Chat Bots – the next big thing?

With the dramatic surge in the number of apps and ever-decreasing screen sizes, users have arrived at a crucial point of technology evolution. It’s the age of ‘OS + Apps’ paradigm, where downloading, installing, and managing applications have become tougher than ever.

In such a challenging situation, what other forms of customer interaction can replace your traditional mobile app based support system? With the saturation reached by mobile apps, which other form of communication can keep the engagement alive and yet be a cost effective solution for your company?

The answer is – Chat Bots residing within messaging applications

Messaging apps and chat bots are substituting the mobile OS big time, thus bringing a new change in the app development arena.

Chat Bots are the latest technology trend

Chat bots replacing mobile-app technologies isn’t a new affair. The tech arena has always undergone crucial transformations, and this happens to be one of them. Trends began right from the 90’s when browsers came as alternatives to desktop OS. Websites substituted client applications, and today we come across bots replacing mobile app OS.

It’s here that users witness the emergence of innumerable applications such as Line, WeChat, Telegram, Slack, and Facebook. You can interact with 3rd party services from within the application interface.

Developers have the opportunity to create messaging bots, which lay the foundation for a new and innovative trend.

How Chat Bots are like Humans:

With the ever-increasing popularity of messaging bots, users have quite a few crucial questions popping up in their minds.

What makes Chat bots so important? Let’s take a look!

• Bots can replicate human actions while writing, reading, and receiving messages
• Users can program a bot to perform automated functions
• From initiating actions to sending responses, bots can execute critical functions
• From automating functions and workflows to operations, bots can perform numerous functions.

Messaging bots have revolutionized various sectors. While e-commerce bots help you make purchases, food bots help you order food, you will also receive relevant content pieces from content bots. In a nutshell, chat bots bring us to a new age of integrated and automated operations.

They replicate human actions, and that’s what makes them special.

Chat Bots lead to effective messaging architecture:

Bots are finding applications in diverse operations. Quite naturally, this diversity in use cases leads to effective messaging architecture. Depending on the situations and requirements, messages should be re-structured. The NLP feature or Natural-Language-Processing capability of bots ensures successful human interactions.

Benefits offered by chat bots:

With the exceptional, innovative, and highly functional features of messaging bots, customer support mobile apps seem to be heading towards a farewell. Users will now have functional and interactive bots enabling effective communications and interactions.

Bots also have the opportunity to track user responses by creating customized messages. Whether it’s a simple workflow or critical transactions, bots can ensure successful mapping of these operations onto the framework.

Our final verdict!

There’s no denying the benefits offered by messaging bots. Apart from ensuring integrated operations, these Chat Bots de-clutter and revolutionize mobile experiences. Whether it’s knowing information or responding to something, bots will prove to be the best alternative to mobile app OS!

In a world where cut-throat market competition seems to be the natural trend, successful marketing endeavors are your road to success. When it comes to assessing the innate skills of entrepreneurs, you will come across numerous qualities. While some of them are efficient product developers, there are others with exceptional marketing skills.

When it comes to projects like mobile app development, both successful product creation, and effective marketing will emerge as the prime requisites. While developing your mobile application, you will have to identify innovative ways to advertise it. Here are some tips to walk you through the process.

A comprehensive guide to mobile app marketing

Mobile applications should offer optimum functionality and easy operations, as that happens to be the most important aspect. Make sure it offers unsurpassed functionality, or else, your marketing efforts will go in vain.

Once you have a dynamic and interactive app, here’s what you need to do!

1.      Offering free versions

If running a ‘freemium’ version isn’t what you wish to do, try to bring ‘Free Versions’ on the market. Make sure your customers know about the functionality of the application along with its exclusive features. That will drive them towards purchasing the complete versions.

2.      Captivating and attractive descriptions

While deploying your app in app stores, you should have the market competition in mind. Creating captivating, interesting, and engaging app descriptions will take your app to unmatched heights of popularity. The description should attract potential customers thus helping you reach the optimum sales point.

3.      Social media marketing

With the emergence of popular social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, you will have the best opportunity to market your apps. Social media is one of the most effective channels for app promotion. By promoting your apps in these channels, you can generate high revenues.

4.      User reviews

Offering free versions to potential users is half the battle won. Make it a point to get their reviews. User reviews are the best ways to market your applications. The potential app purchasers will get to know the features and performances of your app.

5.      Creating app videos

Video creation is another significant way of promoting your app amongst a potential audience. Creating highly engaging and exciting app videos will attract numerous users to your application, To create high-quality app videos, using a video editor tool is essential. This tool enables customization with transitions, effects, filters, and text boxes, enhancing engagement and appeal, thus driving users towards taking action., thus driving them towards taking actions.

With these marketing tips, you will surely achieve successful app promotion, marketing, and advertising.

Promotion is important

Irrespective of your app designs and functions, targeted promotion, seems to be a highly crucial necessity. No matter what kind of application you create, successful marketing will always be the priority. While developing interactive and intuitive apps, developers should also ensure effective marketing.

Targeted marketing will help your app get discovered in the app stores. As the developer, you will have the opportunity to earn high revenues and take your apps to numerous customers. Build associations with leading app marketers capable of devising the best app marketing strategies for your mobile applications.

Tech innovations have completely revolutionized shopping practices and purchase behaviors. The widespread popularity of online shopping leads to a dramatic surge in demand for ecommerce. From daily essentials to luxury goods, there’s nothing that you can’t get online. Some of the leading ecommerce ventures also offer a host of crucial products including life-saving drugs.

The unique possibilities and profitability of the ecommerce arena have been the prime reason for its popularity. Take a look around, and you will find numerous individuals venturing into the ecommerce arena.

It’s here that ecommerce owners need to take the initiative. Every potential buyer would wish for an exceptional and unsurpassed shopping experience and commerce owners should strive hard towards offering that. Here’s what you need to know in this context.

Following the best practices

Following and adopting the best approaches will help you attract huge traffic to your site. As an ingenious ecommerce owner, you should know the best UX practices thus captivating your potential audience. Catch a glimpse of these innovative UX practices for an exceptional User Experience.

1.      Responsive designs

Whether they browse sites from their mobiles or plan to use their tablets while shopping, responsive websites will ensure the best shopping experiences. If reliable market stats are anything to go by, a whopping 50% of ecommerce traffic comes from mobiles. That clearly reflects the paramount significance of mobile-friendly sites and mobile conversions.

If you are still without a responsive website, it’s high time to do something about it. Sites that aren’t mobile-friendly lose out on innumerable customers.

2.      Clean, clutter-free, and flat designs

Customers today are increasingly opting for simple, honest, and hassle-free browsing experiences. With some of the leading tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft minimizing the look and appearance of their Operating Systems, clutter-free and clean designs have become the need of the hour.

While clean designs offer ample space to the crucial elements of your website, focused site designs will help you present your products in the most efficient manner.

3.      Simple and easy navigation

Customers are likely to abandon a site that offers complex navigation. Quite naturally, ecommerce owners should ensure easy, simple, and uncomplicated navigation for users. Try including diverse shopping options thus making navigation easier than ever!

4.      Unmatched product photography and presentation

When you purchase products from a traditional brick-and-mortar store, you get clear and close views of your chosen products. Your ecommerce store should offer similar experiences. No matter what kind of product you sell, it is imperative to offer crystal clear views to your target buyers.

Unique presentation and product photography is something you should achieve. Offer multiple-angle views along with product presentation videos.

5.      Product details and Add-to-Cart buttons

Make sure the product details and add-to-cart buttons are designed in a unique manner. That will play a crucial role in captivating your potential buyers and offering them unmatched shopping experiences.

With these UX practices in mind, you will surely ensure unparalleled shopping experiences for your potential customers and enthusiastic buyers.

The government’s decision to ban the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes have sent shockwaves across the country. While this initiative is to curb the increasing menace of black money in India, the country is experiencing a major shift in purchase and investment behavior. Demonetization has led to the increased usage of  and electronic payment modes. With lower denominations such as Rs. 100, Rs. 50, and others being accepted, the entire country is finding it difficult to handle expenses.

Such situations have created the demand for an effective alternative, and it is here that mobile wallets and e-payments have come into the picture. From occasional purchases to daily expenses, people are resorting to electronic payments for all of them. Let’s take a look at the real scenario.

Gauging the situation

Electronic payments and online transactions are highly popular amongst the urban population. With the increasing dependence on app-based purchases, urban India opts for the digital way when it comes to making payments.

Demonetization has also resulted in the dramatic surge of mobile wallet usage. Digital media consumption has shot up by quite a few notches, as individuals are making most of their payments via online channels. A quick look at stats will help you understand the situation in a better way.

Statistics speak

According to reliable market stats, digital wallet usage will increase by a whopping 140% by the end of 2018. On the other end, the global markets for mobile wallets will register a growth rate of 34% by the year 2020.

These insights clearly explain the major shift in India’s economy. Mobile wallets bring significant changes in purchase behaviors and spending habits, thus preparing the grounds for ‘cashless India. ‘

Demonetization and digital India

Cashless payments and digital wallets have been a part of the global economy for a long time. However, the business landscape of our country and the economy hadn’t been quite warm to the concept of digital payments.

The recent demonetization plays a vital role in this context. With two of the highest currency denominations being banned, consumers don’t have a choice other than resorting to mobile payments.

Mobile wallet companies and online-transaction service providers are coming up with brand new ways of attracting customers. The increased usage of plastic money plays the key role in the growth of companies such as Paytm, Ola Money, and others. While the first company experienced a whopping 200% increase in app downloads, the latter witnessed an upsurge 1500%.

Hard-hitting consequences

With these mobile wallets, you can make all kinds of crucial payments such as utility bills, mobile recharge, ticketing charges, shopping, and more. Quite naturally, the shift towards digital India is quite visible and apparent. However, some of the major roadblocks can wreck havoc on this vision of the Indian government.

Eliminating the ‘great divide’ between rural and urban India will be the first thing to do. That will take the country towards digitization and fulfill our Prime Minister’s vision of a digital, fast-paced, and smart India.

Although the iOS platform has achieved unsurpassed popularity in the tech arena, fake app issues have maligned its environment to a great extent. These apps are creating havoc in the iOS arena thus disrupting the environment to a great extent. With enterprise certificate registrations and matching IDs as their authentic and original counterparts, these apps grabbed a huge portion of market share.

Maligned and fake versions of popular apps such as Pokemon Go, Facebook, and several other gaming applications are the most common examples of this fake-app nuisance. Devices operating on iOS 9.3.5 are still getting affected by this fake iOS apps issue. On that note, it’s high time to take a look at the details.

How did it begin?

Fake iOS apps might have created a furore in the tech world. However, this isn’t the first time these issues are showing up. Possibilities of such incidents showed up way back in 2014 when a deadly technique known as ‘Masque Attack’ ensured successful replacement of original apps with fake, maligned, and poor versions. These apps never got identified easily, as they shared similar Bundle Identifier or Bundle ID with the original versions.

After learning about the incident, Apple decided to shut down processes and deal with vulnerabilities. However, such efforts didn’t help as 3rd party app stores started exploiting an exclusive feature in Apple’s code-signing process.

Delving into the nuances

Hackers and scammers have the greatest opportunity to make some quick bucks. All they need to do is create a maligned version with similar Bundle ID and that will be enough. Banking on the fame and popularity of the original version, fake-app creators can lure users into downloading these fake versions.

Controlling and monitoring app data is also important, as it might reveal crucial information about the user. Scammers can gain access to personal and identifiable data through the legitimate app. It goes without saying that users and consumers always stay at high risks of losing data and resources.

The grave consequences

By gaining access to such confidential data and information, crooks can have direct access to bank accounts. Especially, online buyers will be the sufferers as most of them make direct payments from the site.

Scammers will also have the opportunity to change and modify the function of a particular application. Although the situation is undoubtedly alarming and dangerous, precautionary measures can solve the problems to a great extent.

What to do?

Those incorporating and implementing in-app purchase functions must abide by Apple’s regulations. Validation of App-store receipts along with employ mechanisms are the two most crucial aspects in this context. App developers, designers, and creators should put their best efforts thus preventing hackers from reverse-engineering the original application.

Companies and businesses working on BYOD systems should tighten enterprise app security. Business owners should emphasize on the security of business applications if they are using the iOS platform.

Concluding note

Since the entire business and tech world depends on apps, fake-app issues will wreck havoc on their functions and operations. Let’s hope the counter-attacks on these counterfeit versions are successful.

Even a decade ago, technology didn’t have much to do in the business arena. Especially, when it came down to building effective customer relationships, businesses relied on physical markets to a great extent. The emergence of tech innovations and mobile revolution has entirely changed the present scenario.

Today, customers no longer rely on manual operations and perform most of their purchases on mobile devices. Interactive, easily navigable, and intuitive applications ensure unsurpassed shopping experiences for consumers. That’s not all; they bridge the gap between sellers and their target customers across the globe.

Needless to say, the retail market also reaps the benefits of consumer apps. If you wish to know how, here are some pointers that explain the scenario quite well.

Quick look at stats

Before we delve deep into discussing the nuances, let’s turn to stats for a complete lowdown. Social media, gaming, and communication apps are the widely used options. However, there’s a different dimension to this story. According to reliable stats, an average user installs nearly 36 applications on his mobile, out of which 1 in 4 applications remained unused.

That reveals consumer behavior to a great extent. Your target consumers will only use your apps if they meet their expectations. So, how do these consumer apps manage to boost customer-retailer relationships? Take a look!

Apps Determining purchases

Apps play a crucial role in the sales process. When it comes to buying things online, a majority of app users refer to the respective business applications for more information. Out of two users, one relies on apps for making purchase decisions. Nearly 29% of these users leverage apps to take actions. Quite naturally, apps have a lot to do with the entire sales and purchase process.

It’s here that businesses and retailers need to sit up and take note of the entire issue. Customers always wish for unmatched browsing and shopping experiences, and that’s what these applications help them achieve.

How do apps boost customer engagement?

Since a large number of consumers rely on apps, retail businesses are increasingly investing in app development. By integrating stunning features into their applications, retailers are taking a step towards improving UX. Breeze through the following points and check out what they intend to do:

• Push notifications: Sending push notifications through apps will be an effective way to engage consumers. Your target customers will get to know about special discounts and offers.
• Incorporating store layouts: App experience today involves the implementation of store layouts. Your customers will know the exact locations of the chosen products, which will surely enhance their shopping experience.
• Multiple payment options: The flexibility and ease of payments will make the shopping experience quite enjoyable for users. Multiple payment options will add to their convenience.

Parting thoughts

These are some of the innovative ways retailers are using to transform shopping experiences for the better. We can conclude that apps are playing the pivotal role in ensuring optimum customer satisfaction, thus boosting customer engagement with retailers.