Top-5 Android shopping apps
Smartphone users spend more than 30% of their time in mobile apps, and nearly a quarter of buyers start searching for the item in the brand’s shopping app directly. Although the mobile app development cost is quite high, the number of online stores on Play market grows each month. Solid arguments to take a closer look at existing shopping apps.
Amazon shopping — a coffee break for purchasing
Amazon Shopping app for Android provides the same opportunities as the website. Usability is the most important criterion by which customers choose this shopping app. Interesting thing — on the third place in the «Why?» list is the availability of product reviews and recommendations.
Why customers choose Amazon
Amazon Shopping interface is designed specifically for devices with touch screens. Experts had to work hard, so that users can easily find any product from the catalogue with a huge number of items and categories.
US users compare a «walk» through the Amazon app’s catalogue to a coffee break — a good way to relax and have some rest from work. Thus, the time for shopping is approximately equal to the time people spend on having a cup of coffee. The app is used most actively during lunch time (average 5 minutes) and after work — almost 7 minutes. According to the app’s visiting time and users’ perception of the app, marketers plan promotions and discounts.
eBay — auction in your pocket
Firstly, it is indeed very convenient to monitor items in real time via the app — eBay sends notifications to smartphone, so that users will not miss the auction or «Buy it now» offer. Secondly, notifications inside the app promote making a purchase decision, not bothering users with annoying SMS, which greatly increases the loyalty.
eBay’s marketers have noticed — users open the app most often at the work day start (8 am to 10 am), peaking at 9:00 and hold the app in about 7 minutes — during this time they check tenders and make urgent purchases (the time when the system withstands the highest load). But to relax online auction’s fans prefer late at night — it is the time to look through the catalogue, search products for family and friends (thus the time for advertising).
Groupon — to be even closer
The coupons sale application has seriously attracted attention in late 2011 when a quarter of coupons on the North American market was purchased in the Groupon app. For now, Groupon mobile app has more than 150 million downloads, and 63% of all Groupon’s transactions pass through smartphones.
From the very begin, Groupon has made a bet on social offers: shares for cafes, restaurants and cinemas. People usually visit such places together with friends — such a «jungle telegraph» has led to the brand’s popularization.
Groupon app has endorsed the idea to be as close to customers as possible. This Android mobile app offers stocks in nearby places. Thus, the service introduces visitors to the establishments nearby, that people might not even know about. Another key to success of Groupon shopping app — availability for most popular mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows.
Walmart — accelerating the usual
Despite the rather standard interface, Walmart mobile app stands out in the e-Commerce market, providing its buyers with the opportunity to save time on shopping. A customer can reserve products through the app, and pick it up at the store then without queues. In addition, the weekly discount notifications within the mobile app encourage to purchase the pre-viewed products.
Customer care is one of the main company’s goals, so you can buy goods for the whole family and even the pharmacy in the app- all you need is just to scan the recipe.
ASOS — twentysomething eCommerce
Sales of the UK youth clothing online store ASOS, during 2016-2017 have increased by 40%. One of the ASOS’ success secrets — the constant items updating. Every week its catalogue updates with 4K of new positions. Focusing on 20-something buyers, ASOS is making a big bet on the mobile applications development. Following the Apple solution, in 2013 ASOS has launched a native mobile app for Android, which has collected more than 2 million active users already.
The huge number of goods and the ability to consider every detail of any garment gives indeed a large amount of time spent on purchasing inside the app.
In the annual ASOS report company has announced the Android app-2017 key updates:
- The architecture of microservices as a basis — it ensures flexibility to modify individual elements without major technical dependencies;
- Black Friday 2016, the system withstood 28 thousand orders (9 orders per second). The new Android app is three times tougher;
- The app is deployed with the cloud storage, so users can now get quick access to goods from anywhere.
Read about more examples of e-commerce apps and services and how they transform the future of retail business.
Conclusion
Successful e-Commerce applications always maintain users’ desire to search for products and make purchases anytime and anywhere. Researching the audience’ behaviour, online stores stimulate curiosity and interest, encouraging consumers return to the app, and most important thing — they provide the most convenient solutions for their customers.
IT company Stfalcon.com has strong experience in developing native mobile applications for medium and enterprize companies. We’d love to work on a project for your business. Tell us more about your great e-commerce idea. Let’s create something amazing together!
