Have you ever watched a store owner walk you through the available inventory on Instagram Live? This common practice, known as “live selling,” is reshaping the eCommerce industry. Small and medium-sized businesses are now seizing the opportunity to engage with their audience and hasten the conversion process, whether they do so by using well-known social media or their own platforms.

Think about this Online sales are currently made by 88% of retailers. We won’t go over the causes of this trend because you are already aware of them: convenience, the threat of pandemics, and a wider range of available products. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that business owners must put more effort into improving their online presence.

It is obvious that any store today needs to operate social media and have a website. However, how does one stand out in such a huge market and draw in more clients? Live to sell, a new eCommerce trend, may be a good solution.

What is Online Selling?

Online selling is the practice of instantly showcasing your available products to leads and potential customers. In addition to showing the products, hosts frequently provide information on their uses, costs, and other specifics. They also discuss the audience’s requests and respond to their inquiries.

Let’s say you manage a cosmetics shop. In a live show, you can demonstrate the top products, go over their ingredients, display every color or shade that is offered, and even apply your own makeup while using the products to demonstrate how they work.

There are numerous ways to hold a online selling event, including:

using a well-known social media or e-commerce site, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Amazon. One can easily stream from the brand’s page now that live streaming has been made available on the majority of significant websites and apps.

utilizing third-party platforms and suppliers designed especially for live sales.

integrating online selling functionality into your own app. Users will find this option convenient, and it also strengthens the company’s brand.

Last but not least, online selling can be done with a separate app. Customers and leads will appreciate the brand for developing an easy-to-use application that allows them to access life and previously saved videos, send messages, and even make purchases without leaving the stream.

Let’s acknowledge that one of any online shopper’s greatest worries is that their expectations won’t match reality. We are all aware that photos can be altered and that product descriptions can be made up. These worries are allayed by live sales streams because prospective customers can ask questions, get their doubts cleared up, and see the products in use.

Top Features to Use for Creating a Online Selling Application

Have we convinced you that online selling is a lucrative trend in eCommerce right now? The process of creating a online-selling app from scratch will then be examined. The process is the same if you want to add online selling capabilities to an already-existing eCommerce app, even though we’ll be discussing the features required for a standalone application.

1. Video streaming

Video streaming functionality is undoubtedly the first essential component of a online-selling app. Because of various video conferencing services, developing this feature is not as challenging as it may seem.

Alternate options include the well-known Zoom as well as Twilio, Agora, Jitsi, and others. Comparing these streaming services was the subject of a separate article we wrote. It’s crucial to determine whether users can save streams so they can watch them later if they missed the live broadcast. The best option is a service that offers a ready-made video streaming infrastructure and operates on a pay-as-you-go basis, making it ideal for start-ups. Don’t worry; your development team will help you to choose the best course of action.

2. Chat and commenting

Recall how we said the audience could ask questions and the company could receive insightful feedback by commenting throughout the online selling event. A online-selling app must undoubtedly support real-time commenting. The same video conferencing service is typically able to assist with this task as well.

3. Cloud storage

The live broadcasts should then be saved so that viewers can access them later, if necessary. You’ll need trustworthy cloud storage in this situation. Additionally, a cloud database is required to access user data. It’s fine to use Google Cloud Storage or Amazon S3.

4. In–app purchases

Think about how convenient it would be to be able to purchase something you just saw on a online selling stream without having to leave the video. It is indeed feasible. All you have to do is integrate payment gateways, or rather, have your mobile development team do that. These include Shopify, PayPal, and Stripe. Therefore, users can either use their credit or debit cards or their accounts on these platforms to make payments.

5. Analytics

Business owners would likely want to know how well a online show went, including how many people attended, how many people participated in the chat, and other factors. Such information is simple to access and can be seen as graphs by integrating an analytics tool. Many video streaming services have in-built analytics tools.

6. User profile

Adding a user profile to your online-selling app would be a nice touch, but it’s not necessary. You can skip this section if you want to add a online selling feature to an already-existing eCommerce app because we think (or hope) that your app already includes this page.

In any case, a user profile acts as a hub where users can add personal information, such as a credit card to use for in-app purchases or pick nicknames for live chats and streaming.

eCommerce App Development- Teams and Technologies

Developing an eCommerce app requires a great deal of attention and effort. To complete each phase involved in the development process, you need:

• UI/UX designers
• Android or iOS developers
• Application testing engineers
• Project managers
• App maintenance and support providers

Tech Stack Required for Building an eCommerce App

The technologies you choose to develop an eCommerce app totally depend on your specific app requirements. However, you can consider the following for developing the app for Android and iOS platforms:

iOS

• Programming language (Objective-C, Swift)
• Toolkit (Apple Xcode)
• SDK (Software Development Kit, iOS SDK)

Android

• Programming dialects (Kotlin, Java)
• Toolkit (Android developer tools and Android Studio)
• SDK (Android SDK)

Please note that the aforementioned ones are general tech stacks for developing an eCommerce app. The developers might use some other languages, toolkits, or SDKs depending on your specific requirements.

 Also Read- How Much Does The eCommerce App Development Cost?

How to Make A Successful Online Shop Application

If you want to know how to make an online selling app that will help you get more sales, take a look at the following deliverable you need to get from eCommerce app development.

The future success of your shopping application depends on several factors. Let’s investigate each of them to create a shopping app that will become a powerful addition to your business tools:

• Applications speed – today, speed wins. A Compuware report says that users expert their application to load in about two seconds. When it takes longer, you lose your chances of converting customers, especially if an app’s load speed exceeds 10 seconds.
• Strict business goals – before you create a shopping app, you need to have a strict final goal of eCommerce app development. Usually, the desire to generate more sales is the main reason why companies create an app to sell products. Thus, you need to set goals right and convert more customers instead of growing your user base.
• Comprehensive strategy – even the best app development company cannot ensure the success of your mobile application. You need to be ready to work hard on its promotion and ongoing improvements. Therefore, be ready to create a comprehensive development and promotion strategy that will help you keep your app running.
• Unique value – if you want to know how to make an online selling app that users will love, you need to bring a unique value proposition. Without knowing your audience, you won’t provide them with a meaningful shopping experience.
• User-friendliness – first of all, users pay close attention to the experience your application provides them with. Thus, creating an attractive and simple design is one of the main requirements. We’ll talk more about e-commerce app design essentials later in the article.

Bottom Line

That’s it; you now understand every fundamental aspect of creating a online selling app, from the necessary procedures to the potential expenses. Of course, every situation is different, so your procedure might differ from the one outlined above. For instance, you might want to add online selling as a new feature to your current eCommerce app or develop a B2C rather than B2B solution.

eCommerce app development is a long and complex process that might seem overwhelming at first. However, with the right vendor, you will create a shopping app with little to no effort. “Quytech” is a team of custom software development experts who can deliver you the best online shopping app for your particular needs and requirements. Quytech comes in list of top healthcare app development company.