Apple keeps adding features to its ecosystem that have me rethinking advice I’d give to clients about opening a virtual storefront. We’ve suffered with web based stores and the issues that come along with them, like security of our payment information, having to remember yet another password, and unintuitive and slow-to-load mobile layouts, because the value we get from them is so high.
Opening a storefront on iOS solves two of those problems immediately because your customers can use Apple Pay which is incredibly secure and already built in to their device. Given the right developer, an iOS app will load much more quickly than the typical website because less information would need to be sent over the network.
The main problem I see with recommending an iOS based storefront to businesses is that iOS development is pricy. On the web, business owners have more choices than they need between Shopify, Squarespace, Wordpress, and so on. I don’t think it will be long before the same number of options are available as iOS stores and it will be interesting to see if it is the established companies that bring those options or if new companies take over that market.
Regardless of where it goes, I think it could be a good way to differentiate your business right now and if I had physical products I wanted to sell, I’d open an iOS storefront before one on the web.