How to Build Retail eCommerce App like Walmart: Benefits & Cost

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Blog Overview: Enhancing your business horizon to attain better sales targets is the dream of entrepreneurs. Take inspiration from Walmart, the trendsetter for retailers. You can build a retail mobile app like Walmart and take your business to a vast audience. The article gives a detailed outlook on making your business widely recognized and competing on digital platforms with other apps. Explore the features, development process, and cost to develop a retail app like Walmart. 

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With around $650 billion in revenue in FY 2024, Walmart is the largest retailer in the world. It is even larger than other big retail businesses such as Amazon and Costco Wholesale. It is no less than an inspiration for startups and other businesses. The journey of Walmart has been very long and strong to reach this milestone. 

Being the topmost retailer in the world, Walmart is a multinational grocery and retail store that offers a variety of goods. The one-stop store for groceries, furniture, electronics, video games, music streaming, movies, auto accessories, stationery supplies, pets, and many more. 

It has supremely captured the US market for the last few years. From being established in 1962 as a small store to becoming the No.1 global retail brand, it has achieved great milestones. It has both an online entity and various physical stores to satisfy local as well as online customers. For retail businesses that have their physical store, it’s the right time to enter the online market as well. 

Well, you can build a retail e-commerce app like Walmart. With our team of experienced professionals, the article is framed to deliver exact solutions for retail and grocery app development. So, let’s start with the common concepts.

What is a Retail Grocery Application?

The application is built with the intent to allow customers/shoppers to search, see, and order the product online. Such an app even delivers groceries to direct consumers at their doorstep. Moreover, the retail grocery app provides a variety of fresh groceries, household items, and other lifestyle goods. 

Today, Walmart and Amazon are the leading retail eCommerce applications in the world. But you can also make your retail business accomplish the milestones. Plan and build your retail mobile app Like Walmart with recent technological integrations. 

With your application, you can enter the online marketplace. Moreover, you can innovate with your app to optimize your business efficiently. Get a better understanding of how Walmart-like apps perform from below.

How does a Walmart-like Retail App Work?  

To make a retail shopping app like Walmart, the operations of the app should be simple and user-friendly. The product list, category, and price filters give customers easy navigation to search for products. 

However, the retail app dashboard or main page shows the live sales and deals. Users can browse for products and create their favorite products Wishlist for future purchases. The checkout gateway shows the invoice and payment alternatives. 

In addition to that, Walmart provides a pickup facility to place orders online and visit stores to pick them up. So, you can estimate how hard and smart work Walmart has done so far to become the top retailer. Here are the reasons why having your retail business’s application is crucial in this technology-oriented universe.

Why is Online Presence Important in Your Retail Business? 

Your retail business store which is limited to capturing the local customers works well. But to outshine and transform your business into a brand, you have to develop a retail and grocery app like Walmart. Following are the advantages that are driven by the strong online business presence.

• Boost targeted sales
• Expanded customer base
• Brand recognition in the market
• Increase customer loyalty
• Develop better interaction with your customers
• Attract new customers swiftly
• Enhanced ROI in a short duration

Therefore you can’t deny investing in retail and grocery apps like Walmart. After all, it will open numerous income sources in addition to your physical store. Learn some of the major income streams of your  Walmart-like online retail app.  

Which are the Main Income Sources of Retail and Grocery Apps Like Walmart?

1) Listing fees and Delivery Charges

Aside from primary sales of products, your retail and grocery app can earn by collecting fees from in-store vendors to list their products in your app. So, you can establish a network among local vendors and generate income sources.

The delivery charges apply to customers as additional fees on their orders. Although you need to collaborate with a delivery agency and earn a certain percentage of the total order delivered. Hence, when you create an app like Walmart, you will get to extend business connections among various suppliers. 

2) In-App Sales

The major income source of your eCommerce app would be product sales from the app. Obviously, your products are the core USP of your business. It will increase with the more variety and options your app shows to the customers. However, your store should establish a network among local stores. It will strengthen your product range and deliver to customers in a cost and time-saving manner.

3) Advertising

Second is paid promotion and advertising on your retail app. Well-established brands usually propose eCommerce apps to advertise their product. So, by including such promotional products in your catalog or running campaigns on your app, you can generate passive revenue.   

4) Membership Fees

Your app can offer membership benefits to a group of loyal and regular buyers of your product. As a loyalty program or perk of shopping, your app offers a membership club to buyers who want to leverage extra benefits like early access to sales, and unlimited free shipping. Hence, your app charges monthly or annual membership fees, which is another income source. 

Having said that, these income sources can be generated if customers like your app’s performance and features. So, make an app like Walmart with customer-centric features to establish the brand value. You need to refer to the following list of features to integrate into your app.   

Vital Features Incorporated to Build a Retail E-commerce App Like Walmart

For developing an app like Walmart, you need to cover the 360-degree requirements of end users. Focusing on that, let’s have a look at primary, user experience, and additional features for impactful retail apps. 

Primary Features of E-commerce App 

• Quick Registration

Begins with the most important feature of any application. Whenever users visit your retail grocery application, the first step is to create a profile or sign-up account. Your app must allow smooth registration with an email ID or contact number. Moreover, you can allow multi-channel registration. It enhances the way for users to create their profiles instantly.     

• Search & Filter

The search and filter alternative of your retail eCommerce app like Walmart improves user navigation. Having quick access to search and filter makes users look for their required product effortlessly. Thus, it allows your app to deliver better results and retain users for a longer duration.

• Profile Management

The customer profile creation should comply with the requirements and maintain the authenticity of the details of customers. It is necessary to have accurate customer info such as name, address, contact details, etc. 

So, your app must be enabled with a feature to manage your profile and assist in marketing texts or deal notifications. Additionally, it also helps in segregating the club membership used for extra benefits.

• Inventory management

Your retail app must incorporate inventory and stock management solutions. It keeps track of inventory’s inflow and outflow and updates the warehouse to refill the stock.

• Social Media Integration

The social media integration alternative in your retail app. It gives better exposure to users to sign in with their Instagram or Twitter accounts. By having social profiles of users, you can enhance your retail branding on their social media channels. 

Based on their social search, your app can deliver personalized experiences to users. Therefore, it results in boosting engagement and brand awareness.

Customer-Centric Features of Walmart-like App

• Push Notifications

Next, the most common and essential characteristic is push notifications for your retail app. Whenever there is any new product launch, event, or festive sale, the customers get notified on their devices.

Such a feature is important to keep your customer updated about their journey in your app. Sending personalized emails or text messages enhances the customers’ engagement rate of your app.

• Product Recommendation 

The product recommendation feature operates on an AI-based model that fetches your search history and wish list of products. Accordingly, it shows results of product recommendations that match choice and interest areas. So, a product catalog of similar products and benefits improves cart value and generates repetitive sales.

• Review & Ratings

Collecting genuine reviews and ratings from customers after product delivery is mandatory. It increases the customer’s trust and keeps their interest intact with your online retail eCommerce app like Walmart. The higher ratings your app receives, the better sales it brings to your business. Thus, it works as an indirect sales strategy that attracts new buyers. 

• Wishlist

The Wishlist feature of the retail app is the most attractive and user favorite among all. It permits users to add the product to be purchased and make their liked products list to preview the price drop during the sale.

• In-app Chat Assistance

Having live chat support in your retail and grocery app enables customers to connect with the admin quickly for any product query. Therefore, customers can reach 24/7 chat support for any issue and get it solved seamlessly. 

• Various Payment Options

For online shopping apps like Walmart, offering more than one payment mode is essential. The payment options range from cash, debit/credit cards, BNPL cards, net banking, and other online payment ways. Moreover, it allows users to smoothly manage their online shopping bills with secure payment methods.

Additional Retail App Development Features 

• Curbside Pickup option

As also have the retail physical store of your business, your app can also offer curbside pickup to users. They can simply place orders online using an app, and drive to the store to pick up their order manually. Thus, it makes your business expand its local customer base.

• Real-time order tracking

Overseeing the order status from the placement to warehousing and dispatching should be shown on customers’ mobile apps. They need to get real-time updates on their orders. Hence, order tracking keeps the seller, delivery agents, and customers informed about the entire delivery process.

• Store Locator

For retail businesses with various stores located in the countries, you need to enable a store locator feature for users. Therefore, it allows the app users to locate nearby stores easily from their phones.

• AR product visualization

The Augmented reality functionality enriches your product image or video visualization. Customers can preview 3D views and even try on the products on a real-time basis. 

With the above features, you are covered with all features from basic to advanced. So, if you target to optimize sales these features are inevitable to make an app like Walmart. 

Now, you need to begin with the Walmart-like app development process. The below-mentioned steps are verified by our developers who have delivered such projects. It will surely help you to create an e-commerce app like Walmart.

1) Determine the App Concept

Firstly, your retail app idea should determine the target audience and your project scope. It is critical to analyze what you need in your app and plan the resources for creating your shopping app. Also, consider bringing some unique value proposition to your idea that differentiates you from others.

2) Perform Market Research

Market research is part of the process of keeping your business updated and has a way forward to make a debut in the market. Moreover, you need to make sure what your rivals are doing right now and evaluate the market trends. As a result, it will help you to integrate emerging market solutions to develop MVP. 

3) Decide the Technology Stack

This is the most tricky part of the development process. For your retail e-commerce app like Walmart’s success, you need to choose powerful and reliable technologies. So, you need to know which is your target audience i.e., Android or iOS users or both. To deploy the app on Android you need to pick Java and Kotlin programming languages. In addition to that, Android Studio publishes apps on various Android devices.

For iOS, you should go for Objective-C or Swift UI along with XCode to launch the app on different iOS devices like macOS, iPad, etc. Aside from that, adding other payment tools, map integration, and analytics tools is necessary. If you don’t need to indulge in this time-consuming task, you can onboard our dedicated development team who will guide you through the comprehensive process.

4) Hire the Right Developers

When it comes to hiring app developers, you should search for outsourcing talents with previous experience in retail and grocery app development projects. Apart from that, if you hire skilled Flutter app developers, you can get a cross-platform app that will operate on both Android and iOS. Thus, your project will be delivered in less time and money with Flutter.

5) Prepare the UI/UX Wireframe

Once you have the clarity of your app requirement, jump into the UI/UX wireframing of your project. Begin with designing prototypes and visualize how your app looks like with building navigation flow. Thus, it streamlines your app pages with clear and concise UX design components. 

6) Start with the Development Process

The hired developers or team will begin the actual development process. You need to stay updated on the task completion and oversee the proper workflow among the team members. Remember to create an MVP app first to verify your app. 

7) Conduct App Testing 

Testing your app performance, load time, design, and other functions helps you prevent errors before launch. QA testers will perform an examination of the app and fix bugs or mistakes like incomplete codes. After that, your app is ready to launch on the predefined platforms.

8) Launch the App & Plan Marketing 

As you have your product ready for the development process begin with the launching of your app on the platforms. Developers need to follow the platform guidelines and accordingly publish the app on the stores. Once your app is live, start marketing your business and run campaigns to bring your app to light.        

The more appropriate way to get the process to smoothly proceed is to have the right resources on time. Moreover, you need to plan your project budget accurately by getting insights on Walmart app development costs.

What is the Cost of Developing Shopping Apps like Walmart?

The cost of your retail and e-commerce app like Walmart depends on various factors, including UI components, features, technology stack, complexity level, etc. Thus, it is essential yet tricky to predefine the cost of any project. Hence, the average cost to make a retail and grocery app development is $8000-$40,000. The cost will increase or decrease concerning the above factors. 

However, you can make grocery apps better fit your budget by hiring a dedicated developers team from countries like India. The hourly rate of developers will fall between $20-$25. This range will be different (majorly high) when you hire from other nations. Thus, discuss strategically with the app development company and decide your cost to build a retail app like Walmart.

Top Competitors of Walmart

• Amazon 

The centralized app solution for online shopping and entertainment. Amazon has captured the global market and established a local vendor network efficiently. 

• Etsy 

Being a US-based vintage gift store, Etsy has brought the legacy of celebrating handcrafted accessories across Europe and a few Asian countries.    

• Target 

The seventh-largest retailer in America, Target serves millions of users with home decor, clothing, and household product range. Target has emerged as an interactive retail app.

• Costco Wholesale 

The electronics and computers supplier, Costco Wholesale is a multi-billion business in the USA. 

• Rakuten 

Redefining Japan’s technology capability, Rakuten attracts customers with cash-back offers. 

• Lidl  

Lidl is an international grocery store founded in Germany. And now operates in 32 countries.

• Tesco 

The British grocery or general store, Tesco is a supermarket store renowned for convenient online orders and fast delivery.

• Loblaws 

Loblaws is the biggest food distributor in Canada and provides online grocery delivery and in-store purchases. 

Tactics to Build Leading-edge Retail e-Commerce App

• Focus on gamification features
• AI algorithms and Machine learning solution 
• Blockchain technology 
• Unique UI aspects
• Attractive deals on the products
• Cloud solution for analytics
• IoT for tracking real-time data

Begin to develop your Retail & Grocery App! 

There is no better time than now to kick-start your retail e-commerce mobile app development like Walmart. The article has unleashed an in-depth outlook of the Walmart app and how you can take inspiration from it. So, it’s your turn to make an app like Walmart. Our developer team is here to help you with everything you need to make your project go on the floor. Consult with our team and start from scratch now! 

FAQs

How long does it take to develop a retail and grocery mobile app like Walmart?

There is no fixed timeline for retail and grocery app development. Based on your app type and features, it will differ. Moreover, you can get your app built approximately in 3 to 8 months. 

What are the benefits of Creating an e-commerce app like Walmart?

Having your retail and e-commerce app like Walmart gives your business online visibility and gathers a customer base through digital mode. It increases your business exposure to a broader group of people which boosts the ROI efficiently. 

How much does it cost to build a retail mobile app? 

There is no fixed cost for retail app development projects. It will purely depend on your project needs and resources. However, if you want to develop an app like Walmart at your budget, simply prefer the IT outsourcing company. So, you can hire app developers from renowned companies. 

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