The world of e-commerce mobile industry is breathtaking. Due to its popularity and demand, many owners of traditional stores make the decision to go mobile. This article is exactly for such cases. We are to lead you through various stages of e-commerce service designing, emphasizing where to pay special attention to. Are you ready for the journey? Here we go.
When getting down to creating an e-commerce application for your business, the first priority would be to compile a list of all functionalities you’d like to implement in your online service. There’s plenty of universal parameters which will fit any application.
Valuable functions for any e-commerce platform
# Registration
Every online program should have such a possibility. To make your service more convenient for customers, you could arrange the registration process to be carried out by means of various social networks.
# Users’ profiles
It’s a standard aspect of any mobile platform, and it presents different data on users.
# Catalog of items
It is to show the audience what products they can purchase through your app. In case your business provides services, such category would be transformed into something like “services description”.
# Feedback
Receiving some comments from your users shall help you learn them better in order to offer them some personalized deals. You shouldn’t forget about constant improvements, and users’ feedback will show you some weak points.
# Push Notifications
How are you planning to keep your audience posted? Users would appreciate knowing interesting news related to your business. Push notifications are for you to inform your customers on any discounts and offers.
# Online chatting
Building an e-commerce app, consider such a possibility seriously. The idea is to stay close to your audience, but don’t get too close to annoying the customers.
# Search
Mentioned option will facilitate app navigation for the audience and assist users in getting the info they’re looking for. Your customers will surely appreciate your care.
# Filtering
We suppose you’d like your users to enjoy your e-commerce mobile application, wouldn’t you? Filters shall definitely contribute to enhance users’ experience.
# Previous purchasing history
It’s pretty convenient and helpful for the audience to see the full ordering history. Don’t you agree?
# Payment solutions
People might get suspicious when it’s about their money. Arrange everything so customers feel comfortable trusting you their personal financial data. Users will be happy to have multiple payment options, so they could select the one they feel safe with.
After figuring out what your app shall look like, you’re good to seek out a particular development company to implement your ideas. Thus, we shall move to the next stage.
Phases of e-commerce platform development
- Researching
Its purpose is to understand market conditions and to get to know your rivals. Who are those big sharks you are about to compete with for the audience attention?
- Prototyping
Mentioned stage is crucial since it serves to demonstrate how different screens of your program will ultimately look like.
- Designing
UX/UI designers who work on your project shall be skillful and experience. Their job is to build an intuitive and customer-oriented interface for your mobile service. This is what customers are expecting.
- Developing
It would be wise to find Backend developers together with Android and iOS experts. If you want to do everything properly, find the way to make your application work perfectly from any mobile gadget.
- Quality Assurance
To prevent any issues after launching your finalized online product, QA professionals shall perform all required tests to locate and to fix weak points, if any.
- Releasing
Being the last but not the least, mentioned step of app designing shall be performed properly since it ensures half of your e-commerce platform success. Take care of it.
Brilliant ideas for e-commerce mobile services
To ensure higher success and popularity of your online product, consider offering your audience some unique functionalities. Regular features are important, however, your service has to be original. The examples below might inspire you to make your program one-of-a-kind.
Special technical possibilities
Every platform shall have unique parameters. Crutchfield has found their uniqueness in GPS possibilities. They have installed a GPS navigator for evaluating delivery expenses. With such an approach, users know beforehand the cost of items to be delivered. It’s a great example of a win-win solution.
Shake it up!
Alibris has come up with a really creative approach. After shaking the device the iPhone Shake up feature gives users some random advice on books to select. Although, some skeptics have doubts if those recommendations are actually so random.
Tesco supermarkets offer something similar – its wine department gives advice on wines to choose.
Picture searching
How handy and convenient it is to search for an item with its photo! Amazon Remembers have made it possible. Being pretty remarkable Amazon pictures database makes it all work out.
Product selection on subway walls
Korean Tesco Homeplus has invented a special grocery store. It’s both virtual and real. Applying their mobile gadgets users are happy to shop on the go. All they have to do is to scan pictures of products attached to subway walls. That’s impressive, isn’t it?
Augmented reality application
eBay has designed such a service. When you pass by some buildings, your screen will show you some selling offers from people who live in those buildings. What a great solution, right?
Okay, we suppose that by now you already know how to make your e-commerce application stick from the crowd. Shall we move to money aspects now?
How much does it take to build an e-commerce service?
Obviously, the cost factor matters a lot. When deciding on a team of mobile app engineers you should take into consideration those experts’ competence and previous experience. Location is another factor to remember about, as IT gurus rates differ significantly depending on where in the world the company is. It’s a more trustworthy decision to go for a developing company instead of freelancers. However, in such case be prepared to pay more.
Actually, the cost of any IT project depends on the time needed to fulfill it. We’ve made some calculations on how many hours experienced IT developers would need to build your service. Here’s our rough math:
- Application interface designing takes 50-150 hrs;
- Service development requires 400-700 hrs;
- Backend developing needs 300-450 hrs;
- Quality assurance gets 250 hrs;
- Managing the whole project is around 200 hrs.
To provide you with more specific cost calculations we have to understand your service exact requirements. On the other hand, such data shall help you figure out the approximate budget you need for your e-commerce platform development.
Well, now you know everything you need to build a great e-commerce service for your business. We wish you every success!
