How to create an ecommerce app

Rapid growth of mobile ecommerce attracts more and more followers, hoping to touch the new golden vein. Lockdown has also sparked an additional boom in e-commerce app development.

According to Statista’s research, mobile e-commerce sales will exceed $432 billion in 2022, up from $148 billion in 2018. With these numbers, you might be willing to enter the e-commerce market. Or, if you're already there, you might want to attract new customers and increase sales. Let's figure out how to create an ecommerce app and what essential things should be considered at the very beginning.

Advantages of Ecommerce Apps and Why Business Needs Them

The advantages of mobile e-commerce cannot be described in two words, but they all have one thing in common, which is to take care of each customer individually in the best possible way. This goal is achieved by:

1. Faster operation. Apps allow performing operations 1.5 times quicker than mobile sites as they store information locally and use frameworks much faster than JavaScript on the part of sites. Some apps allow users to buy goods offline, adding them to the shopping cart wherever they are. This makes ecommerce apps much more convenient and attractive for customers than websites.

2. Availability of use. Making it possible to access the application from any laptop or smartphone, the business receives a huge boost in conversion and purchases. Mobile features such as one-click buying, push-notifications, and easy payment squeeze make the process of purchase quick and casual.

3. High demand. Over 60% of U.S. shoppers use their phones when shopping and the demand for mobile apps is getting higher than for websites every day.

4. Personalization. Mobile ecommerce can collect more personal data compared to websites. This is a good chance for sellers to provide personalized content. The data related to the location, age or interests, significantly improves the quality of the individual approach.

5. Coordinate with device hardware. What websites can’t do — scan QR codes with a camera, find nearby stores with GPS, shop with a microphone — apps can do directly for the benefit of businesses. Device hardware can be used for thousands of purposes, and a website's ability to interact with the hardware is severely limited.

With these advantages, you can engage directly with your customers and generate a high level of interest in a personalized way. But alone they don’t guarantee success. You need a strategy.

How to build an ecommerce app: 6 main steps

1. Research competitors and audience

First, it’s important to research your competitors and conduct user interviews, which are essential for analyzing audience behavior and patterns. They also help to define the right app platform and feature set as relevant to the target audience as possible.

2. Set goals

To create a successful ecommerce mobile application it’s necessary to set clear business goals. Here are 3 questions which will help to cope with this task:

• What problem am I trying to solve?

• Who am I selling to?

• How do I understand if it's successful?

3. Choose the right platform

Before deciding which technology is the most suitable to create an ecommerce app, it is important to discover the pros and cons of the business. Keep development costs and inventory in mind, and choose a CMS, database, and extensible framework.

Armed with this information, it's easier to decide whether to launch an Android app, an iOS app, or both. Needless to say, you need to target the mobile platform your audience is on.

The technology stack is a critical prerequisite for turning a brilliant idea into a successful product. By technology stack we mean a complex component such as:

• Back-end (processing on the server);

• Frontend (interface of the application);

• Development (platform with libraries and interfaces);

• Supporting (technologies that provide app’s security and performance).

For Android ecommerce app, you need to think of:

• Programming Language (Java/Kotlin for Android);

• App development tools (Android Studio);

• UI Framework (Jetpack Compose);

• Android UI.

When it comes to iOS, take in mind the following stuff:

• Programming Language (Swift or Objective-C);

• IOS Mobile Development Tools (AppCode, XCode);

• UI Frameworks (SwiftUI or UIKIt).

For cross-platform ecommerce apps the list of programming tools goes like this:

• React Native;

• Flutter;

• Xamarin.

4. Define the feature set

Since you already have user feedback, expert opinion, trends and the urge to outshine your competitors, you also have a better understanding of what problems your product needs to solve and what features will satisfy end users.

5. Create UX and UI designs

The experience of an e-commerce app needs to go beyond in-person shopping, and UX & UI design is an opportunity to stand out. Design will become your company's voice and identity to the target customers. Color schemes, attractive graphics and smooth page-to-page transitions leave a lasting impression on your clients.

6. Build the MVP

The MVP(minimum viable product) stage is exactly where you need to focus on the most important features of your e-commerce application. Rather than implementing a mature product immediately, rely on ongoing evaluation of the product to drive further revisions.

MVPs are designed to understand user perceptions of a product, reduce development time, reduce risk, and allocate resources more efficiently.

Whether to make an ecommerce app using Mobile App Builder or Custom Development

In recent years, the field of application development has been enriched in a new way and gained many followers in a short period of time. For example mobile app builders appear. These are the tools that help anyone build ecommerce app without coding.

With mobile app builders, even non-technical people can quickly create an ecommerce app they want - from external design to functionality. It can be no-code development, requiring no programming skills at all. With its help, you can customize the look of your digital products, choose marketing and analytics settings, decide the functionality. Low-code platforms for app development are frameworks that help you design e-commerce apps with pre-built wireframes, plugins, and minimal coding skills.

Ecommerce app builder main advantages:

• Rapid development fair

• Ease of Setup and Usability

• Extensive community support

Mobile app builder disadvantages:

• Strict customization restrictions

• Scalability and security Issues

• Inability to use native functions

As opposed to a no-code approach, custom development means creating a product that is as in sync with your business needs as possible. In order to create an e-commerce mobile app that meets these criteria, you need to clearly define the needs of the future app, hire a development team, and invest a lot of time and money in the project.

Custom mobile apps development benefits:

• Unique customization to meet your business needs

• Improve security and scalability

• Supplier expertise and services

Drawbacks of custom mobile application development:

• Higher costs

• Longer and more complex development

After weighing the pros and cons of both methods, you've likely decided for yourself which method is best for you. App builders stand out when you need to quickly create an ecommerce app on a budget. Custom development is the best option to create unique and high quality products in every aspect.