As smartphones become more accessible and high-speed internet is no longer a premium infrastructure in many countries, users are now directly connected to the internet. This easy access to the internet has given a boost to mobile shopping. Many brands are hence embracing mobile commerce on top of the eCommerce platforms. Shopping apps with easy to browse catalogs are becoming more and more popular.
The emergence of mobile commerce changes how brick and mortar businesses operate. It’s important to note that mobile commerce growth is steadily increasing hitting an estimated $284 billion or 45% of eCommerce at the end of 2021. The mobile payments market is also catching on. This means that the likelihood of people making mobile purchases on their smartphones is also huge.
The sheer number of mobile users is reason enough to motivate businesses to embrace eCommerce and introducing mobile shopping as a part of their sales strategy.
Use experience is one of the main reasons for increased conversions. Various technologies can be used like AR that makes shopping experiences more immersive and interesting.
With the aid of a chatbot and messenger app, business owners can support their customers even outside business hours. Customer support bots have grown in intelligence and intuitiveness making these bots more efficient in dealing with common queries.
Customers have a number of payment methods when it comes to M-commerce. Whether it is a conventional credit card or PayPal, it can be integrated into the mobile store.
You can also read : Mobile App with Online Ordering for Your Local Business
With the entire world owning some or the other kind of mobile devices, businesses cannot afford to not have a mobile strategy. Mobile shopping is definitely becoming popular by the day and most businesses are reaping the benefits from going mobile!
Today, it’s hard to imagine shopping without the help of ratings and reviews about the products and services. According to consumer research conducted by Deloitte and Touche LLP, the majority of shoppers (around 75%) use reviews to discover and evaluate products. From food and beverage and apparel, to health and beauty, reviews play an important role in the buying process for customers.
Shoppers today not only view ratings before they make a purchase, but also leave a review after they have purchased and used a product. Studies show that the number of reviews submitted increased nearly 11% year over year since 2019. With reviews, shoppers are not only converting faster, but are known to spend more money too. This lift in revenues per visitor has seen a steep rise in recent years. But, increasing sales and profits aren’t the only thing that reviews can improve for your business. Brand retailers have reported that reviews have an impact beyond the product pages online. Many times a good review directly converts into increased in-store sales too.
A vast majority of shoppers research products online before going to the store to purchase them. Consumers often turn to ratings and reviews when they are in the decision making phase of the final purchase. Reading a positive review from an existing customer gives them the confidence that the product they chose is working well for others too. Studies have also shown that reviews have the ability to influence consumers to buy a more expensive product than they had planned.
Don’t forget to check: Gain Greater Business Reach With Lokaly Buyer App
You may be surprised to find that it’s not only the positive reviews that influence purchases. Many shoppers say that negative reviews are just as important in their decision to buy. It helps them build a pros and cons list (mentally, subconsciously) and the final decision to buy a product is based on complete information. This increases their confidence in their purchase and your product.
Having reviews displayed on your site is a great first step to winning over your customers. It improves one of the most valuable assets a business can have in today’s retail landscape – trustworthiness.
In today’s world, technology transformation is inevitable. But while we keep our businesses up to date with the latest technology and the latest trends in the market, we should also ensure that we plan ahead for the future too. Bullet-proof your business with the right scalable and flexible technology.
Technology keeps evolving and businesses need to plan ahead. With the latest technology today, it will be easier to scale in the future and adopt something more futuristic. Adopting AI and ML based mobile applications today will make it easier to step into the future.
No matter how great your forecasting model is, future is unpredictable. It’s important for businesses to invest in technology that can help adapt to the future developments in IT. For example, invest in scalable bandwidth and develop mobile applications with the latest technology.
The world of technology is constantly changing and businesses need to be able to adapt. Make sure that your hardware and software are up to date with the latest trends. It ensures that your business is set up for success.
With technology your business will be well equipped to handle any future circumstances. It’s a good idea to frequently review your processes and implement technology solutions to streamline the operations.
Customers keep a business alive. It is essential for businesses to analyse what technology the customer uses the most and ensure that they get the right information at the right time in the purchase process. This establishes good customer experiences for your business.
You can also read: Keep Up-to-Date your Business with Latest Technology
In order to bullet proof your business for the future, you need to ensure that you use the right technology for the right processes – a mix of mobile applications, eCommerce, web interfaces and more. These will ensure that you are ready!
One of the biggest decisions you will make for your business is the choice of the eCommerce platform that is scalable and will ensure long term growth. The platform should also help customers that are engaging with your brand to reduce friction while they’re getting the product they need. Ensuring employees have what they need to implement campaign strategies and at the same time be ready to use without add on cost for maintenance and installation.
Whether you are a brick and mortar store with a strong local presence or are looking for an enterprise eCommerce solution, building one from scratch is out of the question! The time frame and the cost is simply too high for such an endeavour.
The good news is that there are a number of ready to use eCommerce solutions such as Lokaly that enable you to go online instantly. These solutions are highly customisable too. Being white labelled, you need not worry about how it will ‘look’ for your brand.
Lokaly is ready to use, white labelled eCommerce solution. It enables local stores to quickly go online by quickly upload the products and begin selling.
Lokaly can be completely customised to suit your business requirements. It’s the easiest and fastest way to reach your customers where they are – online. It not only helps you keep up with the latest in the online world, but also helps keep in compliance with the latest no contact delivery policies for the covid 19 rules. With customisations, you can make the app look, feel and serve your customers as your business requirements.
Developing an excellent product and a great sales strategy is only half the battle won for a business. Providing good customer support after you have sold a product is also important. Shopping is not merely a transaction – the entire experience counts. By providing excellent customer support you can offer your customers better experiences while shopping with your brand. Shoppers that ‘feel good’ while making a purchase, will definitely be back for more.
Customer support empowers customers through the entire purchasing process and post purchase experiences. It helps you better assist customers who are interested in purchasing your product by offering quick and accurate answers. Next, it is also useful during the purchasing process. You can provide customers with orders, errors while placing orders, or provide better package tracking details. Lastly, you can offer customers with support if they face any issues post purchase. You can make cancellations and returns easy to process or offer the ability to exchange faulty products.
A good product or service can only get you so far. If you add good customer support to the equation, the value of your offering as well as your brand instantly increases. It also has the potential to reduce negative reviews. This added value translates to increased revenue and customer retention.
With customer support, businesses can offer a lot more than sales transactions. You can give them a reason to love your products and your business!
“Restaurants are Looking Beyond…”, says an article by The Economic Times. Restaurants are now adopting platforms that charge lesser commission fees compared to dominant food aggregators. Asking for high commission and masking consumers’ data, restaurants are moving to marketplace-based platforms. These changes (aka savings from hefty commission %) will be rewarded to consumers as discounts on their online orders. This is going to enable a more modest and effective model – Direct to Consumer (D2C).
When businesses opting for ready-made solutions, where they can save cost, get access to their consumers’ data and manage online business easily. Lokaly is a ready-made and transparent solution for small to large businesses. Lokaly has partnered with 30+ restaurants based in Ahmedabad. Also, Lokaly has developed solutions for some famous brands in the USA. Lokaly provides free trial and support to sellers to know the platform better.
When you are a local business, you have a regionally marked territory and seldom get customers beyond a certain point. Every store has one-time customers and then there are regulars – who order weekly or monthly. It’s a great business model and a very certain business strategy. But, with all that, there are still limitations on how you can retain customers as well as gain new ones. Local stores are rarely a monopoly – there is always competition in the vicinity. So, how do you ensure that your customers get the ‘delight’, the ‘ease’, and the ‘convenience’ that a local store can or must offer?
Well, Lokaly has the answer to this plea. Lokaly is an E-Commerce application for local departmental stores and businesses. Stores can easily create their account, and avail all the features – just like a mobile app would.
Each sale is now on a digital platform. The seller can then introduce a khata system where loyal customers receive store credit. You can also check analytics to understand how your business is going. The app also has integrated features for payment reminders and ready for pickup notifications.
Once the decision is made – to move from bricks to clicks, it’s just about choosing the right platform for setting up your online or mobile store!
Times are still uncertain and physical distancing is still a norm. Ever since the lockdown in early 2020, the local businesses and brick and mortar stores took the hit. Customers weren’t able to physically visit stores and buy things, and stores could not sell anything. Every local store and every local business looked for an online or mobile means of reaching out to customers. Till today, customers are hesitant to go out to buy things. Placing their orders online feels safer, more convenient, and more appealing to customers.
Well, if you are a local store and wish to increase sales – even in difficult times, here are a few ways in which Lokaly can help:
Well, if you are a local store and wish to increase sales – even in difficult times, here are a few ways in which Lokaly can help:
If you are a local store and wish to grow your business online, or move your business to an online model, it’s time that you select a platform that will enable you to do so. Lokaly is one such platform where users can simply sign up, create an account for their stores and upload their products, and even manage payments and credits for customers.
Web and Mobile – both offer businesses with opportunities to expand and increase their customer base. Local businesses with a limited budget find it overwhelming to create mobile apps and E-commerce websites from scratch. Platforms like Lokaly offer futuristic opportunities and solutions to these businesses!
Local businesses are the ones that took the initial hit of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. Restaurant businesses especially thrive on the number of customers that walk into the door. The situation demanded that businesses make themselves more accessible to customers and serve their needs. This is only possible by offering easy ordering services, safe distancing and online payments and such features that keep customers in touch with your business.
Setting up a restaurant online and reaching out to customers is the key to keep business afloat during times of crisis. Lokaly is one of the online spaces where local businesses such as restaurants can quickly setup shop and begin serving their customers.
With Lokaly, restaurants can:
When it comes to hyper local businesses such as restaurants, trust plays a very important role and restaurants can benefit by taking charge of the situation and keeping customers well informed about their opening hours as well as their newly added online food delivery services. Customers to understand and trust a familiar name and it will help you not only keep your existing customers, but also create an entirely new avenue for customers to come flooding in – the mobile way!
Get your restaurant online instantly with Lokaly!
Lokaly is a solution for sellers and buyers. Sellers can register their stores and manage their accounts with various buyers online through the seller app. With the buyer’s app, users can order from their favourite store within their vicinity via the app. Lokaly acts as a gateway between you and the local stores.
How can users contact local stores?
Lokaly acts as a technology bridge between the sellers and buyers. Many local stores depend on the number of feet walking up to their storefront every day. Many times they lack in the extra efforts to reach out to a larger customer base. Lokaly offers local businesses with the opportunity to expand beyond their regular customers and look at a larger customer base. The buyers can conveniently place their orders from their favourite stores within their vicinity and within a few taps and swipes the job is done. Well, the stores can also offer regular customers with a ‘khata’ system of payment wherein the customer is offer a type of store credit which can be paid when the amount is due.
The good news is that buyers do not have to pay anything to use the Lokaly app. It is completely free and can be downloaded for free from Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
The app is pretty simple to use too. After logging in, users can see the local stores on a dashboard. Users can also see whether the seller has approved their khata. Everything is displayed on the dashboard so that users get direct access to the information they require. All payments for the orders placed are managed via a khata system and can be done directly via the app. This means that there is no need of separate apps for making payments too. All transactions are effectively managed within Lokaly.
With Lokaly, businesses get a wider reach and no longer have to be dependent on those customers who walk up to their stores!
