In the US, 8 out of 10 people according to Pew Research Center are now online shoppers. Truly, e-commerce is being reshaped with the help of the ever-evolving social media and online shopping landscape. 

With that being said, here are reasons why customers are going digital when it comes to shopping:

Reasons Why Customers Are Going Digital

Convenience

It is no-brainer how much convenience technology brought into our life. It gave us more time to do something else. With the intervention of applications and digitalizing day-to-day chores, more people have been able to integrate things they wanted to pursue but could not when the technology was not yet available.
 

Lesser Trips To The Supermarket

Forgot something on your grocery list? Beat grabbing more stuff you don’t need when you need to scramble back to the supermarket. Grocery applications help you check out only what you need. Some applications may even offer to connect you to a sales assistant to help you choose the freshest produce and the best option the store offers.

We also forgot to mention the amount of time you save driving back and front and less cost on gas. 

App-Exclusive Offers

The majority of people do not know that applications offer so many savings. Users can enjoy discounts and earn points which they can use to redeem free products and services. Most applications allow you to connect your cards to enjoy more discounts and bank-exclusive promos depending on your subscription.

Contactless Options

With everything that is happening to the world right now, being extra cautious with your daily activities can sometimes make us paranoid about whether or not we caught something that is harmful to our health when we head outside. Uber Eats and Amazon lets their customers receive their orders via robots and drones which is super cool if you ask us! Aside from that, you do not need to pay in cash since you can just connect your card which helps lessen the transmission of diseases.

The Power of Going Digital

While most of us consumers know what applications and websites can do for us as customers, there are business owners out there who don’t realize the power of going digital. 

An average American spends approximately $1.8K on online shopping. There are 1.92 billion digital buyers and at this rate, that number is only going higher. A lot of businesses do not realize that there is untapped potential for their businesses once it goes online. Many worry about digital marketing fees, advertisement fees, or simply having no knowledge of how to establish their own e-commerce store. Well, if you are looking to break into the e-commerce landscape with an application or are skeptical about going digital, here are reasons why your business can thrive in this digital age and why you should consider building a mobile app for your business:

Everyone is on Their Gadgets

Everyone is maximizing what the internet can offer and this helped shape the e-commerce landscape. Business owners became digitally savvy because when the world shut down, the world wide web opened 24/7. 

While one can argue that the world is opening up again, it is important to note that the emergence of social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram has allowed users to make organic reviews of products, food, and services. We all know that when a product or restaurant trends online, demand follows and mobile apps help consumers get easy access to whatever they want.

Applications Trump Websites

1. Applications Work Faster Than Websites

Believe it or not, applications can be built to work faster than your regular old website. A well-designed mobile application can process data much faster. The difference between the two is that applications store their own data while websites have to use web servers.

Related read: 22 Reasons Why You Should Invest in a Mobile App This 2022

2. You Can Design Your Application To Work Offline

Not everyone has access to the internet all the time and applications can bridge this gap since accessing a website requires the internet. If customers need an item but they have no internet, they can use your application to get something they need instead of driving to the store on their already busy day.

3. Easier Sending of Notifications

Why spend hours emailing your customers about a promotion when you can just instantly notify them through your application? These app-prompted notifications can contain everything you put into your marketing email but as soon as your customer clicks it, it automatically diverts them to your application to your specific product listing. This simplifies your life as a business owner in terms of marketing and their lives when it comes to making a purchase. 

4. Applications Have Room For Personalization

Speaking of personalization, have you ever experienced opening an application and boom! Everything that you would like is already in your recommendations. Well, with a mobile applications’ flexibility, you can program yours to analyze what your customers will likely put in their baskets which increases your sales. 

Related read: The Power of Personalization in Retail

5. Applications Store Data and Can Provide You With Reports

Easily track your stocks, product movement, and trends, and see how your business is doing with your app! Your application is not only a service to your customers but to you too. You don’t have to manually count your sales, track your stocks, and extract reports when your custom application can do it for you.

How business owners can keep up with the times

Bridging the gap between your and your customer’s needs should always be in the plans to ensure your business will thrive. While most food-related businesses see no weight in creating applications for their goods and services, a lot of existing applications like Amazon and Uber have already been doing this and while they onboard small businesses, they do not customize their application to what YOUR customer needs. 

Having your own application not only helps to sell your products, but it also helps maintain good relationships with your customers and the global online community. 

Related read: 3 Ways Your SME Business Can Keep Up With Digitalization