As a Shopify merchant, you understand the value of staying ahead of the competition and giving your customers the best shopping experience possible. That is why you must take advantage of the power of app commerce.
Customers are increasingly relying on mobile apps to shop and interact with your brand as smartphones and mobile devices become more popular. You can generate new revenue streams, build customer loyalty, and increase brand visibility by providing them with a seamless and personalized app experience.
While app commerce offers numerous opportunities, it also presents its own set of challenges. There are numerous factors that can impact the success of your mobile app, ranging from low visibility and discoverability to technical issues and customer retention.
But don't worry; with the right strategies and tools, you can overcome these obstacles and create a mobile commerce experience that propels your company's growth and success.
In this blog post, we'll look at the top app commerce challenges that Shopify merchants face and offer solutions to address them. We'll cover everything you need to know to create a winning app commerce strategy, from selecting the best technology and optimizing your app's performance to implementing effective customer retention and engagement strategies.
So let's get started and maximize the mobile commerce potential of your Shopify store!
What Exactly is App Commerce?
App commerce is the practice of purchasing and selling goods or services via a mobile application. With the growing popularity of smartphones, mobile commerce is quickly becoming an essential component of any eCommerce strategy. Shopify merchants can provide a more personalized and seamless shopping experience to their customers by leveraging a mobile app, which can lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.
Why Should You Leverage App Commerce?
You should leverage app commerce to have the below benefits:
1. Increased Engagement
Because mobile apps are more convenient and accessible than desktop websites, customers are more likely to interact with your brand via a mobile app.
2. Better User Experience
When compared to desktop websites, mobile apps provide a more intuitive and immersive shopping experience, which can help increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Decrease Marketing Ad Spend
You can decrease the marketing ad spend down to 30% by leveraging push notifications for free to promote your brand and contact with your customer whenever you want!
4. Insights Into Valuable Data
Mobile apps enable you to collect valuable data on your customers' shopping behavior, preferences, and interests, which can be used to improve the shopping experience and increase customer retention.
App Commerce Challenges and How to Overcome Them?
Now that you've learned about the advantages of app commerce, let's look at some of the challenges you might face when implementing it and how to overcome them.
1. Selecting the Best Technology
Choosing the best technology to build your mobile app is one of the most difficult aspects of app commerce. With so many options available, it can be difficult to know which one is best for your company.
Solution of Selecting the Best Technology : Leveraging a Mobile App Builder
A mobile app builder is a cloud-based software that allows you to create a mobile app without writing any code. You can quickly and easily create a customized app that meets your business's needs and budget by using a mobile app builder.
You can turn your Shopify store into a mobile app with Shopney in minutes! Click here to try 30 days for free. No credit card required!
2. Limited Visibility and Discoverability
Another issue with app commerce is the lack of visibility and discoverability. Unlike desktop websites, where customers can easily find your store via search engines, mobile apps necessitate a more proactive marketing and promotion strategy.
Solution of Limited Visibility and Discoverability : App Store Optimization (ASO)
App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of improving the visibility and discoverability of your mobile app in the app store. You can increase your app's ranking in app store search results and attract more users by optimizing its metadata, keywords, and user reviews.
3. Getting App Installs
One of the most difficult challenges for Shopify merchants is getting potential customers to discover and install their mobile app. With so many apps available on app stores, standing out from the crowd and attracting users to your app can be difficult. The next step is to get users to download and install your app after you've optimized it for the app store.
Solutions of Getting App Installs
You can drive more app sales by leveraging our tips below:
a. Set up a smart mobile app banner on your website
You can encourage visitors to download your mobile app by including a smart mobile app banner on your website.
If you turn your Shopify store into a mobile app with Shopney, you can easily set up a smart mobile app banner on your website.
b. Invest in email marketing
Email marketing is another effective tool for promoting your mobile app. You can encourage your subscribers to download your app by sending them targeted email campaigns. You can also provide incentives to users who download your app via email campaigns, such as discounts or exclusive offers.
c. Leverage deep links
Deep links are hyperlinks that direct users to a specific page within your app. You can make it easier for users to discover and install your app by using deep links in your marketing efforts. Deep links can be included in emails, social media posts, and other marketing materials to drive app installs.
d. Offer mobile app-exclusive discounts
Another effective way to encourage users to install your app is to offer mobile app-exclusive discounts. Users who download and install your app can receive special discounts or promotions, which can help to increase engagement and loyalty.
e. App-exclusive products and collections
Offering exclusive products or collections that are only available through your mobile app is another way to encourage app installs. This can instill a sense of exclusivity and urgency in users, encouraging them to download and install your app.
4. Hand-picking the Best Features
There are numerous features and functionalities that can be included when creating a mobile app. It is, however, critical to select the features that will be most useful and valuable to your customers.
Solution of Hand-picking the Best Features : Utilizing a Mobile App Builder
You can use a mobile app builder that provides pre-built templates and features to choose the best features for your app. This can save you time and effort while also ensuring that your app contains the most important features for your customers.
One such mobile app builder that is specifically designed for Shopify merchants is Shopney. Shopney is a mobile app builder for Shopify merchants that allows them to create a mobile app for their store without any coding or technical knowledge.
Shopney provides pre-built templates and Shopify-specific features, allowing you to hand-pick the best features that align with your business goals and meet the needs of your target audience.
You can use Shopney to customize the design and layout of your mobile app, add product categories, enable mobile payments, and offer personalized promotions and discounts. Shopney also offers real-time analytics and insights, enabling you to monitor the performance of your app and make data-driven decisions to improve your mobile commerce strategy.
5. Retention and Engagement of Customers
After successfully acquiring users and having them download your app, the next challenge is to keep them engaged and retained. Customer retention is critical for long-term success because it is much easier and less expensive to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones.
Personalization and engagement strategies can help you achieve that your mobile app users return to your store, make repeat purchases, and spread the word about your brand to their friends and family.
Personalization allows you to provide each customer with a unique shopping experience based on their previous purchases, browsing behavior, and preferences. To offer product recommendations, wish-list reminders, and exclusive deals, you can use personalized push notifications, in-app messages, and email campaigns.
Solution of Customer Retention and Engagement: Personalization and engagement strategies
Personalization and engagement strategies can be used to retain and engage customers. Personalization entails tailoring your app experience to each individual user's preferences and behavior. Personalized recommendations, notifications, and offers are examples of this.
Push notifications, in-app messaging, and social media integration are examples of engagement strategies. You can keep your customers engaged and retained over time by staying in touch with them and providing them with valuable content and offers.
Shopney provides several features that allow you to effectively personalize and engage with your mobile app users. You can create personalized push notifications, in-app messages, and email campaigns with Shopney.
You can also enable social sharing and referral programs, which allow users of your mobile app to share their purchases on social media and refer your brand to their friends and family.
6. Performance and Technical Issues
When it comes to mobile commerce, both merchants and customers can be concerned about performance and technical issues. Slow loading times, crashes, and other technical issues can turn off potential customers and damage your brand's reputation. As a result, it's critical to address these issues and ensure that your app is performance-optimized.
Solution of Performance and Technical Issues : Optimizing the Images & Videos
Large image and video files are one of the most common causes of slow loading times in mobile apps. To improve your app's performance, compress and resize these files to reduce their size without sacrificing quality. This can be accomplished through the use of various tools and techniques, such as image compression software.
Final Thoughts on App Commerce Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Mobile commerce presents a unique set of challenges, but it also provides significant opportunities for merchants to increase their reach, customer engagement, and sales. To leverage these benefits, it's important to address the challenges head-on and implement solutions that meet your specific business needs.
You can create an app commerce experience that exceeds customer expectations and helps you grow your business by selecting the right technology, optimizing your app's performance, and implementing customer retention and engagement strategies.
You can overcome the challenges of app commerce and realize the full potential of this exciting and rapidly growing industry by using a mobile app builder and other tools and techniques we mentioned above!
