Using Magento for Building Mobile App

No eCommerce business can today afford to ignore the mobile market. The mobile is now de facto search machine and people generally move from enquiring about a product/service to immediately buying. Studies also show that more and more people are now using their mobile to shop for everything. This is why a number of eCommerce business have completely or partially moved to the mobile platform.

Since most businesses run on both websites and mobiles today, a mobile friendly CMS became essential. This is why Magento mobile apps development company have done so brilliantly. By bringing the functionality of its eCommerce platform along with a strong support community, Magento is definitely among the few superior open source mobile app platforms.

Magento CMS has already been tested for eCommerce and come out swinging like a true champion. But does it work equally well for mCommerce? The results seem to indicate so.

Magento PWAs

Earlier this year Magento announced a collaboration with Google for native Progressive Web Apps. The PWAs are expected to deliver ‘app-like experience’ with faster page loading and a better conversion rate. It is expected to be open for the whole Magento Commerce community next year. In other words, PWAs are expected to bring app benefits to web browsers.

PAWs will have offline access, no installs, quick launch, no device issues, no update issue and easy linkage for search and other purposes. Many in the community believe that PWAs could be the future of mCommerce, replacing native apps with their easy access and flexibility.

Magento Mobile Apps

Despite the advantages of PWAs, mobile app development is quite essential. In fact, many business now operate only through their mobile apps. It gives one instant access, brand loyalty and a more reliable source for gathering data. Magento mobile apps carry the same benefits that make it so successful in eCommerce.

Open Source: As an open source platform, Magento has to abide by some rules that give it an automatic advantage. It is not just about the free access, though that is also an important factor for many small businesses. As an open source platform, Magento is also open to scrutiny and hence, more accountable.

Over the years it has built an incredible platform that give developers the freedom to tweak they work as they want. Many have used this to create a flexible user-friendly design that is completely individualistic.

Robust support community: Magento started out with a pretty impressive community and as it has gained popularity, its community has become more active and robust. Today it boasts of an extremely active developer and other support communities that can help one out with any situation that may crop up.

Ready to host: If you find yourself doubtful because you have little design experience, worry not. As with most open source communities, Magento has a number of hosting providers who will do the work for you. You can factor in options like scalability, price and optimization. These are almost ready to launch, enabling a quick launch.

Cross-platform: Magento CMS works with the same efficiency across platforms. Developers use it to build both portable and native apps. In either case, ease of using the same CMS means that user experience can be kept constant — a major consideration when across platforms. With cross-portability, developing effort can also be minimized.

Themes & extentions: Magento may be open sourced, but its themes and extensions can rival those offered by the best of hosted platforms. There are also a number of extensions designed to bring maximum functionality. The extensions can help in a range of backend functions, from image handling to gather data. The extensions come with ratings and user reviews.

Payment ease: Ultimately its about the user experience and Magento makes shopping easier. It supports multiple payment options — a necessary option for any modern mCommerce store. The checkout process can be made smooth and hassle free. One can also run multiple stores with one backend system. This can be handy for businesses dealing with multiple brands and shopfronts. This brings down administrative efforts and costs, while delivering a harmonized experience.

Conclusion

The open source Magento is already leading in eCommerce. Fortunately, it makes an equally smooth transition to mobile. With mobile commerce gaining more and more traction, a CMS that works smoothly across platforms has immense benefits.