Category: Ecommerce Trends

While the world thinks North America is one of the biggest internet consuming countries in the world, the statistics suggest something really different! Statistics suggest that back in 2018, while North America had 121 million internet users; the Middle East had 164 million internet users. Even the internet penetration rate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was skyrocketing 91% and that of Saudi Arabia is 73%. (Source)

These statistics represent a high number of users even though they were recorded in the pre-pandemic world! Since the time the pandemic has hit the world, internet usage and dependency on smartphones and e-commerce solutions. So much so that in the reports of Adobe it was found that since the lockdown that started in March, the e-commerce expenditure of the Middle East exceeded by $52 Billion than that of the expected sales! And even as the world adapts to the new normal, e-commerce sales are still on a rise in the Middle East.

But, if you are planning to start your e-commerce platform, you must understand that conventional methods of e-commerce industry have changed a lot after COVID 19 and there has been a huge paradigm shift in how the e-commerce platforms function. To help you make an informed decision, as one of the trusted e-commerce service providers in the Middle East, we bring you the things you must know before investing in an e-commerce platform to make an informed decision.

E-commerce paradigm shift in the Middle East due to Covid-19:

Increase in Groceries and Essentials demand:

One of the biggest gaining industries of COVID-19 in the Middle East has been the groceries and essentials industry. People who had their custom e-commerce solutions ready saw a growth of at least 200%! While in the pre-pandemic world the demand and need of e-commerce solutions for groceries and essentials such as dairy products and vegetables were quite less, due to the lockdown and social distancing norms, the demand for online groceries and essentials have skyrocketed.

If you are planning to venture into this industry, ensure that you understand your target audience well and based on that, choose an ecommerce web development company of the Middle East who has the required technical skills as well as the market and customer understanding.

Need for faster and customized e-commerce solutions:

Since the demand for e-commerce has increased in the Middle East, so has the number of e-commerce platforms and e-commerce spending from the enterprises! Since e-commerce is the future of the retail market, enterprises are investing heavily in e-commerce development and are rooting for personalized and customized e-commerce solutions to deliver satisfactory and delightful customer experiences to ensure that their e-commerce platform stays on top of the mind of their customers when they search for their desired products online.

Having a customized e-commerce solution also is beneficial in the long-term for businesses. Instead of choosing a standard e-commerce platform where the business operations have to be amended according to the rules and protocols of the platform, you can get a customized e-commerce platform that not only aligns with your business operations but also matches your customer expectations.

Also Read: Prepare your e-commerce for “the New Normal” of the Post Pandemic World

Contactless sales and hygienic packaging and deliveries:

One of the biggest changes that have been witnessed in the e-commerce industry since the arrival of this pandemic is the change in deliveries and product packaging. To ensure the safety of the delivery personnel as well as the safety of the customers, enterprises are coming up with unique ways of safe deliveries such as contactless deliveries.

Apart from that, many enterprises have introduced automation into the process of packaging and production so that they can create a hygienic environment where the products are packed and produced in utmost safety. While contactless deliveries might not continue once the world manages to rise from this pandemic, digital transformation and automation of processes will surely become a need if not a compulsion for various manufacturers as well as few service industries.

Need for personalized digital experiences:

Even before the pandemic had hit the world, all those enterprises who wished to make big in the online world had to adapt to the personalization. Right from product personalization to personalized digital experiences, customers not only enjoy but expect personalization from the e-commerce platform and some research also shows that customers don’t mind sharing data if the e-commerce platform is using it to create personalized buying experiences for them

While product personalization is dependent upon the nature of the product and the industry you belong to, personalized digital experiences can be introduced in all the e-commerce platforms. Based on the customer insights and data that you have collected, you can ask your e-commerce developers to introduce personalization at each stage of the buying process by making necessary customization in your e-commerce platform and by introducing automation.

E-commerce is the future of the retail market not just in the Middle East but around the world. But, to ensure that your e-commerce platform is an asset for your enterprise, it is essential that you hire an eCommerce solution provider in the Middle East that has the market understanding as well as apt knowledge of the ever-evolving e-commerce trends. For now, if you wish to make the most of the e-commerce platform during the COVID-19 period, plan for a customized e-commerce solution and also think upon personalization and delivery methods.

When it comes to making a buying decision, the behaviour of a customer is affected by a lot of factors but lately, enterprises around the world have seen frequent changes in the customer behaviour and buying patterns and the most influential factor in these changes is only one- the Coronavirus.

Every day is redefining the “New Normal Living” of the world and every day there are some changes seen in the customer expectations. For instance, previously fast and one-day deliveries were the essentials for e-commerce platforms but during this pandemic, even “guaranteed deliveries” make an impact on the customers and fast delivery is a premium service that can be priced! Also, while initially e-commerce was surfed for healthcare essentials, eventually customers used them for household essentials or to be specific Work from Home essentials.

Although things were never predictable for businesses, when the e-commerce platforms have to deal with such unchartered territories and when we future is truly unpredictable, how can they ensure relevance and growth of their digital platforms? How do they plan for it? While the customer expectations and buying patterns are solely dependent upon the future of the Pandemic and the measures taken by the governments, there are certain things that businesses can plan to prepare for the “New Normal”.  Those things that businesses can plan to survive the “new normal” are as follows:

Things you can do to prepare your e-commerce platform for the “New World Normal”:

1. Deliver immersive or at least realistic buying experiences:

Although the products in demand will change frequently during these times, the one thing that will not change is that people will increase the use of digital platforms and that customers will expect a good product buying experience from the e-commerce platform. Thus, you must plan your user experience on your e-commerce software solution and make it as realistic and immersive as possible.

Whether you introduce 360° product preview or you can also introduce Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D product designing. While AR is a long shot, 3D previews and realistic product photos are essential. The reason for this is simple, people will always miss the physical product experience and thus, they would demand as realistic experience as possible on the e-commerce platform. For a quick short-term change, you can prompt users to upload their product photos while reviewing the product so that others can get a good preview and they can ensure product authenticity.

2. Think about Progressive Web Application (PWA) Development:

The phrase people are “living off their phones” never made more sense as it did during these lockdown and quarantine times! Over the world, the screen time of people has increased and people are using their smartphones for everything. Thus, it is essential that you have a mobile platform for your customers.

But investing in a native mobile app currently can be both expensive and time-consuming.  Instead of that, you can create a Progressive Web Application using the best progressive web app builder that give native apps like experience without any other interruption. Progress Web App development is a combination of various technologies that allow your users to save your website on their Smartphone home screens, it allows you to send push notifications and it also allows you to provide offline access to your website. The brand like Twitter, Alibaba, Forbes are already using this technology for a long time now and you must too.

Some other benefits of the Progressive Web App Development are that it requires much lesser data to load and thus, for the world that is in lockdown and using their phones with this increased traffic, it is essential that you have a light mobile application and that is easily possible with PWA. PWA is shaping the future of mCommerce with its app-like experience on the mobile web and amazing features. The brand like Twitter, Alibaba, and Forbes are already using this technology for a long time now and you must too.

3. Make your Digital Platforms and Backend processes are seamless, dynamic and agile:

One thing that is certain during these times is that you will have to frequently change your product offerings, your sales and pricing strategies as well as your marketing and shipping strategies with the changing new normal.

Thus, if you have to plan your next move with your e-commerce software solution, you must ensure that your e-commerce website or your Progressive Web App allows administrators to make quick product uploads, pricing changes, promotions and shipping changes. Assign your technical team to undergo e-commerce developments and PWA development to ensure that your digital platforms as well as your backend processes are completely dynamic and agile.

4. Redefine digital hierarchy and content management process:

Even though the risk of the pandemic might mitigate after some time, the social distancing and work from home practices might still prevail in many organizations. These few months have proved that remote work is feasible as well as cost-effective and as an enterprise, you must opt for long-term remote working strategies.

One of the major changes that you will have to make on your digital platforms when you do not have a team working under one roof is the accountability and content ownership. Create a content management module where you can define the author of the content, the people who will approve it, people who can edit it and also ensure you can keep track of all the versions that are created. Apart from that, you will also have to look after various system integrations that can create seamless communication channels amongst different departments.

5. Introduce personalized and individualized marketing campaigns:

As you adapt to the market demands, it is also essential that you create relevant marketing campaigns. Right from product suggestions to product up-selling and cross-selling strategies, you will have to create personalized marketing campaigns to ensure you have an optimum lead conversion ratio.

Try to introduce various marketing automation modules that can help you provide personalized experiences and personalized feeds to each website visitor and also have modules that can provide privileged experiences to the repeat customers. These changes can help you better manage your new digital audience and it can also help you optimize your sales.

One thing is certain that digital transformation and technology are the future of the business irrespective of their industry or product. But, it is also essential that you plan your endeavors properly and make informed decisions to ensure that your e-commerce platforms are an asset for your organization and not a liability.

The greatest challenge for an ecommerce mobile app builder is to make shopping a pleasant and fun experience for the customers. Now, with the fear of Covid-19 pandemic still hovering on us, online shopping is gaining more momentum than ever before but now, with shifting feature priorities apart from a pleasant shopping experience.

The expectations in the mobile shopping experience in the present times are changing slowly to more value than just happy shopping online, which is why we have listed some must-have features that customers expect in a mobile shopping app during the COVID-19 which an online ecommerce store app builder can expedite for your online business success.

Online payment

With cash-on-delivery disabled due to the fear of the spread of the virus, an in-built secured payment option is a must in your app. Also, with so many online thefts happening, people are more careful in using online payment modes. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that your app has different choices for payment methods like paying by Credit/ Debit cards and Wallets along with the security of trusted payment gateways. By offering a selection of trusted payment methods, you will gain your customer’s trust and encourage repeated visits to your apps.

Push notifications

Transparency can be a great motivator for a customer to trust your app. Due to panic buying amid Covid-19, it is natural that you may run out-of-stock and to maintain the trust of customers in you, it is important to inform them whether a product is available or not while at the shopping page itself, rather than them finding it out-of-stock on the check-out page later. A push notification feature about the product’s non-availability, thus, will enable your customer to decide quickly if he/she wants to wait or look for another product.

Great user experience

Seamless navigation throughout the app is what defines a great and incredible user experience. Now with too many users flocking to online shopping all of a sudden, your app must be designed in such a way that every step right from browsing the store to checkout must be simple yet exciting without any glitches. Choosing a responsive design for your app is the best thing as it will fit whichever screen size customer is using.

Rating and feedback

Customers feel privileged when they are able to rate and review a product they have purchased as well as the service they got. It also gives them the satisfaction of helping other customers in deciding to buy a product. By adding ratings and feedback sections in your app for a product and your service, customers will get to know all aspects of the product and your service before making a decision to go with your app. This also gives room for improvement for you and the vendor to maintain quality.

Emerging technologies

Augmented Reality is the new thing used in the virtual world of online shopping and it can be put to best use in times of Covid crisis as it will give customers a sneak peek of how a product looks before they make a purchase. From groceries, apparels and furniture to everything, this will be one of the most useful technologies to implement in your eCommerce app.

Recommended Blog: PWA for Online Marketplace: A Right Technology Investment?

Easy checkout

This is where the visitor of your app actually becomes your customer. Therefore, you definitely do not want to lose your customer at this stage. A simple checkout is when half of the information is auto-filled based on the profile information of the customer like name and shipping address. Keep it really simple with only the necessary information being asked on the check-out page.

Wishlist

Time restriction, indecisiveness or budget constraints keep a customer from buying a particular product at a given point of time. A wishlist feature enables a customer to come back and make the purchase whenever one is ready.

Checking item availability

It happens that some products might be seen available in the inventory but delivering it to a specific location might have its own restrictions due to lockdown and various other reasons, to avoid that; it is important to include a future that enables the user to check the availability of the product by entering his/her location or pin code. This feature might look insignificant but it is a feature as small as this that gives a customer incredible shopping experience.

Easy registration

Covid-19 has triggered panic buying and stocking of products among customers which might stay for a long time and during such times, no one likes to go through a lengthy registration process. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you don’t have the registration until the checkout page. This makes it convenient for customers as they would be registering only if they are buying the product. Moreover, an easy and simple registration process will ensure you have your customer on-board for check-out. Also, saving user information to cut short the login time in future is recommended.

Conclusion

An eCommerce app has been a saviour in Covid-19 crisis and will continue to be one no matter what the situation is. So if you are looking to create a mobile app for an online store now, you know what features are trending and should be included in your app.

Be it an eCommerce website, mobile app or a multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution, the success of each lies in the way it is developed and when there are options available in developing them, it is natural to face confusion. So, before you scratch your head more, allow us to make it all clear for you.

Online shopping is no more just a trend today. It has become a habit for all. For any product or service, we wish to acquire, the first thing we do is to look online which is why, as per the statistics, the total amount of retail online sales is growing steadily and is likely to reach almost $5 billion by 2021.

But, even in these online businesses, one that is gaining the limelight is a multivendor marketplace website not just due to buyers and sellers but even budding entrepreneurs too. Reason? It is the most convenient medium of shopping and sale of multiple products from one site for customers, because it is capable of generating high profits for sellers, and for owners – it can be efficiently managed. In short, an online e-commerce multi-vendor website is a win-win situation for all.

Now comes the tough part. A multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution may be a great way for a startup or an e-commerce company wanting to explore new opportunities but, it has to be developed such that positive outcomes are guaranteed. Now, you may think how is that possible? Well, there are two main methods of multi-vendor marketplace development – using a readymade e-commerce platform or building a custom solution from scratch. Since both have their pros and cons, we have our experts’ suggestions portrayed here to clear all your confusion in picking up the best.

Scratch Vs. Ready-to-go Solution

Scratch or Custom-made solutions are the ones that are developed according to a client’s specific requirements like marketplace software solution for wholesalers or a marketplace software solution for distributors, while a ready-to-go means Software as a Service (SaaS) which is available to use for a minimum monthly subscription fee or a one-time purchase.

Recommended Blog: Multi-Vendor Marketplace – Benefits and Challenges

Now, let’s see which one is better?

1. Implementation

• The ready-made multi-vendor solution is all like switch on and go. It offers quick implementation and gets your storefront up and running in a short span of time.
• While a custom-built multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution has to be developed from scratch, building the front end as well as the back end as the client desires, hence; its design and development takes time but is worth it.

2. Cost-effectiveness

• When it comes to developing something, the first and the foremost concern that strikes the mind is about the cost. A ready-made multi-vendor solution is indeed less expensive with lower monthly costs compared to a custom-built and some even come for free but with limited features.
• On the other hand, a custom-built multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution does cost more due to months of development & designing it takes to build it from the ground but, the wait and cost both justifies by all means in the end.

3. Compatibility

• It is difficult to find a ready-made multi-vendor solution that is compatible with other software as it comes with either none or limited compatibility.
• While a custom-built multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution is tailored to be integrated with any software you are planning to use.

4. Customization 

• It is not that a ready-made multi-vendor store comes with a stock template, which can only be used as it is. Nowadays, many of them do provide some tweaks that make it easy for entrepreneurs to undertake design changes and even feature upgrades but, to certain limitations.
• With custom development, you have full freedom to set up the marketplace as you like. With its wider customization options, you can build beautiful and perfectly functional e-commerce websites as per your requirement.

5. Functionality

• A ready-made multi-vendor eCommerce solution comes with extremely user-friendly features that the users do not need to have immense technical knowledge for implementation and management. Some of them are even of no use to the store owner.
• On the other hand, a custom-made solution is built with specific and required features and functionalities which you can manage on your own.

6. Support

• A problem can arise anytime with a ready-made solution to tackle which, you can either contact the customer service department or community support of the solution and seek the solution from its tutorials, articles, blogs etc.
• While a custom-built multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution by a marketplace Development Company have their support team always at your service to help you out anytime you need.

7. Scalability 

• As your business grows you may require to scale up your website as well which at a nominal cost can be done in a ready-made multi-vendor eCommerce solution but can be time-consuming and offers limited scalability with a rigid structure.
• With a custom-built solution, the scalability options are fully under your control. You can scale your system as much as you wish depending on the load and your changing business environment.

8. Intellectual Property

• You will own no intellectual property when using a ready-made multi-vendor eCommerce solution as you are going to reuse the solutions developed and created by others. No matter how you customize it as per your requirements, the IP will still belong to the platform provider. Also, you will have no advantage over your competitors, as you will not be able to offer a unique product.
• While a custom-built multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution is solely designed and developed for your business and your company hence; you will hold the intellectual property of the custom software so you will have a competitive advantage.

Summing Up

As we said before, both have their pros and cons hence the choice of development method for a multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution may be rather difficult and can be affected by multiple factors. However, if you have a time issue and cannot afford a huge expense then you can go with the readymade marketplace script as it is very cost-effective and user-friendly but, if you wish to stand-out in the market and create a multi-vendor marketplace eCommerce solution that will become your signature and your statement with its uniqueness then, investing in custom software development is the right thing to do.

If you need a more detailed consultation on creating a multi-vendor marketplace or are looking for an experienced Magento marketplace software builder, MobiCommerce is the name, remember it.

We all know life would never be the same after COVID-19 as it has shaken us to the core turning our life upside down. Everything from the way we think, act, go out, interact, in short, our entire way of life has been changed and the most drastic change that we are witnessing and will continue to see in the future is the twist in the consumer’s behaviour. Will it bring good or bad for business, is what we have to observe.

The Brutal Effect of COVID Pandemic

The mounting cases of COVID-19 are creating an impact on every dimension of our life – Physical, Mental, Social, and Economic and the worst affected among all is the economy. With countries going under complete lockdown for months, the livelihood of many came to standstill causing a large void which may take years to recover. Those with traditional bricks-and-mortar retail have slipped into darkness coming out of which will cost their entire life savings.

Due to the COVID crisis, people began to shop online due to the closure of all but essential retail outlets (supermarkets/grocers, pharmacies/drug stores, post office and banks) thereby crippling the offline retailers by all means. The fear of coronavirus bought a sudden change in the shopping habit of customers which is now posing the question of whether the current surge of eCommerce will remain the same post-COVID or not? Let’s understand.

The Changes Observed in Buyer’s Behaviour

• The priorities changed. The COVID pandemic made people realize the importance of basic essentials and hygiene products for survival, hence; categories like groceries, medicines, toiletries, has now become the top priorities for customers who were into shopping fashion, beauty, electronics and other non-essential items like crazy earlier.
• The mode of payment has now become completely digitalized. COD is now temporarily disabled due to the fear of the spread of the virus from currency notes, which has given a push to digital payments.
• Due to the panic of lockdown, people are becoming frequent online shoppers in order to stock up the basic essentials in their home, which is causing many eCommerce brands and marketplaces to go out of stock.
• The eCommerce market is turning into a battle. With more and more online shoppers emerging from all over the world, meeting their demands and delivering the essentials to them on-time is becoming challenging for eCommerce owners day-by-day. Therefore, the competition among them is getting fierce and it is also inspiring a lot of entrepreneurs to come with unique and creative eCommerce startup ideas which will boom within a short span of time.

The Future of eCommerce: What to Expect?

As per the COVID-19 e-commerce data, the numbers are plateauing – but at 63.6% higher than before. Although the world has not yet become free from the deadly pandemic, many countries have begun to remove stay-at-home orders and re-open their societies, as we can’t stay locked up the whole time. Thus, it would be interesting to see if the convenience and safety offered by moving online will remain as popular as it is today.

If we look at the present scenario, the virus doesn’t seem to leave us soon until a vaccine comes into light and also some experts are predicting a second wave of the virus accompanied by shut-downs, so there is a high possibility of eCommerce to continue booming in the coming years, with or without COVID.

Moreover, many local retailers are accepting the fact that a crisis like this can arise anytime in the future and during such tough times, an online presence can help them keep going to some extent than putting shutters to their business for a very long time, henceforth, a lot of small local retailers, as well as national providers, are finding innovative and digital ways to cope by switching to eCommerce development or b2b ecommerce software solutions. 

In short, a continued strong growth of eCommerce over the coming years, which will be mainly driven by the further adoption of mobile shopping can be expected.

Recommended Blog: 5 Benefits of Getting an Online Business Presence during COVID-19

The Digital Approach

Taking a jump online is not as easy as it sounds, there’s a need for implementing tactical solutions to help you get through the immediate crisis, but they have to be in the context of a broader digital strategy. So, let’s check out which digital approach can work and how those digital experiences need to be carefully and seamlessly managed across all customer touchpoints so as to get the most out of it.

1. An eCommerce Business Model 

There are various eCommerce business models among which you need to decide what would you prefer, for example, B2C, B2B, or B2B2C, and according to that, you can pick the software solution that works best for you by all terms.

2. Select the right eCommerce development partner

Behind the success of an eCommerce platform lies the hand of an experienced ecommerce website and mobile app development company, hence while you have time due to the lockdown, you can search for a seasoned eCommerce development partner to build a productive platform for your business.

3. Enhance if you already have one

If you already are into eCommerce you can enhance the credibility of your store even more by implementing some latest features like; chatbots, voice assistants, real-time contextual personalization and merchandising, a combination of both – headless commerce and CMS etc.

Conclusion

We have no idea how shopping will be in the future, will things get back to normal or will we have to live with the new-normal, anyhow, investing in an eCommerce platform was, is and never will be a waste as eCommerce game is definitely going to go strong in the future.

In a nutshell, to match the current buying behaviour and to meet the future growth, you will need a well-designed e-commerce solution developing which none other than Mobicommerce is the best.

Single-vendor stores and multi-vendor ecommerce websites have brought the eCommerce domain into such limelight that the graph of online shopping is skyrocketing and the number of online shoppers multiplying with every passing second. But also, there is a competition between the two itself, where a model like a multi-vendor marketplace is winning why?

Already multi-vendor marketplaces were doing great before COVID hit us all and now it is evident from the current online shopping demand that the post-COVID phase will see a rush of offline entrepreneurs setting up their apps and websites to stay relevant with the changing business needs and demand from the customers.

If you are aiming high and look at the world’s richest business entrepreneurs, you will find most of them are owners of e-commerce websites. The most commercially successful way to run an e-commerce website is a well-designed Magento multi-vendor marketplace model as it aims at aiding the buyer, seller, as well as the admin, equally to gain smoothly and efficiently by all means. Visit now to find the top BigCommerce web designers.

So, what is a Multi-vendor Marketplace?

Just like a mall, where you find different sellers, a multi-vendor marketplace or a store is an online mall where multiple third-party vendors display their wide range of products and buyers get to choose as per their preference. Whereas, the admin is the link between the buyers and sellers. The core responsibility of the store admin is to provide online support to both buyers and sellers. This model is much preferred than single stores because of its array of products, cost-effectiveness and ability to reach out to a maximum number of people without the hassle of creating and managing their website.

A commission revenue model is designed for the marketplace owner for setting up the infrastructure, processing payment transactions and order fulfillment. So, let’s understand to create a multivendor e-commerce store, what features are required?

We will see this separately from the Admin, Buyer and Vendor’s point of view.

Admin/ Store Owner Features

Revenue Model: Store Admin’s core responsibility is to provide the vendors and buyers best UI experience, lucrative marketing strategies, quick problem-solving tools and data security. For this, the admin can charge a fee. There are various revenue models from which the owner can generate revenue-

• Commission on the profit from each product sold on its website.
• Registration fees for the vendor to access the services of the website.
• Featured or Top Listing fees for those vendors who want to list their product on the top of the page.
• Advertisements by PPC (Pay Per Click) or Bulk ad buying

Automated CMS: The website should be such that the admin can easily access without any technical help. He should be able to customize, sort the catalogue, generate reports, calculate taxes, shipping charges and commissions with one click.

Product Inventory: A well-presented catalogue with good quality images preferably 3D images is the first thing a prospective buyer sees when he visits the website. Therefore, this becomes one of the most important aspects of the website. Also, the website should provide clear information about stock availability to the customers as no one wants to see a product out of stock after hours of browsing. Email notification, once the product is available, can also be added on the website.

Performance and Scalability: Opportunities can come anytime and you should be always ready to grab it. Some advertisement technique might have worked in favour of you and you suddenly start getting heavy traffic on the website. Therefore, your website should be always equipped to efficiently handle a sudden increase in volume, especially during festivals and holidays. If the page loading takes even a second’s delay, it will result in massive financial losses and you will lose the customers too.

Reviews and Feedback: Surveys have revealed that other customer ratings and reviews are the key factors for a consumer to decide before buying a product. This feature enables the admin to validate the quality and reliability of a particular product which can be pushed forward for better revenue generation.

Advanced Reports Generation: Indeed, a must-have feature as it enables the admin to fetch various reports like daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sales. It also allows generating reports on customer data, products that are on high demand and a statistical report on how the website is performing and its improvisation.

Recommended Blog: Reasons Why You Should Have a Multi-Vendor App for Your Ecommerce Marketplace like Amazon

Buyer Features

Friendly and Responsive UI: Online shopping should be as thrilling as a mall shopping experience can be and for that matter, a great UI makes a lot of difference for the customers. Navigation should be like a cake-walk.

Simple Checkout Process: Transparency is the key to a smooth checkout process. Customers should be able to know how many steps will be required to complete the process on the first page of checkout itself. The page should be informative yet look clean. Delivery date, shipping charges should be informed before the checkout. There should be no hidden charges popping out at the final checkout page. This builds trust and increase in the conversion rate in the check-out process.

24*7 Customer Service: If you are a global market player, sales inquiries can come anytime, therefore a well-trained customer service staff should be always available to assist the buyers at any point of time through live chats and voice calls. If you are limited to only one particular time zone then assistance during the regular working hours must be always available.

Easy Login: Many shoppers buy enormously from online websites but they do not want to go through a lengthy login process in every website and be bombarded with promotional mailers. Therefore, guest login or log in through social media accounts option is something most of the customers look up to in the initial choice of their shopping website.

Multilingual and Multi-payment Options: Shopping experience is enhanced if the customer can view the website in their preferred language and pay in their currency. Also, there are various payment modes used by customers like credit and debit cards, UPI, net banking, COD, gift vouchers and others. Ability to choose their preferred payment mode is a great way of retaining the customers. Therefore, the inclusion of various payment gateways like CC Avenue, PayPal, Amazon Pay among the others should be available on the website and with the auto-pay feature, you can enable your customer to choose the same mode of payment every time a purchase is made.

Order Tracking: As soon as the order has been made, an order tracking number must be given to the customer to track until the item is delivered. It keeps the customer informed via SMS/ Email notification of every update of the shipment which will cement the customer’s trust in you even more.

Easy Returns: Return Policy should be fair and convenient for the customers. All the wording must be mentioned on the website so that no ambiguity is faced at the later stage.

All these features will ensure that the customer enjoys shopping from your website and will always come back to you.

Vendor Features: Vendors or Sellers are equally important for a multivendor e-commerce store because customers will come on your website only if they get multiple options to choose from. So, it is very important to give your vendors user-friendly features to promote their business on your website.

Impressive and Easy Working Dashboard: Providing a dashboard to the vendor that is self-explanatory and convenient to use will make the daily tasks easy-going and less stressful for the admin. Vendors should be able to add new products, import any type of data from their system to the website, write accurate product information and generate reports from the dashboard.

Quick and Effective Communication: There must be communication channels available for the vendor to reach the admin or support for any technical or non-technical glitch. Also, there should be constant communication between the buyer and seller through the mediums of the detailed product description, shipping notifications, live chats, FAQs and contact information.

Promotional Offers: Social media like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have now become the largest platform to advertise for sellers. Pay per click on other apps and websites also generate traffic towards the multi-vendor store where the item is listed. Revenue generation can multifold by allowing the sellers to decide their marketing budget and duration of the campaign.

Wrapping up

Since we are talking about a multi-vendor marketplace, the list of features is never-ending and we have pointed out just a few important ones. You can make your marketplace even more feature-rich by choosing a Magento multivendor ecommerce marketplace solution which comes packed with many already and all you need is someone who is an experienced Magento marketplace software builder or a seasoned player in Magento multi-vendor marketplace development like Mobicommerce.

It will not be very late to say that the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought a 360-degree turn in the way we shop for our daily essentials, mainly groceries and also, it is an only retail category without which we can’t even pass a day. But, the thought of visiting a grocery store has built fear in people so much that it seems online grocery will take over even post-corona. So, is grocery eCommerce really the future?

The online shopping revolution for non-perishable commodities started way back globally, yet, many of us preferred going to super or hypermarkets and hand-pick our groceries for various reasons, mainly to choose the best of all options and having the ability to inspect the items before purchase. Now, the scenario is different. With Corona crawled into our life, the online grocery shopping seems to be the safe option which has led to the emergence of it and the sales of which are doubling up like never before.

Boom in Online Grocery shopping trends

Online shopping trend was picked up by consumers who do not enjoy the hassle of traditional shopping experience specially, to stand in long queues. Now, the current pandemic has further pushed consumers to buy their groceries online which are creating a huge scope for newcomers with innovative purchase models to create their own space in this global business market.

Recommended Blog: Know Why a Mobile App is good for The Health of Your Grocery Business

There is no doubt about social distancing becoming the “The New Normal” in the post-COVID phase, making most of the grocery shopping digital. We know that a business is all about trust and as far as grocery shopping is concerned, the majority of the consumers prefer to buy from the same Kirana store only because there is a trust for quality and service. Therefore, to get the groceries delivered by the same trusted local grocery shop at one click will be something consumers will look forward to.

So, if you are a grocery shop owner, you must consider the below points to act fast and expand your local business by opting for grocery store app development right now.

For business continuity post-COVID: The crisis is going to end at some point but we don’t know when and since now you are getting enough time, it is advisable to prepare for the future which will be nothing like before. Henceforth, if you want your business to keep going, thinking online will be the right thing to do.

To be safe for you and your family: Continuous interaction with innumerable customers also puts you at risk. You need to keep the business running and remain safe for your family at the same time as well as ensure safety standards are being followed by streamlining the logistics. Hence, going digital will help you have a win-win situation overall.

Foreseeing changing business trends with innovative digital marketing ideas: Your customers will remain loyal to you if you cater to their changing needs. Quick delivery options, safety procedures, lucrative discounts and innovations will ensure your brand gets the required foothold in the competitive market.

Making your brand: Your local supermarket or grocery shop can get a brand name by going digital. Word of mouth and good online reviews will attract new customers for your business. You can grow your business by catering not just to people living in your vicinity but beyond if you expand your delivery area limit. A good grocery website builder will help you structure your business with minimal investment and lesser workforce.

For customers, who are still not convinced why to forgo conventional grocery shopping practices in these testing times, here are the top 5 reasons why switching to online grocery shopping now and in the future seems to be the right option.

Keep you safe from crowds and thus getting infected: The last thing we want is to enter a crowd of strangers and risk our lives. Although you might take all the necessary precautions, you can’t be sure if the person standing next to you is healthy or not. When online grocery apps can give you verified and quality products delivered at your doorstep, why take the risk? Also, you have the option of sanitizing the container and the items without any hassle.

It will help you maintain your budget: COVID-19 has definitely slowed down the world economy and the repercussions have already started showing up with many people losing their jobs. In such a situation, you don’t want to overspend which is likely to happen when you physically visit a store. With online shopping, you have the option at any given time to cancel a product and keep a tap on your bill.

Encouraging Digital Payment: Digitalization in payment methods started over more than a decade with the introduction of credit and debit cards but, cash transaction is still a preferred payment method for small purchases in local grocery shops. In this period of Covid-19 spread, cash transactions have been identified as one of the main reasons for spreading the infection, so by opting for online payment modes, you can avoid that risk as well.

24*7 availability: With more women coming to work front, managing household chores has become more tedious in a nuclear family set-up. Grocery shopping is mainly planned for weekends which consumes nearly 2-3 hours of your day. Online grocery shopping gives you the convenience to shop at any point in time so that you can spend your day-offs with your loved ones, not at departmental stores.

Your bit for the environment: The world has undergone a renovation with humankind sitting inside their homes. Pollution levels have dropped and water bodies are much cleaner now. So, it is our responsibility to maintain this by reducing carbon emissions as much as possible. We can avoid commuting again and again by buying our monthly groceries at one go, thus protecting Mother Nature from unnecessary air and noise pollution.

In a nutshell, 

Whether you are a budding entrepreneur, an offline grocery shop owner or a consumer, we are sure that by now you can agree that a grocery eCommerce app is the most convenient and recommended way to shop or deliver groceries by all means, especially when such bad situation strikes.

We hope with these tips, you will now be able to make right and smart choices to stay relevant in this new phase. Our expertise in Grocery shopping app development will ensure that you get your app designed just the way you want and in time so that you continue to lead the business.

Europeans are skipping the trek to a supermarket which requires pushing a shopping cart down an aisle after aisle and then waiting in the long checkout line to finally bring home their groceries and love the idea of saving time by shopping at the convenience of their home. Why? The reasons are many let’s take a look at it all.

No sooner did the trend of online grocery shopping hit the market, Europe witnessed a sharp rise in grocery mobile app downloads and its usage in the past few years. The reasons are many like inflationary price rises, convenience, time-saving, more premium and fresh goods all under one roof etc., which grocery shopping mobile apps are making it possible and easier for customers to get their groceries on-time without any hassle.

But it is not just because of any random grocery mobile app, the European market has risen up, it is in fact, due to the compelling reasons the European retailers have given consumers to switch from their neighbourhood grocers to the web or mobile app like;

1. An entire supermarket squeezed into an app

Browsing a supermarket in search of a product with a shopping stroller is something which nobody enjoys. European retailers gave their customers freedom from it by allowing them to browse an entire supermarket on their mobile screen and add products to their shopping cart the instant, save them for later, wishlist or even book out of stock products in advance all via a grocery mobile app.

2. Personal recommendations & customizations

Not all products a customer is looking for is available in a supermarket, hence, European grocery mobile app development cracked a way to it by giving personal recommendations to their customers based on their purchase behaviour to further ease their shopping of daily grocery needs. This made customers fall in love with grocery mobile apps even more. Moreover, the supermarket app development took a step further ahead with customization feature which helps customers to modify the packaging, weight, size, etc. of their products.

3. Escape from long queues

Who doesn’t love a grocery shopping where checkouts take seconds and payments can be done without taking out a wallet for the purchased groceries? The grocery app development in European market won hearts by allowing customers to shop groceries without the need to wait in long queues with heavy shopping bags.

4. Daily offers & special treatments

Compared to offline grocery shopping, grocery mobile apps began to give daily offers and discounts on products which attracted customers towards it like a magnet. Apart from that, when European customers started getting special treatments like membership and referral benefits, they look the jump to grocery mobile apps right away without giving a second thought which spiced up the online grocery app market in Europe like never before.

5. Service that appeals to customers

For any shopper, how a particular brand treats a customer matters the most because once they like it, they become loyal to them forever. Today, Amazon, BigBasket and other such major grocery deliveries have come into action which is having good and regular traffic of customers due to the convenience they are providing in getting fresh daily essentials at the doorstep, eliminating the need – to wait in long queues, carry heavy grocery bags, move from one grocery shop to another in search of products, etc.

The grocery app development in Europe took it very seriously and developed grocery mobile apps with all necessary features for customer service like feedback section, rating & reviews, delivery slot selection, chats and support to solve customer queries, order tracking, multiple payment options, free delivery, and much more to serve customers at its best.

6. Boon for busiest customers 

Half of the European population has no time for going grocery shopping personally due to their busy lifestyle which is the main reason why grocery delivery app development gained momentum in Europe suddenly and swiftly. People loved the concept of getting groceries at their doorstep more than wandering multiple shops with giant shopping bags struggling to find time from their hectic schedule.

Bottom Line

Consumers of today love their smartphones, which explains why 91% of them are always on them 24/7. Therefore, it should not be surprising for industries to understand why grocery mobile app development is the need of the hour.

Looking at the rise of online grocery shopping, more and more European retailers have now begun to develop on-demand grocery delivery apps equipped with all necessary features that benefit both retailers and customers. Since a grocery mobile app is helping businesses achieve their objectives and gain higher returns within a less period of time. So, it is in this way, the grocery app market gained popularity and become a sensation in Europe within a blink of an eye which is not going to disappear anytime near soon.

You can find related articles here:

1. Know Why a Mobile App is Good for The Health of Your Grocery Business
2. On Demand Online Grocery eCommerce Software Solution

Ever since shopping through a mobile device has garnered popularity, eCommerce businesses across domains are going through their websites on mobile to see if the experience their customers have on desktops is similar to that on mobile.

Yes, it is 2020; however, the shopping experience on mobile is still not where it needs to be. There are still many eCommerce stores that deploy poor UI/UX design tricks (e.g., pop-ups) on their mobile sites to repel their potential customers.

Statista reports 3.8bn smartphone users by 2021, out of which 49% shop on mobile. Despite that, only 12% of consumers find mobile shopping convenient. That is a lot of room for improvement for eCommerce businesses.

When it comes to mobile, there are two options that they can explore, namely: Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and native apps. Interestingly, consumers spend 3X-to-4X longer on native apps as compared to the time spent on mobile sites and desktops.

Similarly, PWAs achieve 50% higher conversions in the eCommerce sector. The benefits of both options are in front of you. But what is most apt for your business? To help you decide, let’s do a comparative analysis between a PWA and a native app.

1. Look and feel

Native apps offer the best UI/UX experience through the right amount of animations and effects, efficient gesture control, appealing layouts. Users can instantly browse through the app.

Meaning, the design, and settings of a PWA are similar to those of native apps. It combines the look and feel of mobile apps and the best UX website elements.

2. Functionality

PWAs are responsive and load promptly, thereby eliminating any jerky transition that can hamper the user experience. They can be used offline. Native apps can take time to load and/or not load at all if there is no internet.

PWAs and websites share the same speed and responsiveness capabilities, complete with database access and automatic data. A native app functions separately.

3. Installation and updation

Users will have to visit the app store, search for your app, and download it. However, a native app is easily discoverable on the internet and also gets automatically updated.

A PWA eliminates the issue of app fatigue. It doesn’t need to be discovered, downloaded, or updated. Users can go to the browser on mobile and search for you.

4. Security and compliance

PWAs offer faster access to built-in device features such as camera, phone book, biometric sensors, a recent location, microphone, and more, which could be troubling.

A native app, on the other hand, makes use of device functionality and hardware responsibly and asks for the users’ permission before accessing anything on mobile.

5. Optimized for search

Since PWAs are web-based, each page on the web app is indexable. That means, PWAs enjoy a high searchability rate on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Further, users can share the PWA with just a brief URL.

A native app needs to be optimized for app stores, which includes using descriptive meta titles, using the right keywords, uploading high-quality app screenshots, encouraging positive reviews.

6. Learning and development

To develop a native app, one must know different languages such as Swift and Objective-C for iOS, C# for Windows, Kotlin, and Java for Android. This is time-consuming and expensive unless you opt for a Magento eCommerce development company to build you a customizable solution

PWAs save time and money because it needs to be developed once – irrespective of the operating system or web browser.

Successful PWAs in the market

PWAs sound feasible from all aspects – financially, discoverability, usability. Many eCommerce brands have deployed the technology, two of which are:

1. OLX

PWA of global online marketplace OLX allows users to avail of a chat option for negotiating product prices, along with features such as Add to Cart, push notifications, and offline functionality. OLX managed to improve CTR by 146% and reduce bounce rates by 80%.

2. Trivago

The Germany-based hotel booking marketplace app launched a PWA a few years ago that comes with multilingual support and features like offline functionality, push, speed. With their PWA, Trivago increased user engagement and CTR by 150% and 97%, respectively.

PWA vs. native app – the choice is yours

When choosing between the two, you must decide what purpose you are planning to serve for your potential customers. Sure, a PWA can offer an app-like experience to consumers on mobile. If you just want that, then it makes no sense to invest resources in developing a native app.

However, if a PWA can’t add anything to your existing mobile app experience, or if you want a specific feature to be available on mobile and PWAs don’t support it, partner with a mobile commerce development company.

Do your research and see how having either of the two apps will impact your eCommerce store.

I know you all have must heard about Artificial Intelligence somewhere or the other as it is the most discussed topic now-a-days. It is the rising technology helping almost all the industry to one or the other way to improve productivity and the ease of work.

Artificial Intelligence – Transforming Industries

Defining it according to the father of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy, it is “The science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs”.

It is the technological advancement that simulates human intelligence in machines especially in computers. In general terms, it is all about making machines to understand human language, behaviour and sentiments and work intelligently without interference of human. It is evolving at a rapid pace and has the capability to work alongside the humans. Sound interesting right!

When the machines will

• start adapting human behaviour based on the experiences
• not be dependent on instructions from humans and
• start thinking, learning and acting like humans and
• come up with unanticipated results

Then, we will experience advantages of strong AI.

AI – Intelligent Analysis, Intelligent Interaction and Intelligent Automation!

Artificial Intelligent has already enabled various industries like automobile, healthcare, Data security, Finance and accountancy and many more including Ecommerce. If you took a glance around the technology you’re using, you’ll get to know that AI has already entered in your daily lifestyle. Think of the facilities provided by your smart phone.

UBER, by providing cab booking application using AI technology has made the life very easier and it is now embedded in your routines.

Amzon has designed its store called “AmazonGo” where you can go, shop whatever you want and just walk away without standing in queue to pay the bills! It automatically identifies the products you bought, charge you from your account and send you invoice on your mobile. No human interaction, enabled by AI technology.

In Australia, few innovators have developed software based on AI which can predict localized ride demand in next 30 minutes within a 500 square meter area. It enhances the business and also saves wastage of time in waiting for customers.

Implication of Artificial Intelligence in Ecommerce

AI has also not left ecommerce or mobile commerce industry by transforming it the way people experience online shopping. Find out the ways AI has and will transform Ecommerce business.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) Capability of AI

AI comprises of Robotics, Machine Learning, Expert systems, General Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP helps ecommerce industry to very great extent.

NLP includes text translation, sentiment analysis and speech recognition that enables machine for contextual understanding of human language. Chatbots, product searches, Customer relationship management etc. is based on NLP enhancing successful conversions.

It helps to improve in store purchase behaviour result into high probability of business growth.
CHATBOT enables “Chat Now” for prompt assistance

You must have seen “Chat Now” or “Online Chat Assistant” while browsing through websites and I am sure you must have used that as well. There are high chances that there won’t be any human talent in the backend and machines via “bots’ technology was assisting you to solve your queries and questions!

AI based Bots technology with IT service management system has developed ‘Chatbots’ to reduce human efforts, prompt reply and 24*7 service. It enables conversational and natural language user interfaces by understanding the human language and expressions and replying accordingly. Data base is the most important factor while developing such technology. It’s all made possible with the Natural Language Processing capabilities of AI.

As per Juniper’s new research, it is forecasted that Chatbots will be responsible for cost savings of over $8 billion p.a. by 2022, up from $20 million in 2017 in retail, ecommerce, healthcare and banking industries.

According to TechEmergence, chatbots are expected to be the number one consumer application of AI over the next five years.

Enabling “Search” to be more powerful

Current search algorithm works based on keyword matches, search queries, keywords in product title or description. Thus, it shows multiple different products in search results and reduces the relevancy. It increases visitor’s burden to identify the product they want from search results! So, if customer won’t find the required products within certain time, customer goes away without making purchase and ecommerce sites have to bear the cost of losing customer.

Improving this results with the help of AI will enhance the search performance and of course the sales ratio. AI will enhance contextual understanding, practical intelligence and ability to understand natural language and expression powered with NLP. This will result into increased transaction, consumer satisfaction, retention and ultimately more conversions.

As per the forecast made by Gartner, “more than 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human by 2020.”

“Image Search” Classification

Many of the time it happens that you wanted to buy certain products but you don’t know the name of it. AI allows image search option to you to resolve this problem.

You can experience this in Pinterest, where you can pin the product you want and then it will pull visually similar such results.

Voice Recognition

Virtual Personal Assistant is increasing day by day with NLP and voice interaction has increased at a compound annual growth rate of 43% from 2015 to 2020 according to Gartner. Voice commands has enabled consumer to do voice search, accepted widely for ease of work and faster process.

Inventory Management

Smart technology is helping you to manage your products and stocks by keeping the track of your inventory, providing analytics report and ordering it when stock gets low. AI also analyse your business, does the predictive analyse and identify the future demands based on current business trends, consumer patterns and factors that are driving the business and industry. It’s not an easy but will yield more results for you.

Samsung’s Family Hub fridge actually monitors the products kept in your fridge with the help of camera and ask you to order groceries when the stock gets low. AI can also recommend you about recipes for upcoming meals based on inventory!

Such technology will reduce human labour involved in managing inventory and is very helpful for ecommerce and marketplace sites to arrange the stocks.

Personalised Product Recommendation

You searched for particular product on ecommerce site e.g. on Amazon and left without making purchase. When next time you will browse any other site, you will see the ads for that product or such relevant products over there.

AI recommends you personalised products based on choice and likelihood based on your search history. This gives easy platform for customer to buy the product quickly without much hustle of searching it, also enabling more business of ecommerce owners.

Predictive Analysis and CRM

AI has the ability to do all the predictive analysis of your customer’s data and will tell you who has the potential to buy the products along with bifurcating customers based on that buying requirements and patterns, who is likely to buy products, what will they buy and many more. You just need to have AI enabled program installed and machine will do everything for you.

Artificial Intelligence will not be limited to this, it is growing at a very fast pace and 2018 is dramatically becoming transforming phase for ecommerce. It would be highly accepted by the benefits it provides to consumers over ecommerce mobile apps or websites. Gartner predicts that by 2020, “AI will be the top most investment priority for more than 20% of CIOs.”

Stay tuned with the latest AI updates and Start implementing it to yield better improved results and gains.

With regards to eCommerce, Amazon.com is the reigning king. In addition to offering millions of different products, it also offers a high end user experience through their professional customer service and digital best practices. Although today’s eCommerce business owner has a plethora of options when it comes to how and where to sell their goods, Amazon offers an established platform with plenty of benefits for the savvy business owner.

Here are a few reasons why, if you are into eCommerce, you need to be on Amazon:

1. You have access to an already established clientele.

As one of the world’s largest online retailers, Amazon has a client base of nearly 300 million, and this number is quickly growing. For a consumer goods business, this is particularly ideal because it would cost a tremendous amount of money to get the sales and impressions that Amazon provides.

2. Trust and credibility are keys to driving growth.

Consumers will be considerably more likely to make a purchase through Amazon, rather than buying goods through a website they are unfamiliar with. Amazon is a well-known company with an established reputation.

3. Amazon offers superior back end support and infrastructure.

Ecommerce business owners who currently conduct business via Amazon have praised the company back end infrastructure, which they believe offers excellent support for selling. Amazon offers an all in one platform, which can handle everything from credit card processing to tax calculations to inventory tracking. Because all of these elements are already present, a seller does not need to figure out how to do all of the setup themselves.

4. FBA — Shipping & Fulfillment

In what many view as an added bonus, this marketing conglomerate enables sellers to ship their inventory directly to Amazon’s warehouse. For a fee, Amazon.com will then handle the sales of the product, order fulfillment, returns, and any additional customer service issues that might arise. This enables an eCommerce business owner to avoid many of the headaches that are associated with maintaining an affiliate channel.

5. Third Party Tools

Amazon even allows third party developers to create connected productivity tools, using their MWS (Marketplace Web Service) system, to help its sellers. These tools can be invaluable to sellers as they allow an even greater level of automation to those who choose to use them. Some of the most common third party tools include Amazon Repricers, which work like an agent working 27/7 to ensure your products are intelligently priced to stay competitive yet profitable compared to the competition. Another example are Multichannel Fulfillment Solutions that allow you to use a single central inventory for all your marketplaces whether it be Amazon, your own website or even EBay and more too. The immense size of the eCommerce business means it attracts the very best of developers to ensure the platform and its tools are always one step ahead.

6. Referrals Are Invaluable

It also offers an excellent, automatic algorithm for recommended purchases. For example, a buyer may visit Amazon for the purpose of purchasing a product that Seller A doesn’t offer; however, Seller A’s product may come up as a recommended purchase as the buyer is purchasing a product from Seller B. Furthermore, it growing number of affiliates will link consumers to a seller’s product through Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and even Instagram. This alleviates the seller from having to contend with the more tedious aspects of operating an affiliate program.

Summary

If you maintain your own e-commerce website, then you will be able to exercise more control over your specific brand, your products, and promotions and pricing; however, at the end of the day, it is imperative that your eCommerce business be visible where your targeted demographic is most likely to be looking for your product. In many cases, Amazon will be one of the first places a consumer goes to look for the product they want. As such, having an Amazon channel will only be an asset to your business and its growth.