Enterprise and Consumer Apps for FMCG

The future of FMCG retail

It’s no secret that the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) industry has undergone a major shift in the last decade, namely the transition from brick-and-mortar shops to click-and-mortar. This shift was prompted by the growth in online shopping (both B2B and B2C) vs. visiting physical retail locations or showrooms. This has especially been true for the Y and Z generations, who are less inclined to see, touch, and feel items prior to purchasing them.

The proliferation of digital payment technologies has certainly facilitated this trend. As a result of the seismic shift, many retailers and wholesalers have found themselves with numerous, expensive-to-maintain, empty store locations or showrooms, and declining physical sales. To counteract the negative impact of the trend, many have turned to e-commerce and apps.

 

Why apps for FMCG are a good idea

E-commerce is just one field that innovative retailers have begun experimenting with. Those who have not yet fully implemented e-commerce capabilities have started the transition with a digitization of their product assortment, often in the shape of an e-catalogue, or an app.

It’s important to note that FMCG apps aren’t only for the end consumer – they can also benefit your suppliers, partners, and corporate customers. Imagine the relief of sourcing departments when they realize that they no longer need to request wholesale quotes for specific quantities over email. Apps can increase not only your staff’s efficiency but also benefit your most important stakeholders, helping them choose you over others, time and again.

 

Benefits of developing FMCG apps

The advantages of offering retail shoppers the additional convenience of receiving augmented product information, shopping from the comfort of their home or office, and paying for orders digitally, cannot be overstated. Today’s consumers are looking for convenience, speed, and ease of use. Thus, offering time-saving solutions to their daily needs and challenges, is a significant value-adding benefit that differentiates you, as an FMCG provider, from your less digitally savvy competitors.

Once you have fixed the e-commerce basics and have enabled online shopping, ordering, fulfilment, and payments, you can look at upgrading the mobile or web applications that you are offering to your customers or internal users. Making these tools more user-friendly, faster, easier, and more fun to use, will make your customers more likely to choose your products or services in the future. Gamifying the shopping experience and offering loyalty or other frequent shopper rewards and discounts can add that coveted app stickiness factor that everyone is looking for.

 

Types of apps useful in the FMCG sector

• E-shop / e-retail, e-commerce apps: apps that offer product browsing and information, managing one’s shopping cart and list of favorites, product ordering, re-ordering, returns.
• Lifestyle apps: apps that encourage sales of items but go beyond simple product browsing by curating user experiences and placing retail items in a context (e.g. furniture staged in an actual home environment vs. disparate pieces against a white background).
• Social media apps: many social media apps today facilitate the advertising and purchasing of items promoted by influencers or other users – for many types of retail purchases, the shopping journey begins on networks like Pinterest, Instagram, or YouTube – and finish on the e-retailer’s website for the final order.
• Wholesale apps: Unlike the consumer-facing applications mentioned above, wholesale apps are geared towards the retailer that serves wholesalers, or resells in bulk under a white label, in addition to having their own retail e-storefronts. These apps, albeit being slightly different than the traditional consumer-oriented shopping apps, should aim to offer the same benefits to their users: speed, convenience, and ease-of-use.

 

 

Steps to building your own FMCG apps

In addition to the apps above, there are many innovative enterprise and consumer apps you can conceive, build, and offer to your audiences that we haven’t listed here. We would be happy to brainstorm ideas with you and offer you solutions that would delight your retail and wholesale customers alike.

As a B2B, business, and enterprise app provider, Verhaert Digital is used to wearing several hats and solving the challenges of both consumers and business customers (corporations and organizations). Our experience with the FMCG industry allows us to offer you a competitive edge when it comes to building mobile, web, and hybrid applications.

 

Copywriter inadanova.com