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After the world has gone online, it started going mobile. Mobile consumers steadily grow in number and almost 55% of all e-commerce in 2021 is predicted to be m-commerce. Obviously, businesses, which want to prosper should offer their audience simple solutions with an intuitive interface and easily accessible. Such digital products can make mobile purchasing fast and easy.

At present, we have already plenty of eCommerce websites and applications, which are not always properly optimized and convenient for the “right-now purchases”. That’s why a shift from an app or a website to a progressive web app may become an extremely effective step for business boosting. We have already written how you can start a business with a PWA, now let’s find out in more detail what a PWA is and how it fits the modern digital space. 

What are Progressive Web Apps and how they work in 2020?

A user may fail to spot the difference between a progressive web app and website at first glance, because an app of such kind is accessed from a mobile browser, similarly to a regular site. Still, a PWA conceals the technology making it operate resembling a native application so the users do not feel the difference. What’s more, you do not need to download and install it but can just enjoy consistent, fast, and engaging UX. 

Feel bewildered? Then just log in into your Gmail account from a smartphone browser and enjoy the app-like UX. You can choose, label and sort the emails, receive notices in real-time and appreciate the other app-like unctions. 

How do progressive web apps compare to native apps?

A native app is built to run on iOS or Android, as a rule. Special languages are used to craft a mobile solution of a particular kind. When a product is ready it should be submitted for the assessment of the Apple Store or Google Play. The process can last for months and additional requirements should be met. With progressive web app development services the procedures are simpler, being just an extension of a site a PWA offers the users native-like experience right away. In fact, nowadays it’s reasonable to turn the website into a progressive web app and there are several benefits to this.

1. Installation, storage, data, and power

Native apps require installation and occupy space, utilizing the resources for operation, a PWA can be opened directly from the mobile browser. Besides, it’s easy to save it to the home screen for quick and convenient access at any time. The resource usage of a native mobile solution can be consistent in terms of storage, data, and power consumption.

2. Availability cross-platform

The native app operation is as a rule restricted to the system they are intended for. The PWA, in its turn, can be loaded on any system, providing broader prospects for brands to access wider audiences.

3. Offline Usage

The peculiarity of a PWA is that it can operate offline using the cached data, so the users can access the needed info any time and the latter updates as soon as the Internet connection is set.

4. Mobile device features

The very basic form of any PWA is as a rule subject to the standards and restrictions of an ordinary site, thus the user does not have to give permission for the access to device features in this case. Certain APIs still allow making certain connections, but the UX is constrained. That’s where native apps are much more beneficial.

5. Cost

As a rule, native development is longer and more expensive than the PWA. In case your target audience uses gadgets on both platforms; you have to build a solution for each one then and it doubles your expenditures. More than that native apps have greater maintenance rates. That’s why PWA can become more advantageous for you with a shorter time-to-market.

Why Build a PWA App

In fact, Progressive Web Applications are groundbreaking web-based solutions that combine the advantages of all contemporary devices and browser types. Any progressive web app development company will persuade you that a single app of such kind can fully comprehend and convey a brand’s vision decreasing costs of development and maintenance at the same time. It’s not at all surprising since a progressive web app vs website compared in the aspects of speed, simplicity of usage, functionality, and adaptability demonstrates the following: 

• Higher speed. A progressive app is able to cache more data and operates faster by using less of it. In the internet connection is unstable or absent, offline mode is available. 
• Functionality and simplicity of usage. Ordinary sites fail to leverage the majority of mobile device capabilities, but a PWA allows not only immediate access with a shortcut but operation offline. 
• Adaptability. Even a responsive site requires lots of resources to run on all the devices, operating systems, and their versions as well as to adapt to completely new formats and features. Users’ expectations should also be met. 

A PWA app development company can create and maintain a single code base which will result in impeccable web and mobile app-like user experience across all gadgets and browsers at the same time decreasing the time and expenses associated with rolling out and maintenance of the product. PWAs demonstrate a more speedy adoption of emerging tech advances. 

Conclusion

Obviously, Progressive Web Applications enable the present-day businesses to create software solutions, which deliver exceptional UX, and which can be quickly adapted to growing business opportunities and consumer expectations. If you need a more detailed consultancy as to the PWA development, Axisbits will eagerly provide it any time convenient.

Good PWA user cases exist already, but even more, opportunities are revealed with technological improvement. Social media sites can benefit from PWAs development since they can connect to their broad audience regardless of the device and OS. They can also be extremely beneficial for small businesses, allowing them to enter the market faster and saving costs.

At present, the world is borderless, especially when it comes to digital items. Many businessmen successfully outsource software development to offshore jurisdictions. The palpable benefit of such an approach is a lower cost of services. Nevertheless, there is a flip side as well. At times, it’s extremely difficult to find the right specialists from the first time. 

Offshore software development is outsourcing software creation to a company or a team of specialists overseas, which has a number of welfares. We’ll speak about them later. Now let’s find out how it works since onshore and offshore software development are the two quite different processes.

How does Offshore Development Work?

As soon as the ordering customer decides he needs some kind of software and makes up his mind to delegate its creation to a third party, the process begins. The tasks set forward may be quite variable from UI design to crafting an application from scratch. In most cases, the client has just an idea of what he needs and looks for the IT professionals ready and capable to implement it. 

The situation here can take several paths either the customer looks for freelancers and forms a team cooperating to build a product he has in mind, or he turns to a company specialized in realizing development projects on a turnkey basis. The first variant presupposes that the product owner delves deep into the project management in-person taking control and management of it to ensure receiving the very product he has in mind. The second approach suggests fewer worries and more confidence for the client. All the terms are agreed in the contract and even if involved in the process, the ordering customer does it just to ensure, the project goes the right direction. 

What are offshore software development benefits?

Decreased Expenses 

Outsourcing software development costs allow to sensitively cut the budget and still get the digital product of good quality. The expertise of the modern Eastern European IT specialists, for instance, equals that of their American colleagues, while the rates they charge are much lower due to the overall lower standard of living in the region. Besides, the business owner neither covers the operational expenses nor purchases the necessary hard- and software as well as tools under such conditions.

Top specialists 

The rapid advance of certain IT spheres often makes it impossible for the specialists to go with the tides immediately. However, when you do not have geographical limits, you can look for the necessary expert wherever you want. Besides, in a foreign firm, you can find the necessary expert at a lower rate. It will definitely become a valuable bonus to you and your project on the whole.

At present the amount of qualified professionals in the best offshore software development countries, like the Philippines, India, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and Belarus is great. So they deliver quality within less time due to the high competition. More than that, the experts working on the development projects for clients often consult them and prompt the right tech decisions most beneficial for their product and business processes. 

Easy-to-scale team 

Often the key reason why a product owner looks for a software developer for outsourcing a project is that he does not want to extend staff and hire IT specialists in-house. Otherwise, he would have to create new jobs, rent additional office space, pay extra taxes. It’s not a very attractive perspective for a wise business owner. So a product owner hires subcontractors for project fulfillment and the latter takes responsibility for the team scaling up or down in accordance with the project requirements. 

No need to train staff 

The teams offering development services on a turnkey basis, watch out that their specialists have the proper qualification and certification. As a client ordering development from such a company, you do not have any headache as to the training and expertise or skills upgrade of the employees. No additional time, costs or resources of your business would go for this. The same works for maintenance instead of hiring personnel for the purpose, a business owner can just order tech-support for your product from a development team. 

Flexibility

Making mistakes with everything concerning new technologies might be quite costly. An experienced development company will itself become a guide to correct tech solutions for the benefit of the client and his business. Besides, in case of the necessity to change something in the course of the project, the team will be faster and more flexible to implement the necessary alterations without damaging the core code or rebuilding a product from scratch. 

Conclusion

Offshore development is a perfect way to build your custom software solution of superior quality at a decent cost, within a reasonable time and in the most beneficial way for your business. Having a vast experience of cooperation with foreign customers, Axisbits offers web and mobile offshore software and application development, guaranteeing the impeccable quality and supreme teamwork.

Nowadays a  network of interconnected electronic devices united under the term Internet of Things has been established already. It allows data and info sharing to provide consumers with added convenience and control through certain processes automation. 

At present tens of billions of IoT linked devices operate worldwide and their number is progressively increasing. The virtual assistants, like Alexa and Siri, serve as the bridge between the human users and the existing network of interconnected devices. But IoT goes far beyond consumer devices and serves as a kind of industrial internet already automating factories, connecting cities and urban areas to facilitate their smooth development and interaction.

The future of the internet of things in 2020-2021

The global IoT market is predicted to reach 520 bln USD by 2021, thus it will almost double compared to 2019 and the figure will almost triple to around 1.6 trillion by 2025. 

The anticipated IoT device growth is also 3 times - from 26.66 bln as of 2019 to almost 75,5 bln in 2025. Datacenter and analytics will become the fastest-paced IoT segment, at 50% CAGR, followed by Systems Integration sphere developing at 40% CARG. Even though the enthusiasm of the previous years has been tempered a bit with the fact that IoT solutions may need a longer time for their implementation and getting the ROI significant possibilities are obvious opened now for system integrators, business app developers, IoT industry engineers, and device producers. Let’s look closely at the IoT industry solutions trends to keep pace with the quickly expanding sphere and opportunities revealed.

2020 IoT Trends

The main what should be noted is that cloud service providers are now the most prominent and influential vendors in the IoT space. Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services should be mentioned particularly. The CSPs make the barriers to IoT adoption lower, allow easier implementation of the solutions and simplify trying out new cases of usage and scaling up. Speaking about the consumer and industrial IoT trends the concerns about security, integration, interoperability, and ROI should be alluded to being the main challenges shaping the industry trends in 2020-2021.

Security

It’s the aspect having the most weight. The customers are even ready to pay extra for being sure their security concerns have been addressed. More about security concerns, read below.

Focusing on fewer industries

Narrower focus allows understanding what the users want and require in a particular industry better. Deeper experience in a particular sphere my result in crafting a state-of-art end-to-end solution. More attention to the integration aspect. IoT products incorporation into the business processes is not easy nowadays. It becomes a sensitive barrier to the internet of things solutions spreading. Here we should also refer to the narrower industrial focus mentioned above. Studying a particular industry will allow providing solutions dedicated to it with better integration options. 

Predictive maintenance analysis

Analytics should be involved to help businesses determine more accurately the necessity of optimizations and replacements. The customers should be aware of the expected ROI

Predictions On What's Ahead

At present, there is a gap between the customers’ interest in IoT use cases, which has grown recently and vendors, who continue to scale up in the markets, where it’s easier and more efficiently. Demand breeds supply. The predictions for the internet of things application and development services are as follows.

1. Consumer IoT trends - Automotive IoT 

here have already been lots of investments poured into IoT solutions for consumer homes, workplaces, and cities. At the same time, the Internet of things application for automobiles has been so to say neglected. However, autonomous vehicles are entering the ground and there’s a large opportunity at play to enter this market. Security concerns should be approached extremely scrutinously here. People entrust their lives to their cars, so no auto should be hacked and not a single person should ever be harmed. 

2. Slower Adoption of New IoT

Just several years ago there were more optimistic forecasts as to the spread and adoption of the IoT devices. Undoubtedly, they are still on the rise, but the practice has shown that the community is not yet ready for the vastly interconnected world of the voice-activated devices and consequently the internet of things market is developing slower than predicted. Many of the voice-driven gadgets need more time for proper development and interconnectivity provision to change the technology and the way of networking. Now the areas related to utilities tracking and health and fitness tracking are expected to experience faster progress. The other spheres have a long way to go.

3. 5G Making IoT Security Worse

As it was mentioned above, security is a matter of great customer concern, but the spread of 5G complicates the situation. On the one hand, technology is going to facilitate the spread of the IoT connected devices. On the other hand, it will widen the threat landscape because the network has its own security issues needed to be handled.

4. Hardware Firewalls Becoming More Prevalent

While there are nowadays more opportunities for start-ups, they can create IoT devices faster and at lower costs, but the security aspect often suffers. Hardware firewalls are likely to become more widespread with the implementation of more internet of things devices and the consumers are likely to be more careful as to their adoption. That’s creating a good field of development for the solutions, which can protect the users from viruses, hacks, phishing scams, and more. 

5. Cybersecurity For Smart Homes

An IoT network within a smart home will definitely require another kind of security level. It will provide a vast ground of service expanding and diversification for home security businesses, the ones which are now dealing with business protection as well as for the specialists creating IoT devices and providing services. 

6. New and More Expansive Security Solutions

Since the time PCs entered our houses, we’ve had the opportunity to experience the unfortunate side of software security lack. Lots of programs have been created to protect the users, however, the new products require new approaches. IoT devices implementation requires not only the IoT apps development to manage them, but also crafting more complex and advanced security solutions.

Conclusion

IoT solutions are going to change our lives in the nearest time already, yet, they set the challenges which are going to be faced and handled. As we can see the security aspect is the most burning issue for the present moment, opening opportunities for companies and specialists from different spheres. When looking for the internet of things application development services we advise to turn to the experts, having enough experience and expertise and eager to guarantee the proper level of security of the solution crafted.

Nowadays, a successful business can't do without the latest high-tech developments ensuring maximum interaction with the target audience. On the other hand, billions of active digital solution users are very enthusiastic about the latest IT development trends.

Mutually beneficial interaction between companies providing services and goods and potential consumers stimulates developers to create new and improve the existing tech solutions. Given the current IT development trends, here are the technologies that are going to change our world in 2020.

Internet of Things

This is an AI-based technology that provides remote monitoring of a wide variety of objects:

• Smart cities with sensors that inform about traffic intensity, the fullness of garbage bins, noise level, pollution and water level, etc.
• Smart homes with distant monitoring and control of all household processes.
• The agricultural sector with soil state monitoring and drones that control the harvest.
• Logistics - monitoring the condition and location of a ship or truck.
• Medicine. Medical devices with online connections allow the doctor to monitor the health of patients and take urgent measures to save lives in time.
• Transport - smart cars connected to the Internet.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

This is a strategic element of the digital industry. Here are the new trends in IT development in terms of AI and ML concepts:

• AIOps for data analysis and IT system management.
• Artificial intelligence integrated into the Internet of Things. AI will take care of your home and car while you are relaxing.
• Webcams that recognize objects and faces.
• Multilingual voice translators.
• Face Unlock is an application which unlocks a smartphone after identifying a user's face.
• Applications that predict possible user behavior.
• Highly authenticated cybersecurity applications.
• Adaptive batteries with extended life expectancy.

Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality

Latest IT development trends expected in 2020 related to AR and VIR include:

• virtual user AR;
• training in virtual reality;
• concerts, shows, live music in virtual reality;
• training based on VR/AR applications;
• augmented reality navigation.

Beacon Technology

Beacon is an application that significantly shortens the path from the consumer to the nearest company ready to provide the necessary product or service. Beacon is expected to affect the following areas of our lives in 2020:

• healthcare;
• traveling;
• tourism;
• payment support;
• various physical games, up to searching for treasures.

Blockchain

This is a technology developed for cryptocurrency transactions, based on the decentralization of the database, which excludes centralized control and makes any hacking attempt almost unreal. Blockchain smartphones of 2020 will provide users with:

• asset tokenization;
• transparent safe bets;
• Swarm Robotics;
• BaaS service;
• participation in elections, referendums;
• intellectual property protection.

Cloud Integration

A rapid growth in the number of cloud-integrated applications is expected in 2020. This will facilitate the use of smartphones: the internal memory will not be overloaded, therefore, the productivity of the device will significantly increase. Get ready to see:

• applications for quantum cloud computing;
• multi-cloud platforms;
• hybrid cloud applications.

Mobile Wallets

Just install an application on your smartphone and pay for any product or service. Applications expected to take place in 2020:

• audio-adapted mobile wallets such as Tez Google Pay and similar apps;
• short-range communication based on NFC technology;
• payments with radiofrequency RFID identification;
• a higher level of security for money transfers.

Wearables

Smart wearable gadgets include watches, accessories and other things that analyze the user’s heartbeat, body temperature, oxygen level in the blood and other physical indicators of health. You will meet the following application development trends of advanced technologies in 2020:

• smart glasses;
• contact lenses for virtual contacts;
• virtual keyboards that respond to smart lenses and/or nail polish;
• smart shoes, clothes, buttons and more.

On-Demand Apps

Targeted applications will instantly respond to all possible user requirements. Today we are already using taxi services, food delivery, etc. Applications expected to emerge in 2020:

• calling a babysitter;
• salon services;
• calling a laundry worker.

Instant Apps

The trend of push notifications will be further developed in 2020. This convenient, practical service is an excellent alternative to emailing. Push notifications comfortably inform the user about promotions.

Conclusion

The year 2020 will open up new horizons for companies and users. Companies aimed at success need to move with the times. Rapidly developing technologies are going to become the most effective tool for a business. As for users, they should track trends and install suitable applications on their smartphones to make their lives easier and convenient.

Almost every time we leave our abode, we can’t but wonder whether we turned off the lights or iron, whether we locked the door or set up the security. Unfortunately, these routine things can slip off one’s mind. When it comes to electric domestic appliances, forgetting to power off or disable something in time is both dangerous and costly. And that’s exactly the reason why smart homes grow in popularity so rapidly.   

The concept has been settling on the global technological arena for quite some time. People gained an ability to manage their living space via computer systems back in the 90s, controlling heating, air conditioning, and ventilation, as well as surveillance and automated security remotely. 

Today, the progress in this niche is at its peak and a single smartphone may be enough to conveniently keep your home in order at all times. A handy smart home mobile app will help you with that.

What is a Smart Home?

The term smart home implies a whole system dedicated to managing domestic, everyday living processes. Many sci-fi movies coined similar systems as dedicated robots and virtual assistants that help a resident handle chores and use domestic devices - switch TV channels, open and close doors, fill up the bath, etc. In reality, the complex of smart home technologies really helps to make your domestic affairs more practical and resource-efficient. 

Top smart home platform developers of the now can make wonders. For instance, your heating system can be managed via your phone with the help of an intelligent thermostat. Windows can be controlled via a special sensor. Your TV, microwave, and everything that needs to be plugged in to work can be turned on and off remotely via smart sockets. Lighting, temperature, locks - all that and more can be fully controlled through a single mobile device. 

Smart home applications may connect either through Bluetooth or home Wi-Fi if we are talking about simple software and devices. If it is an integral network of devices that covers more than one flat, centralized smart home management units are employed. 

The main technology powering modern smart home systems is called the Internet of Things (IoT). It describes a network of interconnected devices that work in real time online and, apart from implementing their direct functions, may collect data, analyze certain information, and automate all that can be automated.

The Internet of Things Phenomenon

In modern times, smartphones are essential. Everybody uses them to shop online, communicate with one another, and even acquire certain education. It is only logical that people would want to eventually control their automated homes with these omnipresent devices.

That’s why investors from all over the world are focusing a lot on the progress of the IoT and smart home app development. According to the statistics, about 20 billion IoT devices are to perform in homes globally in 2020. In 2017, the general cost of the IoT market has grown up to $1.1 trillion and reached $1.71 trillion by 2019. This explicitly indicates a high demand in this field. 

As such, the market of mobile applications for smart homes also grows and expands. The variety and quality of such solutions don’t stop expanding and enhancing. There was a huge spike in IoT-focused investments in 2019, including venture investments as well. 

Why it’s Time to Invest in Smart Home services?

Future development of smart homes is a thing that many investors put hopes in. That is, first of all, because this business field, despite being more than two decades old, is still fresh in its technological nature yet it is utterly relevant. Ecologists, government representatives, economists, and even social activists - everybody is all for saving resources. 

Frankly speaking, we really do need to use less water, consume less electricity and waste fewer treasures of the soil. To become more resource-efficient, we need corresponding technologies to help us optimize any expenses. In such a way, automated systems for managing electricity, heat, and water consumption become all the more relevant, profitable, and demanded. Smart home mobile app design evolves along with that. 

Thus, google - a smart home developer that we all know and love for certain other projects, has integrated Google Assistant embedded in the special speakers with smart home management capabilities so that you could control your house with voice. In 2018, Amazon sold a record-breaking number of Alexa devices that have similar capacities. Both have since occupied their respective market niches. 

Surely, the investors are still concerned with some of the underlying risks of putting resources in such developments. Financial risks due to possible poor sales are a curse of any market related to modern technologies. The global state of things, however, remains the same - smart home software is an already fruitful and promising in the future business niche. Just take a look at the list of IoT related stocks being traded on public markets. 

The important aspect of this statistics isn’t the number of devices that are to be launched within a year or financial resources companies tend to invest in the field. The most interesting fact here is the overall pace of development in the niche of smart home apps. And we will still see the major part of it all in the nearest future.

How to Develop a Smart Home App?

Considering the restless flow of information we get nowadays, it may be difficult to define some of the best smart home apps on the market right now to see a prominent example. In order to launch your own solution of such kind, you should compose a list of requirements, settle with the ultimate goal of your efforts, and decide on the scale of your development.  

In this matter, software development principles differ from those employed in the development of a regular smartphone app. All in all, there are 8 major steps you should take to achieve prominent results with your smart home software.

1. Learning how smart home automation works

The first-ever automated intelligent home was introduced by Emin Mathias in the 1950s in Jackson, state of Michigan, USA. The house was called Push Button Manor, as everything inside could be controlled via remote control. Mathias never got the chance to sell his invention in that era. 

Another significant attempt to automate a dwelling was made by Microsoft in 1990. The system provided a home QR-code scanner as well as a TV with a built-in programme, which was far from advanced technologies. Nevertheless, knowledge of these early efforts may help you understand the whole gist of such systems and find out what consumers may actually need nowadays. 

2. How’s the market? Your idea validation

The market of smart home app design continues to grow rapidly and dramatically. The availability and demand for related technologies give a good push for business entrepreneurs to establish whole companies and launch new startups in the field. You just need to adapt to its current state and find a way to efficiently introduce your solutions in it, settling with the region and other market specifics.

3. Choose the type of app

The compatibility with a mobile OS isn’t essential here. Smart home software can be subdivided into two major types - single-purpose and multipurpose. 

A single-purpose app is a piece of software intended to manage an individual smart home automation device. For instance, it can be a heating management app that helps regulate the house temperature remotely or a surveillance app connected to your security cameras.  

A multipurpose app is connected to several devices at once or is integrated with a whole network of sensors, appliances, etc. You can go by the “all-in-one” route and offer an all-around management solution or a complex smart home security app that would help to check and control all the security measures in your house.

4. Decide the core features

The primary features of your software should be unique smart home capabilities. Some of the major capacities in this matter include:

• Simple & secure user registration;
• Personal user profile & cabinet;
• Access configurations;
• Adaptation capabilities;
• Dedicated menus for separate devices;
• Convenient room switching;
• Customizable notifications;
• Schedules, routine scenarios, & action groups.

5. Understand the security implementation

Security and user data protection should be paid a good chunk of attention to. Such apps process quite a lot of data, which, sometimes, makes developers shift focus to other aspects and leave security flaws. That should be avoided - all in all, we are talking about the software that is to be directly connected to one’s living space. 

6. Choose the right data storage type

Any smart home accumulates loads of various data. In order to reliably store it, you can employ either cloud storage or local storage. Each option has its pros and cons. Thus, cloud-based storages are available 24/7 via any device connected to the web and can be expanded exponentially. A local server is, however, more secure, being a proprietary device, but isn’t as accessible as the cloud.

7. The smart home components to know about

In the foundation of any automated smart home system, lie several basic components that are interconnected via a home-based IoT network:

• Central node - the main device, a control panel that interconnects all hardware components on the software level & visualizes management capabilities;
• Sensors - special devices that process data in external conditions, analyzing, e.g., temperature, humidity, motion, etc. 
• Actuators - motion drives that set physical things in motion (lift things up & down, close the shutters, etc.). 

8. Energy consumption monitoring

Electricity tariffs tend to grow by 2% on average each year. Everyone wants to save and you should give people an opportunity to do so if you’re implementing a smart home app. So make sure your software is compatible with the energy and other resource measuring sensors.

Summary

We hope that we let you see clearly what huge potential software development for smart homes can boast. Numerous companies out there have already presented advanced software products for solving daily domestic issues. But developers in the niche don’t seem to cease surprising us. New startups change the approach to securing and managing one’s home. The field grows at a rapid pace and, perhaps, soon, a smart home will become a regular type of home.

The global volume of online sales for 2018 grew by 15%. In 2019, on average, 14,1% of all retail purchases are made through the worldwide web. If you are at all related to sales or need to sell anything, you shouldn’t neglect such information. 

An e-commerce mobile app is a trendy solution that has gradually become a standard in the global retail market. All companies go online, allowing for the utterly simple shopping process for their customers all over the world. 

Convenient Equals Profitable

Dedicated E-commerce apps continue conquering huge chunks of the digital retail market. Nobody likes to wait in lines and search for clothes they really like from store to store. Immediate purchases are the top convenience of the 21st century. 

Online stores reap definite benefits from having dedicated eCommerce apps that gather traffics of millions of users regularly.

People increasingly prefer mobile shopping and web surfing, making such tendencies pretty fruitful for business. Visual Objects gathered the statistics related to the paces of ecommerce mobile app development:

• 7 out of 10 smartphone users use retail apps;
• the amount of software on user smartphones grows day by day;
• 79% of users prefer making orders from home;
• 54% of users employ retail software weekly, 28% - daily;

Large retailers don’t miss out on grabbing a sweet piece of cake and boost their profits by expanding over the mobile commerce environment.

10 Requirements for Implementing Successful E-Commerce Applications

There are numerous apps for web retail available online. A truly convenient solution of such kind, however, should correspond with a set of the following requirements.

Simple registration process

Registration should never take long if you want to retain users that launch your app. Make sure you provide an ability to register and sign up via social media and email accounts. Try to make it a few-clicks’ affair.

High-quality product photos

It is crucial to present your products for sale decently. Unique, original hi-res images always provide an efficient impact on all users and potential customers out there.

Multiple payment options support

The more payment methods are provided for the customer, the more is the possibility of them completing the order. Credit, debit, and popular cryptocurrency systems shouldn’t be neglected. Make sure that the payment gateway is also secure enough.

Push notifications

You are more motivated to make purchases and implement target actions when you are regularly notified about all the discounts, special offers, and supply replenishments. The main thing here is to reach the balance - 1-3 notifications a day should be enough not to irritate users too much. 

Social media integration

There should be an ability to leave feedback and share impressions of the retail offers on social media. Make sure the app is integrated with the major social channels, like Instagram, Facebook, etc. 

Complete synchronization

Synchronizing your app with a dedicated website, you can significantly accelerate the solution’s market introduction and gain a competitive advantage.

Google Analytics

Analysis is crucial to indicate the most frequently visited pages, most common user actions, and traffic routes.

Review & rating

Let users assess your products. Product-dedicated rating systems will help develop a network of users that communicate and interact one with another. Moreover, this provides transparency of user choice - negative feedback is always useful to other potential buyers.

Wishlist button

Wishlist helps to remind customers about the purchases they are interested in but haven’t yet had a chance to make them. Wishlists are great personalization elements that boost your customer engagement rates. 

Easy checkout

Shopping should be simple. The process of adding a product to the car, making up an order, and paying for it should require minimum efforts and time.

Key Aspects for eCommerce App Development

A clear, subsequent, and consistent marketing strategy is the key moment of successfully introducing mobile solutions to the market. To compose your strategy most efficiently, make sure to cover the following aspects.

1. Market analysis & buyer persona. Make sure you know your customer - their age, gender, geolocation, related trends and points of consumer attraction. Knowing your target audience, you get to optimize expenses and market introduction terms. You should know, for instance, that people 35 to 54 years of age tend to use retail apps more frequently. 

2. Know your competitors. Acknowledging strong and weak sides of your competitors, studying their audience and market positioning, you get many benefits and cost-saving opportunities, avoiding repeating their mistakes. 

3. Choosing technology. Should you focus on ecommerce for apple devices or go for e commerce android app development? This depends a lot on the type of market and user status niche you’d like to cover. Apple has stricter retail policies but provides a least competitor-intensive market environment. Android accepts most everything but has a fierce, filled to the brim segment of competitors.

4. UI & UX design. Make your brand look accordingly to its main concept. Properly selected color schemes, visual effects, as well as an accessible, intuitive interface are the aspects that help identify a business among thousands of similar names.

Conclusion

Launching a dedicated app, every other company gets a number of benefits and overall market income-boosting opportunities. With some fierce competition at hand, however, you should make it a decent piece of software that would stand out among other, similar solutions. And if you clearly understand for whom you’re building a solution, go through its system analytics thoroughly, and assess it all-around, you’ll definitely be able to launch a successful product that will help you optimize your profits.  If you’re looking for such specialists, turn to Axisbits. We will be glad to help you with a project of any scale and complexity.

Technology moves quickly nowadays, the functionality and features of websites require constant updates as well. The objective reality is so that web resources often get outdated. Though one cannot have control over the changing digital trends, there are some signs, which may prompt you that your website redesign project plan is required right now. You should not allow your most powerful marketing tool to get slow, unattractive, unresponsive, or not mobile-friendly, so you have to be aware of the tell-tale signs signaling about the necessity to update your online business asset.

We have prepared a website redesign checklist for you to check from time to time and take the actions if it’s necessary.

Website redesign checklist:

1. Outdated site design

The difference between old and modern sites is great and though there is no such a notion as an expiration date for a website, you should not allow it look too colorful (2-3 color scheme looks perfect), cluttered with poorly sized images or outdated. On average every 3 to 5 years are a good rule of thumb for a website redesign.

A site is the face of your business and it should be clear, simple and clean to portray your business professionally, otherwise, the trust to your brand may be damaged with the user's bad first impression.

2. Poor first impression

Not only design, but loading speed is crucial for site success. When the page loading speed exceeds 5 seconds, 75% of users leave the site and almost half of them never return. It’s reasonable to aim as little as 3 seconds to be successful. 
Besides, this parameter is essential for search ranking and can damage it as well. Redesign almost always solves the problem if it exists, so a good idea is to test your site speed minimum once a year. Google's PageSpeed Insights Tool is quite helpful.

3. High bounce rate 

This parameter shows the proportion of visitors who leave your site just after they have viewed the first page. The norm is considered somewhat between 40 to 50 %, but you have to aim to get the minimum in this parameter. Then you may be sure your site is a valuable and engaging asset for the users and therefore the chances to expand your deals are high. 

Keep it in mind that different pages have diverse bounce rates and what is a norm for a contact page cannot be appropriate for a home page, for instance. If the problem is characteristic to the whole site, not just a few pages, an analysis should be made and revamp is advisable.

4. Less visitor time on site

In case visitors leave your site in a short time, it turns them off either being too complicated, confusing, without a convenient search option, etc.  A more effective design can then offer your users more value and convenience, then their presence will be longer.

5. Your website design isn’t solid or valid

The modern users trust powerfully crafted sites, seeing a solid design people will more likely become your customers. Besides, it should be rich in content to demonstrate your competence and a good idea is to provide educational content as well to provide informational value to your customers. With a new design, you can add the missing pages and tabs and presuppose the possibility to add new sections and pages when it’s needed.

6. Low conversion

In case the users visit your site but do not take action, you still have to consider improvements. Low conversion can be overcome by the redesign – most likely the key on-page elements (CTA’s, social proof, clear buttons and sections, etc…) are wrong or missing and improvements will help your website to convert better, so troubleshoot and craft a perfect conversion funnel through a new powerful design. Believe us, the website redesign costs are more than paid later with proper conversions.

7. Lacking user-friendliness

A successful online resource is a user-friendly one. Positive user experience comprises many factors - easy navigation, valuable content, and clear СTA’s are just the main of them going along with clean design and personalization. Meeting the requirements of the modern UX you’ll increase engagement, conversion, and loyalty through positive and unique experience for each visitor coming to your website.

8. Not responsive

The stats of 2018 has shown that almost three-quarters of queries come from mobile devices, so to gain more visitors, your site should be responsive. More than that, Google ranking is now based on the sites’ mobile versions. In case your site shows poor results as to these aspects, it’s high time to improve the responsiveness- capacity to adjust automatically to the screens of different sizes. So nowadays it’s a non-debatable feature for your site, but a must to boost your audience engagement and conversion rates.

9. Insufficient site menu

The menu which is not visible or does not contain enough links complicates your users’ search and getting around your site. A proper design will include a sitemap which will incorporate the important site pages and the paths to them.

10. Limited site

A really professional site for a trustworthy business should be custom-build or at least be based on WordPress. Otherwise, it will fail to gain trust and prove validity. Besides, an entrepreneur is unlikely to create a website as good as the professionals will do, so entrust it to the experts, like Axisbits company.

11. Lack of SEO

Search Engine Optimization enables your site to be shown above the others in Google, Bing and Yahoo search results. The optimized content and properly chosen target keywords are a great means to enhance the ranking, but if the site structure is not SEO-friendly, the content won't work well.

That’s why design should be created to streamline SEO and structured according to Google requirements.

12. New functionality Needed

Every business grows and develops and in the process of it, it requires more tools to keep afloat and prosper. This should be reflected on your site as well, you may allow your customers to appoint visits online, integrate your site with marketing tools and campaigns or social media or CRMs, whatever. Still, new functionality should always simplify the life of your users and benefit your business processes. As soon as you start thinking over your future redesign, keep in mind the enhanced functionality and put it to life in your new site version.

13. Security concerns

Though many businessmen argue if this is a significant aspect to consider and to start website redesign, lots of online resources contain plenty of valuable and sensitive data to keep it secure. It’s essential to analyze the information you have and gather on the web and make an audit of your site’s security condition. If the failures are found, the coding and security patches should be updated.

Conclusion

Now as you’ve gone through all the 13 signs we mentioned, you have a clear understanding of whether your website requires a redesign right now or you can brainstorm it later. Anyway, you should consider the qualified teams able to make the revamp properly so that your renewed site becomes attractive, converting, user-friendly, secure and accessed on any device. Axisbits can do the work for you professionally. Contact us for assistance and get your website redesign proposal if you are ready to take it up.

High rates of development of such technologies as blockchain and cryptocurrency attract more and more attention from the most various business niches. The distributed ledger method - when data, instead of being stored in a centralized database, is distributed among many network participants while stored locally - can be a great security AND efficiency booster for any business activity. 

As such, all the transactions taking place in this network are checked by independent participants and then are registered in the global history of operations. By data blocks, you can thoroughly monitor the integrity of each deal. At the same time, currently available global blockchain technologies allow for all operations to take place immediately, anonymously, and without the involvement of additional specialized third parties.

Blockchain, Business Adoption - Key Moments

The cryptocurrency tech opens new opportunities for company owners. To boost the overall business market value and get the maximum effect from your efforts of adopting blockchain, you should consider and learn a bunch of important aspects.

Security

You provide a truly valuable service when you offer the following:

• hashing of confidential data, passwords;
• replication of any data copies throughout the whole network;
• an inability to change or delete the history of operations.

You can reach all that without involving blockchain as well. Most systems are based on the centralized management block, however, which can be easily breached, undermining the confidentiality of all the data and security of deals.

Decentralization

In terms of defining the concept of decentralization, this type of blockchain infrastructure can be considered both centralized and decentralized at the same time: there is a single decision-making point that verifies operations taking place between participants, however, data copies are stored throughout the whole network. There is no universal blockchain model - a certain type is settled based on a particular case. 

Smart contracts

The following scheme of nodes demonstrates the general idea of a smart contract.

Cryptocurrency

The implementation of crypto financial operations doesn’t necessarily require the involvement of blockchain. The necessity appears when there is a need to secure the transaction network from any third parties so that everything works directly with the client. Note, however, that in such case, vendors have to take up additional responsibility and three major questions should be clarified with your developers:

# Do ✅ Don't do ⛔ 1 Specify the task this way: “I want to provide my customers with the possibility to pay for goods with the most famous cryptocurrencies on my website” Specify the task this way: “Integrate ERC-20 standard into my website payments” 2 Speak this way: “Why do we have Master Nodes? I didn’t see them in Ethereum architecture, and I thought that we planned to do something like that. How can we delete them from the architecture? What will it lead to? Speak this way: “I’ve seen an Ethereum architecture, there are no Master Nodes. Delete the master nodes from the architecture, but keep the same functionality.” 3 Delegate the review of technical decisions to a special person loyal to you Review all the technical decisions yourself and approve/decline them yourself, even if you don’t have any expertise

After these clarifications, try to find an independent technical specialist that will verify the answers.

Blockchain Business Ideas

For one thing, the technology of blockchain finds the widest and most efficient implementation in business niches related to finance - payments, transactions, emission and selling of securities, etc.; it can also be fruitfully applied in the agricultural business. Sky’s the limit here, really. All in all, blockchain helps optimize existing business processes, increase the reliability of important operations, as well as provide new types and ways of cooperation.

Finance

According to expert analysts’ predictions, global saving rates due to advanced technologies are to reach US$20 billion by 2022; 65% of banking establishments are also expected to employ the blockchain technology in their commercial operation by 2020. These predictions are based on the major benefits and opportunities, such as:

• Payments. With the adopted blockchain business model, payment operations become decentralized. This allows for avoiding slow and expensive payment networks.
• Identification. The distributed ledger nature is utterly precise at verifying the client’s goodwill and legal aspect of the processed assets.
• Asset transactions. Blockchains along with smart contracts allow making up deals in the form of a valuable asset. Blockchain boosts and security the efficiency of clearing, calculations, and storing. Smart contracts reliably encrypt the process log, rules, and related information. 
• Insurance. Automation of insurance requirements’ processing and inclusion of certificates in smart contracts reduce the scam chances and increase the speed of claim processing. 

Non-financial niches

As we’ve already mentioned, the blockchain technology is a universal way to process and store information in any type of business, non-financial niches are not an exception. In particular, it can also be utterly efficiently applied in: 

• government control - the distributed ledger helps optimize the aspects of taxation, issuance of passports, distribution of pensions, land surveying, etc; 
• energetics - alternative energy suppliers get a great ability to establish service for distributing their assets;
• education - transparent documentation helps decrease cheating rates and boost the document checking processes;
• cybersecurity - transferring and verification of data can be based on advanced cryptographic methods, decreasing the efficiency of hacker attacks.

Blockchain is also either already actively employed or is looking to be implemented throughout the niches of medicine, predictions, analytics, network technologies, Internet of Things, entertainment, advertisements, car leasing, travel, human resource management, etc.

The Business Value

Reliability, integrity, decentralization, and transparency of blockchain make it an all the more attractive piece of cake for businesses of various levels, opening new promising horizons and opportunities. Three major values we can highlight are:

Blockchain doesn’t have to be a disintermediator for value generation

Verified systems are integrated with private networks with limited access and editing capabilities. Thus, the leading companies save their dominating role and get an all-around protected way to form connections with other large players to work on large-scale projects. The anonymity of transactions allows for conducting value creation experiments before implementing the idea full-on. 

The long-term prospects of disintermediation depend on the mental and commercial readiness of everyone involved to implement blockchain. However, the situation should be controlled by the government, preventing possible threats for countrywide banking systems.

Blockchain lowers expenses in the short-term perspective

Experts from the Morgan Stanley bank predict that financial establishments are to lower expenses by 50% thanks to blockchain. The implementation of an encrypted database also allows reducing the team of specialists that verify every operation, dropping the basic expenses by 35-50%. 

An ability to conduct payments independently from one’s geolocation and involvement of intermediaries will positively affect the retail financing and international transactions. 

The felt reduction of the number of intermediaries along with thorough optimization of many processes are the major blockchain benefits that can lower your business expenses dramatically.

Huge scaling opportunities in 3-5 years

Many European, American, and Australian companies apply blockchain in terms of the experiment. The veritable assessment of the result will become possible when the global scale of the technology implementation is achieved. For that, the following factors must be regulated:

• general standards & rules;
• technology infrastructure development;
• mass digitization of assets;
• critical mass of popularization.

Summary

The technology of blockchain opens new awesome growth opportunities for most various businesses. Security, automation, and transparency are the key benefits of the distributed system. 

In turn, every other entrepreneur and business owner should consider the risks of additional responsibility as well as the experimental nature of this concept’s globalization. Several years may have to pass for it to be fully implemented on a global scale.