Computers, step aside. It’s old-fashioned to shop from your laptop these days. E-tail phone apps are disrupting the e-commerce marketplace.

And if your app isn’t delighting your customers, you could be driving them away.

According to Marketing Land, 67 percent of all e-commerce sales happen on mobile devices. 44 percent of those sales come from apps. App-based sales see a 21-percent conversion rate whereas mobile websites see a mere six percent conversion.

These figures tell us that companies that use e-commerce need both a great website and a great app. Mobile online sales — consumers simply accessing a website on their phones — just won’t cut it anymore.

For corporations to have a successful e-commerce app, design thinking is crucial. According to Martech Series, app-based e-commerce is even more cutthroat than online e-commerce because consumers simply delete apps they don’t connect with.

Here are some sobering stats: Only 14.65 percent of users keep a downloaded e-commerce app after 30 days. 25 percent of apps are used just once before being discarded. And less than .01 percent of all consumer mobile apps are considered a financial success by their developers.

So how can e-tail company ensure their app’s success? Design thinking.

Martech Series argues that, when it comes to making apps, design thinking is the most important aspect of success and profitability in the e-tail space right now. Focusing on design thinking helps companies understand what their customers want and need from their app. Getting it right leads to repeat customers, who account for up to 40 percent of sales for retail businesses. Getting it wrong means the app is deleted after one use and that customer could be lost forever. Brrr!

Martech Series highlights three ways that design thinking can improve your app:

1. Onboarding.

   How can you improve your user experience (UX) to keep consumers coming back? Consider the experience from a first-time user’s POV. Is it easy to sign up? Any incentives for registration? Any recommendations right off the bat? Putting yourself in your user’s position will help you improve their experience.

2. Engagement.

   Engaging with the consumer means hitting on the right product recommendations and rewards programs. Using the design thinking process to develop beneficial and engaging features for an e-commerce app will keep customers engaged.

3. Retention.

   Retention boils down to customer satisfaction. E-tail companies can foster it with non-spammy email campaigns, games and contests.

Effective e-tail isn’t a one-stop journey. It’s an ongoing process that requires constantly engaging with your customers. Design thinking can make your app stand out from the crowd. It can help you develop a truly special and convenient shopping experience that makes consumers feel appreciated and rewarded.

Read more about design thinking and the retail experience in our post about a special collaboration between Disney and Target.

Learn how to enable innovation skill-building at scale or download our free ebook Design Thinking 101.