The Secrets of B2C App Development for Success

The era we live in is purely digital. Everything you could ever imagine from shopping to consulting a doctor and ordering groceries is now a few taps away on your smartphone. A mobile app is a great tool to attract and acquire mobile customers, increase site visibility and eventually generate more sales.

For B2C (Business-to-Consumer) businesses it helps diversify their reach with technology by narrowing the gap between the end customers and enterprises. So whether you’re an enterprise that already has a large customer base or a startup, you must consider investing in B2C mobile app development. Through this article, we will help you understand the specifics of B2C mobile apps and how your organizations can benefit from them.

Let’s start with the basics!

Simply put, it is a mobile app that helps customers to buy goods, products, and services. They meet the specific needs of users and help them perform tasks with minimal effort.

Let’s also look at the types of B2C apps to help you understand which one would make the most sense for your business:

• eCommerce apps – Suitable for retailers who want to create a strong online presence through virtual stores that also help in targeting a wider audience
  Example – Amazon, H&M, Grofers and more
• Loyalty apps – Best suited for companies who want to provide customer rewards and loyalty programs
  Example – Stocard, KeyRing, Starbucks and more
• Standalone apps – These apps run locally on devices and do not require any additional software to function smoothly. Since the logic is built into the app, it does not require an internet connection. Some examples of standalone apps are.
  Example – WordPad, Calculator and more

Sounds interesting right? Listed below are some of the compelling reasons & benefits why your B2C business must invest in the mobile app.

With a wide audience reach across regions, the development teams designing this type of app focus are constantly aiming for improving the user experience for a glitch-free performance. Here’s a look at the three benefits that stand out:

1. Consumers Spend Most of Their Phone Time Using Apps

Global research has shown that we spend 70% of our screen time on smartphones with approximately 90% of that time on apps. Therefore it is worth putting efforts in this direction

2. Accurate Analytics to Customer Data

• Personalize user experience by tracking the user activity and tailor the app content that matches search recommendations
• Identify & suggest preferences even propose deals that are in line with user interests.
• Gauging what customers like best you can even devise strategies for new products, features, or services that they expect from the business.
• By leveraging contextual information — like time or location — you can even target ads or highlight deals that are likely to be relevant for a certain type of user

3. Leveraging Mobility to Enhance Customer Experience

• Efficient and streamlined navigation goes a long way to optimize mobile UI for enhancing customer experience.
• A mobile app that’s easier to navigate than its web counterpart helps improve the brand’s reputation.

4. Streamlined Customer Loyalty Programs

• By keeping a track of rewards, purchases and award points, it becomes seamless for both business and end-customers to benefit from the program
• The instant access to reward points summary, available deals & other information directly from their phone would save the hassle of managing the physical customer loyalty program. Further, with this, the companies can focus on features and customer experience.

It goes without saying when you decide to develop an app you need to be clear about “who is your target audience?” This primarily would define major elements such as the type of tools and features included that would enhance the user interface (UI) and this would vary depending on the type of mobile app.

In our experience, there are five distinct models that B2C companies typically put to practice while moving their products in the digital realm.

1. Direct sellers:

• Selling a product directly to consumers
• Includes small online businesses as well as large retailers like Microsoft and Apple to sell exclusive in-house products.

2. Online marketplace:

• Act as intermediaries as they don’t own most of the products that are sold on their site
• Put sellers directly in contact with buyers and usually make a profit by taking a cut of the transaction
• eBay, Amazon are examples of such online intermediaries

3. Advertising based B2C:

• Focuses on targeted advertising with usage criteria on internet searches, content viewed, and demographics to strategically place advertisements
• Company purchases advertising space on a platform that receives large volumes of traffic, such as YouTube and more.

4. Community-based B2C:

• Leverages online, like-minded communities on media platforms and beyond to showcase shared interest or physical location. Social media platforms, such as Facebook groups and more

5. Fee-based B2C:

• Instant payment-based company’s content access
• Netflix, Hulu and more are prime examples of this approach

Many businesses may also wonder what are the differences between B2B and B2C apps.  Here’s a closer look at the two to help you understand that.

Further, if you are a business who is new to the eCommerce world or someone who wants to consider the value to their business, do give this blog a read to learn about how to develop business strategy to define the value proposition, target audience and revenue streams.

As a trusted company for mobile app development, we’re a go-to partner for enterprises and startups who aim to take their business to new heights. Right from concept to creation, we walk you through the entire B2C mobile application development lifecycle to bring your idea to life. Our team of mobile app specialists has years of experience in working with global clients across industries to craft innovative B2C apps and deliver unparalleled results.

B2C apps cater to an array of organizations. They help understand how the product/service would make it a right fit for the customers, here are some of the industry use cases based on our experience in developing such apps that are enabling global organizations to streamline their mobile interaction.

Banking

Mobile Money Transfer App – A centrally hosted transaction platform that helps secure fund transfer transactions by integrating reliable & available third-party solutions for payment processing. We helped develop an intuitive app that helped to streamline transactions for customers across the globe.

Media and Entertainment

Event Ticket Booking App – Next-gen customers require interactive and easy ways to search and book tickets online. We developed a ticketing app that helped with managing various online bookings for event schedules.

Manufacturing

AR-based Product Visualization App – With a gamified virtual experience, users can interact with 3D objects to visualize a product in their home in real-time, with information on the color, design pattern & more.

Today’s customer spends more time on their phones — and they do so while using apps which is beyond browsing the web. We believe this trend is likely to continue – as overall smartphone usage is only going to skyrocket, with younger generations spending more time on their phones. Therefore, if your business doesn’t have a B2C app you are going to miss out on a significant chunk of customers.

Want to start building an app? Rishabh can help. Our teams have the proficiency in delivering the user experience that people need today. Whether it is about delighting your customers or improving visibility; we support organizations in numerous ways with B2C mobile apps.