How does the mobile app checkout experience lead to success?

The mobile market has been growing steadily as people are becoming more and more confident about their mobile purchases. However, for many retail apps, customer conversion rates remain low.

The shoppers are transitioning from their personal computers to their mobile phones and now have a whole new set of anticipations. A number of mobile payment apps are developed without carefully considering the user experience and therefore, contain many barriers to purchasement. Mistakes made by mobile app development companies in retail app development often discourage users from completing a purchase.

So how can you convert your mobile users into customers through retail apps? Seasia Infotech has the answer: by optimizing their user experience.

A decent first impression

To avoid losing customers, it’s really important to make a powerful first impression within the first five seconds of the user experience after they visit the homepage.

If your users log into your retail app and are disappointed with the initial impression, the app will be dismissed and your company may lose customers to retailers with better m-commerce strategies. It is also vital to ensure that the homepage assures a good first impression as it will set the base for the user’s expectations for the rest of the checkout process.

If your initial impression is believable and trustworthy, your users may convert to customers, consecutively, meeting your organizational goals.

Eliminate interferences

Mobile devices already have many interferences and distractions like text messages, incoming calls, social media notifications and many more.

Adding to this list will deter your user from meeting the goal of the retail app, which is to make a purchase. Having too many adverts and information may distract the user during their route to purchase.

A mobile app, especially one developed with an integrated payment system should be clutter free and easy to use. Else, the user will get distracted by the extra information which will create a barrier during the checkout process. Removing such distractions and information will make the path to purchase more efficient (also, worth reading here is Mobile Apps and User Experience – Does it Matter?).

Assured security

Users are often diffident about transitioning over to mobile payments, which is why you need to convince them that their information is safe. Integrating a safety badge into your retail app may sound a simple feature, but even then it’s often overlooked. The security reassurance should be illustrated through the entire checkout process to retell the customer that the app is reliable and protected.

Users like to offer their personal information only if there’s a security reassurance. This thoughtfulness will inspire the customers to return and use your app repeatedly for mobile payments.

Lessen the amount of actions

Most of the digital customers don’t want to spend time filling unnecessary fields of personal information. Users are most likely to get frustrated, abandon their purchases and exit the app if the checkout processes takes much time and effort.

The checkout form must be short and simple to ensure that the user makes it to the finish line. Adding a lot of extra fields to fill will increase incomplete checkout rates.

Design intentionally

It is vital that the developer designs your app to fit the hands of your user. If the app design layout is uncomfortable for the user, they are most likely to get irritated which may reflect negatively on the brand and diverge from your utmost goal.

According to a research by UX Matters, users interact with their smartphones in 3 different ways: single handed (49%), cradled (39%) and double-handed (15%). Since most people hold their smartphones single handedly, the app design must reflect this. The placement of the information should be done very strategically: the most important information should be placed conveniently while the least important can be placed farthest to the thumb.

Frustration often carries a customer away, which is why it’s important to remember who you are designing the app for and what their physical behaviors are.

Customer service option

A meek yet often disregarded feature that many retail apps don’t include is the customer service contact information.

Many customers want to be answered about their questions, concerns and even comments when shopping through their mobile device. You need to ensure that there is a visible button for the shoppers’ help. Yes, FAQs are useful, but they often don’t assist customers with the right solution. Make sure you offer assistance and not annoy your customers during the mobile checkout process.

Unified navigation

Smooth navigation will ensure bump-less checkout along the way. A long checkout process will encourage the user to change their mind even before reaching the end of the transaction.

A progress indicator will help users to understand how long it might take to make a final purchase. If a user doesn’t know how long the process is, they can easily get frustrated and exit out, leaving the purchase abandoned.

A progress indicator breaks down the experience so the user fully comprehends the time and effort it will take to finally press ‘Submit’.

Overall accessibility

Mobile retail app designing and development are two of the most important considerations to keep in mind for the overall convenience of the user.

No user would want to spend an excess amount of time creating and setting up a new account to make a purchase, especially if it is on a smaller device with a tiny screen space. Designing your app with an expedient checkout option will inspire users to make more purchases in less amount of time.

Some other important features to consider during development are coupons and gift card options, autofill and large checkout buttons. These design elements will lead to a seamless path to purchase and overall user experience satisfaction.

To conclude, the mobile checkout process should be rational and upfront. Considering these design solutions while developing a retail app will help developers to increase the user retention rate and encourage more mobile purchases. The retail apps need to continuously evolve as the user experience changes and the expectations of the mobile shopper become more demanding. Understanding the mobile shopping expectations and behaviors will help to create a seamless mobile shopping experience and avoid misuse of the app, abandoned purchases and low retention rates.