People keep asking me some version of this: every business is supposed to be doing the internet thing, mini programs are everywhere at the moment, you design internet products, so tell me how we should build one.
That question skips a step. The first question is not how to build a mini program but whether you need one, and it can be answered by looking at two things: whether you meet a genuine need, and how complex the interaction has to be.
Start from what people actually need
Whether an official account, a mini program or an app holds anyone’s attention comes down to the same test. Does the official account satisfy a need strong enough that people go looking for it? Those needs fall into a handful of categories:
- Getting information or knowledge
- Entertainment and relaxation
- Looking up a specific fact or status
- Completing a transaction with an authority or business
- Buying goods and services: food, clothing, housing, transport
The first two: information only
These two are about delivering information, with no complicated interaction required. An official account post will do it, and so will third-party tools: H5 page builders for presentation, form and survey platforms for collection.
A business whose only requirement sits in these two categories does not need to commission an application at all. Saying so is more useful than selling one.
The third and fourth: it has to connect to something
Looking up a status or completing a transaction generally means connecting to a back-end system that already holds the data. That does require a purpose-built application, because there is nothing off-the-shelf that knows your order statuses or your internal approvals.
The fifth: buying, and two very different cases
Several sales channels, online and off
If the business already runs more than one sales system, it needs its own application wired into the app and the desktop store. A customer signs in once and buys on any one of the four surfaces: official account, mini program, app, desktop. The order and the loyalty points show up on all of them.
One channel only
If a single WeChat storefront is the whole requirement, and nothing needs to talk to another system, a third-party hosted store is enough. There is no reason to build.
The deciding question
A business with physical stores, or with an existing audience it wants to manage properly, tends to reach a different answer. Building its own system is what makes that audience manageable, and what makes the next stage of the business possible. A business without either is buying a system it has no use for.
Answer the need question first. The build question is easy once that is settled, and expensive when it is not.
XZS Tech is a Shenzhen-based development company. We build custom mini programs, WeChat and mobile apps, e-commerce systems and corporate websites, covering requirement analysis, design, development and after-sales support, and we hand over the source code at delivery.
If you are planning something along the lines of what this article describes, tell us the scenario and we will come back with an approach and a cost range. Call 0755-82494862, or reach us through the contact page at hk.xiaozhushoukeji.cn/en/contact-en/. The first conversation costs nothing.
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