e-Commerce is one of the most rapidly growing fields in our times, one which is changing the world at a high rate. The power of ordering things online and having them delivered to your doorstep without you even having to leave the house is miraculous and addictive. And because of this growing trend, more and more e-commerce businesses are stepping into the market every year and are earning hefty profits. In research conducted by analysts at Statista.com, the e-commerce market in America alone is worth $360.3 billion. And by the year 2021, the US retail e-commerce sales are projected to reach $603.4 billion!

With an increase in the number of mobile devices, online shopping is now easier than ever. You can shop on buses, on trains, while you’re stuck in traffic, while you’re at work. That has further induced a steep rise in the number of e-commerce businesses in the market. But now, the market is quickly becoming saturated; there are many options for the customers to choose from. Thus, the competition between various e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon is now fiercer than ever.

Each one is trying to beat the other, and to do so; they are coming up with better and more innovative ideas. The key to success in this business is to stand out, and that could only be achieved via mobile app development. With a properly built and well-planned mobile application, you can start your own e-commerce business and stand out in the herd.

So listed below are some of the essentials your e-commerce app needs to have to be successful as Amazon. But before we dig in further, let’s discuss what eCommerce is and what its benefits are.

What is e-Commerce?

An e-Commerce is a robust platform that makes buying and selling of products an easier task. It enables customers to compare and buy products or utilize services seamlessly from anywhere around the world. It typically makes the use of the World Wide Web for displaying products to the customers and for may other activities like money transfer, data transfer, online marketing, etc. There are several eCommerce business options to choose from. All of them vary as per varied preferences, capital, and business models. For each of them, you have to adopt different strategies and plan to make your business successful. These models include

1. B2B (Business to Business model)
2. B2C (Business to Customer model)
3. C2C (Customer to Customer)
4. C2B (Customer to Business), and so on.

Today, e-commerce app development has become an integral part of building success for your business. It offers many benefits to make your business stand out from the competitive world. Let’s discuss some of them.

Benefits Of eCommerce App Development

1. It enables the sellers to connect with the global audience.
2. Lower transaction cost
3. Higher profits
4. Customer can shop from your site 24*7
5. Provides better customer satisfaction
6. Improved brand value

So, these were some of the benefits of an eCommerce website. The world today has already started to leverage the eCommerce platform to take their business to the next level. Let’s look at some of the popular eCommerce apps like Amazon.

Which Are The Best Online Shopping Apps?

1. Walmart
2. Etsy
3. eBay
4. Chairish
5. Gilt

1. Walmart

From baby products and groceries, to pet requirements and furniture, there’s nothing that Walmart doesn’t deliver. A multinational e-commerce website, Walmart, started as a small store in the USA, and reached the list of leading multinational companies of the ecommerce market. This amazing e-commerce website gives you an instant discount of $25 as soon as you create an account on its website. You can use its quick search feature to choose from a variety of options and categories. Moreover, it also enables you to rate the product after it gets delivered to you. It even offers some exciting discounts at times.

2. Etsy

Etsy is another most loved e-commerce website for the people of the USA. It has some of the most unique and creative items for its users. You can buy jewellery, accessories, shoes, clothes, and even home decor products from this fantastic site. It also sells vintage items, toys, useful tools, art pieces, and customized hand-made objects. You can seamlessly find many mesmerizing items in different categories of this website. It is also very useful if you have no clue what to gift your favourite ones on a special occasion; you only need to enter your email Id and it will shower the most amazing ideas on you. Not only that, you can even sell your products via this shopping website.   

3. eBay

The mother of eCommerce websites, eBay, enables customers to buy seamlessly, or sell their stuff like clothes, home appliances, furniture, camping essentials, sports essentials, and much more. You can order anything from this fantastic eCommerce website and can even avail special discounts using specific coupons. From beauty to electronics, it has hundreds of certified sellers from around the world. eBay is widely known for its attractive deals, and amazing discounts over big brands. You can even sell your old electronic items over this fantastic shopping website. It also supports digital payment methods and is available for both Android and iOs users.

4. Chairish

Chairish is a vintage lovers dream that offers home decor enthusiasts a fabulous collection of classic furniture, art pieces, and home accessories. This fantastic app changes the way you shop for your home. It’s a perfect one-stop store for you if you have recently shifted to a new space. It enables you to preview the item that you’re interested in via the app’s camera feature. Not only that, you can even avail a discount of up to 80% during its final sale, interesting! This amazing e-commerce website uses the latest AR techniques to let you visualize how certain products would look on your house walls. You can download it seamlessly from the App Store for free. 

5. Gilt

If you are searching for luxurious items at a discounted price, then Gilt is the perfect e-commerce app for you. This flash-sale site has got everything from clothes to home decor items to even tickets of some fantastic events. You can book a trip, purchase your favorite dress, and can book a salon appointment all together using this amazing app. This amazing e-commerce app enables you to discover the incredible designer picks, right at your fingertips. You can get great deals on mens wear, womens wear, kids wear, and on home decor as well. It even offers some special discounts for its mobile app users.  

How to Develop Apps Like Amazon?

1. Research and Market Study

The very first thing that you need to do before starting your own ecommerce business is conducting thorough research and market study. First, you need to figure out what you’ll be selling. Do you want to sell multiple things, or do you want to focus on only one kind of commodity? Now once you have decided what you want to sell, you need to conduct a market study. Explore the age, ethnic, and social groups you need to target. Find out what your competitors are doing and what services they are providing on their apps. That will give you a vague idea of the essential features you need to have in your application. Furthermore, this will tell you which tactics worked for your competitors and which didn’t as much. For example, if you intend to sell books, then you can have a look at Amazon, which started as an online book retailer, and what they did to not only survive but to become the undisputed king of the e-commerce spectrum.

Below is the list of all the things Amazon did right in its initial years:

(a) The first thing which Amazon did right was providing a breathtaking collection of books at very affordable prices.

(b) It offered a powerful search engine to its users to browse through its database of books.

(c) It offered them suggestions and various lists from which they could choose a book. Furthermore, the recommendation section, where users could select books according to their moods and reading preferences, worked in Amazon’s favor as well.

(d) It offered its customers who were using the Amazon mobile app, gift package, and automatic notification system.

(e) It allowed its users to share their comments and reviews about the book, or the product that they received. It also lets them surmise their review by giving them ratings in the form of stars.

2. Features

Now, once you have completed your research, it is time to start planning your app. Remember that it is considered a smarter move to get your application finished quickly and with only essential features, rather than wasting a lot of time trying to perfect it.

Just put together a couple of necessary features, and release your application. If need be, it can always be enhanced later on. Furthermore, if you put an app out in a basic form, it is easier to make tweaks in it based on user reviews.Alternatively, you can connect with an experienced eCommerce app development company to get the most amazing features matching the latest trends and market requirements. 

 When we talk about an e-commerce application, let us take a look at some of the essential features it needs to have:

1. Sign-up/Log-in
2. Search Option
3. AR View
4. User Review
5. Checkout
6. Wishlist
7. Push Notification
8. Payment Gateway
9. Shipping
10. Refer and Earn
11. Order Tracking
12. Easy Return
13. Live Chat Support

1. Sign-up/Log-in

When we say that start simple, we don’t mean that we don’t put in any effort at all. This application still needs to be able to reel in customers. And no matter how basic your mobile app is, it needs to have a user sign-in and login page. Now the key here is that you don’t harass your customers by asking them a bunch of unimportant questions. Keep it simple. Only ask for essential details and be done with it. Also, make sure that you add additional social media login and signup features as well.

2. Search Option

This aspect of your application should be speedy, and there should be a lot of advanced filtering options for the users to simplify and quicken their search. 

3. AR View

For quite some time, many new and advanced technologies have taken the e-commerce market to a higher level. One such robust technology is Augmented Reality which allows the users to visualize various products before buying them. As in, they can know what a piece of art will actually look like on their house wall. So, try to include this amazing feature in your mobile app to make your customers more happy.

4. User Review

You might think that allowing users to comment and review your products will make you vulnerable. But the truth is, it will boost your sales. It is a well-known fact that new buyers trust customer reviews more than what is written in the product description. 

5. Checkout

Every user fills his cart enthusiastically, but very few of them make the purchase. The biggest reason behind this is the complicated checkout process many apps use. You need to understand that users don’t want any sort of hassle; they don’t want to apply any amount of unwanted effort. So, if you are making them jump through many hoops to purchase items, they are only going to abandon your app and find a new one. Remember, there are plenty of fish in the sea.

Here are some pointers which you can appoint to make the check out process more streamlined:

(a) Allow users to buy as guests. Don’t try to impose ‘Must Login’ to Buy restrictions on your users. Many users don’t have time to sit and sign up these days, so make sure you don’t alienate these busy users.

(b) Humanity is an impatient breed, and we don’t like to be kept in the dark. So show the checkout progress to your users. Maybe divide the process into several steps; that way, users will know precisely how many levels they still have to go through.

Don’t bombard your customers with a plethora of questions; keep the checkout process as simple as possible.

6. Wishlist

Many times users find a certain product interesting but do not want to purchase it at that exact moment. In such a scenario, they can leverage this powerful wishlist feature which enables a person to save his/her product for future purchase. The users can even make their collections and can add products into it whenever they wish to.

7. Push Notification

Push notifications is a powerful feature that helps you to grab your customer’s attention. You can seamlessly update them about any upcoming sale,special discounts, or even any new product range. This feature also allows you to send them reminders about the products waiting in their wishlist.  

8. Payment Gateway

Try integrating a safe and straightforward payment gateway. Also, don’t bind your users to just one option; give them a choice. Furthermore, make sure you only appoint accessible and safe payment gateways with a good reputation. Whenever money is involved, security is the biggest concern, and if something goes wrong and some user’s payment is lost, then, it will taint your reputation.

9. Shipping 

The final feature in the list is Shipping. A big reason behind Amazon’s success is its reach. It has well-stocked warehouses everywhere, which allows it to ship goods quickly. Speed is everything, and customers are very impatient. They want their products shipped as soon as possible, so make sure you take care of that. Tell users estimated delivery date as well, so that they have time to look forward to. 

10. Refer and Earn 

In order to make your eCommerce app more popular, you should always look out for ways to lure more users and to make existing users happy. Refer & Earn is one of the best ways to achieve that. Through this robust feature, you existing users can earn reward points or cashbacks when a new user sign-in using their referral code. You can even offer the new users some reward points on their first shopping to make them happy too.

11. Order Tracking 

Besides easy checkout option, you should also allow your customers to track their shipments as soon as they place their orders. So order tracking provides them the exact details about their product, and also provides them an estimated delivery time. With that, the users can even reschedule their delivery as per their convenience.

12. Easy Return 

There are a lot of times when users are not satisfied with the product received by them. Hence, your app should have an easy return option to efficiently handle such cases. This powerful feature makes the returns a hassle-free task. Not only that, it also ensures that the exact return amount gets transferred to the user account quickly. 

13. Live Chat Support 

The live chat option allows your valuable users to seamlessly chat with your customer support team regarding any product query or other issues. By leveraging advanced technologies, you can even introduce AI driven chatbots in your mobile app to get sure shot success. 

3. Design

The first impression is the last impression. If you are not wooing your customer the moment he opens your app, then you are in great trouble. So make sure that you choose a professional design for your app. The visuals of your app will influence the user’s opinion of your app significantly. So, make sure you don’t mess up.

Some of the key points you should focus on are listed below

1. A clean, creative, innovative, sometimes even funny, logo will do wonders for your business. Your logo is the identity of your app. On Google Play Store on the Apple App Store, everywhere, your app will be recognized by your logo. So, make sure that it is as eye-catching as possible, or else, you won’t even get a chance to show customers your app.
2. Make sure that you follow a color scheme that makes the goods on the application stand out.
3. Provide product pictures from various sides, use quality images, and try to add zooming options.

4. Platform

Now the next stage involves deciding the platform for your application. The most prominent choices in the market are Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Now both of them are highly in demand and are famous in their circles. While iOS rules in North America and Europe, other parts of the world trust Android. So here is the biggest question that you’ll need to answer, and the answer to it will depend on a couple of factors. First, your clients. Are you targeting wealthy or middle-class customers? Because it is a well-accepted fact that rich people own iPhones while most middle-class customers go for Android, given the fact that it is cheaper. Secondly, the geographical separation which we mentioned above will influence your decision as well. Are you targeting customers in Europe and North America, or outside them? Then, the final thing you need to keep in mind is the time it takes for an application to be built on each of these platforms. Android has many variants. The devices are of varying sizes, and due to its open-source nature, every company makes a few tweaks in it before releasing a new phone. So making an app for Android is tricky since it needs to be developed for many platforms. On the other hand, Apple applications are finished quickly, since it has only a handful of devices.

5. Customer Service

Customers will have issues. Either with your app functionality, or your products, or something else. The bottom line is, they will have complaints, and you need to figure out a way to make it easier for them to pass that complaint to you. Giving a contact number in the footer is no longer enough. It is sporadic these days that the customer will close your app and call on the number you have provided. So be available for them through the app.

6. Promotion 

And the last thing which decides the fate of your app is the promotion. Don’t underestimate the power of publicity; you need people to know and be intrigued about your application even before it is released. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are powerful promotional tools. Your presence on these platforms is a must these days. Also, try to be as active on them as possible. Managing a blog is also an excellent promotional tool, as well. That’s a perfect way of sharing your ideas and some news you might have with your customers.

How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Amazon?

The cost of developing an app like Amazon depends on various factors, and majorly on your requirements. The eCommerce development services leveraged by you, the number of resources working, testing approach, engagement model, and the list goes on. Here are some of the most important factors that affects your eCommerce app development cost:

1. Development Cost

Development cost varies from region to region. In some areas, the development cost is high while in other areas it is quite low. Also, the various factors like the complexity of the project affect the development cost.

2. Management Cost

It includes the costs involved in getting expert suggestions from our certified developers and managers. It also consists of the costs involved in making SRS for your mobile app, or in short, the designing price.

3. UI/UX Cost

There is no aspect of making a mobile app if it isn’t user-friendly. So UI/UX helps to make your mobile app functional and provides it an aesthetic design.

4. IT Support Cost

In most of the companies, the support cost is free for a particular period and is chargeable after that. So while choosing a mobile app development company, make sure to discuss this thing. 

Apart from all these costs, there are certain other costs like QA cost, testing cost, and so on involved in making a perfect mobile app. To get an accurate estimate of the costs involved in building your mobile app, you can contact our experts. 

Before We Sign Off

The process, of course, doesn’t end here. As we mentioned at the beginning as well, you can always enhance your application. The process never ends. So, keep in mind that you take customer reviews very seriously. There are a lot of other ways for you to keep your customers interested, like giving them app wallet credits, coupons, exclusive deals. In conclusion, your app needs to become a necessity to your users; only then will it have any chance of surviving in this cut-throat market.

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