How To Turn Your Shopify Store Into A Mobile App: Complete Guide

With the changing technology, the shopping habits of customers change, that in-turns give a new face to the eCommerce practices. Being a merchandiser we should follow the latest eCommerce trends to survive and thrive on this competitive stage.

Since its birth, eCommerce has been seen changing constantly with the requirements appearing day-to-day as “Need is the mother of invention”! Well, it would not be an overstatement to say “Every business should have a website” as today, most businesses hold at least one functional website.

Earlier, while stepping into the Mobile Era, the retailers got easily convinced to go for web stores to catch up with more sales and revenue. The same can’t be said when it comes to a mobile app. The eCommerce website owners need more to go with the flow smoothly. That’s why today, we have come up with some stats and top reasons that would be enough to open up with the needs for changing your store to an app.

Why Is a Mobile App Important? – It’s High Time Now

The studies say, 60% of the users choose mobile apps over eCommerce stores for online shopping. So, being a business owner, to walk with the trend and to boost your revenue, you should own a mobile app for selling products and services, despite a responsive website.

Well, it’s believed that mobile sites are not enough to increase user engagement or to improve your productivity. To stay ahead of the curve, every business needs to own a mobile app for their eCommerce store.

Today, the App Stores are showcasing a plethora of mobile apps to carry out numerous sorts of tasks. You may pick any app to meet your distinct needs.

After pondering over this topic, we have emerged with various pros of having a mobile app. Mobile apps are:

• Faster that offers a better user experience.
• Hold personalized content to make users feel special, again that leads to amazing personalized experiences.
• Best at offering instant offline and online access seamlessly.
• Easy to send push notifications and instant updates.
• Perfect to expand audience reach in a short time, thereby lower the marketing costs. And More.

Statistics – To Justify Our Words “Mobile App is A Must”

As the statistics say, users are spending more time on apps, so “a business should be there where its customers are”. Our words above might have made it clear why should you move your store to a mobile app.

Next, as you are here to know how we can convert the Shopify store into a mobile app, ahead, we will start with our journey.

How To Convert Your eCommerce Store To Mobile App – Let’s Dive Deeper to Know More

Creating a web app or store is one side of a coin, and building a mobile app to meet the customers’ expectations is the other. Being a successful owner of an online store on Shopify now, you might be eager to know how to turn your store into a mobile app. In this section, we will discuss various approaches that you may follow to convert your Shopify store into a mobile app. You may choose any that you find best for you and your business online.

Top Approaches To Convert Shopify Store Into A Mobile App

A Shopify mobile app makes your business open to grab enhanced possibilities. Well, it’s not an easy task. You may develop a Shopify mobile app following three approaches. Let’s start then.

1. Using 3rd-Party Shopify Premium Plugins To Build Native Mobile Apps

Plugins on Shopify App Store are also named as Shopify Apps. The Shopify plugins are developed by individual developers or a team that you may use to transform your store into a mobile app.

• Affordable: If you have a limited budget, still want to grab the audience, this option would be best for you. It will not cost you much to develop an app using a plugin. You will only need to pay its monthly fee, it demands no development fee. Even a non-technical person may build a Shopify mobile app using the Shopify plugins.
• Fast Development: When you are lacking time, plugins save you. It takes just a few days to create an app. The launch process just relies on you.
• Native App Development: This approach leads to a native app that runs on one platform only and this avoids the issues that we face with the cross-platform apps.
• No Need to be a Specialist: As it demands no technical skills, so you can go for it with no hesitation even being from a non-technical background.

If you want to try this option and find the best for your business, you can consider the following Shopify Apps for your store:

Mobile App Builder ‑ Vajro

Vajro provides the assistance to develop completely customizable, native Android and iOS apps for your Shopify store to improve your sales, engage users, and create a brand that your customers love. Vajro comes with easy setup, secure checkout process, top-class support 24*7, and more.

• Rating: 5
• Free Trial: 60-day
• Cost: From $99/month.

Mobile App Builder ‑ JCurve

When you need to launch a top-quality Android, iOS apps quickly and maximize sales, you can put your hands onto JCurve. It is the best mobile app partner well-trusted by 4000+ Shopify stores. It delivers a mobile-centric shopping experience, smooth customer support by Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, etc, scheduled and unlimited Smart Marketing Campaign, and a lot more.

• Rating: 4.9
• Free Trial: 14-day
• Cost: From $39.99/month.

MageNative Mobile App

This Shopify app permits you to turn your Shopify store into a mobile app with ease. So, MageNative mobile app is a perfect path to create an exceptional app clutching amazing features and alluring designs. Now, you can also offer your customers a never before experience while shopping online. So today, to retain the existing customers and magnetize the new ones is made easy with various Shopify plugins available on the Shopify App Store.

• Rating: 4.8
• Free Trial: 30-day
• Cost: From $29/month.

2. Shopify App Builder (3rd Party SaaS Platforms) To Develop Shopify App using Readymade Modules

A model that delivers software on a subscription basis is the Software-as-a-Service. As it is cloud-based, you can get access to the software using your web browser on mobile or desktop. Such ready-made modules are known as constructors.

• Few Customization: Generally, customers who need no to a few options for customization can go for this.
• No Coding Skills: Simply, you need to choose the layouts and modules and start with the development as no coding skills are required. Apart from copying the popular features of the eCommerce platforms, SaaS platforms provide various extra features to make the demanding clients satisfied.
• No Extra Fee: As the SaaS team is the controller, all the support and maintenance issues are handled easily by their team. Its monthly fee includes such expenses, you are not required to pay extra.

Let’s check out the widely used SaaS solutions to convert the Shopify store into a mobile app.

Appy Pie – No Code App Builder

A cloud-based, fastest growing mobile apps builder software permits the users to create Android and iPhone apps for smartphones and mobiles with no programming skills. So, you may explore the benefits of no-code software, Appy Pie, and offer your business an edge over others. You may find here various business solutions meeting your budgets and scales.

iBuildApp – Mobile App Builder

With iBuildApp Mobile App Maker, you can develop mobile apps to reach your customers. Only one app would go for Android phones, iPhone, and tablets. This software permits businesses to build mobile apps in a few minutes with no need for technical skills.

Appery.io – Low-Code App Development

Such a mobile app development platform builds web apps, hybrid mobile apps, and progressive web apps super easy. The apps it develops look amazing and perform smoothly across all OS and popular devices. Even beginners will find it easy to develop simple yet powerful mobile apps with appery.io.

Also Read: How To Migrate from Magento to Shopify: Complete Guide

3. Develop From Scratch With 100% Customization Possibility

When you develop a mobile app from scratch, it’s a custom application development approach. You may hire a mobile app development team who can develop mobile apps meeting your business needs.

• You are The Owner: This option of developing an app will make you the sole owner of your product. Its entire materials, documents, code, and test scripts will be shown under your name.
• Full-Customization: You will come up with an exceptional experience for your users with a custom app development approach.
• Best Data Security: In fact, you don’t need to worry about data security as it will be stored at a place and in the manner you want.
• Personalized Content: Moreover, it allows using personalized content and notifications so that you may get more targeted options.
• Feature-Rich App: Overall, it produces the results that you want for your business well-equipped with the features you want.

Hire Shopify Developers To Convert Your Shopify Store Into Mobile App Now

Which Approach Should We Choose To Convert Our Shopify Store Into A Mobile App?

Well now, we know all the three ways to develop a mobile app from a Shopify store. So, which is the best to choose? For the merchants, this question is important as the right decision will save lots of time and effort. So, let’s check out which approach is best to follow.

First Option

We are not the owners of the mobile apps that we create using plugins, We need to rent it and pay the monthly fee. Technical support is free to an extent, post that we need to pay for it.

Second Option

Again, we don’t own the mobile app we craft through SaaS solutions. Your vendor just locks you in, which means in any case if you want to change your software provider, you can’t do that. You will need to craft a new mobile app and migrate your data that leads to various relevant issues. When it comes to customization, it offers no to only a few, not 100%. For new features, you will have to wait for the software provider to launch advanced features with the new updates. Furthermore, the number of queries is limited when you use SaaS solutions. So, for more, you need to pay additional charges.

Third Option

Developing your mobile app by allowing custom app development hiring a team, will demand more time and cost as compared to the above two options. Also, it will take two to six months to build an app. Apart from that, no obstacle will block your way towards a successful conversion of a Shopify store to a mobile app development.

Wrapping Up

For a quick and cheap approach, you may go with plugins and SaaS solutions. But if you have plans to expand your mobile app then, hire a leading mobile app development company that may help you with a custom mobile app at an affordable cost and within the given time frame.