E-commerce has boomed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many retailers opening online stores. Avoid actual customers visiting traditional stores and give them flexibility. In 2021, many e-commerce companies will emerge to replace traditional methods.
So, when you enter the e-commerce market and successfully open an online store, you must follow two ideal steps, the first is to develop an e-commerce website and the second is an e-commerce app mobile.
Basic understanding of eCommerce websites and mobile applications
An e-commerce website consists of a domain name that can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection operating a mobile phone using a mobile device using the Android and iOS operating systems. But customers need to download your mobile app; browse your online store products and complete their purchase.
In recent years, people’s use of mobile phones has increased rapidly. According to research, 70% of people use mobile devices for online shopping. Given this growth, the question arises, what is the best solution for your eCommerce store? Website or Mobile App? !
Should I choose a mobile app or a website for an eCommerce project?
The answer to this question largely depends on several different criteria, such as: Your business goals, nature of work, budget and target audience. Well-known e-commerce giants such as Amazon, eBay, and Flipkart mostly pay attention.
Both on mobile apps and websites are possible, but both options are not within reach of all eCommerce companies; as they are constrained by limited cost, time and manpower, forcing them to compromise.
Now I’m going to present a few criteria that will help you compare websites and mobile apps in order to choose the best in your eCommerce project. Here’s a comparison:
1. Fees and schedule
The cost and time of developing an e-commerce mobile application compatible with Android and iOS devices is usually much higher than the cost of building an e-commerce website. This is largely true because there are many CMS options that offer exclusive eCommerce themes and plugins, such as Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce (extensible eCommerce platform, customizable) and Magento: an open source eCommerce platform.
These platforms above offer cost-effective solutions that can get your website up and running in a week or less.
- The winner here is the website.
2. Personal User Experience
Although user experience may seem trivial, it plays a vital role in customer retention. Failure to provide the correct call-to-action and unspecified errors will have a negative impact; since there are many transactions involved in the e-commerce process, it can cause serious problems. First-time users may tolerate it, but a poor user experience will eventually cause users to avoid your website, or delete your online store mobile app. Here, no one wants to lose their hard-earned loyal customers.
Let’s get started now. A website in an online store might offer a great user experience, but when it comes to custom content, there’s no better match than a mobile app. Because this is where you interact with your users 24/7.
To do this, open a browser, log in, and enter a URL (this is the name of a website link or internet address).
- The winner here is the mobile app in your online store.
3. Search engine optimization
Who doesn’t love free organic traffic? This area is missing from the mobile app of the online store. Here, optimizing your online store website on Google and other search engines will generate a lot of traffic, and various content marketing strategies will increase your reach and brand awareness.
Today, e-commerce companies are perfecting the description and name of the app; in order to get a proper ranking in the app store search results. Also known as Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short: it is the science of improving the appearance of a website or website pages in organic search engine (eg: Google) results, as it appears in the first result.
App Store Optimization (ASO): the process of increasing the visibility of an app or game in the app store; in order to increase organic app downloads, when the app ranks high on various search terms (keyword optimization), They become more noticeable.
Hiring a team that specializes in search engines can realize a solid return on investment for your online store business.
- The winner here is the website.
4. Convenient offline use
The website cannot help the user when the user is offline, but the mobile application is able to store the data on the user’s mobile device so that it can be accessed at any time. Although not all data is stored in the mobile application, the saved data is important information about recently viewed products and information and billing of these products, which can be useful to expensive people in many cases.
- The winner here is the mobile app for your online store.
5. Advertising and marketing
Advertising and marketing are important factors in increasing sales of an online store. Here, you can market your products and services on many social media platforms, which will bring users back to your eCommerce website and mobile application. Here you have to remember that people tend to avoid installing mobile apps unless it has something cool.
On the other hand, in the case of websites, users can make purchases in just a few clicks instead of waiting for mobile app downloads.
- The winner here is the website.
6. Maintenance
From regular security checks to staying on top of the latest technology trends and content optimization processes, keeping your eCommerce website or mobile app up to date requires a lot of maintenance. Here you can hire an experienced web developer or a freelancer to maintain your website from scratch.
For mobile applications, you need to hire different native Android and iOS developers. There are some cross-platform technologies such as: Flutter that allow you to maintain a website and a mobile application at the same time, resulting in significant cost savings.
- The winner here is a tie between the website and the mobile app.
A website in your online store is very important; in contrast, an online mobile app delivers an amazing and personalized user experience at lightning speed. Therefore, we recommend both so you don’t miss any important information. However, if you are on a limited budget and looking for a suitable solution, you should consider many huge factors and statistics that depend on data, and if you are confused about your problem, you should consult an expert to provide a suitable solution for you.