Want to make an app to sell things? Quanrio has got your back.
Here are 5 basic steps to creating an app that sells things:
- Brainstorm ideas: Make a list of essential features and the features to avoid.
- conduct market research to validate your ideas
- Design the application & build amazing UI and UX
- Choose a Technology Stack like LAMP, MERN, or MEAN (there are several other tech stacks to choose from)
- Integrate a payment gateway.
We’ll dive into the details of building an eCommerce app in 5 steps so don’t worry just yet.
Now imagine for a moment that you know how to build a shopping app. You have sorted out the best idea, you’ve also validated it by doing market research, and you know how to create a wireframe (from our blog post on how to build a web app) and design an amazing User Interface.
Basically, you have outlined every single thing that can be planned about making an application and you are ready to code. Now the question is, is it free to build an app?
Yes, you can create your OWN shopping application for free! However, let us make it clear that there is a difference between creating and deploying.
If you are a developer yourself, then you can code an application using languages and platforms such as Flutter. It is an open-source platform by Google which is used to create cross-platform applications for free.
Now imagine that you have created the shopping application. You have got the database ready, you have written the code, and it is working fine. It has an amazing User Interface and offers a sound UX. But the problem is that it is only available for you.
So, how will you make it available for users around the world?
This is where cloud services come in. Once you develop an application, you have to deploy it to Cloud Services which then makes your application available for users around the world.
Cloud services or cloud computing is the delivery of computing services. It includes storage, databases, and analytics among many other things.
The sole purpose of cloud services is to make your shopping application available to users around the world.
But why do you need cloud services to make your application available to users from around the world? Well, the problem is when you code an app, its database is existing on your computer. And so the users who are using the same internet connection will be allowed to access your application only.
Even then, these users will be able to use the application until the computer containing the database is running. If that computer shuts off, the application will stop functioning immediately.
Now let’s discuss how difficult it is to build your own shopping app, how you can easily create an app, and most importantly – how much does it cost to develop an app in 2022? So without further ado, let’s get started.
Is It Difficult To Build Your Own Shopping App?
It is not difficult to create a shopping application. In fact, anyone can create an app if they know how to code.
One of the easiest and most-used programming languages is Dart, it is used in Flutter (UI software development kit) – both of which are free.
Having a team of developers makes it easy to develop a shopping app. You can brainstorm better ideas relatively fast, create an effective wireframe, lay out an amazing user interface, and code the app. But if you are building a shopping app by yourself, things can get difficult.
Developing a shopping application involves much more than coding. You have to validate your ideas using market research and then implement the design and finally move towards coding and deployment. It is too much for a person to handle.
So we’ll highly recommend that you team up and divide the workload instead of managing every single pixel on your own. It will make things much easy for you.
So now you have your “tech partners” or fellow programmers who are working on the shopping application – and all of you are working from home. So what cost are you bearing to develop your app? How much does it cost to build a shopping app by yourself?
It costs time to build a shopping app by yourself. Apart from that, you don’t have to pay a single penny under such conditions – which rarely exist by the way.
All the programming languages that are commonly used to create a shopping app are available for free. So as far as developing, building, creating, or coding an e-commerce app is concerned, you can do it for free.
I’m building a shopping app on my own. What are the chances of success?
According To Business of Apps, 42% of mobile apps fail because of not conducting market research, and 17% fail because of not framing the relevant business model. 14% of applications fail because they are unsure of the correct marketing strategy and 19% of apps fail because of a weak product core. Lastly, 13% of applications fail because they are launched at the incorrect time.
The percentage of successful apps is somewhere around 00.01% to 0.5%. Which roughly translates to 1 successful app out of 10,000 applications. Yes, that statistic is scary and a little heartbreaking as well.
How To Easily Create An Ecommerce App In 5 Steps?
- Begin With Brainstorming
Finding the right idea is the key to developing a successful e-commerce application. As a developer, it is important to integrate all the necessary features that your audience is ideally looking for in an application (e-commerce application in this case).
Note down all the necessary features that your e-commerce application must have. But it is also crucial to avoid annoying your user.
Therefore, you must note down the features that your shopping application should not have. Then there are features that will add value to your application, that are not must-haves and will help out your target audience. You can call it “value addition”. Note down these features as they will help your target audience.
- Market Research
A staggering 42% of mobile applications fail because of insufficient or no market research. To ensure that your application does not fall into that category you need to conduct thorough market research. Note down the features that your competitor’s e-commerce applications have and your target audience enjoying using them.
Use those features to find out any inadequacies and make your own and try to add value. So basically in this phase, you will find the features that your target audience loves, the ones they hate, and the ones that are adding further value and enhancing the overall User Experience. Also in this phase, you will validate your ideas.
- Design UI & UX
An amazing UI attracts the user and helps them spend more time using the application. That helps them gradually build trust until they are finally converted and become a long-term user of your application. Be sure to add the following features to your shopping application for a sound User Experience:
- Actions are reversible and the user can easily go back to what they were doing
- The user interface is easily navigable. It guides the user through visual clues.
- Doesn’t contain unnecessary elements.
- Doesn’t require users to refill the same information on different pages and levels over and over again.
- Contains real-world representations. For example, the Trash Can icon for deleting files.
- Communicate your errors well.
- Protect the efforts of your user. Autosave their work.
- Develop (Code) & Deploy Your Ecommerce Application
Begin by choosing a technology stack to develop your application. There are various tech stacks that you can choose from. MERN, MEAN, Django-Python, LAMP, and more. Choose the appropriate one and let’s start developing an application.
Up to this point, everything you did was free. Yes, you read that right. If you were doing it all by yourself, then it cost you a lot of time something that you would have saved a lot if you had a team.
Anyways, you have saved every penny up until now. But that’ll quickly change as we move forward to the deployment stage. Let’s look at how.
- Deployment Stage
This is when you will deploy your e-commerce application to a cloud service. That will make you available to users across the world. But for that, you’ll have to pay a subscription fee to the cloud computing service.
There are many cloud computing services that you can choose from. Below are some of the famous ones:
- Integrate A Payment Gateway
Decide the payment methods that you want your user to utilize when purchasing. Let’s say that you want your users to use PayPal, which is one of the widely used payment gateways.
So let’s say that you think PayPal will be a great payment gateway to choose. Now refer to their website and learn more about them. Then register yourself as a merchant and integrate the gateway into the e-commerce app.
Lastly…
Developing applications is a challenging task for developers. Especially if you are developing an application by yourself.
Hence, we recommend that you pair up with fellow developers if you want to hop on an entrepreneurial journey. Form a team with your friends and work on developing a great shopping application.
One of the most beautiful things about creating an application is that there are a lot of users worldwide.
If you create a successful e-commerce application you can bet that you are going to blow and reach the heights of success. But, creating a successful application is a challenge in itself.
As we mentioned earlier, the success rate for applications lies between 00.01% to 0.5%. That number translates into 1 successful application in 10,000 applications created. To counter this problem, you need to spend quality time developing your e-commerce application.
Lastly, here’s a helpful tip to stick to when developing your application: Be open to criticism and genuinely accept what your competitor has done perfectly.
That is a good starting point if you are serious about developing an application that is going to make its mark and help users enjoy a wonderful user experience.