“Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Magento Mobile App is hot.
Gods know the app really costs.
But your customers might want it a lot!”
That people now shop via their smartphones more than ever before creates an eCommerce trend to which every Magento merchant should pay attention. It is called “Mobile first – Desktop second!”
To be short, you had better invest in mobile optimization if you do not want bad experiences to drive potential customers away from your Magento 2 site. This process costs – I mean, your money, your time, and other resources. But, you must sit down and draw a plan soon.
Today, let’s start with PWA and Magento Mobile App.
Get Prepared for E-commerce Mobile Strategy
Table of Contents
Do not jump to developing Magento Mobile App just because it is a trend without knowing what your customers want.
Here are three points to keep in mind.
Responsive Themes
Again, many customers access your website via mobile first and desktop later. If the first experience falls short, they do not care how attractive your site is on the desktop.
Your first to do after reading this post is to check whether your menus and content automatically adjust themselves beautifully to the browser screen size. If not, you should fix the problem soon.
You should install a built-in responsive theme if you haven’t had so many products or customizations on your Magento 2 site yet. It works right out of the box to make your site mobile-friendly.
More excitingly,
“Responsive design also ranks your page on the first Google search result page.”
Google mobile-first indexing
Simply, when customers search by their phone, Google will look for the mobile version of the page and, if any, show it at the users’ fingertips.
Mobile-Friendly Checkout
The mobile conversion rate remains very low, although mobile traffic grows daily People browse your site on mobile while finally purchasing on the desktop, primarily for fear of payment fraud.
If so, your mobile optimization is still not sufficient and profitable enough.
Besides the responsive content, here are several best practices of mobile checkout recommended by Crazy Eggs.
- Designing for touch, especially for the thumb
- Break up checkout into multiple steps with progress indicators, or
- Make a one-step checkout short
- Speed and smooth transition through each step of the checkout
- Color the buttons with light gradients
- Enlarge text fields, labels, and buttons – Make them clear
- Support guest checkout
- Build trust with extended validation SSL certificates
- Auto-Detect And Auto-Complete, and Address Finders
Progressive Web Applications
Since the official announcement of Magento about the available Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) Studio to build app-like experiences right on your online Magento 2 store, “Magento PWA” has become a hot topic! This tool is to solve the dilemma of mobile conversion and improve cross-channel purchases.
“The impact extends far beyond mobile!”
But, keep in mind that PWA Studio is only a Magento 2 Mobile App Builder with a set of PWA-module, PWA-buildpack, peregrine, and venia-concept rather than a ready-to-use solution.
Hence, there is a lot for you to prepare:
Step 1: Learn about PWA
Some valuable documents for your references:
- Progressive Web Applications Checklist
- Websites already invested in PWA (check on your phones): Wego, AliExpress, or Twitter Lite.
- Magento PWA Studio
Step 2: Choose How to Implement PWA to Magento
Do you have a team of in-house developers to build a progressive web app from scratch, or will you install a built-in Magento PWA solution?
Step 3: Start a Budget and Action Plan in 2019
>> TAKE A TOUR with our Magento PWA Development Services!
3 Reasons You Should End up to Magento Mobile App
Some experts say PWA is the next big boom of eCommerce mobile in general and Magento in particular. And some even think it will win over the native app.
I find myself standing on PWA soon and on the Magento Mobile app in the long term.
“I mean, PWA is a good start in eCommerce mobile strategy. But it is app-like, not a real app. Not to mention, not all browsers support PWAs – IOS, for example.
Sooner or later, you should build a Magento Mobile App.”
Provide superior mobile experiences
A website is usually built with a desktop-first design. And a responsive one is specially designed to display on smaller screens of tablets or mobile phones.
In other words, you try to adjust your content smaller.
The native app, in the other words, is all developed with the mobile experience in mind. So, it provides superior functions allowing the users to browse and checkout with a few taps or scrolls.
Improve the reliability of the checkout process
That customers often purchase on a desktop after browsing via their mobile devices is because they pay serious attention to the security of the checkout process.
And a Magento mobile app will get rid of such a time-consuming experience. Not only can customers check out in several taps, but they feel protected from information exposure to the web. The app owner even possibly handles their own payment gateway rather than using the third-party intervention.
Safer is better!
Turn visitors into loyal customers.
For sure, first-time visitors hardly go to the app stores and get your Magento Mobile App at once. Instead, they start with web browsers. At that time, a PWA website was far from enough.
However, if you have one, they are ready to install the app, and if those customers feel more interested in your website.
The thoughtfully designed app helps enhance your brand image, build a long-term relationship, and boom your mobile sales.
Magento 2 Mobile App can satisfy any of your requirements with the mobile app!
Last Verdict
My advice is to take steps by step – based on your budget and researching your customers.
Firstly, try to improve your mobile strategy. Make use of PWA studio where possible.
Then, plan for a Magento Mobile App. I know it costs to build, it costs to maintain, and it costs to acquire users.
But it is worth monetizing from mobile customers when your website reaches a specific scale!
