So, you have finally launched your business on the world wide web on Magento platform. Well, congratulations for that. It is the best way to establish a global reach and awareness about your products. However, in today’s mobile oriented world, it does not just suffice with having an ecommerce website. Your goal should be to reach every pocket and every fingertip. Yes, we are talking about Mobile Apps. Having a Magento mobile app enables your business to interact with your customers in the most personalized way.
According to Statista, “By the year 2020, mobile apps will generate around 189 billion U.S. dollars in revenues through app stores and in-app advertising.” Now, this is a huge sum. The question here is, would you want to be a part of this market share? Have you thought about launching your mobile application on Google Play or Apple Store? If not, this is the right time to do so.
However, it is not easy to create a Magento based Mobile App. You need a Magento App Builder which is not easily available and you need to buy it. And after buying, you need to take some help from a professional Magento development company to integrate that help you to develop it from the scratch. Nevertheless, we thought about sharing some tips to convert your Magento Online Store into a Mobile App. So, here we go:
Mulling Over the Ways
After you have decided to build an app based on Magento, there are two ways to go. One is, hiring a Magento Development company and getting it built from the scratch. As a part of the procedure, you might have to explain your objectives, purposes and go through the design and development process along with the application builders. But, there is a second option which is more feasible and flexible.
There are some companies who have readily built extensions. These mobile app builders extract the data out of your Magento Ecommerce store and convert it into a mobile app. The best part about such Magento App builder applications is that it they work quite swiftly and create an ecommerce app for you in no time. In case you feel that some features are not in your control, you can get the extension customized for yourself through the framework developer.
So, depending upon the structure and interface of your app, you can decide whether you want to go for bespoke development or want a ready builder to help you do that.
Building the UI
After choosing the development model, the next step for you is to think about the app design. Creating a mobile application does not mean that you simply ape the design of your website and its features. You need to think from the perspective of responsiveness. And with a small screen, comes simple, clutter free and optimized design. So, how do you go about it?
The homepage of your mobile app can flash the latest offers from your store. If not, you can display a menu which makes it easy for your customers to find the major features and products available on e-store. Remember, the number of navigational pages on your app must be lesser than your website. This is because, the mobile users do not like to scroll too much to explore the categories and subcategories of your product.
Hence, keep the navigation menu simple and display important categories and subcategories on the top so that your customers can go straight to those pages.
Working on the Checkout Process
Long forms, complicated questions, and detailed descriptions before buying the product. Yes. Keep your mobile application away from these. Especially, if you want to provide them with a simple checkout process. Instead, you can use a different way to extract information about your users. Ask them to log in from their social media accounts. By doing so, you can also get their information and help them complete the purchase quickly.
Also, provide the option of signing in through Facebook and Gmail and help your customers to make their purchase quickly. Offer your users with the feature to save their details on the app. By doing so, they will be able to make the purchase quickly and in a couple of clicks. If you do not want cart abandonments on your store, streamline the check out process on your app.
By testing and analyzing the number of users on your app, you get to know about the features and aspects of your application that need improvement.
And Some More…
The above given were the most important aspects. However, there are several other little and significant things that you need to consider while creating your Magento mobile app. Some of them are given below:
- As 70% to 95% people are right-handed, you must ensure that the design of your app is right thumb friendly.
- Make sure you keep your app updated in the latest version of Magento and invest into a secure and trusted mobile app builder. Remember, vulnerable applications are easy for the hackers to target.
- Images tend to make the applications run slowly. So, make sure that you use less of them. Users do not wait for very long for the app to load. If your app takes a lot of time to load images, the users will leave.
Last, but not the least
Usually, the structure of your app depends on the type of platform you are using. However, when you use Magento, you must remember that less is more. If you want to attract more users, there is nothing like a streamlined and secure app that enables your users to order quickly.
You are sure to find several companies that offer Magento App Development services. But you must strike a deal with a company which has ample years of experience in developing and making applications. Or else, just the way we mentioned above, you can invest into an extension that enables you to build an app for your ecommerce store. We hope these tips come of help when you think of building your mobile app.
Do you already have a mobile app for your e-store? Or are you planning to have one? Please share with us.
