How To Build A Mobile App For Your Commercetools Website

Have you thought about building a mobile app based on your Commercetools website? With MobiLoud, it’s easier than you think.

MobiLoud is built to convert any website into native mobile apps. It's perfect for any website, and allows you to launch your mobile app in less than a month, with minimal overhead, without sacrificing key features from your website.

Businesses need to go beyond just having a well-designed website. Consumer habits continue to shift towards mobile and it’s essential to have a mobile app to keep up with customer expectations and to stay competitive. 

Keep reading to learn more.

MobiLoud is the industry-leading tool to convert websites into mobile apps. We help you launch an app, risk-free, with minimal investment and overhead. To learn more, get a free demo now.

Why You Should Build A Mobile App For Your Commercetools Website

Businesses need to go beyond just having a well-designed website. Consumer habits continue to shift towards mobile and today, it’s essential to have a mobile app to keep up with customer expectations and to stay competitive. 

People are spending more time on mobile apps than mobile websites. 90% of mobile users’ time is spent in apps. Currently, mobile internet traffic accounts for approximately 57% of all internet traffic.

In 2023, mobile eCommerce sales reached $2.2 trillion and made up about 60% of all eCommerce sales around the world. This global trend is expected to even grow bigger in 2027. As of the first quarter of 2024, smartphones alone generated around 77% of retail site traffic globally, responsible for generating two-thirds of online shopping orders.

Conversion rates, engagement and key metrics are also higher across the board for mobile apps vs mobile websites. Here are some of the key figures:

• Users view 4.2x more products per session on mobile apps vs mobile sites.
• Conversion rates on apps are 3x higher than mobile websites.
• Entertainment apps convert 233% higher than mobile web in the same industry.
• Travel apps convert 220% higher.
• Retail apps convert 94% higher.
• On-demand apps convert 307% higher.
• Overall, apps average 157% higher conversion rates than mobile websites.

These statistics clearly show that if you do not have a mobile app for your business, you’re probably missing out.

Do you "need" to turn your online store into a mobile app? Perhaps not. But a mobile app can bring these massive benefits for your business:

A better mobile shopping experience

Your customers will have a better time shopping on mobile than on your mobile website. Your store will be easier to navigate, with fewer of the annoyances and distractions you get when shopping on a mobile website. A mobile app allows them to shop anywhere and anytime.

Increased loyalty and retention

The better user experience directly correlates to increased loyalty and retention. If people love shopping with you, they'll come back and do it again.

Apps are tailor-made for fostering loyalty and increasing retention rates. They make it easy for people to get in, with just one tap from their home screen. And that home screen icon is a constant reminder of your brand, a permanent fixture in your customers' headspace.

This is all going to translate to a higher lifetime value from every one of your app users.

An owned sales channel

Worried about a dip in Google SEO rankings, or the constant cost of driving traffic from paid ads?

An app gives you an owned channel, not susceptible to the platform risk of Google, Facebook, or online marketplaces.

You can reach out directly to your customers through push notifications, and re-engage your customers, even if your reach on external platforms is diminished for whatever reason.

App store presence

Finally, getting into the app stores is a powerful thing.

They can provide a new acquisition channel. They also provide a ton of social proof. When someone sees you have a mobile app in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store, your brand instantly looks more legitimate and trustworthy.

Now let’s discuss several ways build your brand’s mobile app.

How to Build a Mobile App for Your Commercetools Website

Mobile app development is expensive, and comes with a lot of ongoing work, which comes with significant overhead expenses. 

If speed, cost-efficiency, and maintaining your existing site’s functionality are top priorities, MobiLoud offers a great solution to build a mobile app out of your website.

Our platform allows you to convert your existing website into a fully functional mobile app for both iOS and Android, without the need to rebuild everything from scratch. This method leverages the responsive design of your website, packaging it into a native app that can be distributed via the app stores. It supports native features like push notifications, offline functionality, and in-app purchases, providing a smooth mobile experience for your users. Since you’re not starting from scratch, this approach saves time and money, making it a smart choice for businesses that want to go mobile without the high costs of custom development.

If you’re a big brand with a ton of resources at your disposal, you might be able to afford rebuilding from scratch using these options:

Custom Native Development: This is the most customizable option, where you build separate apps for iOS and Android (which doubles the development time and cost). While this offers full control, it’s also expensive and time-consuming, requiring a dedicated team of developers to create and maintain the app. 

Cross-Platform Development: Frameworks like React Native or Flutter allow you to build a single codebase that works across both platforms. This is faster and more affordable than custom development but still requires a substantial level of coding expertise and cost as you will still need to hire a team of developers to create and maintain the app for you.

Keep in mind that the right choice depends on your business's specific needs, budget, and timeline.

Convert Your Commercetools Website to a Mobile App with MobiLoud Today

MobiLoud lets you skip the pain and high cost of mobile app development. Our platform can turn any website into native mobile apps. It’s a done-for-you service that has the best elements of a no code app builder and custom app development.

With MobiLoud, you can launch apps with zero coding and zero technical ability. There’s no need to hire and manage developers, and you won’t even have to spend money close to the level of investment needed to build fully custom apps from the ground up.

Our solution doesn’t limit you to blocks and templates. It fully converts your existing website into apps, which are fully synced with your site to make the apps simple to update and maintain.

You can ship a full-featured mobile app that carries over all the features of your website, and feels like a fully custom native app to the end user, for minimal cost, done in less than a month.

How It Works

With MobiLoud, your app will be a full, live reflection of your website. We strip away the browser tabs, and add a few small native mobile touches, such as navigation UI, a tab menu and splash screens. We then put together native code to allow your app to run in Android and iOS operating systems, and let you send native mobile push notifications.

Our approach has a number of advantages:

• It lets you quickly and easily go to market with an app, as you don’t need to rebuild or drastically redesign anything.
• Maintenance is much easier, since you’re using the same codebase for your site and your apps. When you update your site, your apps update automatically.
• All the features on your website, such as plugins, themes, widgets, integrations, payment gateways and any custom features will work in the app in the same way.
• There’s no coding, no technical knowledge needed from you or your team.
• You can be totally hands-off and launch with zero addition to your existing workflow.

Our full-service approach covers every part of the process. This includes:

• Development work to convert your site into apps and deploy it for Android and iOS.
• Configuring your app to ensure it feels fully native to the end user.
• Custom UI/UX tweaks to your mobile website to maximize your mobile user experience in both app and website.
• Submitting your app to the Apple and Google Play app stores, and handling all back-and-forths to ensure your app and listing meet their standards.
• Handling technical updates and maintenance for your app after launching.

The process starts with a kick-off call with one of our project managers. We’ll discuss your needs and what you want to get out of the project, and make sure MobiLoud is right for you.

From there, we take over to build and launch your apps, keeping you updated every step of the way.

From start to finish, you can be live and in the app stores in less than a month, for a low-four figure investment, plus a guarantee that your app will be accepted into the app stores, so it’s completely risk-free.

Learn more about our pricing here.

Today's consumers prefer to consume content or interact with brands on apps. Because of this, top brands today include both a mobile website and a mobile app to stay competitive in the eCommerce landscape. This allows them to acquire new users via their website, before converting them into loyal app users.

It's never been easier and more accessible to launch your own app. MobiLoud makes the process simple, no matter what platform your website is built on.

Book a free consultation with one of our app experts to learn more about how easy it is to level up your mobile user experience, and take your brand to the next level.