides ecommerce app development, they also offer a broad range of services including – Mobile app development (Android, iOS, Windows, Hybrid), Web App Development (PHP, .NET, MEAN stack), Game App Development, Enterprise Solutions, and even ERP & CRM Integration.
They deliver solutions to a wide array of industries, including – different verticals like BFSI, Retail, Media, and Healthcare.

From Fortune 500 companies such as Walmart to startups like FreshDirect – Their clientele comes from a wide assortment of businesses.
Having completed 17 years in the domain and have served over 2000 clients, they are a trusted partner for a majority of enterprises. They also boast a geographic presence in 11 nations including four offices in the USA, which makes their services prompt and timely.

3. Gorilla Logic

Gorilla Logic is one of the premium providers of nearshore and US-based Agile development teams. They have substantial domain expertise in delivering full stack web, mobile and enterprise applications.
The differentiating factor that I noticed after reading several client reviews on clutch was the level of control, flexibility and transparency they introduce during the development stage.

Apart from ecommerce app development, their core areas of practice comprise – Web Application Development, Mobile Application Development, Back End, UX/UI, DevOps, QA, Agile, Security, Big Data and IoT.
Gorilla Logic could serve as an ideal partner for large enterprises and mid-market entities.

4. Absolute Web Sevices

Absolute Web Services is a full-service development agency specializing in ecommerce and business websites & applications. They have been in the business for 20 years and thus have a greater understanding and acumen into the entire business process.

In addition, their development team also provides a full-service digital marketing team to design and implement digital strategies for Online Demand Generation. Thus, helping in business growth and brand transformation.
40% of their service line constitutes ecommerce development. They do offer other services such as web design and web development.
AWS can serve as ideal tech partners for the medium-sized enterprise ($10M – $1B) as most of their current clientele comes from this domain.
Their key customers include – TigerDirect, Capezio, CC Homes, University of Miami, , R+Co, , Cheney Brothers, Luminaire, Grand Western, Juno Lucina, , MigVapor, Oribe, RubberB, Isram Realty, VOGA Italia, iStencils, FairyLoot, Fitlife Foods, In Common Beauty, Wyze Cam, Royal Flowers Group, Rivergate Companies, BabyCottons, etc.

5. Cyber Infrastructure Inc.

CIS is empowered by 12+ years of experience in the field of IT.
CIS offerings fulfill all types of technology needs that you require. A differentiating factor for CIS is the fact that having worked with an extensive client-base stationed all over the world, they are well aware of the globally recognized standards and latest technology trends.
Highly optimized solutions and offerings across a wide multitude of industries serve as a strong point for CIS.
CIS’ principal area of expertise is application development, open source development, mobile application development, business intelligence and analytics, business process management, cloud infrastructure implementation, front-end design, and digital marketing.
Businesses of practically almost any size could leverage CIS’ offerings. Although most of their clients are medium enterprises, they have a successful track record of designing great solutions for small and large enterprises as well.

Trustable Ecommerce App Development Companies

6. Cleveroad

Cleveroad builds web and mobile solutions that can fit any industry and budget — dealing with startups, business segments, and even private clients.
Cleveroad has a presence in 5 countries worldwide, and their Research & Development operations are based in two Ukrainian IT cluster cities – Dnipro and Kharkiv.
They possess solid domain expertise in ecommerce development, as they have a portfolio of 500+ custom B2C and B2B apps for a variety of industries and business domains, including E-Commerce, Healthcare, FinTech,  Agriculture, Logistics, Real Estate, etc.
Cleveroad also provides its customers with full-cycle servicing that covers all the aspects of software production:

• End-to-end mobile and web development;
• UI/UX design
• Cloud-based solutions;
• AR, VR, AI, Big Data and IoT solutions;
• Advanced Quality Assurance;
• Dedicated Agile teams.

Almost 70% of their service line constitute ecommerce development which makes them an ideal partner for businesses which require complex and customized ecommerce solutions.
Cleveroad also hosts a cohort of some extremely well-known clientele, including
BET3000, PrankDial, VirginAtlantic, Octopus, DPD, HSBC, MoneyWiz, Fuji HI, Cartogram.

7. Dotcom weavers

DotcomWeavers is an award-winning web design and development company which specializes in eCommerce, Custom Software, and Mobile applications.
They have been in the domain for the past 12 years, and have developed more than 400 projects for businesses of all magnitudes & industries.
They have offices in Paramus, New Jersey & India,
They are a Magento solution partner, and their 70 member team includes some of the best Magento certified programmers.
They are hands-down one of the most reputable companies out there if you are looking to utilize Magento as your ecommerce platform. They can easily customize your Magento store to meet your specific website, integration, and conversion goals.
Another critical differentiating factor between them and others Magento companies out there is their offering of a personal, consultative approach that allows them to understand customers’ business goals and technical requirements.

8. Atlas Softweb

Another prominent enterprise for ecommerce development for small business is this company from India.
Although being a relatively new entity in the market, they have succeeded in earning a name for themselves by offering splendid services to their customers.
Atlas Softweb could serve as a proficient partner for creating a user-friendly ecommerce website.
Their innovative Ecommerce development solutions can aid your organization in several ways including improving your business presence.
Some of their key clientele includes – Educents, Nirma University, IIT Gandhinagar, Sun Fung Tech, Pesche, and Connect Zone.

9. Contus

Contus is a digital transformation enterprise established in the year 2008 with a mission to transfigure every technology. Contus is headquartered in the US & has regional offices in India.
With more than 200+ tech Professionals revolutionized clients’ business digitally across 40+ Countries like UK, UAE, USA, etc.
Contus is engaged in developing a wide array of ecommerce extensions, mobile & web applications, and omnichannel management solutions. They also render specific tailor-made ecommerce solutions as per client requirements. End-to-end eCommerce development consisting of web backend, mobile commerce, delivery tracking app, social commerce makes Contus a go-to destination for high-end eCommerce development projects.
The company offers its eCommerce development service across several platforms including Magento, Drupal, Prestashop, Zencart and many more.
Contus offers the following services-

• Mobile Application Development
• Web Application Development
• Augmented Reality App Development
• Virtual Reality App Development
• Wearable App Development
• IOT Web Applications
• Full Stack Development
• eCommerce Applications

Along with offering services, they also boast some ready-made solutions for businesses to deploy.  Mentioned below are some of products:

• Contus Vplay – A Multi-Faceted Video On Demand Solution
• Contus Fly – A Real-time Messaging Solution
• Contus Bot – An Intelligent Chabot Solution
• Apptha Marketplace – A Sheer Hub for Marketplace Software
• Apptha Airhotels – A Sheer Hub for Marketplace Software.

10. SynapseIndia

Synapseindia is another eminent Ecommerce development company, offering effective development services. They are hailed as specialists in providing ecommerce solutions for various platforms like OpenCart, Magento, WordPress, BigCommerce and several more.
SynapseIndia is also one of the oldest in this list of ecommerce development companies and has been offering solutions since 2001. They have an extremely impressive and unique clientele across numerous domains. They have worked with some of the most reputed global brands such as PayPal, UNICEF, Indian Army, Bata, DNG, Johnson & Johnson, etc.
Their Service Offerings covers a vast array of services like:
E-Commerce Solutions – Shopify, Magento (Magento Enterprise, Magento Enterprise Cloud), WooCommerce, OpenCart, BigCommerce, etc.
Microsoft Technologies – ASP.NET MVC, C#, VB.NET, WPF, DevExpress, Telerik, Umbraco, Kentico, nopCommerce
Mobile Development – iOS, Android, Xamarin, Ionic, ReactNative
Open Source Technologies – PHP/MySQL (Core PHP, Laravel, Zend, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Yii, etc.), RoR, Django/Python, MEAN, MERN.
SynapseIndia has also received several notable industry recognitions like:

• Microsoft Gold Partner
• Xamarin Certified Developer
• Drupal Organization Member
• Kentico Partner
• Bigcommerce Partner
• Certified by RedHat Linux
• Google AdWords Certified Partners

Concluding View

This brings us to the end of the list of some of the best eCommerce development companies out there, that can help build your next online store.

Each company listed above has been ranked in the top for their eCommerce development services. They have also been the workhorses behind some of the most popular and successful online stores of today.

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The post Top eCommerce Development Companies – 2019 appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

From user engagement to site performance – It is one thing to design a simple website, but developing an eCommerce site comes with its series of challenges.
Firstly, eCommerce websites are built not just to inform and showcase your brand online; they are primarily built for customers to shop. Hence, designers need to ensure that the site is easy to use and intuitive to make sales.

Without sales, the whole website will lose its purpose.
So, before you begin, consider reading this article thoroughly as it can serve as a holy grail and remembers these keys to bring your ecommerce product dreams to reality.

1. Select an ecommerce or web hosting platform

If you are a small or medium-sized enterprise and aren’t looking for a customized platform – Then to save time and money, select a popular ecommerce platform.

I recommend Shopify, Magento, OpenCart or BigCommerce.
MUST READ: Best eCommerce Platform for Small Business – 2019
Most developers are quite familiar with these, making it easy to integrate WordPress plugin, payment processing, etc. The platforms also come with a range of customizations.

Additionally, these ecommerce platforms come at a reasonable price.

2. Reverse Engineer Successful eCommerce Websites

One of the most ingenious ways to create an ecommerce website or product that generate leads, drives traffic, and converts visitors is to reverse engineer what is already working for the other ecommerce sites. Learning from those who are already excelling in the domain is a sure shot way to ensure that you create a functional platform which is lucrative for your business.
But, how can you do that?
To understand what your competitor is utilizing, you can go to Ahrefs (or other competitor analysis tools such as SpyFu, Similar Web, or SEMrush) and type in your own website’s URL or that of your competitors’.
Once you do that, try finding out how they’re getting their traffic, what keywords they’re ranking for, what keywords they’re bidding on, etc.

3. Open source or SaaS – Choose wisely

Depending on a variety of factors – such as your company’s current and future needs, as well as budgetary and other constraints – you’ll have a significant decision to make as you dive into the world of eCommerce:
Should you use an open-source or a SaaS platform to house your online store?
Let’s compare:

If you don’t require a much-customized online store and want to instead focus your energy & time on running and scaling your venture instead of managing technology – you’ll be more content with a SaaS platform. It will save you considerable time and money while allowing you to focus on achieving your business objectives.
If you have the pockets to hire a developer, and want a highly customized shopping experience, then open-source will be a viable bet for you.

4. Finding the Right Tech Partner

Choosing the right tech partner is a critical step to ensure your product succeeds, especially if you are from a non-technical background.
eCommerce can get tricky at times. Some problems arise which could only be handled by experienced developers, thus you must hire a partner who has an experience of working in this domain.
Going for a jack of all trades isn’t really a good idea here. Also, solely hiring a developer won’t suffice. You will require an eCommerce domain expert to fulfill your requirements.
Owing to the fact that ecommerce is a massive entity in itself; it would be foolish to hire someone on the basis of their work in other domains. A developer who is good with designing ride-hailing or dating apps won’t necessarily be good in developing ecommerce applications. 
Check out our award-winning ecommerce application right here.

Trustable Ecommerce App Development Companies

5. Clear and Easy Navigations

Make sure you have clear and easy-to-follow navigation at every step of the purchase. If a user doesn’t find the product or services they were looking for, they aren’t going to spend long looking for them on your website. After all, they have plenty of options to choose from.
Aim at retaining the user by providing them with a clean and clutter-free experience.
Keep in mind the following pointers and you’ll be good to go:

• Match Your Design with Your Products

Keeping your design coherent with what you’re selling will complete the overall feel and look of your site. While designing, make sure that everything from text, images, color schemes, perfectly aligns with your website.
For instance, If your website is selling toys, your design should look fun and colorful.
And if your website is trading gadgets, the theme of your design should look modern and techy.
For instance, this e-commerce website which buys and sells Captain America merchandise uses a design that matches their products perfectly.

• Proper Product Showcase and Descriptions

The purpose of your ecommerce site should be to sell products; thus it is essential to highlight your products on your website. When showcasing items, always ensure that you’re using high-quality images that will grab user’s attention. The larger the images, the better. By showing good quality pictures, your customers will visualize how well the product looks in real.

For better usability, choose a layout that emphasizes your product on every page. Don’t give them a hard time finding the page for “Accessories” or “Shoes” if they’ve already looked or clicked on a similar product.

• Easy Checkout Process

Besides from allowing transactions to be swift and anonymous, an eCommerce site should also make it as compelling as possible for consumers to check out their items. The more straightforward this process, the more motivation your customers will have to make a repeat purchase. So don’t create too many pages for checkout.
Try to create a single-page process while not being too overwhelming for consumers.

• Payment Options

I’ve observed several eCommerce sites that deny users to pay with Paypal or with other kinds of payment aside from Visa or Master card. Now with the introduction of a Unified Payment Interface, you need to ensure that you provide ample payment solutions in order to cater to a wide range of shoppers. By considering your consumer’s payment preference, you can increase their motivation to shop thereby boosting your sales in the long run.

Questions to ask an agency when developing an eCommerce site

Many non-technical customers we encounter are concerned majorly about two things,

“Cost & Time”

But this is definitely not the correct approach to follow. Firstly, you should give clear instructions of what you are trying to build (Clear Requirement Document) and ask other questions like the following.

• Building the portfolio
  • How do you determine the price of the project
  • How big is your company and how long have you been in the market?
  • Can you provide instances of websites you’ve developed in the past?
  • Do you hold any case studies that showcase the effectiveness of your sites
  • Do you have a project manager who will take ownership of my website when it is being created
  • Is there an ongoing cost to maintain the website, and if so, how much?
  • What standards and practices do you use to ensure that the site is responsive to different devices and is optimized for search?

• Analytics and reporting
  • Are you willing to set up analytics for me?
  • What tools and solutions do you use for site’s analytics?
  • What eCommerce metrics do you advise we track?
  • How can we trace what products are performing best
  • How can we trace what channels are performing best?
  • How can we track how customers are using our site?
• Website features
  • How do I create a discount or voucher code for my customers?
  • Will I be able to personalize the prices based on user groups?
  • Can customers review the products?
  • Can you develop a “WishList,” “Notify when a product is available,” or “Back-ordering” features?
  • Will the consumers be able to change the quantity of an item in their cart from the cart page?
  • Will the website possess a “dashboard” where users can update their information?

• Search engine optimization
  • Do you incorporate keyword research as part of the website build?
  • Is site-wide HTTPS included as part of the build?
  • How do you optimize page speed, especially on catalog and image-heavy pages?
  • Will you implement Schema markup for my site?
  • Will you include a blog on the website? If so, will they be on the main site or sub-domain?
  • How will you deal with dynamically-generated pages?

• Tech Questions:
  • Which technologies will be adopted in frontend?
  • Which technologies will be adopted in the backend?
  • Are you going to make Native Android & Native iOS Apps or Hybrid?
  • Which server will be used for hosting?
  • How will you ensure the security of the website?
  • How much time would be required to implement changes, if needed?
  • What happens if the server is down?
  • How do you ensure protection from hacking and phishing attempts?

Wrapping Up

An ecommerce site can completely transform your business. It can not only boost your sales but can also establish your enterprise globally – That too without the pain of going through opening a brick and mortar store.
It is true that creating an e-commerce website requires a lot of sweat, time, effort, and expense. However, if you know the right techniques, a good e-commerce site cannot just boost sales, but also retain more long-term customers than you could ever expect.

Our team at EngineerBabu prides themselves in designing some of the best ecommerce solutions for businesses globally. Our cherished Australian ecommerce customer Frankgreen has won numerous awards, like the Best Design Award for not one, not even two, but three consecutive years!! Our other ecommerce application Ondoor (an online supermarket app) went on to garner more than 100k downloads in record time.

Contact Usright away for a free consultation! 

We hope that you found this post helpful. Let us know in the comments below what you would like to learn next about.

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The post 5 Things to Keep in Mind for Building an eCommerce Website appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

The Deciding Factors…

The points mentioned subsequently could serve as a starting point for determining the best ecommerce platform that could serve your purpose.

• Pricing Structure
All platforms come with a price list with an applicable subscription period. Now, if you are a small business owner and are just venturing into the world of ecommerce, you need to take into account the pricing structure of the platform that you are planning to use. Always make sure that you get a detailed understanding of the pricing structure. You must also ensure the affordability of the eCommerce platform which may also include subscription fees, delivery costs and the extra tax amount.
There have been numerous instances when merchants were required to switch to a different platform as they increased the prices and the costs were totally unjustified. If one isn’t cautious, switching between ecommerce platforms can wreak havoc on your site’s authority with search engines.

• Do your research
Don’t dig your own grave by selecting the wrong platform.
Brainstorm with your team and gather all their expectations regarding the platform. Ask every possible question you want, to ensure that all the bases are covered. An excellent ecommerce platform needs to make the best possible online store for your brick and mortar shop.
Another aspect of ecommerce is choosing the best hosting service. A bad hosting company can have a detrimental impact on your search rankings, making your site slower and causing a significant downfall.
With proper diligence narrow down at least three hosting services that you like, list all the pros and cons of the services, and then proceed accordingly. Taking hasty and unplanned decision is definitely a path that should be avoided.
Read: How to Build an Awesome eCommerce App? 
• SEO friendliness
All the above shenanigans won’t matter if you can’t make your store rank on Google. It can be extremely beneficial to have your store rank high in search results. You want your customers to find you when they’re searching for products like yours.
Some of the most important factors when looking for an SEO-friendly platform include:
    • The ability to add a blog to your site.
    • The ability to use a personalized domain name.
    • The ability for customers to drop reviews.
Your SEO efforts shouldn’t just end here. Once you start appearing in search results, you will need to continually optimize your offerings lest you would go down in ranks with time.

• Mobile Friendliness
Did you know, according to an official statement by Google, mobile users account for a staggering 50% of the entire search queries globally. Thus it is hard not to address the elephant in the room – While finalizing an ecommerce platform for your business, kindly ensure that whichever platform you decide on, has capabilities to provide mobile-friendly pages.
This indicates that it is extremely critical to look for platforms which allow customers to access your website quickly and also make purchases on their mobile or tablet devices.

BEST ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS IN 2019

1. WooCommerce

WooCommerce differs from other platforms mentioned on this list solely because it is a WordPress plugin. This makes its application quite tricky as it can be useful for only a specific set of businesses.

To implement WooCommerce, you must possess an understanding of WordPress, because it plugs directly into it.
Also, WooCommerce pricing is a bit tricky to pin-down. There are several costs associated with hosting WordPress and WooCommerce that can fluctuate within a certain range. One user’s cost is going to differ from the others.
X-Factor:
WooCommerce provides a varied range of analytic tools to choose from. With these, you can effectively measure the sales and analyze according to date brand, statics of customer, calculate your daily and monthly sales, and even estimate the number of orders. However, many tools are also inbuilt in WooCommerce.
Pros:

• WooCommerce is free. Being an open source free software, one doesn’t need to break the bank to start with it. Additionally, it also offers free updates from time to time.
• Being a WordPress plugin, it is extremely customizable with many themes, making it a delight to use. Additionally, you can also download extra plugins to modify your website.

Cons:

• WooCommerce doesn’t provide online store owners with the necessary tools to implement SEO effectively. 
• You must know both WordPress and WooCommerce to make changes to your website.
  

  ---

Trustable Ecommerce App Development Companies

2. Shopify

Shopify is hands-down, one of the most successful and well-known platforms that small and medium-sized businesses can leverage right now. It empowers more than 500,000 businesses worldwide to sell online and has a whopping 1 million active monthly user base. A considerable chunk of the overall ecommerce transactions is processed through Shopify, roughly amounting to almost $46 Billion.

As a platform, Shopify offers a tonne of flexibility. You can completely customize your online store and manage your inventory and products.
X-Factor:
Shopify has successfully leveraged its humongous seller as well as user base to its benefit by setting up an active and thriving online community, where shop owners share their tips and expertise. This helps the developers keep pace with the latest developments of the industry, and at the same time release timely updates.
Pros:

• There’s a dedicated mobile app so you can keep track of your store anywhere and any time.
• Shopify is extremely SEO-friendly. It allows custom title tags as well as meta descriptions on every category page. It also allows you to create customized landing pages which are extremely useful for marketing purposes.

Cons:

• Aside from their monthly rate-plan, many of the themes on Shopify comes at an additional cost.
• Shopify is still struggling to cater to large businesses. Although Shopify Plus has been introduced, it still lacks the panache that is needed to handle large customer base.

3. Magento

Many technicians tout Magento as one of the best premium open source solutions in the game, but not so much for small businesses. Helming over 150,000 sites and many fortune 500s under its umbrella, it is indeed popular amongst enterprises.

X-Factor:
Scalability is one of the most prominent X-factor for Magento. Magento is built to scale, so whether you are selling 10 or 10,000 products, Magento can handle it.
Pros:

• Flexibility – Magento offers full flexibility for users to play with the code and practically modify every aspect of your site according to your whims.
• The platform is extremely feature-rich owing to its open source software and third-party support.

Cons:

• Technical Expertise – Exclusive Magento developers are hard to find. Being an extraordinarily expansive and extensive system, (over 30,000 files and 300 database tables) – Magento has a broad learning curve, and it takes a fairly experienced developer with a solid understanding of object-oriented development and experience with core software to really comprehend what they’re doing.
• Price – The Enterprise version starts around $1,988/month, and the premium enterprise version costs $49,990/year.

4. OpenCart

Opencart is a free-to-use and open source ecommerce platform. One can just visit the website and install the software. While a functional site can run for free but if you want add-ons, then the average cost range from $20-100 per module (which includes – Sales Motivator, SEO Backpack, Intuitive Shipping, etc.

X-Factor:
The cost of setting up a store with Opencart is quite approachable even for small businesses. There are also a vast number of add-ons available, and many of them are free – you can basically get a site up-and-running using diverse payment gateways for practically no additional costs, whereas on other platforms you would need to pay.
Pros:

• Opencart doesn’t require an extensive learning curve. It is also easier to install. New users could readily understand the platform, which would help them set-up and start using Opencart quickly. This is because the interfaces offered by the solution is pretty straightforward.
• Well-Designed admin interface

Cons:

• Opencart doesn’t guarantee high-performance capabilities. One would need to install additional plugins for SEO, sales and shipping, etc.
• Opencart isn’t extremely customizable which can constrict some businesses.

5. BigCommerce

While one end of the ecommerce platform is dominated by Shopify, at another end of the spectrum, lies Bigcommerce. Much like its counterpart, BigCommerce offers a range of prices and packages, tailored to suit different types of businesses.

X-Factor:
BigCommerce has one of the most carefully considered checkout framework in the industry. It provides one of the smoothest single-page checkout experience, which helps in conversion to a great extent.
The importance of this cannot be understated, as the checkout page is a place where it is most likely to lose a consumer.
Pros:

• Bigcommerce provides massive hosting resources with a dedicated team that works on optimizing and keeping it running smooth.
• Provides layers of security.

Cons:

• Extensive customization available only if you possess good coding skills.
• It is a bit more expensive.

Concluding View

Choosing between ecommerce platforms requires extensive research. Each platform has its own set of services, charges,  subscription-period, strengths and weaknesses depending on the functionality.
Custom-made platforms will surely help you, but to scale up your operation, you will need to leverage any of these platforms. The biggest hurdle for a small business is to decide upon the most suitable platform, choose from their services and deal with their limitations.
Stay tuned as in the upcoming series of articles we will extensively cover each aspect of ecommerce, thus helping our readers and clients grow their business and attain new milestones.
Our founders started EngineerBabu to transform the technological landscape for our customers.
Having heard stories of how clients get duped by their tech partners, they resolved to do something about it. To ensure that customers don’t feel exploited they strived to introduce total transparency into the product development process.
Our team truly strives to develop a personal connection with customers which helps us to understand their requirements better. 
In the words of our wonderful founders,
We aren’t in the business for just making money; we are here to build lasting relationships.
Having worked on all the platforms mentioned before, we possess solid domain expertise of creating incredible ecommerce websites which have helped our customers achieve significant breakthroughs. This is what they have to say about us –

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• How AI Can Help Small Businesses?

The post Best eCommerce Platform for Small Business – 2019 appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

“You have to, to serve these markets, re-imagine how money can be managed and moved because there’s going to be more change in the next five years in financial services than happened in the past 30.”

– Dan Schulman, CEO PayPal

Thus, there is absolutely no denying the fact that technologies will continue to invade the age-old financial industry. Riding on the fintech bandwagon, many millennials and innovators have reinvented their businesses and made a hefty profit in the transition.
But, how do you even start?
With tons of startups entering the market every month and billion-dollar giants running the show, it can be quite hard to get your piece of the pie.

The 5 Best Fintech Startups and Their Recipe for Success

What’s better than to learn from those who have already made it big, so before delving into the recipe for success, let’s first look at some trendsetters in the current fintech setting, and what has been their secret ingredient.

1. Stripe

• X-Factor:
  • Ease of Integration
  • Tools
  • Competitive and Crystal Clear Pricing
  • Customized
  • Better Customer Support
• Niche: Online Payment Services
• Funding:
  • Raised a total of $685M in 9 rounds.
  • Now valued at $20B.

Stripe’s impeccable functionality and meticulously designed API has helped create the best possible product for the consumers. It has undoubtedly become a one-stop destination for the creation of subscription services, crowd-funding platforms, an e-commerce store and more. This tech company has been able to build an economic infrastructure for the internet by helping out businesses of almost every size. It combines a payment platform with applications that put revenue data at the heart of business operations.

2. Robinhood

• X-Factor:
  • Laser focus on target market (millennials)
  • Viral marketing strategies
  • Clutter-free interface
• Niche: Trading and Investments
• Funding:
  • Raised a total of $539M in 5 Rounds
  • Now valued at $5.6B

It could easily be touted as the top fintech company of this year. In order to keep the fees down, the company abstains from opening storefronts and renders no additional tools. Aptly named after the popular fictional character, it is helping the less economically privileged grow by using and betting on rich people’s money. The fintech app has eliminated all brokerage fees that have traditionally been associated with initiating a buy or sell. It earns money through its Robinhood Gold accounts for premium members and by collecting interest from cash holdings and stocks just like a bank. The app is clutter-free and straight-forward, making it easy to use for everyone.

3. Lu.com/Lufax 

• X-Factor:
  • Broad product offering
  • Diverse liquidity avenues
• Niche: Peer-to-Peer Lending and Financing platform
• Funding:
  • Raised $1.7B in 2 rounds of funding
  • Now valued at approx. $10B

Lufax has grown to become China’s largest fintech company in less than four years. It is considered to be China’s most innovative non-SOE financial institution. The number of registered users on Lufax surpassed 14 Million recently. Lufax takes complete advantage of the latest big data and IT offerings, and clouts the most advanced risk assessment models and risk control systems.

4. Paytm

• X-Factor: 
  • Extremely high brand awareness
  • Strong marketing campaigns
  • Word of mouth
  • Strong investments from big-wigs
• Niche: Online payments
• Funding:
  • Raised over $2.2B in 4 funding rounds.
  • Now valued at approx. $15B.

Touted as India’s largest mobile commerce platform – it has 80 Million active monthly users and processes around 5 million transactions every day. Paytm tries to maintain an open culture where everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. Paytm’s team spends hours designing each new feature and obsesses about the smallest of details.
Paytm’s approach is quite simple – To design something they’d use.

5. Klarna

• X-Factor: Business Model
• Niche: Online Payments
• Funding:
  • Raised $681.7M in 13 funding rounds
  • Now valued at north of $2.5B

According to its CEO, Klarna’s mission remains the same, even after 12 years of its formation – To make paying as simple, safe and above all, as smooth as possible.
This simple vision has helped Klarna become one of the largest banks of Europe.
Klarna’s pay later policy has proven to be a tremendous success across Europe. Try it first, pay later, lets users pay 14 or 30 days after delivery depending on the store. Besides, there is also an option of paying in installments for its users.
They have a user base of almost 60 Million and has some 90,000 registered merchants on their platform.

So, what is it specifically that differentiates these exceptional startups from the rest of the crowd?

You might have observed that some of the words used to describe all of the listed products were – “simple” or “easy.” This can’t just be a coincidence.
Simplicity and ease-of-use are powerful differentiators that can separate any product from their competitors. The simplicity of these products gave them a competitive advantage over other established giants.
Mentioned below are the 7 steps you need to consider in order to establish a successful Financial Technology startup.

STEP 1: Identify your Niche

Fintech is a broad term and has a lot of dimensions to it. The classification of Fintech really depends on various circumstances.
It may refer to a specific set of start-ups and companies, or it may apply to initiatives enabled by technological innovations that contribute to the development of the financial segment.
There are many domains in fintech to consider, here are some of them:

• Fund Movement, or transactions by giving or receiving payments.
  • Currency
  • Payment Solution
  • Remittances
• Fund Placement, or the financing of planned or unplanned financial regulations.
  • Saving
  • Investing
  • Borrowing
  • Alternative Financing
    
• Data Management, to get insights for improving decision making
  • Financial Management Tools
  • Research and Data

For starting a fintech company, one must be crystal clear of the target market and the problem they are looking to address. Besides choosing a domain, your product should cater to a specific audience, e.g., a country, a state, a city or a particular demographic. However, it is always better to launch your startup locally first and expand to the global market later if needed.

STEP 2: Know the Regulations

The banking and finance industries are highly regulated ones’ and for obvious reasons. The regulations are why financial service industries can be tough to break into. Several laws have been put to place to ensure that these sectors are protected from frauds. Also, these regulations can immensely vary depending on the country, state or region you want to operate in.
The arrival of Fintech has ushered in new ways of handling and making money, and thus, have created a grey area for regulations. This has been drawing the attention of lawmakers. 
So, whatever domain one wishes to venture in, it is of vital importance to thoroughly understand the regulatory measures that apply according to the demographics and geography.

STEP 3: Discover your Edge

Every unique product or innovation that has been able to disrupt a sector successfully has always been the one that has done something differently.

There couldn’t be a better example for this scenario than Robinhood. With their unique business strategy and viral marketing campaigns, they were able to successfully disrupt the trading and investments domain. Their distinctive business offering, like charging zero commission proved to be an instant hit amongst millennials with limited pocket.
The fintech industry is getting crowded. Many innovations are already underway. Still, a critical entrepreneurial question to ask is if your product/venture will be able to offer something unique and of high importance.
The danger for startups is to become a “me too.” If there is already an entity that is established and doing well in your niche, then you should divert your focus to something new and innovative.
Thus, it is vital for new-age fintech startups to focus their attention towards developing a product that offers a service or a feature that is exclusive to them. There needs to be some sort of nuance that your solution must provide.
This distinction would serve as the disruption that you might have been looking for.

STEP 4: Hire the Right Talent along with the Right Tech Stack

• Hiring the right talent
A successful enterprise is made from its people. Therefore, hiring crème-de la-crème from amongst the crowd is of vital importance. If your city has a limited talent pool, then attracting good talent becomes quite tricky.  
In such cases, the best decision for a startup would be to hire a software development team offshore (consider India!). This not only cuts significant costs for up-and-coming startups, but also provides a solid team of specialists with specific domain knowledge and relevant experience.
If you are on the lookout for creating a great product and are considering hiring a software development company, then look no further, we have compiled a list of the best financial app development companies.
• Choosing the right tech stack
It is must for every fintech product to have a customized software. No decent startup relies on third-party CMSs or frameworks to handle their transactions. Additionally, no ready-made solution can match the performance capabilities of a custom designed software.

With finance, comes along the risk of data breach. Therefore, data safety is one of the most critical aspects of Fintech App Development.
Every startup needs to ensure that their product is secure and all the sensitive data is encrypted and stored in the cloud.
Recommended Read: How Much does Mobile App Development Cost?

Step 5: Start by creating an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

I strongly recommend starting with a Minimum Viable Product first.
For beginners, an MVP is a development technique in which a new product or website is developed with just enough features to suffice for the early users of the product. The final product, with all the elements, is only designed and developed once the feedback is received from the initial users.

There are numerous advantages of following this process, primarily:
1. Cheaper: An MVP saves you a considerable amount of investment because you’re not required to develop extra functionalities that may have compromised the product anyway. These cost saving are essential because you don’t know for sure whether the consumers will like the product. Through MVP you can test the waters and then dive into the deeper end of the pool.
2. Effective: Using the MVP approach means you end up with only those features that you require the most, so, there is comparatively less façade, and your product turns out cleaner and simpler.
3. Faster: Another benefit of an MVP is the Speed of Development. You’re not trying to create a perfect product right away; it serves as a platform to implement the idea, study its use, make amends and then proceed further. This makes the entire process a whole lot faster and easier.
4. Reduces risk: A startup with a Minimum Viable Product is more likely to receive funding from the investors, this is because an MVP gives you an opportunity to test the waters without directly building the final product. It allows developers to test the viability of your product amongst the target audience without requiring huge investments.
The lower the risk of the investment not paying off, the more likely investors are to fund your idea.

Step 6: Get Funded

Starting a fintech company is a costly affair. Making an incredible product requires talent, and talent isn’t cheap. As traditional organizations are trying to acquire fintech talent for themselves, startups would inevitably face competition in hiring. If your venture isn’t looking to partner with professionals who can create the entire product range, then stay prepared to shell out a reasonable amount for talent.
Now, if you don’t have deep pockets, it becomes quite difficult to stay afloat in this volatile domain. Thus getting an investor onboard becomes essential to not compromise on the product quality.
What entices Investors?
With the current wave of excitement around fintech. The global venture capital investments have crossed almost $17B. This, however, could also be a bane for early age startups, because the competition for funding is snowballing exponentially. VCs are getting more and more selective, and are seeking out companies with truly game-changing offerings.  
Thus, it is required to make your value proposition more and more enticing.

Step 7: Build Partnerships

It is as essential for up-and-coming fintech startups to develop alliances with relevant institutions, as is getting funded.

Partnering is an excellent approach to build muscle in innovation and transformation. In which you can learn at minimal cost and minimum risk. The primary reason for partnering pertaining to this specific domain is, ‘Credibility.’
It could be hard for users to trust an emerging entity, and that too in such a volatile domain. Thus, when you are associated with a relevant name, it becomes comparatively easier to sail through those hurdles. Financial institutions also bring along a large customer base and comprehensive customer data.
Thus partnering can provide a considerable boost to startups and together they could improve product efficiency and build highly accessible products.

Wrapping Up

Fintech may not be the easiest industry to target. With all the pitfalls in consideration – It takes sweat, time and effort to create a successful fintech company. It demands expertise, creativity, and honestly, a lot of grit to launch a startup in such a frivolous and competitive domain.
There are numerous opinions highlighting the supposed discord between the slow-evolving realm of finance and the highly disrupting world of technology. The pressure on tech companies to deliver huge results rapidly is immense.
Still, if you believe that you will be able to solve financial issues for your users through innovative means, go ahead. You will also need the right people by your side. A team with strong technical skills and impeccable domain expertise will definitely help in building something great.

Just be shrewd with how you do it.

After all,
Fortune favors the bold.

From helping organizations like BankOpen to dozens of startups worldwide, we at EngineerBabu have a track record of building highly successful fintech products.
And several have even gotten funded!
That’s precisely why we understand the ins’ and outs’ of this realm and how to scale a business to tremendous heights.
So, If you are on the lookout for solid domain expertise and a trusted name in the industry, contact us right away.

Recommended Read:

• FinTech in 2019. Trends to watch out for the next big year!
• Digital Transformation in Finance

The post How to Start a FinTech Company – 7 Things You Should Know appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

“Go Mobile” seems to be the definitive trend especially in the retail industry with big brands entering the game.
Technology has undergone such a paradigm shift that now buying things on your PC may not even be considered “advanced”.

The Ecommerce sector specifically is rapidly shifting to the handy device realizing the growing need to cut short the lag between impulses and availability. In fact, mobile apps have the lowest cart abandonment rate at 20%, compared to the staggering 68% on websites.
It comes as no surprise then that the world is quickly going to be a finger touch away with over 78% of customers preferring to buy on the go. The app stores are stashed with a staggering number of Ecommerce apps, with new additions every now and then, the key thus is to stand out.

Why does your store need an app?

The most valid proof why your retail store needs an app are the stats relative to mobile penetration. Mobile phones have become a necessity almost next to food, shelter, and clothing.
Mobile users have surpassed desktop internet users. Consumers spend an exceeding and often shocking number of hours on their phones. The global m-commerce business is going to exceed $460 billion in 2018. With most of your customers “going mobile”, its ship not to be missed.
If you think that a mobile responsive website might be the same, think again. Here is some cool info on why to Ecommerce apps stand a better chance:
#1 Enormous Opportunity:
There are 322 million internet users, with an internet penetration of 20% in India compared to 300 million in the US with same being 90%. Standards of living and affordability have risen, with India soon to become the 3rd biggest spender by 2020.
With all this on the rise, life’s have become busier and an increase in urban traffic only leaves lesser time for offline shopping. Brands like Zara too, have been quick to realize the transition.
#2 Preference:
78% of users prefer to use an app to shop rather than the website. Focusing on mobile technology is therefore not an option but a mandate. While strategists debate on the better solution when it comes to mobile app vs responsive websites, an app definitely is more engaging for customers besides being faster, more convenient and more secure.
#3 Improved User Experience:

Looking back what may have seemed like a rather bold move, Myntra’s Mobile app only strategy doesn’t now come forth as completely crazy. The company provides one of the most engaging shopping experiences, which is possible only vis-à-vis an Ecommerce application. Customers spend 3-4 hours more on a mobile app compared to the website.
#4 Increase in Conversions:


Users spend more time on an app, that is to say, they see more products on the app. To be precise 4.2 times more products. The conversion rate, therefore, is higher on apps, and also the average cart value. The personalization that only apps can offer further ensures that customers view similar products spoiling them for choice.
#5 Integrated with In-built features:
An application has permission to access features of the user’s mobile, which means more data on customer’s preferences. This has allowed integrating features like geo-tagging and target marketing. It also eliminates cumbersome procedures like manually entering addresses.
#6 Enhancements in Customer Loyalty:
A customer that downloads your app is already convinced. An icon on the home screen is a subconscious reminder of the go-to place to buy anything that pops up on your head.
The stats indicate that an app user comes back to your store within 30 days of purchase. Now, why do applications have such high customer retention?
– Applications store data on age, sex, and location and also keep a tab on viewed products and purchases, giving personalized suggestions.
– Friendly notifications reminding your customer on the deals they might miss, curating content for them are interactions made possible through mobile apps only.
– Rewards in the form of a discount, a free product or even early access to exclusive collections are great forms of loyalty program that keeps customers coming back.
– Exclusive discounts and offers, sometimes even products that can be accessed via apps are some reasons why customers prefer a mobile app.
Convinced?
Coming down to the ways of getting your Ecommerce app ready, you can choose to hire a development team or you could use an app builder.
While app builder may seem rather convenient and cost-effective, it can significantly harm your business. With poor functionality, unimpressive design and no debugging and support, the automatic app builders are not recommended.
We suggest an experienced ecommerce app development team to work seamlessly with you.

The 5 Essentials of an Ecommerce App:

The next step is building a Minimum Viable Product. Simply speaking, these are the essentials every shopping app must have, without which the app is bound to fail.
Simple Design:


The average attention span of a customer is 8 seconds, that entails a very little time to impress and hence convert a user. A complicated design that has a lot of features, text, and animations is more likely to backfire. The best apps are the ones that are easiest to understand. Design, thus, plays a very important role in how your customers behave.
Security:


A lot of sensitive information is shared by users on the E-commerce platform, it is therefore of utmost importance that such information like credit card details, home or office address is secure from all kinds of cyber threats. With leaks like those of Facebook, security and privacy have become primary concerns.
Content:
‘Content is King’ is especially true for e-commerce apps, in which case it is the images that need to convey the value of your product. Images clicked on mobile phones or images downloaded from the internet will not do justice to the product you’re trying to sell.
Social Media Integration:
People hate filling out lengthy forms. Keeping log-ins and signups as quick and easy as possible is important, thus comes the need to integrate signups through social media logins. This also enables users to share what they are viewing or buying on your store, helping your app gain traction.
Easy Checkouts:
There are a lot of reasons why people abandon their carts on an e-commerce app, do not add to that reason by making cart checkouts complicated and time-consuming. Give many options to complete a transaction and integrating a mobile wallet are some ways that ensure ease in the checkout process.

Trustable Ecommerce App Development Companies

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Trends in Ecommerce App Development:

Geofencing:
Geofencing is a new way of marketing products based on the location of a user. Brands have experienced an increase of at least 20% in their sales due to location-based marketing.
How specific can geofencing be? With integrated features like GPS, the location of a user can be tracked every minute. Setting up a criterion like, “within 2 km of Malls” can ensure the app takes advantage of the timing and the buying intent of the customer.
Geofencing works on technologies including WiFi, Beacons, RFID, and GPS. This way it ensures better targeting, increased ROI, enhanced engagement and useful data.
Chatbots:


While acquiring new customers is pressing concern for retail business, retaining existing ones is equally if not more important.
Loyalty programs, offers, promotions and gift certificates are some ways in which they ensure returning customers. Besides quality products and competitive prices, customers also expect unique experiences specifically designed for them and better customer support.
Chatbots have evolved to cater to these needs by providing contextual understanding and resolving queries in an in-app messenger. Chatbots also provide customized offers for customers and assisting them through the entire process of buying.
Several companies like the makeup giant Sephora and the luxury retail company Burberry have worked on building their own messenger applications providing their customers with better service and helping retailers automate operations.
Augmented Reality:
From what will this look like to what does it look like? From bathtubs to blenders, users will be able to view exactly how the product will look like when placed in their homes or offices.
Augmented Reality makes this possible. It is a way of superimposing unreal objects onto the real world using a mobile device. Remember Pokemon Go?
Augmented Reality has grown to be used in more than just the gaming world. It is being used by retailers to provide a better overview of the product and create more engaging content.
This ensures that the customer gets a real-world feel for the product they are buying, this impacts the return rates that are especially high in Indian Ecommerce market.
Big Data:


The e-commerce market has exploded over the past 4 years. Amazon alone had 400 million active users in 2016. More users equal more data. Big Data thus has a big role to play in the e-commerce business.
Big Data algorithms help pull out data and predict fashion trends that are just starting out giving the business a competitive advantage. Big Data can also help determine the right price based on analysis of prices as set by competitors.
Big Data analysis can predict demands and with relevant data on choices of user helping you fill out a store that is customized to the user’s tastes and current trends.
Recommendation Engine:
Recommendation Engine is essentially a complex arena of algorithms that analyze a consumer’s behavior, the google searches, the ads viewed, the people followed on Instagram and Facebook with an end goal to determine the taste and preferences of a user.
The data collected can be useful to provide personalized suggestions and improve the visibility of catalogs. One of the most important things to consider here is to ensure that data collected is anonymized to prevent a breach of privacy.
Cloud Computing:


A slow app is a deal breaker. Use of cloud and mobile computing reduces the time taken by the app to respond to queries, improving the performance of the app. Magento is specially designed for e-commerce platforms to give them the scalability and performance enhancement they need especially during peak seasons.
The companies that have adopted Cloud Computing have a gained significant competitive advantage over those that haven’t.

Securing the Payment Process

A custom e-commerce app will need to establish frameworks that allow in-app payments, capturing payment information and then processing transactions.
To enable this a payment gateway and a payment processor need to be integrated into the app.
A payment gateway is an interface connecting the customer with the payment system. The payment gateway is a critical part of the system as it is at this level that the security is ensured.
All data filed by the customer, like card details and contact information is encrypted by the payment gateway from where the information goes through to the payment processor. The payment processor does the main transaction by sending the encrypted information to the bank.
Once the transaction is completed the information is conveyed to the app and the product is bought.
A payment processor is the heart of an e-commerce transaction and needs to be stable. Errors should be corrected in the developing phase and tested with great care.

The Future of Marketplace

Voice will change SEO:


In 2018, trends show that consumers are going to speak to their devices and use conversational AI to get things done.
Developments like Siri and Alexa are now integrated with a lot of third-party applications and “book an uber” is a reinforcement of the changing scenario. Retailers too need to adapt and change the way they communicate.
This does not allow for the interruption-based ad models that were being followed over the past years.
For e-commerce, it implies that the product information becomes compatible and synchronized with voice optimization. Walmart, for instance, uses Google Express E-commerce Platform to enable ordering by voice.
Several companies like Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Costco and Kohl’s are already working on agreements. Voice-based SEO integration is going to revolutionize the way people shop.

An Image Is Worth a Thousand Words:

For the first time in 2018, consumers will use an image-based search engine. It is predicted that image and voice-based searches will make for over 50% of all searches.
Consumers can then take pictures of the products they wish to buy and find similar ones online.
Retailers integrating image-based search options have a lot to gain as they can also enter new markets with language no longer being a barrier nor the complicity of wrong product names and incorrect search results.
Pinterest has been investing heavily to enable smartphone cameras to be the new search engines. Companies like Target are also set to integrate Pinterest visual search technology.
The Internet-of-things:
Dependency on browsers for traffic generation is already going down and this trend is likely to continue. The browser is no longer the de facto means of accessing products or services online.
The convenience extended by E-commerce apps like fluid checkouts, ease of purchase, customization of suggestions and integration with social media is moving the world towards a browser-less experience.
With an increasing number of internet-connected devices, some being highly ridiculous like smart condoms, toasters, and bathroom fixtures, stating needlessly that not everything can be “smart” but also remind that every newly connected device is another point-of-sale.
It will not be hard to imagine refrigerators and washing machines becoming smart mocking us with ads and offers.
Uber-ization of Delivery:
In 2018, the retailers like Amazon are expected to take their logistics game up a notch with driverless freight technologies being developed and talks of using drones to deliver.
Amazon is undoubtedly the king of logistics in e-commerce, setting unbeatable records like delivering ice-cream within 9 minutes.
Amazon Prime is providing 1-2-day deliveries and Amazon Now is all set to make 1-hour delivery possible. The delivery time game is going to be the bloodiest in the coming year as technologies keep evolving.
ROPO:

Research Online, Purchase Offline – is a growing trend in e-commerce, especially in India. Consumers like to research products online before purchasing even in-store as it is empowering to know the best prices, in fact, 54% of users read customer reviews before buying a product.
By leveraging technology, retailers can now track offline conversions effectively. Geolocation tracking and keeping track of customer’s shopping history and habits through social integration enables retailers to display personalized products and ads.
Matalan is a British clothing company, which after research concluded that for every pound spent on Ads, 46 pounds of Sales revenue was generated. 67% of which was in-store sales. Thus, several previously online stores like Nykaa have opened up their offline stores as well.

Social & Conversational Commerce:

Be where the users are – has been a mantra for survival since the beginning of time. For the past years, it has meant huge social media platforms like Facebook.
Ads on Facebook and Instagram are no doubt effective but messaging apps like messenger and WhatsApp have started to outpace where consumers spend more time.
Online shopping has come to a point where it is not hard to imagine typing on a messaging platform – “I need a blue dress for a dinner party” and getting suggestions with shipping information, payment integration and tracking options without ever leaving the conversation.
Several companies like Walmart and Hyatt are already testing “messenger for business”. WhatsApp too has started integrating chatbots for companies, GoIbibo being one of them. Recently, WhatsApp also started including ads on its application, starting in certain parts of Europe.

Finding A Skilled App Developing Team

Now that process of developing an app is clear, the next step is to find a competitive developer. The e-commerce app development process can be the making or breaking point for a retail business and frankly, the development market is huge and choices aren’t easy.
While, developers are ready to make an app at throwaway prices, comprising on quality is not a good strategy.
Here are points to keep in mind while considering developers for your E-commerce App:
#1 Skills and Experience
Developing an E-commerce app requires a degree of knowledge and expertise, hiring freelancers and newbies is not advisable.
Find people who have a level of experience, check portfolios and ask questions. Knowing the skills of the developing team is a must. A young team tends to work more dynamically and with passion towards the needs of your business.
Check out our case studies to understand the trends in app development.
#2 Quality over Cost
Low-cost options may save a few bucks in the short term but prove to fatal over time. Comprising on quality over cost is not a good business strategy.
Check the developers’ quality assurance procedures, whether apps are tested for compatibility on various devices, screen sizes, and operating systems.
Enquire about their debugging procedures and beta-testing process. Ensure quality.
#3 Portfolio
The portfolio of developers speaks for them. Download apps that have been developed by the company and observe not only the design and performance but also the value the app adds.
Check functionalities on Apple Store and Google Play store. Customer feedbacks also speak a lot about the qualification of the team.
Check what our customers say about us.
#4 Communicate
While offshore developers can provide the same quality at lower cost, it is important to ensure that there are no such obstacles as language and different time zones.
For instance, EB ensures your developing team works the same time zone as you or has at least 4-5 hours of overlapping.
We also have dedicated teams available and working the same shift as you ensure uninterrupted communication.
#5 Long-Term Association
Developing an app is never a one-time project. The app needs regular maintenance, support, re-designing and sometimes re-development.
Thus, it’s very important to have a team that stands by you throughout the lifecycle of an application. At EB, the developing team is always there for the client to solve all the problems that may arise in the App. EB invests itself in the success of its client.
#6 Business Acumen
Technological knowledge is of utmost importance to judge the competency of a team when it comes to developing an app for your retail store. However, acquaintance with your business is a key factor that should not be ignored.
A developer that understands how e-commerce companies work and are in line with trends and consumer behavior analysis, is more likely to develop apps that are user-friendly.
Whether you are an already established brand taking your retail business to online commerce or a startup building the next disruptive business, we are there for you.

Get In Touch!

The post A Definitive Guide to eCommerce App Development appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.