Develop a Shopping App: Features, Types & Costs in 2024

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The e-commerce industry has witnessed exponential growth in recent years, and 2024 definitely won’t be an exception. Mobile shopping apps have emerged as the most crucial tools for business owners as a means to interact with customers, make the process of purchases much easier, and provide more personalized experiences. Whether it’s a small boutique or a large enterprise,  e-commerce app development can indeed be quite helpful for enhancing reach and sales.

Each of the steps involved in shopping app development has been explained, along with the most prominent features of a shopping app, types of apps, and costs involved. We also discuss some special considerations: BigCommerce app development, Shopify app development services, and how PHP language plays an important role in making these apps robust. Whether you’re designing an e-commerce app from scratch or want to utilize the platforms, this post will give you all the insights you need to succeed. 

Why You Need to Create a Shopping App in 2024?

Shopping apps, especially in the mobile-first shopping world, provide numerous benefits not only to the customers but also to the companies:

1. Better User Experience: Since shopping apps are mobile-specific, user-friendliness and seamless navigation ensure that users will return more often.
2. High Sales and Conversions: Studies have indicated that the conversion rates are higher on apps than on websites. He or she is able to browse and buy more easily from an app, which enables him or her to make faster buying decisions.
3. Customer Loyalty and Engagement: With apps, businesses can offer push notifications, and discounts, and keep running loyalty programs. Such activities ensure that customers are retained because they act as indicators of probable future purchases.
4. Better Speed and Performance: Local data is often stored in mobile apps, leading to an increase in speed and performance. This means that transactions go better and quicker, with lesser load times and generally, a better shopping experience.
5. Direct Access of Customers: The business can reach its customers through the help of push notifications as well as in-app messaging about new arrivals, offers, or sales that will keep the customers abuzz about your brand.

Now let’s see what constitutes the part of a shopping app so successful and the kinds of features, types, and technologies used.

Key Features to Include in a Shopping App

Whether you want to build a new e-commerce application or hire an e-commerce app development company, the following functionalities are to be considered:

1. User Registration and Profile Management

In this functionality, user accounts will be created where users will be able to administer all their information, order history, and items of interest that they can save on a wishlist. Account registration may also assist in personalizing recommendations for customers according to their preferences and surfing history.

2. Product Catalog and Search Functionality

A shopping app’s success is anchored in a simple-to-navigate product catalog. Users need to be able to browse through categories, brands, or prices. The search functionality also needs to be strong enough to filter products by color, size, and ratings.

3. Shopping Cart and Checkout Process

The shopping cart should be user-friendly, so you can review the items before checkout. Frictionless checkout, which even offers options to save payment methods and delivery addresses, is a must for reducing cart abandonment. Also, the multiple payment gateways, PayPal, Stripe, and Apple Pay allow the system to adapt to the different preferences of the customer.

4. Payment Gateway Integration

Online shoppers fear security threats the most. So, it should have a secure and trustworthy payment gateway in your e-commerce app. Support multiple payment modes -card credit, card debit, and mobile wallets. Some of the popular ones include PayPal, Stripe, regional services, etc.

5. Push Notifications

Push notifications are an excellent way to engage with your customers and keep them up to date with special offers, new products, or order status. Personalized push notification will lead to a significant retention rate of users and provide repeat purchase inducement.

6. Order Tracking

Features that track the orders in real-time enable customers to track the status of their orders to ensure if shipping is going, which gives estimation times, and potential delays. This enhances the satisfaction of customers and lowers support requests.

7. Customer Reviews and Rating

Allowing customers to rate and leave reviews about products makes your store believable and, most of all, new customers will now make the right purchase. The review of user-generated content can also serve as an improvement for SEO and visibility in app stores.

8. Wishlist Feature

A wishlist feature allows the customers to save items they wish to purchase later. This allows for more chances of return customers because customers tend to come back and purchase the saved items.

9. Admin Dashboard

A well-designed admin dashboard makes handling all products, processing orders, answering customer questions, and tracking analytics relatively easy. In this regard, an online business provides business persons with timely stock levels and sales data as well as an insight into consumer behavior.

10. Multi-language and Multi-currency Support

If the application has a global customer base, then the addition of multi-language and multi-currency support helps ensure that users can shop using their desired language and currency. This would mean quite an improvement to its global coverage.

Types of Shopping Apps

A good e-commerce app provides business owners with a number of options for different types of shopping apps they can create based on their needs:

1. Single-vendor eCommerce Apps

These are applications designed for one store or brand where the customers can browse, add items to a cart, and make purchases directly from the business’s catalog of products. Some examples of such in-demand apps are Amazon, Zara, and H&M.

2. Marketplace Apps

Marketplace apps are those apps that support different counts of sellers. They provide an array of products coming from the same vendors in one place. Examples include Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. In case you need to accommodate different types of sellers, this type is great.

3. Subscription-based eCommerce Apps

Subscription-based apps enable users to receive routine shipments of products like beauty boxes, meal kits, or pet supplies. That would be fantastic for business corporations that sell consumable products or services that customers require in a constant stream.

4. B2B E-commerce Apps

Business-to-business (B2B) apps enable transactions between businesses. These apps are employed by wholesalers, manufacturers, and suppliers in managing bulk orders, invoicing, and client relationships.

Technologies for Building a Shopping App

So, while building an Android app for shopping, they have three options: native, hybrid, or web apps. Here are the essentials.

1. Native vs Hybrid Apps

Native apps are designed for a specific operating system or platform, be it iOS or Android, offering superior performance. For the best possible user experience, consider native development.

Hybrid applications will run on multiple operating systems using only one codebase. Hybrid apps are typically cheaper in development and maintenance than native applications but, likely, give up some performance and user experience.

2. Mobile Development Frameworks

These frameworks are commonly used for the development of e-commerce app efficiently are:

React Native: JavaScript framework to develop native apps for iOS and Android from a common codebase.

Flutter: Open-source UI toolkit, backed by Google. Developers use Flutter to create natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop.

Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android): Native languages, for development of each platform.

3. Backend Technologies

The core of the eCommerce application would be the backend which could manage the data, process orders, and handle user accounts. This is all done most commonly with:

PHP language: PHP is the server-side language with great usage that empowers most of the Content Management Systems (CMS), including WordPress, Magento, as well as WooCommerce.  It is applicable equally to BigCommerce development.

Node.js: Scaly and powerful so that it can handle high volumes of traffic, Node.js is ideal for high-performance apps.

Python: Python is applied most commonly in eCommerce applications because of the simplicity and scalability of this language.

4. Cloud Services and Hosting

These applications are hosted on cloud services with vendors such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. The application manipulates the user’s data and increases according to requirements. Because of cloud hosting, it is ensured that the app has adequate traffic-handling capabilities, especially during peak shopping seasons.

5. E-commerce Platform and API

Whether you opt for Shopify or BigCommerce, both offer APIs and SDKs that facilitate easier development. To illustrate, to create an application for a Shopify store, a developer can even integrate the store’s inventory along with its payment gateway using its APIs. Shop app development services have been designed especially to extend the functionality of your Shopify shop into a mobile application directly.

Cost of Developing a Shopping App

The e-commerce app development can vary greatly in price, depending upon complexity, features, and the type of platform to be used. Here are some averages:

• Basic Shopping Application: This is the simplest form of application and can be developed between $15,000 to $30,000. In this, the very basic features like listing products, cart functionality, and payment would be integrated into it.
• Advanced shopping app: One with more features such as push notification, order tracking, and multi-language can go from $30,000 to $60,000.
• Business Application: The cost ranges between $60,000 to $100,000 or more in terms of a fully developed application with customized integrations and complicated functionality.

Ongoing costs for server maintenance, application updates, and marketing will continue to occur. Additionally, it is typical to budget for 15-20% of the cost of the original development to cover annual maintenance and enhancements.

Conclusion

In 2024, creating a shopping app would be key for businesses that want to do well in the eCommerce space. Whether you build an e-commerce app from scratch or leverage Shopify app development services, BigCommerce app development, or even other types, the right features and technologies can help you create a seamless experience for customers.