Are you a retailer? Do you often think about improving your retail business and attracting more customers? Heard about mobile apps for retail but need to figure out what business benefits they bring?

If so, keep reading the answer, where we will help you clarify these questions and give you an idea of why you should use mobile apps to increase your sales, customer loyalty, and brand exposure.

Let's start!

Why Go Mobile? In recent years, mobile has taken the world by storm. Consumer habits have changed, and smartphones and mobile apps have become integral to everyday life. As consumer habits changed, businesses also had to adapt, so many small and large retail companies joined (and still do) this movement.

To show you the importance of going mobile, we've rounded up ten impressive statistics on smartphone usage, mobile app purchases, and expected app store revenue.

Read on to learn the four reasons your retail business needs a mobile app.

4 Reasons Your Retail Business Needs a Mobile App

There are many reasons why your retail store needs a mobile app. For this blog post, we've broken them down into four main parts.

Let's explore them!

A mobile application will help you increase your sales.

Give your customers a new shopping experience and put your mobile app in their bag to increase your sales. In recent years, many retail businesses have turned to mobile apps for Android and iOS platforms due to the growing use of smartphones and tablets worldwide. Research shows that 90% of time spent on mobile devices is spent in apps, compared to 10% paid in mobile browsers. Additionally, digital shoppers are more likely to make mobile purchases through mobile apps than mobile websites.

Push notifications increase customer engagement.

In mobile retail apps, push notifications are primarily used to notify customers about upcoming sales, new arrivals, or special events in the store. Push notifications are a powerful channel for increasing customer engagement as they have a 90% open rate and can be more effective than social media posts or email campaigns.

The mobile application's loyalty program strengthens your customer relationship.

According to business.com: Expert Business Advice, Tips, and Resources, acquiring a new customer costs 5-10 times more than selling to an existing customer, and existing customers spend an average of 67% more than new customers on your business. With that in mind, the mobile app loyalty program is a great way to increase existing customers' interaction with your company and their loyalty, which translates into more robust customer relationships and increased revenue for your business.

A very convenient customer experience attracts more visitors to your store.

When you have all vital information (e.g., delivery conditions, special offers, or loyalty points status) at your fingertips and provide an extremely convenient user experience when using a mobile application, you improve your customer relationship. A better communication process, beautiful design, and smooth shopping experience resulting in higher conversion rates and sales, making a mobile app a valuable sales channel for your retail business.

Must-Have Features in Mobile Retail Apps

Below are four must-have features we recommend for your retail mobile app. The onboarding is a short strikethrough slideshow that appears when a user launches a mobile app for the first time. Their goal is to introduce an app to a user and ensure that the new user understands the app, its use, and its value.

A push notification is a message displayed on a mobile device and is a direct way to communicate with app users. According to studies, app users who receive a push notification in the first 90 days have 190% higher retention rates than those who don't, while more frequent messaging boosts mobile app retention rates by 3 to 10 times.

Easy to use categories, filters, and sorting function

The aim is to minimize the work required by the customer to make prior purchases and maximize dealer sales and revenue. This allows your users to narrow down the list of products they would like to see. Intuitive categories, filtering, and sorting make it easier for your customer to move effortlessly through the product search and scan process, leading to faster purchases. Multiple payment options

There are many payment options in mobile apps. Credit and debit cards such as American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and cash on delivery are the most commonly used payment methods in mobile apps. However, smartphone use has stimulated alternative payment methods such as PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, etc. According to research, 50% of online shoppers would abandon a cart if their preferred payment method is unavailable, so having multiple payment options is a must!