philipov | Philipov.net

How Will Mobile Apps Change in 2016?

The number of mobile app users in the UK is estimated to go over 43.2 million in 2016. It has become customary for most people to check their email, the weather and the news, to have fun and to keep up with their friends via apps. But can you expect to get more and better mobile experiences this year? Will the importance of apps for marketing and sales increase? As a mobile app development consultant, let me take you through the major trends predicted for this year and beyond.

Growing Shift from Websites to Apps
This trend has been around for some time and although it may not have reversed the situation completely, it is growing strong. It is much easier for users to just tap on the app icon than to use a browser to find essential information and services which they need. As brands realise the necessity of having an app (49% of UK businesses participating in a recent survey plan investing in one this year), the competition for finding a permanent place on the smartphones and tablets of consumers becomes more severe. This will drive innovation in mobile technology further.

Increased Visibility
Google is already offering opportunities for using APIs to enable the showing of app content in the results from mobile searches. This allows apps to reach more people more quickly. They key to success is high-quality content matching user’s interests. Mobile applications will also enable direct access to the websites of businesses. This results in shortening of the sales funnel and leads to higher revenues.

Greater Personalisation
Innovative tools allow apps to collect data about the activity, preferences and location of users. With advanced and accurate analytics and well-developed functionalities, personalisation is easily achievable and highly effective. Each user receives unique content and recommendations, which are tailored especially to his/her needs. This makes all marketing strategies more effective and helps to bring sales up.

Well-Rounded Functionalities
Do you have one hundred or more apps on your phone? Are you using all of them fully? As the market for iOS and especially for Android apps becomes ever more competitive, businesses will benefit from integrating a larger array of functionalities to win customers. A weather app, for instance, can help the users with scheduling or vice versa.

Retail Apps Growing Bigger
More and more apps will take the mobile shopping experience one step further. Instead of just marketing products with content and engagement-based programs, applications can offer consumers the opportunity to go over complete catalogues and compare products based on features and prices. This is a successful strategy for increasing sales, especially when the functionalities can be used offline.

Basic Services Going Mobile
More and more traditional services such as utility bill payment and health insurance management will go mobile. This will make the life of consumers easier and increase mobile usage. The level of cross-platform integration will go up. Important information and services will be available across all devices of the user.

What’s the conclusion? Mobile apps become fundamental for marketing and sales in more and more industries. They are still fairly new tools for promotion, lead generation and building loyalty, but they offer fantastic new opportunities which businesses can exploit.

Want a high-quality mobile app for your business? Let’s talk.

5 Ways to Reduce the Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate at Your Online Store

Why do shoppers on your e-commerce website abandon the shopping cart before making a purchase? Finding the answer to this question and making changes based on it can cause your revenue to jump considerably. As a web development consultant, my approach is comprehensive and involves studying the online store in detail and making recommendations for the improvement of the design and functionalities. Here I share tips on how to avoid some of the major checkout mistakes which lead to cart abandonment.

Be Clear About Costs
Being presented with unexpected costs at the time of checkout is the most common reason why shoppers just leave instead of making a purchase. The solution is to clarify all costs before the visitor reaches the payment page/section. Make sure that they are included on the shopping cart page. Ideally, you should place them right below the product price. Shoppers should also be able to find them on purposefully created information pages.

When it comes to online shopping, people are most sensitive about shipping costs and delivery times. Ideally, these should be present on the shopping cart page. If you offer free shipping and/or express delivery, it pays off to include this on the product pages to give visitors greater motivation to buy. If you offer several shipping options priced differently, describe them in detail to help shoppers make the best choice.

Offer a Guest Checkout Option
Unless you have a large loyal customer base, most of the visitors to your online store will be one-time shoppers (who you can turn into loyal customers). They just want to buy one or more products easily and quickly and leave. Forcing them to go through an account creation process before making a purchase is highly likely to put them off. Being more flexible will give you tangible results.

Avoid Distraction
Is your checkout page filled with offers which are not related to the items inside the shopping cart? Do you have large flashy fields for entering coupon codes? These are common mistakes which practically urge shoppers to leave the page with the prospects of them returning being quite vague. Make the checkout page clutter-free. Use minimalist design and include product photos. The checkout buttons should be large and brightly coloured.

Ideally, the coupon code field should not be the first thing which the user sees at checkout. Shoppers who have a code will take effort to find the field so you can make it less obvious and attractive to avoid putting everyone else off.

Use a Checkout Progress Indicator
The idea is to indicate the number of steps which have to be taken for making a purchase. The fewer they are the lower your shopping cart abandonment rate will be. To help shoppers feel more at ease, you can combine two steps into one provided that you will not have a page which is too long and requires the entry of too much information.

Integrate Multiple Payment Options
People want to buy products from you so why would you put them off by not offering a payment option which is suitable for them? Generally, the greater the diversity is the better. Still, it is more effective and cost-efficient to study your target audience and give them exactly what they want.

Take measures for optimising your shopping cart and checkout to increase your conversion and revenue.

If you are looking for productive e-commerce solutions, get in touch with me to receive consultation.

Key Factors for Developing a Successful Digital Strategy

Just over ten years ago, the web was viewed as just one of the marketing channels available to businesses. Now it is a powerful platform not only for promotions, but for direct sales. How effective are your digital marketing efforts? If they are not organised in a whole digital strategy with clearly set objectives, then you are most probably losing money as well as prospects. But how do you create a strategy that works? As an experienced digital consultant, I’d like to take you through the primary steps which have to be taken.

Analysis and Goal Setting
It is important to approach the development of a digital strategy in the same way as the creation of a business plan. It all begins with analysing your strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats in the digital environment. Given how dynamic this environment is, you need to identify your competitive advantage and come up with a strong value proposition.
Millions of people in the UK alone use the web, but it is neither effective nor cost-efficient to target all of them. One of the first steps to take is to define your target audience using precise demographics. This will help for the development of your website and its content and for the choice and utilisation of digital marketing channels later on.
You have to define precise goals that you want to achieve with your digital strategy. The key thing is for them to be measurable. You should focus on traffic, conversion rates, sales and revenues.

Digital Channel Selection
It is a common misconception that you can focus solely on two or three digital marketing channels. This is because they are all connected just like everything on the web today. Due to the numerous changes in the algorithms of Google in recent years, driving organic traffic to a business website has become more challenging and requires a great amount of effort to be put in content creation. PPC campaigns still have high return on investment, especially thanks to Google AdWords.
Content marketing is essential for promotion and should ideally be spread to a variety of social media. Social media marketing can be used not only for driving traffic and conversion, but for creating engagement and building loyalty. This is where its strength lies. Email marketing remains one of the most effective and dependable digital channels allowing you to capture and convert high-quality leads.

Planning and Scheduling
Once you have the big picture, it is time to come up with the actual plans to follow. It is up to you to decide on the period which is to be covered by a single plan. It depends on your individual business operations. For many companies, the three-month plans work well given the dynamics of the online business environment.
The decision on the number and types of digital marketing campaigns which will be carried out during the year should never be underestimated. In addition to those for new product launches, you may want to boost sales during traditional low periods or to increase your revenue during the holiday season. Advance planning combined with flexibility will give you the best chances of success.

It’s time to start creating your digital strategy for the coming periods. Count on me to help you at every step of the way.

Need an experienced digital consultant to help you with developing your digital strategy? Email me or send a message online.

Major Benefits of Custom Software for Your E-commerce Business

Why get bespoke e-commerce software when there are so many SaaS solutions around? It is true that these are usually cheap and easy to use, but none of them can fit your needs precisely and this is something which can bring down your performance, especially in the long term. A solution, developed especially for your organisation, on the other hand, can give you a multitude of benefits. This is what my experience as an e-commerce development consultant has shown.

Full Process Integration
You and your employees will never have to spend hours trying to work with data from several different sources or to transfer it from one tool to another. Everything necessary for managing your online store and your entire business will be in one place. Imagine having one and the same software for customer relationships management, inventory management, human resource planning and scheduling, shipping management, email marketing and every other process that you can think of. All data and tools which you need will be at your fingertips no matter whether you have your laptop or only your smartphone at hand.

Greater Automation
Many of the tasks which you and your employees are used to doing manually will be completely automated. This will allow you to use all available resources more efficiently. There will be additional benefits for your e-commerce business such as higher customer satisfaction. When a customer makes an enquiry or a complaint, for example, acknowledgement of receipt will be sent automatically. This will help you keep the customer at ease and give you time to look into the matter.

Custom Analytics
No one knows your e-commerce business better than you do. When we develop bespoke software for it, we can integrate all the analytics which you require no matter how specific they are. You will have accurate data about the shoppers on your website and their behaviour at all times. It will be easy to follow the daily, weekly and monthly changes in visit and sales patterns and to make improvements timely.

Better Customer Experience
This is fundamental for the success of every business. The custom software will help you with practically everything which you need to keep your customers happy. In addition to providing quick response as mentioned above, you will have all sought products in stock, hassle-free shipping, which is easily trackable by every client, and easily-run newsletter, which is highly popular and allows you to build loyalty.

Flexible Options
No matter what you sell online, the market is highly competitive and driven by innovation. In this kind of environment, you need as much flexibility as possible. This is a key advantage which bespoke e-commerce software can give you. You can count on me and my team of developers to add new features and functionalities when they are needed. This will enable you to be up to date with the latest trends and to stay ahead of competitors.

Higher Efficiency
With the use of the custom software, each business process will be performed more effectively and each one of your employees will be more productive. This results in cost-efficiency and allows you to scale your business for achieving and maintaining high growth. This is the ultimate benefit from using a solution, especially tailored to the needs of your organisation.
Consider these important benefits when making a decision on using custom software for your e-commerce business.

Do you want to have custom e-commerce software for your business? Let’s talk.

Mobile App Development: Planning Is Key

With more than half of Google searches being made via smartphones and tablets and mobile sales experiencing double-digit growth, it becomes essential for businesses of all types and sizes to have their own mobile app. The big question is how to go about this project. You will need a clear strategy and a precise plan for action. As a mobile app consultant with solid experience, let me tell you more about the preparation and the development process.

Native Is Fundamental
What’s all the hype about native mobile apps? It’s true that they require a greater investment compared to their hybrid counterparts, but they have several major advantages. This is because they are developed in the native language of the platform which they are for, be it Android or iOS. This gives them direct access to the mobile device’s hardware for seamless interaction. All graphic features including multimedia are flawless. Easy navigation, attractive and functional interface and fast and hassle-free performance are other major benefits. Simply put, if you want to engage your customers and to have effective marketing, you need to go native.

Features and Functionalities
These are the factors which planning is primarily focused on. The first step of the process is to outline your goals clearly. What do you want to achieve with the mobile app for your business? The more specific you are about your marketing objectives, the better. The app can be a fantastic tool for engagement-based programs and building loyalty as well as for product promotion.
The next question to ask is: what should your app give to your customers? The age, gender, interests and habits of your target audience will help you find the answer. The user interaction patterns on your website are also helpful. When my team and I work on building a mobile app for a business, we research and analyse the behaviour of the target audience and their expectations in detail. The research on competitors enables us to come up with features and functionalities that will make your app stand out.
Once the plan for action is in place, our job is to create a prototype for structuring the app’s content and interface. The development of the beta version is followed by strict quality control for perfecting every feature. This is how we create the final version, which is ready for publishing.

Launch and Marketing
The mobile app’s promotion is also something that you need to plan in advance. In order to use it as a powerful marketing tool and for delivering better services to your customers, you have to ensure that they will have it on their smartphones and tablets in the first place. My team will create an attractive icon and provide a set of graphics for capturing the interest of mobile users.
It pays off to develop a complete strategy for promoting your app with the use of all fundamental digital marketing tools. Optimising the application’s presentation for app store searches, creating special blog articles and social network posts about it and creating buttons which take visitors to your website to the app’s page in the store are among the fundamental and most effective ways to grab the attention of your target audience.

Since mobile competition is rising quickly and mobile app building isn’t an overnight project, it’s time for you to take action.

Want a native mobile app for your business? Share your vision with me.