Do You Need an App for Your eCommerce Store

Smartphones and tablets have made apps a thriving market that just about every online business owner has started trying to tap into. Mobile websites have increased sharply in popularity, but these websites’ growing popularity diminishes compared to the ease and functionality of an app.

A well developed app for your eCommerce store automatically connects your potential customers to your store and all of the selections that you have. It can serve a number of roles, and it can help you to draw your potential customers in. However, apps may not be beneficial for everyone. You need to ask yourself the following questions to determine whether it would work for your eCommerce store.

Primary Demographics

While 2013 has been termed the Year of the App, not everyone likes apps or uses them, and different demographics prefer different platforms and types of apps. You must research your primary group to see whether it would work and what kind of platform you should design the app for. The Millennial Market, for instance, is one of the highest participating demographics in app usage, but the demographic splinters across the different platforms and devices. In general, the older the target demographic, the less successful the app will be, and yet, even here, you can find exceptions. If you’re going to do research to figure out which web design platform will work best or which pos receipt printer will function best in your eCommerce store, then take the time to research your demographics. Ask them what they prefer to use and whether they will use an app. The information you discover will guide you in future decisions.

Determine Your Purpose

After you figure out who your app is targeted at and what platform to design it for, you need to determine what your purpose for the app will be. The most common kind of app for an eCommerce store is one that provides customers faster access to your inventory. But that’s not the only kind of app there is. In fact, if you’re going to go to the trouble of designing an app, then make sure it does more than serve as a streamlined shopping option. You can either work in informational components, goal setting components, or something similar. Most of the time, your purpose should focus on getting your customers to be loyal to your brand. Spark People, Calorie King, and Fit Day have made the most of this by offering apps that provide calorie counting tools for free. Advertisements for their other products appear on the app, but the primary purpose of the app is informational, addressing the primary needs of the core demographic.

An app can be quite beneficial for an eCommerce store. However, you need to make sure that your demographic will respond well to an app. You should also find out which kind of platform that they will want. After this, you need to determine your purpose for developing the app; don’t make your app just a storefront, use it to provide benefits to your customers and make them want to keep coming back.