Smartphones have become so integrated with our life that shopping on mobile apps has become the norm rather than the exception. Mobile apps developers are increasingly in demand as people swap the pushy sales staff, long queues and parking charges for the simplicity of online shopping.
Countless studies have shown how the user interface of an ecommerce store and mobile app can have dramatic effects on sales so it is imperative you focus on getting the main factors right.
Here are 7 key factors to keep in mind while designing a successful mobile commerce app.
1. Clear, High-Resolution Images
When buying something without seeing it in real life, high quality images are very important to instill confidence.
A good app should support high quality images as well as allow the buyer to see multiple angles and zoom in to get a closer look at the product.
Not only will this allow customers to check the quality of the items they are buying but it will add to the visual appeal of the store and increase customer engagement.
2. No Clutter
It is important you do not fill up the screen with any unnecessary info and images. Keep words to a minimum and keep the additional details hidden so it is not too busy.
Keep important details like the price and availability on the foreground while other information can be tucked away in a pull down menu.
You can also use color to highlight the next step of the process. This allows the user to move swiftly across the app and securing a purchase quickly.
3. Organized Browsing
The main obstacle in a shopping app is sorting the enormous amount of data in a streamlined manner. While on a computer, you can leap from category to sub-category to sub-sub-category easily, on a phone it is annoying.
One good idea is to implement reductive navigation. This means that when you have entered a particular subcategory, the other sibling categories are hidden. You only see the options that fall under the chosen sub-category. This makes it easier to trace your steps back up the ranks.
4. Item Search
First thing you need to do is incorporate a search option in your app. Users do not like to dig deep into your navigation to find what they want.
The next step is to have the auto-complete. You can never fully optimize ‘search’ unless you fit it with the auto complete option. This saves the user from the frustration of typing out the entire words and help find their item quicker.
5. Product Carousel
Shoppers are an insatiable breed. Even when they are looking at something they want, they want to see more things that they might want! To tap into this inherent trait of the shopper, a product carousel allows them to view similar products so that they have all their options laid out before them.
6. Spot The Cart
Shoppers are often carried away with browsing through the various options. They might often find themselves so deep within the layers of categories that they forget where they initially were. That is why it is a good idea to keep the cart available from every page so that they can check out as soon as they are ready.
7. Express Checkout
Another good way to the customer coming back is to remember important details like name, shipping address, etc. so that the user does not need to enter it every time and future purchases are quicker.
