Which Ecommerce Platform Is Best for Mobile Apps?

You've decided you want a mobile app. And, maybe, you’ve also been tinkering with the idea of a platform migration - and you’re starting to see the two topics linked together.

So with that, you’re looking at how your choice of ecommerce platform influences the quality of your mobile app, once you launch it. Or how easy it is to launch an app.

There is certainly a link here. Your app and website are two surfaces that have to work in harmony, and your ecommerce platform plays a big part in that.

That said, there is a way to avoid getting locked in to any ecommerce platform, and still be able to go live with the custom, high-quality, on-brand mobile app you really want.

If you’re curious about launching a mobile app, replatforming, or both, read on. You’re about to learn everything there is to know about the best ecommerce platforms for mobile apps.

How Your Ecommerce Platform Shapes Your App

First, let’s help you understand the relationship between your ecommerce platform and your mobile app, so you can know how (or if) your platform really matters, and why.

Your ecommerce platform runs the actual commerce side of your store - i.e. the exchange of money and order mechanics. The product catalog, pricing, inventory, cart, checkout, orders, customer accounts - all of that lives on and is managed by your platform. 

When someone buys through your mobile app, most of this runs through your ecommerce platform, the same as if they bought on your site. If you’re on Shopify, the order routes through Shopify, to the same inventory/fulfillment systems.

The app is just a new front end that plugs into your existing ecommerce system.

And almost every way of building that app makes the connection the same way: through your platform's APIs. 

So the strength of your platform's technical foundation - how good its APIs are, how well they're documented, how many developers know the platform, and what ready-made tools exist for it - is what decides how hard, slow, and expensive an app is to launch.

That’s the key thing to keep in mind. The APIs, technical foundation and ecosystem of each platform are what makes each one better or worse for launching a mobile app.

Better, Better-Documented APIs Make the App Easier to Build

The more capable and better-documented a platform's APIs are, the faster and cheaper that connection goes.

A modern, API-first platform with clean, well-documented endpoints gives developers a clear path: the data they need is where the docs say it is, in the shape they expect. 

An older, monolithic, or heavily-customized stack is the opposite. More has to be handled case by case, more edge cases surface mid-build, and the whole thing takes longer and costs more.

This won’t necessarily stop you from launching an app on most platforms. It just changes the size of the job.

Popular Platforms Are Easier to Staff

On top of the technology, there's the human factor: who can work with your platform.

There are far more developers and agencies with real, hands-on Shopify experience, for example, than there are specialists in a niche or legacy enterprise platform. 

The wider the talent pool, the more likely it is you’ll be able to find the right personnel to take on your project (at the right price).

Some Platforms Have a Deeper App Builder Ecosystem

For ecommerce, fully custom builds are not the ideal way to launch a mobile app anymore.

A no-code platform can get you a great app, more or less on par with a custom app, for a tiny fraction of the cost and complexity. 

But the issue is, almost all app builders are linked to a specific ecommerce platform. If you’re on that platform, great. If not, it won’t work for your store (at all).

And most app builders congregate around certain platforms. App builder directory WhichAppBuilder lists 83 builders for Shopify, over 4x the nearest platform. And there are only five ecommerce platforms with five or more app builders widely available.

This makes it significantly easier to launch a mobile app for brands on certain platforms; while others may be forced towards an expensive custom dev project.

Learn more: How to Create an App For Your Ecommerce Store (If You're Not on Shopify)

The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Mobile Apps

Let’s get into the best ecommerce platforms for mobile apps.

This shouldn’t be the beginning and end of your decision to build on a certain platform, but if you are already planning to replatform, and also looking to launch a mobile app around the same time, this is something to take under consideration.

Here’s a quick summary - we’ll break each one down in more detail below.

Shopify and Shopify Plus

Shopify is the most app-friendly platform in ecommerce, and it's not particularly close. It's API-first, its developer documentation is the cleanest in the category, and it has by far the largest ecosystem of tools built to help you build an app for your store.

There are more mobile app builders focused on Shopify than on any other ecommerce platform. Most give you a drag-and-drop interface, prebuilt app templates, product syncing and native features such as push notifications.

Shopify also provides a Storefront API for brands that want to build a custom frontend. This gives developers access to products, collections, carts, customer information and other core commerce functionality. Shopify also provides official tools for bringing its checkout into native iOS and Android apps.

That makes Shopify a practical option whether you want a relatively simple app builder solution or a fully custom mobile app.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce gives you a high degree of control over your store, because it runs on WordPress and is open source.

You can customize almost every part of the storefront, connect a large range of plugins and use WooCommerce’s APIs to communicate with external applications. Its REST APIs cover products, customers, orders and other store data, making it possible to use WooCommerce as the backend for a mobile app.

But every WooCommerce store is different.

Your site may rely on a custom theme, WordPress plugins, bespoke code and functionality that sits outside WooCommerce itself. An app built only through the WooCommerce API may not reproduce all of this.

This means the difficulty of building an app for WooCommerce depends heavily on how your individual store has been built.

A relatively standard store can be straightforward. A heavily customized WooCommerce site may require significant development work to reproduce inside a separate app frontend.

There’s not the same selection of mobile app builders to choose from either, compared to a platform like Shopify.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a strong option for brands already using a headless or API-first architecture.

Its APIs can provide the product, cart, checkout, customer and order functionality needed to power a custom mobile storefront. This gives experienced development teams plenty of flexibility over how the app looks and behaves.

BigCommerce can be particularly useful when your website is already one of several storefronts connected to a shared ecommerce backend.

The trade-off is that BigCommerce has fewer mainstream plug-and-play mobile app builders than Shopify and WooCommerce. You may need a custom development team or an app provider that can work directly with your existing storefront.

And, as with any API-based app, your website’s frontend features don’t automatically appear in the mobile app. They still need to be supported or recreated.

Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Adobe Commerce, formerly Magento Commerce, is designed for businesses with more complex ecommerce requirements.

It can support large catalogs, multiple storefronts, customer-specific pricing, detailed promotional rules and heavily customized buying journeys.

Adobe Commerce provides REST and GraphQL APIs that can be used to build external storefronts and traditional mobile shopping apps. Its GraphQL API can return products, customer information, carts, order histories, store settings and other data needed to power an app.

This gives enterprise retailers plenty of room to create a custom mobile experience.

The downside is complexity.

Adobe Commerce projects often require specialist developers, a larger budget and more ongoing technical maintenance. The same flexibility that makes the platform powerful can also make it harder to reproduce the complete storefront inside an app.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is another enterprise platform built for large and often international retailers.

Its Shopper APIs cover search, products, promotions, customer login, baskets, checkout and orders. They can be used to create headless storefronts and native mobile shopping experiences connected to the same Commerce Cloud backend.

This can work well for businesses already using Salesforce across ecommerce, marketing, customer service and other channels.

But it’s rarely the simplest or most affordable way to launch an app.

A Commerce Cloud mobile app will usually require specialist developers or an implementation partner. Existing cartridges, frontend customizations and integrations may also need separate support inside the app.

It’s a great platform - but for a specific type of merchant only.

Headless and Composable Platforms

Aside from the five platforms below, there are a large number of headless and composable ecommerce platforms, designed to separate the ecommerce backend from the customer-facing storefront.

This category includes platforms such as commercetools, Commerce Layer and Elastic Path, as well as custom commerce backends.

Because the frontend is already separate, your team can build different experiences for your website, mobile app, retail screens and other channels while connecting them to the same commerce infrastructure.

For example, commercetools provides endpoints and authentication flows specifically designed for mobile and browser applications.

This gives you maximum control, but also maximum responsibility.

You need to design, build and maintain the app frontend. You also need to connect every supporting service, including search, content, customer accounts, payments, loyalty and personalization.

A composable platform can be a great foundation for a mobile app when you have the engineering resources to take advantage of it. It’s usually not the fastest route for a brand that simply wants to turn an existing ecommerce experience into an app.

Do You Need to Replatform to Launch an App?

So here’s the question that might be on your mind, especially if you’re on a legacy or niche ecommerce platform (ie: not Shopify), and thinking of launching a mobile app.

Is it worth moving to a new ecommerce platform to make it easier to launch a mobile app?

If you’re on a platform like SAP Commerce Cloud, or Squarespace, or Shift4Shop, should you make the move to Shopify to get access to their app builder ecosystem and app development toolkit?

Realistically - no.

Ideally, you should make decisions with the web in mind, above all else.

Our data finds that high-performing mobile apps can make up around a third of an ecommerce brand’s sales, servicing around 5-15% of their regular customer base.

You’ll still get the majority of your traffic on the web. So you should build around what works best for your website.

It could be a consideration if an app could really be a huge channel for you - like an F&B brand, or a brand in an app-centric market (such as the Middle East).

But replatforming is a huge project, so it’s likely not something to do solely because of this.

If a Migration Is Already on Your Roadmap

It’s a different case if you’re already thinking about a platform migration, separately from launching a mobile app.

We’ve talked to hundreds of brands in this situation. Long-planned platform migrations, happening at the same time as the mobile app discussion.

If this is the case, it’s certainly something to take into consideration. Some platforms (like those listed above) will definitely be better for mobile apps than others.

Learn more: What Happens to Your Mobile App During a Platform Migration

How MobiLoud Takes Your Ecommerce Platform Out of the Equation

MobiLoud works differently to most mobile app builders. And in doing so, it gives you much more freedom to choose the ecommerce platform that works best for your business, overall.

MobiLoud skips the API approach and lets you build a mobile app powered by your actual website.

It’s a platform-agnostic app builder. It doesn’t rely on the platform’s APIs and documentation, developers who know the technical side of your site, or the complicated mess beneath your legacy ecommerce platform. It builds on top of what you’ve already got, giving you a fully functional mobile app that works, no matter your tech stack.

It’s ideal for stores on any platform; from Shopify brands (especially those with custom designs, plus integrations and custom features that other app builders and the Shopify API can’t support), to brands on powerful platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud, which have few other options for building a mobile app other than a costly custom build.

"A custom app build for our setup would have been prohibitively expensive. MobiLoud was the only realistic option."
– Nick Barbarise, Director of IT, John Varvatos (Demandware/Salesforce Commerce Cloud)

That’s not to say your ecommerce platform doesn't matter at all. You need the foundation you’re building on to be responsive and mobile-friendly.

But this should be a priority anyway. If you’re on a site that doesn’t deliver the fast, responsive experience people expect on mobile, that’s reason enough to replatform, before you bring your app into it.

And if you’re in this bucket, MobiLoud gives you the freedom to choose the right platform for every element of your business, knowing that your mobile app is covered either way.

Final Thoughts

Your ecommerce platform shapes how you'd build a mobile app and what it costs, mostly through the quality of its APIs, the size of its developer talent pool, and the depth of its app builder ecosystem.

Shopify is the strongest platform for mobile apps; with a deep selection of tools, and a mature, mobile-friendly architecture, which many developers are familiar with.

There are many great ways to run your ecommerce business, though. And with MobiLoud, just about any ecommerce platform can power a high-quality mobile app, giving you full flexibility to build your tech stack the way you want.