From m-commerce to app-commerce
Digital commerce is a reality that no one doubts anymore. The global situation has consolidated purchases through mobile devices. Users search and buy products through our smartphone regardless of age, sector or habits.
In this sense, apps have reduced the digital gap and support mobile commerce with their improved user experience. According to Juniper Research, more than 60% of users buy via app in the UK and US. Moreover, 58% of users buying through the browser admit that they also use apps.
When we talk about app-commerce, a name comes to mind: Amazon. It is the most popular app and used by almost 4 out of 10 users. Its general nature is the secret of success. It allows Amazon to coexist with specialized apps and thus complete the offer to the user.
But wich is the secret? What do apps offer that browser doesn’t? According to our Product Director, David Murillo, “the user experience in the app is absolutely different. From biometric access, with no password needed, to the one-click payment, users are in an environment they know without friction in the purchase process. It seems simple to us now, but it has taken many years of research, analysis, and UX and UI training to reach this level of excellence. The challenge in the coming years will be integrating voice, level 0 of human communication.”
The apps also offer a personalized experience of the purchase service, which improves user engagement and recurrence. David Murillo explains, “apps can be live products that allow us to design the interface according to user consumption. This is more difficult on the web. In the era of personalization, this point is key to consolidating apps as a shopping channel. For developers, this represents great responsibility in the process of creating and automating the service. We have to think of dynamic apps, with elements that can be infinitely combined to respond to very different users”.
What is clear is that the recurrence rate in the app is higher than on the web. “It is easier for the user to access from a direct link than to open a browser and search for it on the mobile. The apps also have a notification system that is very well received by users. Communication is effortless and allows information on offers or available products to be transmitted, aimed at converting,” describes David Murillo.
Apps have an advantage in this new economy of attention: users already have them and do not have to look for them. This is key for two reasons: first, it speeds conversion by reducing intermediate steps such as search, and second because it eliminates the risk the user could choose a competitor.
Murillo concludes, “the app-commerce will continue to gain prominence if brands are able to maintain a liquid experience between the devices that have the app installed. It is a different way of understanding digital consumption, but very exciting for professionals in our sector”.
