No matter what kind of ecommerce business you are running, your success is highly dependent on having a great mobile app. As internet connection speeds increase, and mobile devices become more powerful, customers turn to the phone for more shopping related tasks. In fact, now that we’re in the third year of owning our store, I can look back and see exactly how having a great app has driven conversion rates and sales.
In today’s ever-competitive and fast paced business environment, having inadequate technology is simply not an option. Despite the rise of digital advertising, the offline business still plays an important role in the success of any e-commerce business.
Nowadays people can do almost everything using their smartphones. More and more applications are being developed with time and this is particularly ture when it comes down to the ecommerce industry. The right app has the power to boost your business sales overnight. So, in this post, let us discuss some best apps for ecommerce business you must take advantage of.
The best apps for ecommerce businesses help businesses sell products and services but there are a ton of options. Here’s our list. There are a lot of great apps out there that can help you with your ecommerce business. From accounting to analytics to customer service, there’s something for every kind of store. We’ve picked the best – and most affordable – online store apps to help get your shop up and running in no time.
Shopify vs Etsy: Should You Sell Through an Online Store or an Online Marketplace?
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Whether you’re looking to sell the personalised t-shirts, vintage items, or just wanting to explore the world of ecommerce – Shopify and Etsy are the two of the most sought-after platforms to get you started. They both offer great features to help get your site off the ground – but how do you choose between the two?
Shopify is the better choice for online selling. It’s more scalable, more flexible, and offers better ecommerce tools than Etsy.
Etsy has 1.7 million users selling to over 33 million buyers. In 2017 these shoppers spent over $3 billion on Etsy. Shopify boasts an even more impressive figure: over $82 billion has been sold on Shopify.
We don’t blame you for wanting to get in on that action!
Like all ecommerce platforms, there are pros and cons to selling on either one of Shopify and Etsy.
Inventory-Planner
Inventory Planner is another useful app. While the native Bigcommerce inventory reporting is extremely valuable and can solve all your needs, sometimes it’s helpful to look at it from a different perspective. IP offers a lot of great insights and lets you sort your inventory from a wide array of variables like option, tag/title, category, price and brand/vendor. If you’re looking to get a feel for the value of the merchandise sitting on your shelves, IP can help you figure that out as well. I’ve utilized it to determine which products to mark down and which are trending.
Boxed
Boxed is an American online wholesale retailer that offers direct delivery of groceries and household products in bulk. The brand provides an easy to use mobile app that allows customers to shop wholesale products on-the-go and without paying wholesale club membership fees. App users can enjoy the convenience of bulk shopping from their mobile devices.
Feature highlights:Boxed also created curated shopping lists and ideas for specific occasions like vacation, party,.. to save time for app users in planning for what they’ll need to bring or serve. These lists are completely configurable so users can easily customize their own list by deleting existing terms that don’t apply or add new terms that are relevant to them.Based on past purchases, the app applies machine learning to predict when their customers run low on a product. Its SMART Stockup will then send a reminder so they can easily re-order the products. To make shopping even more rewarding, Boxed app lets customers hunt for deals and offers in the Stuff on Sale section.
Glasses by Warby Parker
Warby Parker is an innovative American online retailer of prescription glasses and sunglasses. The billion-dollar business started out with an online distribution model that allowed customers to order and try on several pairs of brand-name glasses for free before buying. Being able to offer a risk-free way for consumers to try on products – in the comfort of their home, is a massive success for Warby Parker. Within 48 hours of the website going live, the eyewear brand already had a waitlist of 20,000 customers. The successful web-based retailer continues to scale their business to mobile with an award winning iOS app.
Feature highlights:Warby Parker app was featured in the Apple Store immediately after launch. The app is named one of Apple’s 10 best apps of 2016 and have over 500 five-star reviews. Its digital try-on offers a fun and convenient experience for app users. With Warby Parker app, customers can try to place a virtual glass style on their photos to see how it looks on them. In its latest update, the app adopts iPhone X’s camera to take maps of people’s faces to recommend their best fit glasses.
Nike
Nike’s digital transformation is driven by the evolving customer behaviors and preferences. The brand took a step to remove friction and personalize experiences through the intersection of digital and physical environments. With the aim to blend physical shopping and smartphone technology into one, the sportwear giant introduced its Nike app – as a part of their customer-focused digital strategy.
Feature highlights:Nike app aims at enhancing the customer experience in several ways. It enables customers to check any item’s in store availability, allowing for same-day reservations. After a reservation is made, a push message will be sent to notify customers when their items are ready to be picked up. NikePlus members can access special Nike products, exclusive discounts, and partner rewards for their in-app shopping. Its barcode scanner allows users to quickly and easily check product details, discover available options, and see real-time inventory online and in-store.
JOANN
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores, the US’s largest fabric and craft retailer with locations in 49 states, was founded in 1943 as a single retail store. Today, Jo-Ann is running 850 stores providing fabrics and craft supplies across the country. In summer 2017, the digital-influenced business rolled out its JOANN app to enhance the omnichannel experience for customers.
Feature highlights:With the app, JOANN Fabrics customers can shop for supplies, find project ideas and take advantage of mobile coupon offers. The app makes it easy for their customers to browse weekly sales, get personalized deals, custom shopping lists,.. JOANN app is described as the industry-first tool that enable users to publish their own projects with photos, videos and even music. In this way, they can confidently share their finished projects with friends, family and one another. By creating a unique connection with their customers, the app has millions of active users, and downloads continue to increase at a rapid pace.
Wayfair
The American ecommerce company offers a selection of more than 10 million items across home furnishings, décor, home improvement, housewares and more. As one of the world’s largest online destination for home goods, Wayfair continually developing innovative technology features within its mobile app that completely transform the way people shop for their homes.
Feature highlights:Leveraged by augmented reality technology, the app is capable of virtually turning every home into a furniture showroom. The “View in Room 3D” feature makes shopping from home not just quick and easy – but incredibly inspiring. With the ability to arrange virtual life-size products in their own space, home shoppers can visualize furniture and decor in the real home with a mobile device. As a result, the app enables users to make online purchases with the confidence that they will look great and fit in their space. The innovative feature has played a critical part in the online shopping experience for millions of Wayfair app users.
Referral Candy
Reward your customers for spreading the word
Referral Candy is a referral tool for online stores coming with a smart and effective way of increasing awareness of your eCommerce store. It engages online stores’ customers to share the link with their friends as a direct recommendation of the product. They are motivated by getting a (multiple) discounts on their next purchase.
98% of merchants rely on referrals to create new business…
…3% of them have an actual strategy for generating referrals.
How Referral Candy works?
After your customer purchases, he receives a coupon code with a link generated by Referral Candy. When he shares it with his friends and they shop in your store afterward, they get the discount and the original customer is rewarded for each purchase made. That’s a great win-win situation for all participants.
How Referral Candy helps your business?
How better to get recommendations than from your own customers? In average, recommendations from existing customers can bring up to 60% of new customers. Though it costs you money when you offer multiple discounts and you also pay for the plugin, it definitely pays off! It brings you many benefits at once. It increases both sales and the average order value. It’s in human psychology to spend more when offered a discount or free shipping. It’s also a great acquisition strategy and works well for retaining current customers and engaging new ones.
Recommendify
Find and advise related products
Recommendify is plugin for (Shopify) online stores that analyzes which products are most often bought together. It allows you to provide precise cross-selling based on other customers’ experience and increase the sales up to 20%.
How the algorithm works
It browses order history and matches similiar purchasing patterns together. The result is a combination of products to offer to visitors. You can also set the recommended products manually in case you need to clear your stock.
How Recommendify helps your business
Identify the products which sold well in the last month and show what’s hot right now. You can place them on any page so that visitors easily stumble upon them. Putting them on the hompege works pretty well. This kick-starts the process of filling your visitors’ shopping carts. If they don’t buy the related products right away, remind them via an email offer. Offer them a limited-time coupon to encourage them to make a quicker decision and purchase.
Recommendify starts at $24.95 per month for merchants with up to 500 products. Not using Recommendify means leaving money on the table by missing out sales.
Intercom
Simple communication with your customer
Communication is the key, they say. If you run your online store you should do your best to make up what your customers miss by coming to a brick-and-mortar store. It’s the human touch, customer care and support. Intercom is a messaging app that makes communication with your customers easy.
It allows you to enrich your products by enhancing the services of sales, marketing and support.
How it works?
Create an account and start having conversations with your customers. Intercom offers interactive chat windows, an emailing tool for creating beautiful emails, and a collaborative helpdesk to acquire and engage customers as well as solve their problems. Communication with customers is simple, personal, fun and effective.
How can Intercom help your business?
Being available anytime for your visitors’ needs becomes easy. They can reach out to you immediately with their issues and you can help. You have the power to talk directly to your customer what often leads to successful conversion. If you’re offline, they can leave you a message and get an automated answer that you will get back to them as soon as possible.
You can get inspired by what problems they deal with and create content that interests them. Intercom gives you a complete report of your subscribers’ activity – the open and click rates and percentage of users reaching the goals that you set. It also enables you to send targeted messages based on their behaviour in your store and drive more sales.
3 Best Selling Products Online in 2021
Reusable water bottles are among trending products now
Why is this product popular in 2021?
Health conscious consumers are paying more and more importance to staying hydrated. What’s more, environmentally conscious consumers want to cut down on single-use plastics. Put these two trends together and you get an ever-growing demand for reusable water bottles. These products are simple to source and can be easily branded or customized, making them one of the best things to sell online for e-commerce entrepreneurs.
Present this product as part of a green lifestyle. Sustainability is big in 2021, and reusable water bottles are a simple, easy way to make a difference. Practicality is also important, so make sure your product photos show the bottle in use so your customers get a sense of size and feel.
Wireless charging stations
Why is this product popular in 2021?
There’s been a big jump in interest in wireless charging stations in the last two years. Just take a look at how the search volume on Google has surged.
This product area was already worth $6 billion in 2018, and a recent analysis of the wireless charging industry forecasts that its value will grow to over $40 billion in the next 6 years. That’s a huge jump, so now could be a great time to get into this product area. Wireless charging stations are becoming ever more affordable as the technology improves, plus there’s a wide range of product types and designs to choose from. So you’ll have plenty of options when it comes to sourcing what might just be one of your best selling products online.
Tips on how to market this product:
This could be a perfect product for reverse dropshipping as demand in Asia for consumer electronics is huge. If you’re looking to enter new markets, this could be your starter product.
Board games
Why is this product popular in 2021?
Ever heard of the Netflix effect? Well, the boom in board games can (at least partially) be put down to the adrenaline shot Netflix has delivered to chess with its show The Queen’s Gambit. In late 2020 chess sets were one of the trending products to sell.
Of course, the fact that most of us are stuck indoors a lot more these days also helps. And while interest in chess might be something of a passing fashion, once people get hooked on board games they’re always on the lookout for more. So this can be one of those niche products with real potential.
Tips on how to market this product:
Seasonal sales are huge for this niche. So try building a loyal following over the year, then retarget your audience over Black Friday and the seasonal sales period with some one-off discounts.
Conclusion
Apps for ecommerce business help you grow your online business and make a shopping experience simple and easy. When talking about ecommerce apps, many people think about mobile apps, but there is much more you can do with apps for your ecommerce business.
Building an eCommerce store comes with a lot of challenges. From pricing to ensuring the products on your site are in stock, from handling and shipping orders to keeping track of sales taxes, it’s a complex business with a lot of moving parts. Fortunately, there are many apps developed specifically to make running an online shop easier and more profitable. Take a look at these best apps for ecommerce business.