Nowadays every shop or shopping mall trying to build their online presence. But main questions comes in how a non-technical retailer can build their online presence? There are two ways to do it by using –
- Ecommerce Mobile App.
- Ecommerce Store or Ecommerce Website.
OK, But again I am a nontechie merchant. I know how to make things and how to sell them offline but I don’t have any idea about online e-commerce?
Building an online store with complete native App isn’t a rocket science anymore. There are various Open source E-commerce store exists –
- Magento & Magento 2 – https://magento.com
- Opencart – https://www.opencart.com
- Prestashop – https://www.prestashop.com/en/
- Woocommerce – https://woocommerce.com
- Virtuemart – https://virtuemart.net
- Mijoshop – https://miwisoft.com/joomla-extensions/mijoshop-joomla-shopping-cart
- CS-Cart – https://www.cs-cart.com/
and many others.
But is there any Open Source Mobile App solution exist?
Yes, It does exist “Mobilkul – open source mobile app builder“. Mobikul is the world first open source mobile app builder, by which merchants can create an e-commerce mobile app.
Ok, that’s wonderful but still which e-commerce platform as an offline retailer I need to use? Also, do I need to have some kind of programming skills to setup all these e-commerce stores and mobile app?
Well for the above question answer is “YES & NO”.
Let me start with the first answer. Which e-commerce platform I need to choose?
It depends on your business scale. Also the business nature – that means what kind of products, Goods or Services you want to sell.
In my opinion, all platforms are good. But as per stats, Magento is most popular. In terms of lightweight and easy to use Opencart and woocommerce are quite popular.
Alright, now I am going to start my online web store. I am going to use Magento as my first choice to build an Ecommerce store. Now
Which Mobile App I need to use for Mobile Ecommerce Store?
But before that, there are a couple of questions regarding m-commerce app.
- Ecommerce Mobile app is native in nature?
- Mobile app supports PUSH notifications?
- My shop is in MENA ( middle east & north Africa ) region. Does it support RTL languages?
- How does the order and inventory sync will work in real time?
- What kind of payment methods are supported by the mobile application?
- What kind of shipping methods are supported?
- As it is open source. Can I edit it? or can customize it?
- Is it complete readymade Ecommerce Mobile application?
- Can I change the design of Mobile shop app layout?
- Does it work offline?
- I am running online shop as well as offline store. how will it be integrated?
- Does it work with multiple currencies?
And 100’s of other questions. Which I will try to summarize using above questions.
Ecommerce Mobile app is native in nature?
This is something every online merchant need to verify. Either their online mobile commerce app are native? what the heck is NATIVE?
Native Apps – Native apps are built for specific platforms. Example – the Native Android app will work only on an android device, not on the IOS devices. Unlike Hybrid apps. Tha main advantages of Native apps are
- The high performance of the APP.
- Push Notification.
- A better touch and capacitive support.
- Operating system support.
Ecommerce Mobile app supports PUSH notifications?
Yes, This is the most important question. Does your Online e-commerce Shop app support push notifications? If not then your app is missing THE MOST important feature of the mobile commerce.
Push Notification leads to more sales and conversions. Unlike Email or SMS, PUSH notification opening rates are high.
My shop is in MENA ( middle east & north Africa ) region. Does it support RTL languages?
As souq.com shown the potential and depth of Middle east E-commerce Market. There are loads of opportunity exist for small and medium scale retailer in the middle east region especially in United Arab emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Well, that is fine but I am an offline shop owner living in UAE. All of the mobile apps andeCommercee stores support English as a primary language option. Which platform do I need to choose which support RTL ( Arabic ) & LTR ( English) language options?
Almost every web store mentioned above support RTL including Magento & Opencart. Also Open source Mobile App builder Support Arabic as well. We have built a dedicated sample app for the DEMO purpose. Also Please check customers list of UAE and Saudi Arabic Region.
If you search for “Best Mobile app development company in UAE” phrase for sure you will get the list of the solution provider. But You need to understand and need to ask all those questions, which I explained on this page.
How does the order and inventory sync will work in real time?
This is little technical but don’t worry I will explain in detail. The main problem comes in if you are running your online shop as a multi-channel shop. Example – You are running your point of sale system at your outlet. You also running your Mobile shop app. You are also running online Web store.
It is very much possible, that stock or inventory mismatch may take place. If you are not managing the real-time inventory/stock synchronization.
That’s why Mobikul Open source E-commerce Mobile app builder uses real-time API and manage the stock and inventory all across every channel.
What kind of payment methods are supported by the mobile application?
Mobikul Mobile commerce app are supported by almost every payment method. Example –
1. PayTm
2. World Pay
3. Pay U Biz
4. Pay U Money
5. Paytabs
6. Pay Fort
7. EBS
8. Authorize.Net
9. CCAvenue
10. Paypal Standard
11. Paypal Adaptive
12. Paypal Express
13. Instamojo
14. Mellat Payment Gateway
15. Stripe
16. AV5 Komerci
17. AV5 Cielo
18. AV5 Card
19. Itau
20. Boleto
21. COD
22. Bank Transfer
23. Check/Money Order
and many others. Mobikul Mobile app provides Readymade and fully payment integrated solution.