Ready to put your Shopify store inside your customers’ pockets?
This guide walks you through the fastest, most cost-effective ways to convert your Shopify site into a mobile app: fully branded, live on iOS and Android, with no custom code, no six-figure dev bill.
Below, you’ll find:
- A rundown of the best way to turn a Shopify store into an app (and how to go live in under a month)
- Other ways for Shopify sites to build an app (and the pros and cons of each)
- Mini case studies showing the lift real Shopify brands saw post-launch
- The most common mistakes Shopify brands make when launching mobile apps
- A five-step checklist to guarantee your app delivers a positive ROI.
Scroll down, pick your path, and start building.
How to Convert Shopify to App (Without Spending Megabucks)
Can you turn your Shopify store into an app?
Yes – but;
- It’s not part of Shopify’s feature set (it’s not as easy as publishing your website). You’ll need a third-party tool or custom development.
- There’s a wide range of options for how to get there. Choose the wrong one, you can end up with a sub-standard app that doesn’t convert, or one where maintenance costs eclipse any extra revenue you get from the app.
It’s a confusing space for someone who has never launched an app before. And if you’re in the ecommerce business, there’s a good chance you have no experience with APIs or SDKs or device tokens.
MobiLoud makes it easy for you. It’s a Shopify mobile app builder that’s a little different to the average Shopify mobile app builder.
It’s purpose-made for Shopify brands who have a great mobile website, and want to turn that same experience into a high-ROI mobile app (without the stress and complexity of rebuilding from scratch).
We’ll get into why MobiLoud is the best option for most stores in a moment. But first, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of the process.
Step One: Talk to the Team
Timeline: Day 1
- You start by talking with our team, so we can explain the process and make sure MobiLoud is the right fit for you.We’ll present you with a custom, interactive preview of your app, using just your website’s URL.
- You’ll be able to tap around, view different screens, ask questions, and share anything specific you need from the final product.
(Ready to see your Shopify site as an app? Get your free app preview here.)
Step Two: Customize Your App
Timeline: Week 1
- Before development starts, you’ll be able to configure the app’s design, navigation, and branding, through the MobiLoud dashboard.
- You’ll also ensure that your mobile website is up to speed (as your Shopify mobile app will reuse most of your website’s UX and UI.)
Step Three: The Team Develops Your App
Timeline: Week 2
- The MobiLoud team does all the heavy lifting to turn your website into a mobile app that can live on customers' phones.
- The exterior framework of your mobile apps is 100% native code built by our dev team, while the content is fully synced with your website.
Step Four: Test and Give Feedback
Timeline: Week 3
- Soon, you’ll get initial versions of your app ready for testing.
- You’ll be able to download the app to your own device, play around with it, and share any feedback or change requests.
- We do our own testing at the same time, thoroughly combing your apps for bugs to ensure nothing bad makes it through to the final version.
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Step Five: Prepare for Launch
Timeline: Week 3
- While we’re implementing your feedback, you can start setting up smart app banners, QR codes, email and SMS copy, and other material you’ll need to launch and start getting customers. (We’ll help you with this)
Step Six: Launch
Timeline: Week 4
- Typically, your app will go live to customers within just four weeks.
- You can promote it as heavily or as lightly as you want.
- We help you set up and activate push notifications: welcome sequences, cart abandonment reminders, and a full month of push campaigns drafted for you.
After launch, our team handles technical updates and maintenance (such as routine updates for new OS releases and bug fixes).
We’ll also help you implement changes or new features in your app (but most changes you can make yourself, through Shopify – as your app updates in real time whenever your site does).
How MobiLoud Works (And Why It’s Different)
So how exactly does MobiLoud turn your Shopify site into a mobile app?
Good question – let’s break it down.
MobiLoud wraps your existing Shopify website in native mobile code. It essentially allows your website to run as a mobile app.
This means:
- Everything from your website automatically works in your mobile app.
- You don’t have to rebuild anything. It saves a ton of time and effort you’d otherwise spend building your app UI (which is basically just recreating your mobile web UI).
- Changes on your website go live in your app in real-time. No double work, no issues with consistency.
- Your existing web team can manage your mobile app. No need to hire app developers.
- Anything you can build for the web, you can build for your app as well.
Other options basically build a separate app, which integrates with your website by an API.
This is great if you want to build a completely different app experience. But it comes with a lot more work to build, and a lot more work to manage.
And you often end up more or less at the same place with your app and mobile website. Most store owners realize they didn’t actually need a brand new UI for the mobile app; just some small tweaks.
MobiLoud does that.
While most of your UI is shared between app and website, we add splash screens, native navigation bars, and other small touches that make sure your app feels like an app (not a website in a box).
Cost & ROI
MobiLoud is the most cost-effective way to turn a Shopify store into an app.
You pay anywhere from $299-$949 per month, which covers running and maintenance of your app. There’s also a one-time setup fee ($850-$1500) to cover the work we do to publish your app.
Aside from our cost, there’s not a lot more cost to your business. There’s little to no operational lift (unlike app builders, which require a sneaky amount of work to manage). And there’s no need to hire expensive developers.
The typical store will go live for ~$2000 (including setup fee + first month), with ~$500 per month in ongoing costs.
A 7-figure brand makes more than this in a day. That means you can turn your Shopify store into an app for less than a day’s sales, costing the equivalent of just a few hours’ sales per month to maintain.
The rest is pure profit.
Learn more about MobiLoud's pricing.
Two Alternative Ways to Go From Shopify to Mobile App
How about other options to convert your Shopify store into a mobile app? How do these compare with MobiLoud’s approach?
There are two main options: using a DIY Shopify app builder; or hiring developers to build a custom native app.
Let’s break them down now.
Shopify App Builders
Shopify app builders are Shopify apps that you install in your Shopify backend. They pull the data from your store into a no-code drag-and-drop builder, which lets you create a custom interface for your mobile app.
These tools work on subscription (similar to MobiLoud), but unlike MobiLoud, you do all the work to build, compile, launch and maintain your app (through their interface).
Here’s how app builders compare to MobiLoud in all the areas that matter.
Cost to launch: The cost depends on your choice of app builder, but generally you’re looking at a slightly lower upfront cost, because most app builders don’t come with a setup fee.
(However, that doesn’t take into account the labor cost of having to manage the build in-house).
Ongoing cost / TCO: App builders require an ongoing subscription, like MobiLoud. The cost varies greatly – from around $150/mo to $1200+. But the total cost of ownership (TCO) of app builders tends to be higher, because they take more work to manage.
ROI horizon: You can get to a positive ROI in more or less the same time. However, the upside tends to be more limited (especially as some tools charge success fees – a cut of your in-app sales), and TCO is higher, so you may be looking at a lower ROI.
Time to launch: If you launch from a template, the timeline will typically be a little shorter (around a couple of weeks).
In-house resources needed: App builders require more work from your team. They’re typically DIY self-serve tools, and the app has to be managed separately from the website (which might come with ~10 hours per week to keep up to date and in sync with your site).
Feature flexibility: The tradeoff for being able to build with no code is flexibility. You’re likely to be tied to pre-built blocks and templates, which will limit what you’re able to build.
With MobiLoud, anything you can build on the web can be done in your app (meaning much greater flexibility).
Performance: The majority of app builders are fine in terms of performance (not as fast as native, but no major problems). Some can be bloated, slow and buggy.
Support: Support quality and availability can vary. Typically, on lower plans, you’ll have ticket-based support for issues, and higher plans might offer more responsive support (or dedicated account managers).
Integrations: App builders use pre-built integrations to enable Shopify apps and other third-party tools to work with your mobile app. This can be quite limiting compared to MobiLoud (where everything from your website works in the app.
Portability: Poor. These tools are tied to the Shopify platform, and the design of your app is contained within the app builder itself. If you want to move your app to another provider, or migrate your website to another platform, you’ll need to start all over again.
With MobiLoud, your app is just your website. You’re building on what you already own. And since MobiLoud works with any web platform or tech stack, if you move to a platform like Salesforce, BigCommerce, or even to a custom website, you’ll be able to keep your mobile app with no disruptions.
Scalability: Ultimately there’s a cap on your upside with app builders. In time, you’re going to run into something that they can’t do. This is less likely to happen with MobiLoud.
Summary: DIY app builders shave a bit off the upfront bill and can ship a templated app in weeks, but they saddle you with higher ongoing fees, ~10 hours per week of in-house upkeep, rigid feature blocks, and platform lock-in. MobiLoud launches just as fast yet rides on the site you already own, so everything works out of the box, maintenance is minimal, TCO is lower, and your app stays portable and scalable as your store grows.
Native Development
The other alternative for Shopify app development is building a custom, native app.
This means either hiring in-house developers, freelancers, or an agency to build a custom app from the ground up.
Here’s what that looks like.
Cost to launch: Significant. Bare minimum, with an agency taking a bare-bones approach, would likely be around $50,000. Higher chance it ends up around six figures.
Ongoing cost / TCO: Native apps require ongoing maintenance and updates, which will probably be a minimum $10k per year (likely $50k+).
ROI horizon: With much higher launch costs, much higher overhead, the ROI calculation gets a lot tougher. You’re unlikely to make your money back in the first year.
Time to launch: Typically six months or more to get a first version live.
In-house resources needed: Major resources required to manage the project. Multiple full-time staff.
Feature flexibility: Full flexibility. The biggest advantage of native development is the ability to do virtually anything in your app (though at a cost).
Performance: Optimal performance (assuming your devs know what they’re doing).
Support: Personal, hands-on support from your dev team (though at a higher cost).
Integrations: You can integrate basically anything you want with your app. However, more integrations (and more complex integrations) will add to the cost and timeline.
Portability: Likely a high level of portability. With a good build, the major change you’d need if you shifted platforms would be to update APIs to the new platform, which will take some work – but not a full rebuild.
Scalability: Highly scalable, as long as you can justify the cost.
Summary: Native development gives you unlimited control and top-tier performance, but it comes with a six-figure build, a months-long timeline, and five-figure annual upkeep, so you’ll need a full team and a multi-year horizon to see payback. It scales and ports well, yet every new feature, integration, or platform change adds fresh dev hours and fresh costs.
What about PWAs?
You might also be aware of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), and be asking whether this is a cost-effective alternative to launch a Shopify mobile app.
Cost-effective, yes. PWAs are much cheaper than building native apps (if you already have a web development team, you can probably do this in-house rather quickly).
But while PWA’s provide an “app-like experience”, they’re not true mobile apps.
They’re not easy for customers to download, their access to push notifications is limited, and they don’t perform as well.
A PWA is a suped-up version of a website; but not a replacement for a mobile app. You’d be better off turning your website into a PWA (to engage with first-time visitors), and then turning your PWA into a mobile app to ensure you get all the benefits of a real app.
(want to learn how to turn your PWA into a mobile app? Read this)
Shopify Mobile App Case Studies
We’ve helped over 2,000 brands turn their websites into mobile apps, including many successful Shopify brands. Here are a few examples.
SLEEFS
SLEEFS originally built a mobile app for their boutique sportswear brand with a template-based app builder. It turned out to be a nightmare to manage, because they were juggling two separate platforms.
MobiLoud helped them cut their overhead costs in half, while maintaining an app with 30% higher AOV, 40% higher conversion rate, and 3x higher revenue per user than their website.
Learn more about SLEEFS’ mobile app
Pharmazone
In the Middle Eastern market, mobile apps are essential. People don’t shop on the mobile web – they shop in apps.
So Pharmazone desperately needed an app if they were going to survive. MobiLoud helped them build one in just two weeks, by converting their existing Shopify site, helping them become one of the top 3-5 stores in their market.
The app converts 7x higher than their website, and now drives 63% of their online revenue (including abandoned cart push notifications with a 22% conversion rate!)
Learn more about Pharmazone’s mobile app
XCVI
The first time XCVI built an app for their Shopify site, they found the app builder approach wasn’t as tightly integrated with Shopify as it seemed.
The app was a ton of work to manage, giving them no time to focus on growing their app; all their time was spent keeping it up to date.
Switching to MobiLoud allowed them to save 10 hours of work per week. Freeing up not just staff hours, but headspace too.
Their new app drives:
- 2x conversion rate vs mobile web
- 30% higher AOV
- 4.8x higher revenue per user
Learn more about XCVI’s mobile app
BoozeBud
BoozeBud were thriving, but their tech stack meant it was a lot of work. Simplifying their tech stack by moving their app to a Shopify mobile app builder meant sacrificing important features from their website, because the app builders wouldn’t work with their custom build.
Enter MobiLoud. We let them keep everything from their website, which resulted in a much more seamless UX (with less work for their team).
The app delivers 5x more LTV per user than their website, and 10% of their total online revenue.
BoozeBud has now rebranded to Bottle Stop – and it just so happens that, because they used MobiLoud to build their app, they were able to do this rebrand without an expensive app rebuild.
Learn more about BoozeBud’s mobile app
BuyBuy Baby
The iconic BuyBuy Baby brand got acquired, and with that came a rapid relaunch to a new ecommerce platform.
This was a critical phase for the brand. Any disruption to regular customers during this time (such as waiting months for their mobile app to come back online) could have caused major damage to their reputation.
MobiLoud turned out to be the perfect solution. We let them easily convert their new Shopify site into a mobile app that would automatically update as they made changes and redesigns on the site (saving weeks of additional development work, testing, and app store submissions for every single update).
Learn more about BuyBuy Baby’s mobile app
Shopify Mobile App Development FAQs
Still have questions? Let’s answer them for you.
Do I need to code (or hire a developer)?
With MobiLoud, you don’t need to write any code, or keep developers on staff. You just manage your website like you usually do – and all your changes will sync with your mobile app, with zero coding required.
What kind of support do I get, really?
We give you dedicated support, with response times from 24 business hours, to 4 business hours (plus phone/video/Slack support) on higher plans.
And this is for questions or issue resolution. We do routine updates for your app (for example for new iOS/Android system updates) without you having to ask for it.
But don’t I need a custom, unique mobile app?
A lot of people think a mobile app needs to be a brand new, fully unique user experience. But that’s really not necessary with ecommerce apps. All customers want is a more convenient, easier way to shop on mobile, which is what an app does.
Most apps from major brands don’t do anything significantly different to their website. See Amazon’s app as an example – it does billions in sales, yet 85-90% of the app is just the same as what’s on the website.
How can I offer app-exclusive products and discounts in my Shopify app?
MobiLoud lets you offer app-exclusive promos, products, or create pages that only show in the app. All it takes is a small bit of setup in your Shopify backend (and we’ll walk you through how to configure it).
Check out these docs to read more: App-Exclusive Products | App-Exclusive Discounts
Won’t this app be slower than a native app?
There’s a slight difference in performance between native apps and hybrid “webview” apps. But shopping apps are not that resource intensive (like, for example, an app like Netflix or Spotify might be). So your users are unlikely to notice any real difference between this and a fully native app.
How does checkout work in the app? Can I bring my custom checkout?
MobiLoud converts everything from your website into the app. However your checkout is set up on your website, it will work the same in your app. That means your payment gateway, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay will all carry over to your mobile app without a problem.
Do MobiLoud’s Shopify mobile apps support push notifications?
You get unlimited push notifications built in (including native abandoned cart notifications). You’ll be able to use our Shopify app to automate order and shipping notifications, and integrations with OneSignal and Klaviyo to set up push notification flows and campaigns.
How is this less expensive? I don’t want to keep paying a subscription forever.
You might think a one-off dev project would save money over a timeline of 3-5 years plus, compared to a monthly subscription that runs indefinitely. But you’d be missing the fact that development is never really “done” with a mobile app (especially something as dynamic as an ecommerce app).
Your app needs constant updates and maintenance. Many brands we’ve talked to say it takes at least one full-time employee to manage. One brand owner said it would likely take a team of 6 to maintain a custom app in-house.
For reference, according to ZipRecruiter, the average monthly salary for an app developer is a little over $9,000. So your one-off dev project is not as one-off as it seems. Paying around ~$500 per month is therefore much more attractive than the possibility of $10k+ per year.
What does the one-time setup fee mean?
Our one-time setup fee covers our work to configure and build your app, test, and publish your app. You don’t have to lift a finger during this process.
I heard Apple often rejects these kind of apps. How do I know my app will be approved?
We’ve launched thousands of apps on Apple and Google Play. We know just what they look for, and what causes basic webview or “wrapper” apps to be rejected. As part of the discovery process, we make sure your business is a good fit for the app stores, and we don’t take on projects if they’re unlikely to be approved.
You can learn more about our publishing process here.
Isn’t four weeks a long time? I want my app today.
Compared to custom development (which can drag on into months, or even years), four weeks is not a long time to launch an app. There are some solutions that can get you live earlier, but with tradeoffs down the line. You’ll want to decide whether these tradeoffs are worth it.
I have a headless build. Will MobiLoud work for me?
MobiLoud works great with headless builds. If you’re on Hydrogen, or you have a fully custom setup, MobiLoud still works the same (unlike app builders, which typically aren’t compatible with headless).
What kind of limitations does MobiLoud have?
There is some limitation in terms of native customization for your mobile apps, along with the use of native device features. If you want your app to be completely different to your website, it might not be the best fit. But as mentioned earlier, most ecommerce brands don’t need a drastically different app. Just their website repackaged and conveniently placed on their customers’ phones.
Why should I turn my Shopify store into an app?
Apps get more engagement from your best customers. They help retain your top-spending customers, by giving them a more convenient way to come back and shop again and again. The result is more sustainable, high-margin retention revenue.
Get a better idea of the impact an app can have by downloading our free Ecommerce Mobile App Benchmark Report.
If your questions haven’t been answered yet, and you want to talk it over with our team, click here to book a free consultation.
Wrapping Up - Why You Should Use MobiLoud to Convert Your Shopify Store into a Mobile App
MobiLoud’s Shopify app builder is the best way for 99% of Shopify brands to build and launch their own mobile apps.
- It’s much faster and more affordable than custom development.
- Overhead and maintenance load is significantly lower.
- There’s no limitation to what you can carry over into your app.
- Crucial app features (like push notifications) are built in.
- You get the support of an expert team (not just a subscription to a tool).
- You only need to manage one platform (while getting all the benefits of mobile apps, alongside your website).
It’s the only “true” Shopify to mobile app conversion method. All others (app builders, custom dev) mean rebuilding a new platform, which is more trouble than it’s worth.
That’s why so many brands find MobiLoud the best solution for launching a mobile app for their VIP customers.
Want to see what’s possible? Get a free preview of your app now.
