On-demand applications are the future of consumerism and businesses. Nowadays, people are looking for alternatives to ready-made available options, and want custom-made choices. Gradually people are moving towards tailor-made and convenient options from traditional methods of approaching commercialism. And on-demand apps assist with the same. Therefore, business owners from different verticals are interested to develop custom on-demand apps for their businesses.
But first, what are on-demand apps? On-demand mobile apps are a link between service providers and buyers. It allows users to book any service or goods with just a click. For instance, ride-sharing platforms like Lyft and Uber or grocery delivery services, including InstaCart and InstaBuggy, provide on-demand services.
In the last few years, on-demand mobile apps have gained 22.4 million consumers, and their spending has grossed about 57.6 billion dollars. These applications cover several sectors, such as the Retail industry, Healthcare, Grocery, Beauty, Food Delivery, etc. Below listed are the top 7 features to consider when you make your on-demand application.
1. Real-time Analytics and Insights
Analytics or insights is a must-have to make your on-demand app successful. As consumers go through their journey on the app, your app must gather real-time data. Analyzing your app data will help your business grow by relying on facts instead of guesswork. Thus, you can make better decisions quickly, leap ahead of the competition, eliminate friction points, improve product performance, and double up on what’s working.
2. Recommendation System
With the growth in Artificial Intelligence, recommendation systems are gaining popularity. A recommendation system is a smart, information-filtering system that formulates educated predictions.
Recommendation engines take users’ historical and real-time behaviour into account and recommend products or services they are most likely to buy. Not only this, but recommendation engines also help businesses cross-sell and upsell effectively by recommending the right products to the right users at the right time.
This personalizes the user’s experience, proves that the brand cares about users’ preferences, and choices, builds trust, increases AOV, and boosts conversion and retention.
3. Live Order Tracking
When this feature is incorporated into the on-demand application, consumers can track their orders live. Employing an integrated and updated map, users can track their delivery in real-time with complete transparency. This reduces the workload for businesses as you don’t have to deal with repetitive customer calls asking about the status of their order.
The order tracking/live tracking feature will also help improve customer satisfaction, response times, and productivity. Hence, companies should install this feature – so their users can track and manage every step of the delivery process. This is definitely a must-have feature for a food-delivery app since it allows users to schedule orders at their convenience.
4. Smart Filter and Intelligent Search
The smart filter and intelligent search feature in the on-demand mobile application is an all-in-one solution to improve sales and conversion rates. You do not want users to get lost in the sea of your products or services. Incorporating search and filter options is a must to help them land exactly what they are looking for. This eliminates the friction of confusion and encourages customers to simply type their requirements and filter based on their preferences.
Quickly guiding your customers to their desired destination boosts customer satisfaction, which in turn, encourages repeat purchases.
5. Push Notifications
Push notifications are formulated to grab the attention of consumers. They act as a quick, communicative channel – to convey reminders, updates, offers, sales, promotions, and so on to keep bringing users back to the app. Integrating this feature in on-demand mobile applications would help boost user retention. Companies can let end-users know that their products and services are timely, personalized, and relevant with push notifications.
Push notifications have proven to be a highly defining success element for on-demand apps. They are known to increase retention rate by 3X to 10X. In fact, they can increase the retention rate by 71% if sent during the 1st week of app installation.
6. In-app Chatting or Chatbot
The in-app chat or chatbot is a chat interference that authorizes users to communicate with customer support in real-time. This feature ensures a back and fourth, two-way communication within the on-demand application.
This reduces the company’s workload as the deployed chatbot handles general queries regarding order cancellation, delivery status, delay queries, etc. And if the need arises, the query can quickly be escalated to the customer support team. This provides 24/7 support to the customers – and enhances the support experience. Moreover, it reduces repetition for the users and improves the customer service team’s productivity.
Making it easy for your customers to reach out whenever they face friction is one of the first steps toward building brand loyalty and boosting retention.
7. Secure Payment Gateways
Secure payment getaways are non-negotiable for any on-demand mobile application. To provide the user with a seamless and transparent transaction, you need to incorporate multiple payment options and emphasize security.
Users would not return to an app with a restrictive payment option where it takes too much effort to check out. They look for an app that encourages them to make payments through whichever mode—credit, debit cards, wallets, etc., they prefer.
Similarly, they wouldn’t share their personal information and financial details with an app that doesn’t keep security at the forefront. Implementing a payment gateway would ensure an effortless checkout experience, which is a must for a customer. Besides, this feature provides rapid payment processes and ensures fraud management and recurring billing.
Conclusion
If you want to make significant profits from the fast-growing gig economy, there’s no better way to create on-demand mobile applications. Especially after the COVID pandemic, the on-demand economy has grown exponentially. They have proven to be the only opportunity for businesses to weather the global crisis.
Now is the best time to develop an on-demand application! Create it with essential features that would benefit your end customers and business.
