Smartphones have become a vital part of everyone’s life. In today’s society, it is almost impossible to live without smartphones and their apps. Mobile apps help in carrying out even day-to-day tasks like grocery shopping, ordering food, ordering medicines, etc. They have made life simple and comfortable. They have also revolutionized the world of retailers like how they interact with customers, advertising special offers and discounts on mobile apps, instead of printing them on billboards and flyers.
Customers buying habits also improved because of mobile apps. Now they compare prices, and brands, and check other buyers’ reviews before purchasing anything.

Let’s find out how mobile apps impact retail businesses:

A Website Isn’t Enough Anymore

In recent years it has become clear that mobile apps for retail are better to engage customers than websites and generate higher revenues than websites. According to a report, native retail apps generate 66% of all mobile commerce revenue, twice as much revenue as mobile websites. Native retail apps generate a 90% higher add-to-basket rate and 120% higher conversion rate compared with mobile websites. Consumers prefer apps over mobile sites because of the enhanced user experience, greater speed, superior features, and intelligence-based offers. In this mobile-fueled shopping landscape, the retailers that thrive most harness the opportunity to be there and be useful for shoppers in those intent-rich moments when people open their smartphones to know, go or buy.

Boost Your Conversion

Mobile interaction, through smartphones and tablets, is core to our lifestyle. Our eyes are glued to these devices that offer us almost whatever we want, anytime and anywhere. Retail marketers should meet people where they are and position their brand and product where their audience exists in the mobile world. This is the key to driving positive conversions.

Be up-to-date

Many medium-sized businesses, and even some small retailers, already have a branded app or are about to release one. They understand the need to adopt new technology as early as possible to remain relevant in the rapidly evolving retail space.
Uncomfortable though it may seem, as buyers move to mobile, sellers must choose whether they are going to lead them, follow them, or simply lose them. The leaders will be the biggest winners. Followers may survive, particularly in niche or specialist markets. But those who simply hope that this will all just go away, well that may not work out for the best.

Better In-Store Experience

Retail mobile apps open the shop doors to hundreds of thousands of potential customers. But not only for online shopping. Modern shoppers are becoming increasingly omnichannel. More than half use mobile applications while purchasing stuff in physical stores. So if you think that your app and the physical store are separate entities, think again. Each can be used in support of the other. We live in a very fast world,…we are always in a hurry. One very useful feature for many customers to implement for a better user experience would be the ability to order and pay for goods on the go from the app and then collect them in-store without wasting time on checkout lines. As buyers crave to know as much as possible about a product before buying it (especially for higher category goods and special items), they often go to their smartphones to look for datasheets, benefits, ratings, reviews, endorsements, etc. It is impractical to position all of this information on your shelves. So what could you do?
By adding a QR-code scanner to your retail app and the QR codes themselves to the shelves, you can provide the option for your customers to conveniently access all the product data to facilitate buying decisions.

A push notification will increase your customers’ engagement

In retail mobile apps, push notifications are mostly used to inform customers about an upcoming sale, new arrival, or special in-store events. Push notifications are a powerful channel to increase customer engagement because they have 90 percent open rates and can be more effective than social media posts or email campaigns.

The mobile app loyalty program will strengthen your customer relationships

According to a survey, acquiring new customers costs 5 to 10 times more than selling to a current customer, and current customers spend 67 percent more on average than those who are new to your business. Considering that, the mobile application loyalty program is a great way to increase existing customers’ interaction with your company and their retention which will lead to stronger customer relationships and higher revenue for your business.

Data Analytics

In the consumer-oriented world, insights become the new currency. Understanding the client’s non-obvious needs and delivering to them a personalized experience requires deep data analysis. But first, you need to collect the data. The mobile app provides the best capabilities for this. The data analysis allows making business decisions based not on the bare hypothesis, but on solid analytics. Such an approach gives vast maneuvering space for shopping experience improvement. As a result, retailers can drive sales, both in-store and out-of-store.