Month: February 2023

Build Better Apps in Less Time: 5 Reasons to Choose Low Code MVP Development

Posted on by galaxy-admin

As of 2022, nearly 3 million apps are available for download on the Google Play Store. And of all people, millennials are the most active app users, with 21% opening an app 50 or more times per day.

Your analytics will reveal that most website traffic comes from mobile users. That’s why startups today want to ensure their presence on the mobile platform as long as their idea and the problem they intend to solve are feasible with a mobile app.

But here’s the catch, a growing app market can mean something other than that your new app will succeed. Especially for startups, you will know if your application will grow once you test it. Does this imply that you should invest in full-fledged development? Not quite.

There is another solution that is quite a buzzword in the industry! Many startups and app market legends, such as Spotify, Uber, Instagram, and Dropbox, have succeeded through the MVP approach. And Low-code MVPs can be especially beneficial for mobile startups working on a limited budget or timeline.

If you’re considering this approach for your startup, we recommend reading this post to learn more about it.

Build Better Apps

Why is Low Code MVP essential for mobile-based startups?

Before we get into the details, let’s talk about what an MVP and a low-code MVP are.

MVP is the primary product version you build to understand your audience better. It helps the audience know the product and what to expect from it. On the other hand, it helps businesses realize the actual value of the product and its feasibility.

MVPs allow you to determine:

  • if your users are ready for the product,
  • if they’ll be interested in using your solution, and
  • what the scope is for scaling the product.

If you get enough insights from the users of the no-code MVP, it may be worth investing in a full-fledged solution.

A Low code MVP performs the same function but involves less to no code in its creation, which comes with additional benefits for startups and small businesses since they are more efficient and cost less.

In fact, it is considered one of the quickest and most established routes to success, whether a new product or a feature upgrade.

Now let’s discuss the benefits!

Benefits of Low code MVP in mobile-based startups

Higher efficiency

As we saw earlier, No-code and low-code platforms appeal to startups because they offer ready-made tools, reusable code, pre-built integrations, and templates for various development scenarios.

According to Gartner, by 2024, 65% of development functions will be low-code.

Some solutions include in-depth analytics, monitoring, and A/B testing features to optimize system performance. Plus, they support integrations with third-party services and comply with various industry standards.

Sounds terrific, right? But wait, there is more.

Cost-saving

Efficient and costs less? What can be better than this combination?!

Low code development tools help enterprises reduce their costs by up to 84% by allowing them to spend less money hiring professional development teams, cloud specialists, and other technical jobs. Businesses also don’t need to invest in expensive hardware infrastructure, development software, and licenses.

On top of that, these tools let you build your low-code MVP with less effort.

Faster deployment

IDC found that these organizations have reduced their development lifecycle for new applications by 62% and new features by 72%, respectively.

Low-code solutions improve your company’s agility by making it easier to reuse modules and code templates, create your MVP, and get feedback from users more quickly.

All of this means that you can attract potential investors faster than your competition and get a head start on solving the issues that are holding you back, and you are all set for launch in less than half the time. Now that’s exciting!

MVP helps you identify the market demand and evaluate the customer experience.

Being a startup founder, you prefer to test and validate your product idea by creating an MVP. The concept may seem promising regarding projections and visual designs, but the actual proof of concept interacts with a tangible application.

Customer feedback is crucial, as it allows you to identify your product’s most and least appealing sides.

The reversibility, or being able to go back to make changes, is one of the key reasons why MVP development is popular among startups. If any functions are unnecessary or have bugs, fixing them or adding new features during the quality assurance testing process is much easier. This flexibility helps to implement updates smoothly and bring the release date closer.

Limitations of Low code MVP & Setting the right expectations

Like all tools, despite their benefits, developing MVPs has limitations concerning drawbacks.

Here are the primary things you must consider:

  • Technical constraints

No-code and low-code platforms might not support the features you want in your app. You might need to resort to custom development tools to overcome some restrictions.

  • Vendor lock-in

Your app can become locked into the vendor’s proprietary technology stack and lack access to the source code. So, migrating your MVP to another low-code platform will become too costly.

The most typical and crucial mistakes startups make during MVP development are fixating on minor imperfections, needing more feedback, ignoring analytics, and needing more time for release.

Developing an MVP using no-code and low-code platforms does not guarantee affordability and timeliness unless you keep the limitations in mind and stand clear of any mistakes that might happen.

DIY vs. Professional Services: Which is better?

If you are a startup, low code should assist you in delivering an MVP to market with as few resources as possible. And if you are an established brand and want to try out a new feature on your app, low code MVP can also benefit you.

On the other hand, just building an MVP does not guarantee success. Business owners must remember that creating a no-code or low-code MVP is a quick way to test their business idea, not a magic switch that improves everything about your app.

Your apps rely on coding methodology and management practices to succeed. Furthermore, your team may still need to do some custom coding to overcome the limitations of low-code technologies.

If you believe you require the assistance of an experienced software development company’s assistance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’ll make your MVP development truly affordable.

Unlocking E-Commerce Success: 05 Essential E-Commerce Conversion Rate Optimization Tips

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Whether you are considering beginning an e-commerce business or already have one, some actions must be taken before launching your e-commerce website to ensure its success. One influential aspect of your e-commerce business is conversions. All online stores work diligently to increase their conversion rates. Every team knows how difficult it is to raise the e-commerce conversion rate by even a tiny percentage. 

Low conversion rates are sometimes the only thing keeping your company from achieving a certain level of success. Marketing initiatives that emphasize conversion rates are more effective than those that do not. 

Data from Outgrow. co show that companies typically spend 92 USD to acquire customers but just 1 USD to convert them. Therefore, it should be easy to believe that just 22% of firms are convinced of the return on their investment from conversion rates.

According to e-commerce Guide, e-commerce currently accounts for almost all retail growth in the US, which is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. That should be enough reason for you to put your business at the forefront with cutting-edge technology via the best-optimized website and user experience. 

How Is CRO Beneficial to the Business?

The unifying objective of all marketing initiatives is to improve results. Furthermore, the pursuit of innovation and development must be continuous to seize growth possibilities, regardless of the KPIs used to gauge the effectiveness of these processes.

Therefore, when addressing how to focus the lead or visitor’s attention and guide them to a specific action on the website, focusing on approaches such as CRO Marketing or Conversion Rate Optimization is beneficial.

While increasing e-commerce conversion rates is the primary goal of CRO, it also has the following extra benefits:

  • CRO enhances the user’s experience. By removing obstacles, you streamline and hasten the consumer experience. It therefore benefits your business’s bottom line and its standing in search engine results pages (SERPs).
  • CRO uncovers marketing possibilities: CRO identifies marketing opportunities that were previously prohibitively expensive, helping them to get a large number of new consumers.
  • CRO Adds Business Momentum: It boosts your capacity to spend money cost-effectively and helps you obtain more value out of every dollar invested. Momentum is crucial for recruiting further investment, so it also has that secondary advantage.
  • CRO uncovers your target audience: Since CRO calls for ongoing research and hypothesis testing, it provides a thorough insight of the target audience.

05 E-Commerce Conversion Rate Optimization Tips

01- Use high-quality images and videos on your product pages

According to MIT research, the human brain can process a picture in only 13 milliseconds, giving your customers a quick first impression of your brand and goods caliber. According to research by Shopify, only 0.52 percent of customers prefer to see a single product photo, 33.16 percent like to see many shots, and almost 60 percent prefer images that allow them to get a 360-degree perspective of the product.

When someone purchases anything online, high-quality photos & videos clearly show them what they will receive. They give an overview of texture, shape, shades, etc. Additionally, they assist customers in understanding the product’s size and the variety of its uses.

Key Takeaway- It’s no secret that visual marketing is crucial for developing a brand online. High-quality visual content, such as product photos, can make or break an e-commerce brand’s online visibility and consumer experience. Your images must provide information and help the consumer distinguish between various products. 

02- Be competitively priced.

When it comes to price, consider not just the product you’re trying to sell online but also the value it provides and your e-commerce USP. A company must first conduct some research to determine the pricing using a competitor-based strategy.

You must conduct market research on your competitors offering products that are incredibly similar to or identical to yours to develop this pricing plan for your online business. This should include high-end and low-cost retailers to give you a thorough market overview.

Let’s imagine you run a business selling sports footwear and looking forward to adding new designs. Even if the sports shoes cost you $20 to manufacture and advertise, the average cost for a sports shoe is $40. You can start your pricing slightly over the market average of $45, giving you a $25 profit.

Key Takeaway: The cost-based strategy is extended by e-commerce market-based pricing strategies that take into account your niche competitors. This is crucial if your products are identical to or highly comparable to those offered by other online retailers, allowing buyers to compare prices.

03- Clear navigation menus

Homepage navigation is one design feature that gains from familiarity and convention. However, many design website navigation as a last-minute addition after considering pages and content. In a recent poll, just 50% of internet users could anticipate where relevant content will rely on typical page navigation.

Users want to save time figuring out complicated, almost buried menus and strange iconography. The use of a traditional navigation structure improves usability. Navigation is made more efficient by placing the most crucial pieces in well-known places.

Key Takeaway: A simple navigation menu makes it easier for customers to understand your website’s many product categories. You must categorize your products using generic terms. For instance, a yoga brand can categorize its product line into “Bestsellers,” “Women’s,” “Men’s,” “Maternity,” and “Sale.”

04- 3-30-3 rule for creating content

In today’s fast-paced environment, capturing a potential customer’s attention can be challenging, even if your content is excellently crafted and highly relevant. The “3-30-3” formula can help you create content that engages readers and has an impact. The 3-30-3 rule lasts three seconds, thirty seconds, and three minutes.

  • 3 seconds- This implies that you have just three seconds to convince a website user that they are looking for the right product and are in the right place. Ensuring your title is intriguing, compelling, and grabs the reader’s attention is crucial.
  • 30 seconds- You only have 30 seconds to make your pitch after a visitor has chosen that your website is the best place for them to be. Therefore, your product introduction and opening H2 ought to be excellent. At this stage, you should grab their attention with eye-catching industry figures, quotations, or a fact that sets your product apart from the competition.
  • 3 minutes- At this point, users start to show a desire to understand more about your products. You must now choose what will convert the best for you, whether a short story, a demo, a client review, or infographics.

Key Takeaway: 

The “3-30-3” rule states that you have only three seconds to get a reader’s attention, thirty seconds to keep them engaged, and around three minutes for them to read the entire content. Here, it’s crucial to succinctly explain what they will gain by reading your content and how it will impact them.

05- Maximize the Mobile Experience

According to Statista, 93% of Millennials have used a mobile device to compare online deals, while 82% of Internet users in the United States have used a mobile device to shop online. Furthermore, Marketing Land says mobile app conversion rates are three times greater than mobile website conversion rates.

Businesses that have adapted to the popularity of mobile experiences in e-commerce are reaping the benefits in a very diverse business environment, while those that still need to commit to this area are inevitably losing out on a growing segment of the customer base.

A mobile-optimized website will automatically alter its size to accommodate different screen types, depending on the device used to view it. A non-responsive website will not display correctly on all devices, interfering with the user experience. This is particularly damaging for online stores as it could increase bounce rates and worse conversion rates.

Key takeaway:  With direct communication with customers, the mobile experience gives away an opportunity to reach a broader range of customers and access valuable customer data. All it requires is to create a mobile experience with a slick appearance, fluid operation, and everything in its proper place.

Final Thoughts

E-commerce has become a crucial component of the global retail landscape in recent years. As modern life is increasingly digitized, online shopping has become essential for retail and e-commerce businesses. A well-designed website that checks all the above-listed points is necessary for immediate and long-term success.

As boosting e-commerce conversion rates should be the number one priority for businesses, Galaxy Weblinks can offer more specialized solutions with streamlined processes that drive growth and encourage customers to do what is most important, buy your products. To continue serving your people, you must be ready to make the next move. If you need us to help you with anything related to e-commerce website/app design and development, contact us! We’re happy to help.

How to leverage product discovery to get funding for your app?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

With numerous apps rolling down the industry daily, it’s essential to make the app survive and significantly impact this competitive market. So, how can one greatly influence a wider variety of prospects than at any other time in history? It takes more than just an idea to create a cutting-edge app. Getting funding for the project is equally of utmost importance. Only the right investments will ensure that your winning apps actually win the market.

According to McKinsey, 17% of IT projects fail the business trying to execute them. According to CB Insights, poor market, product, development, and consumer research lead to a product’s failure in 35% of cases.

Before pitching investors your business or app idea, you need to put in some effort. Investors want to know that you have given your concept some serious thought, so a basic idea won’t cut it. IDC predicts that in 2023, infrastructure and service investment for public clouds would nearly double to $500 billion globally. This is where product discovery can make a world of difference.

Using product discovery, businesses can assess whether a potential product concept is viable on the market. Product discovery justifies why your product should exist and determines who will use it instead of creating solutions to challenges that nobody currently faces. Additionally, it brings about the possibility of attracting new investments quickly.

Product-Discovery

What is Product Discovery?


Product Discovery is a process that helps product teams initiate project development to better understand your customer(s) and their problems. In a nutshell, you put your idea to the assessment in terms of how well it really works to solve issues and live up to user expectations.

The primary goal of the discovery phase is to validate your assumptions and ideas about the app and mitigate your risks. Based on the data gathered, you can refine your idea and find the best approach to address their challenges and deliver a solution that meets the users’ expectations and demands. It often involves consumer research, market research, mockups, prototypes, and even the development of preliminary functional products. 

The aim is to:

  1. Recognize and identify users’ existing problems.
  2. Validate the team’s proposed solutions.
  3. Deliver solutions that actually meet users’ and consumers’ expectations.
  4. Minimize risks that might arise before, during, and after product development.

You will find yourself being tugged in many different directions by stakeholders and customers if you don’t know exactly who you are targeting as your customer. You need a product discovery to offer you a solid foundation. You will benefit from presenting a better possibility, and the business will benefit from a more significant return on investment.

How Product Discovery Can Help You Get Investments?


01- IDEA VALIDATION ENSURES FASTER CREATION OF A PREMIUM PRODUCT

When a business idea is validated, you can assess whether any flaws might lead to significant returns, discounts, fixes, or replacement expenses. According to Business of Apps, the cost of developing a simple app can range from $32,000 to $48,000, while the cost of developing a complicated app starts at $72,000. Over 80% of mobile apps need 3 months or more to build, according to a survey by Outsystems. That is just another way of explaining that idea validation for your app will sometimes shield your business.

Investors get a sense of affirmation from product discovery that you will develop products or services that will address the issues your potential customers may have. Additionally, a business may already use a similar model on the market, or it may be excessive and complex for a potential client to grasp. However, product discovery allows you to test your idea, which lowers the risk before investing time and money in an unsuccessful venture. Moreover, incorporating a sharp vision into development will assist you in reducing time to market (TTM).

Key Takeaway- Product discovery serves as a methodical approach to verifying that the problem and the proposed solution you’ve defined align with what customers are willing to pay the price for. Investors get a sense of validation with product discovery as it lowers risk, accelerates the market launch of a value-adding service, and cuts expenses.

02- STREAMLINES PROJECT BUDGETING MORE ACCURATELY

According to **Fortunly, 18% of businesses fail because of cost overruns, and the product discovery process might help you avoid this. It will enable you to gather an accurate estimate of the project’s specific scope, preventing the possibility of transpiration that the product cost ends up being much more significant than anticipated due to unanticipated shifts in the scope or hidden complications. It can spare developers from completing extra work and reduce project delivery costs and time.

Not only will the product discovery increase your chances of getting an investment, but it will also enable current stakeholders to resolve any crucial issues before the start of development. To put it another way, you can set up a process for what you’re developing and how you will make it if you grasp the potential of your product.

Key Takeaway-  A detailed timeframe and an in-depth budget projection are both enhanced by the product discovery process. It prevents falling short of covering necessary costs and lowers the chance of earning less than expected.

03- GET A PRODUCT OUT THE DOOR QUICKLY

Spotting potential pitfalls early on and understanding how to avoid them, as well as making it clear what you’re developing and why product discovery will help you release a product more efficiently and quickly. You will save time in the long run if you take the effort to grasp the product needs slightly earlier. Product discovery aims to eliminate repetition and guesswork from product development and delivery by continually checking for hundreds of frequent change points.

With product discovery, making a choice is simpler if you think about everything your app has to accomplish, including scalability, function as expected, and connecting to data and other systems. All desirable features may be included later as the product gains momentum in the market. Therefore, the discovery analysis carried out at the start of the discovery phase will help you prevent various flaws and faults while saving money on additional development.

Key Takeaway-  Companies that are keen to capitalize on emerging market trends must release products fast to the market. If you use product discovery early in the development process, you can exceed customer expectations and outperform your competitors with quicker development timelines.

04- MINIMIZE DEVELOPMENT RISKS AND DELAYS

According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 664 projects were delayed, while 425 out of 1,579 reported cost overruns.

Each investor has a unique level of risk tolerance. It goes without saying that low-risk applications are more likely to receive investment than high-risk ones. By doing product idea analysis as part of the discovery phase process, you can spot apparent risks, provide strategies to manage them, and lower the possibility of unexpected issues throughout the product development process.

Product discovery lays a significant focus on disclosing risks, from missed deadlines and delayed releases to low demand for planned product enhancements to price wars with competitors. You can avoid making risky decisions by thoroughly undergoing product discovery before kicking off the development process.

Key Takeaway-  The discovery session provides you with a range of crucial hypotheses and minimizes the risk of paying extra unnecessary expenses or delivering a product that doesn’t satisfy the needs of the target market.

05- PRIORITIZING THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURES

Which aspect or element of your app is most crucial? Which one should you start with? Prioritization is a tough nut to crack in product development. However, the product discovery phase makes it easier to validate the functionalities that will be used the most frequently and bring in the most revenue. Your priority will be clarified by actual user data regarding their problems and expectations. You can work with stakeholders to set the product backlog’s priorities with the help of user input.

Key Takeaway- With product discovery, investors can know what the app can deliver from the start, allowing them to prioritize the most important features with significant parameters. It allows the team to focus on creating something that provides genuine value to customers.

Wrapping It Up

Most app businesses fail due to a lack of investment, as accessing investors can sometimes be challenging. However, product discovery will help narrow down the appropriate investors for your product, as its primary objective is to gain a deeper understanding of business objectives and requirements. This makes it possible for you to lay the groundwork for your mobile app development that will satisfy your company goals and start turning a profit right away. Needless to say, you should do some preliminary research before pitching your business concept or app proposal to investors. Investors will undoubtedly invest in your project if it appears groundbreaking to them.

Galaxy Weblinks has expertise in building software from the get-go, including serving clients through the discovery stage of a software project for a wide range of industries and delving deeply into your product concept and context while providing effective discovery consulting. Contact us, and we’ll assist you in every step of the product discovery process. We believe that a product’s success depends not only on its original concept but also on how well it is put into practice.