Givi Enterprise Gifting Launched Mobile Apps One Year Ahead of Schedule with MobiLoud

Givi Enterprise Gifting found an underserved niche with their gift-giving app. Everything looked great - except one thing. Their product was geared towards mobile users, but their app was made on web technologies.

To complete the gap in their user experience, they needed to be able to provide an actual mobile app. They found MobiLoud, and made it happen.

About Givi

Givi is a Central American company that allows users to send gifts through their app, together with messaging platforms like WhatsApp, SMS and other text-based messengers.

It worked well, but the implementation was not totally streamlined, as CEO Roberto Artavia explains:

“People would open the website from their smartphones, and it would work as a web-based app. From the get-go, we had always envisioned that we would have to develop a native app.”

Not having a proper mobile app cost them, when it came to securing partnerships and acquiring new users.

“​​We would negotiate with different vendors or try to get new users into our platform, but the fact that we didn't have a native app got them thinking. We just weren't credible enough until we had a downloadable native app for smartphones.”

The facts were obvious: they needed an app.

The Challenge

Though Givi had an in-house development team, they were not mobile app developers.

It was clear, if they wanted to create a native app, they’d need to hire from outside, which had some big drawbacks.

“Our in-house programming team is very good with HTML, JavaScript and everything that comes with building a website. They honestly had no experience in building a native app from scratch. So we were thinking we would have to hire a development team to actually develop the native app. That had us quite nervous, and the costs would have been unattainable.”

That left them in a bind. They knew they needed an app, but building one from scratch was just not in their budget.

The Solution

The solution was finding MobiLoud, who allowed them to easily convert their web app, which was already functional and successful, into a mobile app.

When Roberto found this, it was the home run they needed. We provided them with a cost-effective way to turn their web app into a hybrid app, which was indistinguishable from several huge brands’ native apps.

“When we found MobiLoud, it was like winning the lottery. We got something that was going to look as professional as any other native app. And honestly, our users compare us to the other platforms like Uber Eats and Didi and they don't even notice that this is not a native app like they are.”

They worked with the MobiLoud team for a couple of months to get the app right, which was still much less than what it would have taken in time (and money) to build native apps from scratch.

“It took a couple of months. To develop a native app, we expected it could take anything from 3 to even 9 months. Two months was very fast, and the cost was a fraction of what hiring international developers would have been.”

The icing on the cake was our ability to provide hands-on support in Spanish. Other app builders offer little support whatsoever, let alone support in their team’s native language.

“Having support in Spanish was something that really helped us, because our entire team isn't exactly 100% comfortable with doing everything in English. This fact was why we didn't really get to the point of negotiating with other vendors.”

Results

MobiLoud helped them ship a mobile app far ahead of schedule. Their plan, as discussed with investors and their Board of Directors, was to publish an app by the end of 2023. With MobiLoud, they shipped it at the beginning of 2023, to much surprise.

“We just turned up and showed the app to our investors and board. They asked questions like when and how did you develop this? How is this possible? How much did this cost? When they saw the numbers, they were really blown away.”

Aside from seriously accelerating their product roadmap, this solution was perfect because it allowed them to make updates and changes to the app using their existing team and tech stack.

“Being web-based allows us to update the app in-house. We really feel we have control of the app, we're able to update it, we're able to do everything as if it were a native app that we were developing. So the flexibility is really amazing.”

Not only do the team and investors love it, customers do too, with the app holding a 5/5 rating on the App Store, and over 1k downloads on Google Play.

Convert Your Web App into Mobile Apps Today with MobiLoud

Roberto and Givi Enterprise Gifting, like many other companies, found themselves between a rock and a hard place.

They knew they needed an app, but didn’t have the budget to hire a team of developers to build fully native apps.

We gave them an option that was basically risk-free. For minimal investment, they were able to launch an app that did everything a native app does, in a fraction of the time.

“I would say to look at the risk and benefit. What is the risk of going with you guys, to be honest? The financial risk is not big. It's really a great solution and I think anybody would be surprised.”

If you want to do the same for your business, now is a great time. More consumers than ever are mobile-first, and specifically app-first. MobiLoud lets you ride this wave, easier than you’d think possible.

To see what it can do for you, book a free, personalized demo with one of our app experts. We’ll show you just how fast and easy it is to launch your own mobile apps.