Do you need an app, or a better mobile site?
Not every retailer needs a native app. A fast mobile website is usually better for first-time visitors arriving from search and ads. An app pays off when you have a base of repeat customers who buy often, value saved preferences, respond to notifications or use in-store features. We are happy to tell you if your numbers do not yet justify an app, and to suggest what would.
| Signal | Leans toward an app | Leans toward mobile web |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase frequency | Weekly or monthly repeat buyers | Occasional or one-off purchases |
| Traffic source | Direct, email, loyalty members | Paid search and social ads |
| Store presence | Scan-and-go, in-store stock, digital receipts | Online only |
| Engagement | Drops, limited releases, back-in-stock alerts | Mostly browsing and comparison |
Commerce apps we build
D2C brand apps
Product storytelling, drops, subscriptions and member perks for brands with a loyal customer base.
Omnichannel retail apps
Store locators, inventory by store, click-and-collect, barcode scanning and digital receipts that link online and in-store activity.
Marketplaces
Buyer and seller apps with listings, messaging, reviews, payouts and dispute handling.
Grocery and quick commerce
Large catalogs, substitutions, delivery slots, repeat baskets and live order tracking.
Features that move conversion
Catalog and search
Search is where shopping apps win or lose. We integrate search services such as Algolia, Elasticsearch-based engines or your platform's native search, and design for typo tolerance, synonyms, filters that stay put on back navigation, and zero-results pages that still offer something to buy.
Checkout
- Apple Pay and Google Pay as first-class options, not buried under a card form.
- Saved addresses and tokenized cards through your payment provider, so card data never touches your servers.
- Guest checkout where your business model allows it.
- Clear delivery costs and dates shown before the final step.
- Support for local methods your markets expect, such as buy now, pay later or bank transfers.
Loyalty, push and personalization
Loyalty should be visible in the app's main navigation, not hidden in a profile screen. We connect to loyalty platforms or your own points ledger, and use customer engagement platforms such as Braze or OneSignal for segmented push, in-app messages and back-in-stock alerts. Personalization starts simple: recently viewed, buy again and recommendations from your merchandising tools. Then it grows as your data allows.
Headless commerce integration
Most of our eCommerce apps use a headless setup: the app talks to your commerce platform through its APIs, while content comes from a headless CMS. Common back ends include Shopify's Storefront API, commercetools, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Adobe Commerce. A thin backend-for-frontend layer often sits in between, combining product, pricing, inventory and content into responses shaped for mobile screens. For brands with web developers already working in TypeScript, React Native development lets the web and app teams share knowledge and some business logic.
App store payment rules and marketing consent
Apple and Google treat physical and digital goods differently. Physical products and services used outside the app, such as clothing, groceries or delivery, are normally sold through your regular payment provider. Digital content or features unlocked inside the app, like premium memberships that only change the app experience, may need to use in-app purchase, which carries store commission. Rules on linking out to external payment have changed in some regions, including the US and the EU, and continue to evolve, so we check current guidelines during planning.
Marketing rules also differ by market. Electronic marketing falls under CAN-SPAM for email and the TCPA for texts in the US, PECR alongside UK GDPR in the UK, Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL), and the Spam Act 2003 in Australia. On iOS, App Tracking Transparency requires permission before tracking users across other companies' apps. We build consent capture and preference centers so your marketing team can follow these rules; your legal team decides the policies.
Performance and offshore delivery
Speed is a feature. Every release we ship is measured against an agreed performance budget: cold start time, time to first product image, scroll smoothness on mid-range Android phones, and app size. Images come through a CDN in sizes matched to the device.
- 1
Staging stores with real catalog structure
We work against a staging store or a copy of your catalog with test payment keys, so the offshore team sees real product variety without real customer orders.
- 2
No live customer data
Test accounts and seeded orders replace production customer records. Order lookups for support issues stay with your team.
- 3
Peak-season planning
Code freezes, load tests on the backend-for-frontend, and on-call coverage across time zones before major sales events.
- 4
Device lab testing
We test on the older and lower-end devices your analytics show customers actually use, not only the newest phones.
Common eCommerce app pitfalls
- Copying the website into an app with no app-only reason to install it.
- Requesting push permission on first launch before the customer has seen any value.
- Letting the app and website drift apart on prices, promotions or stock.
- Ignoring app size and start time until reviews start mentioning it.
- Launching before Black Friday or a big sale with no time to fix issues. Plan post-launch support before the first campaign.
For a sense of budget, see our guide on what offshore app projects typically cost, and if you are deciding between native and shared code, read about cross-platform trade-offs. When you have a platform and a rough feature list, get in touch for an estimate.