Amazon has revolutionized the way of selling and purchasing books. Today, people from any part of the world can read a book of their choice, published and printed in different parts of the country. The community of book readers is large, and one must have a suitable online book store mobile application to cater to the diverse book requirements of readers.
In the current situation of the pandemic, the physical book stores which were flooded with people are now empty. Amidst this, having a suitable mobile application will be a perfect choice.
If you are the one who is looking to build an online book store mobile app, then you have come to the right place.
In this blog, you will learn the details that will give you ideas for bringing your physical bookstore to the online platform and expanding its reach to a large number of customers.
But before that, we would like to give you some numbers on book sales that will testify to our write up.
Online Book Selling Market Share and Other Statistics
In the past year, the market share of online bookstores has grown exponentially. Bookstore mobile apps have generated higher revenue during this time, and it all happens because of the outbreak of the pandemic.
The covid-19 situation made people ponder on their reading habits and to start with the book which they always wanted to read.
According to a survey, the global online book services market size was estimated at 17.7 billion USD in 2019, and the numbers are expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.8% from 2020 to 2027.
By the year 2027, the global online book service market is expected to earn 27.8 billion USD as revenue.
It is also believed that around 12000 people go online book shopping in a day.
To leverage the huge numbers, you can plan a book store mobile app that not only can give your business great exposure but also connect your brand with potential customers easily.
What is an Online Book Store App?
People today are more inclined towards online purchase, from booking tickets for flights to purchase groceries online, our lives are majorly dependent on mobile apps.
When it comes to buying books, there is no exception.
The online bookstore apps give authors and bookstore vendors a platform to sell or rent books to the people who love to read in exchange for some specific amount of money.
Through the online bookstore marketplace, a community of readers can easily browse their favorite books, authors, genres, etc., by making an account on the app.
The online bookstore apps are also equipped with lots of filters that help readers to choose a book author wise, rate wise, year published, and in other ways. Users can click on the book, read the description, make a payment, and sit back & track their order.
There is a large community of readers, school goers, and college students, and through such an online book app, you can tap this sector and leverage it exponentially.
What Are Different Kinds of Online Bookstores?
With the advent of mobile app development services, the online world has become easily accessible for global users and businesses. Buying and selling of books are now simpler than ever. Although you will find lots of online books shops the same, in reality, each platform is different from one another.
Below are discussed the different kinds of online bookstores:
1. Book Stores by Publishing House:
The publishing house bookstores are the most commonly found online book shops. In this type of boostore apps, authors pay a certain amount to the owner of the app or website to showcase on the platform.
An author pays a specific sum as a commission on each sale. Such platforms have large numbers of visitors, provide an array of books of different authors, and have a higher conversion rate. Such platforms are pivotal in bringing authors and readers together.
2. Individual Bookstores:
Such apps are the dedicated and exclusive online bookstores that are mostly owned by the authors themselves. Authors who have penned a wide range of books can put their books on sale on their own portal (website or mobile app). Readers who follow their favorite authors and their recent works can directly hop on to their mobile app or website and purchase books. Such platforms do not have information on books from other authors.
Different Panels in A Book Store Mobile App
Publisher Panel
Sign Up/Login – Publishers need to have his or her account where readers can reach them as and when required.
Cover – A feature to allow publishers to upload the cover of a book that attracts readers and induce them to come aboard.
Book Description – It is a panel where publishers can put a description about a book with all required details like a number of pages, publisher’s name, book synopsis, etc.
Links – It will allow you to provide readers more valuable content through the back-links.
Feedback – Have a feedback section where users can share their experiences. It will help in improving and enhancing the user experience.
Customer Panel
Log in – Through this feature, clients can sign up and make an account on the app with their mail ids or they can sign-up through their social platforms.
Genre – Have this feature included in your app. It will help readers to search their favorite books, genre-wise. It will simplify the book search process.
Fonts and Font Sizes – It will allow users to read their favorite books in the choicest of fonts and sizes that suit their eyes.
Book Formats – Provide readers their favorite books in different formats as per their device compatibility.
Book Cover – It will enable readers to select the suitable version of a book, paperback, hardcover, eBook, etc.
Bookmarks – The bookmark feature will be a very useful feature for every reader.
Last Locations – Through this feature, readers can resume from the last reading location in the eBook.
Some other customer panel features which you can include in your online book app are as follows:
- Progress status bar for the current read
- Different views (portrait and landscape)
- Go to page slider
- Zoom in/zoom out feature
- Switch books feature
- Chapter view
- Reading mode
- Search function
- Themes & backgrounds to make reading interesting
Admin Panel
CRM Integration – The app owners can build a strong relationship with their customers through CRM integration. They can serve their clients the way it requires.
Real-Time Analytics – CRM integration helps app owners to get real-time data of their users. It will help in better decision making in terms of selling, marketing, services, etc.
A Strong Dashboard – Through a dashboard, the admin can get a comprehensive view of the entire sales and service operations on a single window.
Advance Features That Elevate The Performance of Your Online Bookstore App
Push Notification – Admin can send their users instant notification about any recent release and seasonal offer, discounts, or any other update.
ChatBot Support – Leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence by integrating smart ChatBots. They will respond to your users in a most humanized manner.
Voice Assistance – It will enable users of the online bookstore app to do a voice search of their intended books through voice commands.
CMS Integration – Integrate a robust content management system integrated with your platform. It will help you to manage the content of your website in an organized manner.
User Behaviour – You can also integrate the user behavior tracking feature. It will allow you to track the habit of your users individually. Based on users’ behavior, it will recommend the books and discounts to improve interaction.
Here are some more advanced features that you can consider including in your bookstore app:
- Integrate a suitable Customer Relationship Management platform. We recommend you to go for Salesforce consulting services.
- The right set of SEO tools to bring books on top in search results.
- Integrate promotional tools to promote a book on the app.
- You can also go for email marketing integration.
- Integrate multiple payment options including, debit/credit card, COD, wallet, etc.
- Make your platform multi-language friendly.
- You can also include a real-time analytics feature in your app.
- Have a role-based dashboard for each user.
- Never compromise with security features.
- Loyalty programs, seasonal discounts, offers, etc.
- Shipment tracking feature.
- Review and feedback feature for delivering more user-centric services.
The Required Tech Stack to Build Book Store Mobile Application
Following are the required technologies that you can consider at the time of developing bookstore app:
Android – Android SDK, debugging tools, emulators, graphical UI builder. You can use Java & Kotlin in the programming languages.
iOS – In languages, you can use Swift and Objective-C. Xcode, IntelliJ AppCode, iOS SDK.
Cross-platform – CSS, HTML, JavaScript.
The team members that are included in the online book store app development process
- Project manager
- Front-end developers
- Back-end developers
- Android app developers
- UX/UI developers
- Testers
- iOS developers
How Much Does It Cost To Build an Online Bookstore Mobile Application?
Now we have come upon the most crucial part of this post. After understanding the features, panels, technologies, and team structure, it is necessary to understand the amount you need to invest in book store app development.
However, it is not easy to define a particular amount for the development of an app. There are lots of factors that affect a bookstore app development process.
Below are mentioned some elements that are pivotal in finalizing online bookstore app development cost. Have a look at these decisive factors:
- Features of the applications are vital in deciding the cost of development. The more complex the features higher will be the cost.
- Features also affect time, and time of development impacts the cost. The more an app takes time to develop, the higher will be the price.
- The level of complexities also decides how costly or cheap will be a bookstore app development process.
- The level of expertise and experience the team poses. The cost of development by a freelancer is different from that of a specially hired web and mobile app development company.
- Design, outlook, and UX/UI factors also contribute to the cost of app development.
The Conclusion
Now we can say that you can make a well-informed decision and develop your own bookstore application at the most budgeted price. To build a strong app, one must need a strong team and that you can get at FEXLE Services.
The team of mobile app developers at FEXLE is experienced and has relevant industry experience. Now you can build a strong and reliable bookstore app and offer the ultimate reading experience to the readers’ community.
