The explosion of app-based eCommerce has led to the rising of many entrepreneurs against the odds to make a mark in the market like never before. This is the tale of Boutiqaat, a makeup and beauty eCommerce platform created in the middle-eastern country of Kuwait in 2015. It has revolutionized the industry in the region with its immense success, hosting over 40,000 luxurious products that can be conveniently bought via its trendy and hip app.
Besides its business practices, this app has also garnered the attention of eCommerce entrepreneurs worldwide. It has become an example of how having the right mobile app can help your eCommerce store grow to its full potential. You can seek the services of a mobile app development company to get expert advice and assistance to create an app similar to Boutiqaat. This blog delves into the details of how the app has enabled the company’s growth and how yours, too, can benefit from following suit.
The Fundamental Steps to Consider When Developing a Boutiqaat-like App
App development is a complex technical process that involves various steps that are dependent on the kind of result a company desires. When in-house app development experts are unavailable, businesses can seek outside services. When you opt for outsourcing the task, your on-demand app development company may add additional steps based on your customization requirements, apart from the usual phases listed below.
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Conducting Market Research
One of the most significant factors that have pushed Boutiqaat to its heights is the company’s awareness of its regional market. The creators of Boutiqaat noticed that there was huge untapped potential in the Middle East, especially in the luxury cosmetics and beauty segment in places like the UAE, which is a large consumer of such goods. They realized that the combination of social media, international outlook, and eCommerce growth among the youth would open the door to their success. Statistics show that the UAE market would show an annual growth of 0.96% from 2022-27, totaling US$ 1.13Bn in 2022, with online sales adding 24% of that number.
This knowledge allowed them to better target their product and market strategy toward what the consumers wanted, incorporating that into their app development efforts. Your eCommerce app development, too, should have extensive market research and analysis backing it. One of the ways to gather this knowledge is to conduct direct customer interviews to get their opinions. You can do this via telephonic interviews, forms at events, email-based forms, or another such method you find convenient.
In addition, it is also necessary to analyze all publicly available statistics regarding your target audience. These can be found on portals like Statista and academic sites. Further, there’s also competitor research that can help to navigate the market better. By combining these types of sources, you can gain a clear idea of what your target market is expecting from your venture and how best you can deliver through your app.
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Selecting an Appropriate Development Platform
The growth of technology has made the development of eCommerce a painless endeavor, unlike the bygone days. You now have a plethora of development platforms that come with easy-to-use templates to create the app of your dreams. They also provide the necessary backend support for the app to perform at its best regardless of the traffic density, a vital element of business scaling. These platforms have been behind the rapid development and growth of apps like Boutiqaat.
The most popular ones used are Magento, Shopify, Bigcommerce, and WooCommerce. They come packed with customizable themes, payment gateway integration, performance analytics tools, and many other components that go into app creation and management.
Since there are some differences between what each offers, such as pricing structure, you need to select the one that suits your requirements best. Even when you hire mobile app developers through an outsourcing agency, it is vital to discuss this aspect with them to reach a conclusion.
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Conceptualizing a Custom, Appealing UI
Looks matter, and a business operating in the beauty industry needn’t be reminded of it. If your app looks appealing to your customers, it is a giant leap toward attaining your desired success. Boutiqaat app’s looks are a key factor behind its success, too, with its intuitive UI and use of the right set of colors making the user experience a charming affair. On the design front, the navigation is also easy, helping users find their desired products easily, another factor that helps with conversions.
Incorporate your brand’s logo and colors into your app and build a theme around them to help your app stand out from the rest. When in the cosmetics industry, it helps to keep these elements warm, lively, bright, and even flashy. It must be colorful and have the punch to make the colors of the products pop on the screen. The screen transitions should be smooth between various sections of the app.
The intent must be to keep your customers engaged for a long time on the app, which is known to increase the chances of conversion.
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Creating an MVP
A minimum viable product (MVP) is a barebones version of your app that is used primarily to check what the final version would look like and how it will function. An MVP is an integral part of the app development pipeline since it can be used to gather vital initial customer impressions of the app. It saves you the trouble of revamping your app’s final version entirely should it fall short of expectations on multiple factors.
Your MVP should gather customer feedback about the app’s various features and help you gain an insight into what is right and wrong. It will help you enhance the final product to get the large early market traction your business needs to become like Boutiqaat.
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Testing Before Large-scale Launch
Besides using an MVP to gather customer opinions about your app’s features, you should also conduct a test for the final version of your app. You should have a limited app launch among a small group of users. Their usage patterns and other data will help you better understand what can be done to improve your app to make it more appealing. Thus, when the full-scale launch happens, you won’t have to wonder what more you could’ve done for it.
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Final Launch and Marketing
The final step is launching your app to the market at large. But just making it available for download on various platforms won’t suffice. You need to market it using an effective strategy that appeals to your target mass market. Boutiqaat roped in popular celebrities in its region of operation to appeal to its high-end target audience, especially those with a strong online presence.
You should constantly have the market’s pulse to keep up with the latest trends or, better still, predict them early. Once you garner enough brand presence, you can become the one setting the trends. Review and revise your app and its marketing strategy to avoid stagnation and loss of appeal.
Some Must-Have Features in Your App
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Multiple Payment Options
Much of eCommerce payment happens via online payment gateways. Hence, your app should integrate as many as possible to help all types of customers. You can even have cash-on-delivery for those wanting that option. Also, your app must accept multiple currencies if you’re going international.
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Easy Administration
The app’s design should make it easy to manage on the admin side for tasks like delivery person tracking, inventory management, performance analysis, and SEO. This contributes to a smoother operation of the app and business overall. You can have three app versions for the admin, delivery person, and customer.
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Chatbot
Chatbots are the new-age way to help customers reach your business’s customer service. Adding one eases the workload on your customer service executives while providing easy solutions to your customers’ queries and basic complaints. It also helps capture their feedback and categorize it before storage for later use to gain customer insights.
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AI Integration
An AI could back your entire app to enhance every aspect. It could monitor user behavior and recommend products that are likely to be bought. It could set the right prices based on what’s trending. It will also serve as an effective asset in your product upload and marketing strategy with the data analysis it provides.
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Augmented Reality Assistance
One of the biggest drawbacks of online shopping is the lack of ability to try a product before purchase. This is a major issue for beauty products since they directly influence a person’s appearance. Technology has provided a fix for this via augmented reality. Your app should have AR support for in-app product try-on via the user’s phone’s camera.
It will virtually apply the product to the user while they are looking into the camera and display the result on the screen. This helps with conversions by a large margin as users could buy a product they may not have considered earlier.
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Optimization for Voice-based Operation
There has been a marked rise in the adoption of voice-based use of apps since the advent of smart personal assistants like Siri and Alexa. They provide a more convenient way for people to operate various gadgets and apps.
This has led to purchases through in-app voice assistants or dedicated devices for them, like smart speakers. Your app will improve its worth if it has such integrations too. Your entire listing should be optimized for voice searches similar to text-based searches to get the maximum benefit from this new purchase method.
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Push Notifications
Easy and effective communications with your customers are the best way to keep them engaged and to purchase from your app. Push notifications provide that convenience by allowing you to add every kind of messaging you want, from purchase confirmation to special discount announcements. You can even integrate links to recommended products based on previous purchases for enhanced user experience.
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Influencer/Affiliate Marketing Section
Apps can now run videos within them. You need to use this feature by adding access to social media influencers who use/review the products you are selling. They have the biggest draw for products and have been a major factor behind Boutiqaaat’s sales figures. The section could contain videos exclusive to your platform, from your social media channels, or their independent channels. It helps further if the video section is added as a part of the scrollable images section for respective products.
Why Choose India for Your App Development – A Cost-Benefit Analysis
India has turned out to be a favorite app development outsourcing destination for numerous reasons. It has a great number of qualified professionals ready for hire; the policy environment is conducive to outsourcing. There is a great demographic dividend that wants to venture into new and exciting technological developments. But one of the most significant benefits it offers for development is cost reduction.
There are two main reasons behind this. Firstly, there are many app developers for hire in India owing to the large population. This brings down costs due to economies of scale. Second is the relatively low value of the national currency-the Indian National Rupee-compared to the currencies of the developed world. This has made India one of the world’s cheapest destinations for app development.
Here’s an hourly cost of development comparison for 2022 between India and other regions (USD):
- US-$47
- Germany-$35
- Australia-$33
- Brazil-$9
- India-$7
Add to that the fact that India is one of the biggest eCommerce markets in the world, showing strong growth in the sector. The country is looking to reach a revenue of US$113.5 Billion in 2023, with a CAGR touching 13.96% from 2023 to 2027. Many business owners looking to tap into this potential have created eCommerce portals of their own. That means many app developers in the country are already well-versed in creating eCommerce apps using the latest technologies to scale the business quickly.
Thus, by outsourcing your app development to an Indian venture, you can get quality app development that rivals Boutiqaat while keeping your investment low.
Conclusion
eCommerce is still a burgeoning phenomenon in many parts of the world, making it a field ripe for entrepreneurs to exploit. The beauty and self-care niche has untapped potential by a large margin that you can enter and make significant gains, similar to Boutiqaat. All you need is some astute business sense and an app that engages your target audience. If you are looking for quality app development at affordable costs, hiring app developers in India and other developing countries will be your best option. You can utilize them to build an app that rivals Boutiqaat, giving the ROI that builds your business and brand.
