The current situation has shaken up each industry and has left everyone wondering how to continue doing business and earn a good deal of revenue & get their life back to normal.
Since most of the things were being done physically in the recent past, we are now required to get on the online space and make optimum use of the same.
Taking into consideration that our current life dependency on mobile devices and the internet has gone a notch higher this has carved away for more and more mobile applications.
During this pandemic situation when everyone is struggling hard to get their life back to a normal routine the eCommerce business has been on a rise and it is highly likely for it to stay the same in the times to come.
So, do you have a physical book store in one of the most hyped markets which were always flooded with customers, and have now fallen prey to the pandemic? Well, you must definitely read this blog thoroughly as you might benefit a lot from this and generate ideas on how to bring your business online and expand it among the masses.
While several marketplaces of various industries are being made on the digital transformation consulting services, why the book stores should stay aloof? They can explore the online space and make their products available to the users by creating a book store marketplace on either the webspace or getting mobile applications made for themselves.
As history has witnessed that Amazon the great giant of the online e-commerce world started its business by selling or renting only books and now the rest is history.
This blog is going to throw light on why online book stores are so essential, special in times of Covid-19 when education is being imparted to the children online and teachers and students are refraining from going out to buy books in person.
We are also going to talk about the features that are essentially required to build a successful book store app.
These apps allow the authors and book store owners to sell or rent or rent their books to the people who are interested in reading those particular books in return for money.
Our dependency on mobile applications has gone to a level where we don’t like to step out of the house, as everything is just one click away, they why would someone want to go out to purchase a book?
With the help of an online book store marketplace, users can simply make their accounts on the particular apps they want to use and start looking up the books of the genre they are interested in.
By applying filters and entering the author of the book they are looking for or a keyword, they get a variety of suggestions.
There, they get a lot of options to choose from and add the book they are interested in buying or renting to the cart and make the payment.
Later, the users have to just sit back and track their order, as the shipment details are shared by the app with the customers. All necessary updates are then made to the app itself and the book is delivered to the users in time.
While it may be hard for us to sometimes look up books in a physical book store, you might have to go from shelf to shelf. These online book stores help you save all that time, as you can get access to that particular book by just entering details of the author or the title.
Just like any other eCommerce mobile application, this one too has gained a lot of prominence among avid readers and school-going or college students. While the classes are being held virtually in most countries, students can now even purchase their books remotely, without having to go out of their houses.
The market size of online book stores has grown exponentially in the recent past and it has gone even higher because of the pandemic. Since people have apprehensions about stepping out of their houses now, they have turned to online stores for almost everything. This has increased the revenue generated by these book store mobile apps as more and more people are coming on board to look up books and get them here. Here are some market statistics that we would like to share with our readers:
According to a report by Grand View Research, The global online book services market size was valued at USD 17.7 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8% from 2020 to 2027.
This has not been a new trend in the education and publishing industry. The online space has been utilized to its optimum utilization and has been effectively delivering what is best for the users. Things have been made simpler and everything can be done and purchased from the comfort of the homes.
Although these online bookstores might look the same from the outside, the conceptualization and the type of each vary from each other. They have a set pattern that they follow. Now, let’s look at the types of bookstores that are available online:
These are owned by the authors themselves who have an array of books written by themselves and put up those books on sale on their own website or an app. This one is simple to make and one can start an eCommerce bookstore just by putting up their own books on sale.
The users who are well versed with the author will directly go to his website or the application and start looking up the books they want under that author’s name. This will not consist of information or books from any other author.
This one caters to a lot of young and eminent authors who can simply pay a certain amount to the app owners to display their book on their platform and pay a certain amount of commission on each conversion. The users can look up books by filtering their search criteria which can include segments such as language, genre, author, price, etc.
One can look up a wide variety of books under this type of online bookstore. Most international and bestseller authors also put up their books for sale under this type of eCommerce marketplace. In simple terms, this is a platform that brings the authors and readers together.
Online bookstores are flourishing and are growing at a rapid speed. There are numerous new bookstore apps that keep popping up every day. Needless to say, there is ample space for new ones to come and make their space in this online industry. Here is what has been contributing to the growth and success of online bookstores:
The syllabus books of each school vary from other schools, while most central boards make sure to retain the same books and authors nationwide. The online bookstore marketplaces have made it easy for them to look up books on the online space and strike a deal with them. These online bookstores aim to build a deal with the schools and provide them with all the study material and books required by their staff and the students.
Who doesn’t like to read books? Social media has encouraged people to buy more novels by various authors worldwide and people are posting photos of books they read on their social media handles. The youth is always looking up for some good read and a good find.
While they are being provided with apt reviews from people of their age, it becomes easy for them to select the book they want to read. Therefore, the bachelors and spinsters are one of the major target audiences of these online bookstores.
Since corporates need business information on several things, there are books that are of their interest. These books do not only impart knowledge of a certain business segment but also help them in several other aspects. Corporates also need to be updated with the latest laws and regulations by the government, for which they turn to the online space to know if the latest book is available with the bookstore or not.
How do businesses flourish and who takes care of their legal work? There are professionals that are hired specially to take care of the proceedings of the business and know the technical know-how of its overall performance. Businesses aren’t built overnight. There are a lot of books these businessmen have to read to get the knowledge in how to get going in the right direction.
Couples, especially those who are about to get married have always shown keen interest in knowing about their compatibility and much more, the information which they derive from several books.
Pregnant women are all ears to any information that they can get on pregnancy or taking care of the baby. There are books with illustrations that show how you can cradle your babies and how to feed them. It is easy for them to get all the necessary information from the books.
There are books that teach you the know-how of each game with specific techniques. These books are often purchased by sportswomen or men.
Any new law or any amendment in an existing bill is added to the law books of a country each year. These books are of utmost importance for government officials.
A tourist is always keen to learn about the culture, temperature, religions, and mode of transportation among other things of a country they are going to visit in the coming time. There are a plethora of books that bear information about each city, state, and country as a whole.
To stay on top and focused is a quality that is not developed overnight. There is a lot of struggle and reading that goes into it. The top-notch industry players will always have the study material that will guide them in keeping that spot throughout.
Each user should have his own profile on the app, therefore, the app should have an integrated social media log in making it easy for the users to register easily. Secondly, the login process should be easy and simple so that the users can get access to their accounts without any hassle.
The genres of the books should be listed separately, making it easy for the users to look up the genre of books they are interested in reading rather than going on a haywire search.
Each reader has a separate preference when it comes to selecting a font and the size of the font they have selected. Since each user’s choice and preference varies, they should be able to read e-books in whatever font they want. Therefore, the adjustment of the same should be considered a feature of the bookstore app.
The book should be available in several formats and the users should be allowed to get a format that is compatible with their device. Format for eg:- pdf, epub, etc.
All users are different and so are their preferences. If a user wants to order a hardcover book, he should be able to do it and vice versa.
Integrating social media in your app will help your users share the information they have with their users. It is very important to integrate this feature in your app to keep up with the fast-paced world which is highly social media savvy.
What would a user do if he wants to bookmark a page in his eBook? He would simply use the feature of bookmarks and put one on the page he last read. This enables them to start afresh from where they left, rather than getting confused about which chapter they were on.
Reading on a normal white screen is quite an old school now in these modern times where technology has advanced to the level where readers can choose to put a theme in the background.
This feature enables the users to copy the content from a page and paste it into a document for future reference. The feature should also allow them to download a particular page by the users.
when a user comes across something interesting in a book, he can bookmark the same for later reference.
Just like in the case of the consumer panel, the publishers also need to have their separate accounts where they can upload their information and biodata which is helpful for the users when they look up any publisher’s reference.
The cover of any publisher’s book should be appealing with a catchy cover letter or note to grab the eyeballs. This will help you sustain the competition and get more readers on board.
You need to attract the attention of the users by putting up descriptive, interactive, and informative content about your book and a brief about what the book is about.
Provide the users with comprehensive content by providing linkbacks to the content that has more value-added information to it.
The publishers should be open to feedback as it helps them improve their future scope of writing and publishing.
The admin assists the users with the help of an integrated CRM system in the app.
With the help of this feature, the admin can make better decisions regarding business choices. They can look into the current user base and scenario of the application for the same.
This unique feature enables the admin to screen and break any insights. They get access to the statistics of the users an app has at one point in time from the dashboard.
Here are the important steps of developing a bookstore app for your business:
– Do the initial recce and find the most, apt place for setting up your business. The right place is the key to growing your business and beating the competition.
– Get all the important licenses and permits before in hand so that there is no hassle going forward and this will also help you avoid any sort of glitches.
– Make a collection of the right set of books you want to include in your collection.
– Get in touch with an android app development company that has the right set of skills and prior experience in developing these applications.
– Make a blueprint of how you want to go about your mobile app development company and list down the features you want to include in the app.
– Test your app after it is done and after the designing is done.
After successfully testing the app, launch the app on the app store.
It is not easy to estimate a defined figure of the amount you will have to invest in developing a bookstore app as each app and its features vary from each other.
Computing the online bookstore app development cost is near to impossible, however, we can state the factors that contribute to the cost of these apps. Take a look at the cost estimating aspects:
If you are planning to develop your own bookstore app, this is the right time as people are mostly browsing through these apps for books and novels. The most important thing is to get the right people for developing the app who have prior experience in the same.
We at Arka Softwares aim at building a relationship with our clients and delivering the best product to them. We also share a long association with our clients as we believe in offering after-sale services and helping them with all the necessary additions and updates later.