How to Convert Your AbleCommerce Site Into A Mobile App

Are you ready to prepare your business for a mobile-first world? In 2023, having a mobile app is no longer optional; it's a must-have for any businesses looking to grow their reach, earn more conversions, and increase their revenue. With the rise of mobile ecommerce, it's important to ensure your store can cater to customers shopping on their smartphones. However, taking the plunge into mobile apps can be expensive and time-consuming.

Instead of a custom native app, you can use an AbleCommerce mobile app builder to quickly create a high-quality, cost-effective app. In this post, we'll explain how.

Why You Need a Mobile App

Mobile dominates the ecommerce market, accounting for over 72% of the total share in 2022. This growth is significant, considering that it was just a little over 52% five years before.

This trend aligns with the overall shift towards mobile internet usage, which now holds more than 50% market share when compared to desktop and tablet usage.

What's more is that Pew Research reports that around 15% of Americans today rely solely on smartphones for accessing the internet, indicating the emergence of a customer base that is not just mobile-first but soley mobile.

While optimizing your website for mobile is a good starting point, it is no longer the end-all be-all. Mobile apps offer a superior user experience, resulting in various key metrics seeing significant improvements:

 
• Conversion rates increase
 
• Average order value rises
 
• Customers view more products per session

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You can explore further data on the benefits of ecommerce mobile apps here and discover some of the best ecommerce mobile app builders here.

In fact, statistics show that users of ecommerce mobile apps are twice as likely to return to the store within 30 days compared to those using mobile browsers.

Mobile apps offer the advantage of utilizing mobile push notifications, which lead to significantly promising opt-in, open and click-through rates for both Android and iOS users. This makes investing in a branded app a valuable way to nurture loyal, repeat customers and ultimately offers substantial benefits for your business.

Can You Create Mobile Apps for AbleCommerce?

You can’t distribute a mobile app straight from AbleCommerce as it is created especially for webstores. To build a mobile app using AbleCommerce, you’ll need to pull in additional efforts, such as:

1. A third-party AbleCommerce mobile app builder.
2. A tech-enabled service to transform your AbleCommerce store into a mobile app.
3. A team of developers to make apps for Android and iOS and link them to your AbleCommerce store.

Can I Turn My AbleCommerce Store into an App?

You can transform a AbleCommerce store into an app using one of the presented options. In most cases, though, store owners should not take the third choice (hiring developers to build native apps) as mobile apps can be very expensive. It can cost anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000 to build an app for only one operating system - you should multiply this cost by two if you want to have apps for both Android and iOS (which you should!).

Creating an app is complicated, lengthy and expensive initially. It gets even more difficult if your developers need to set up an API and link the backend of the apps to your AbleCommerce store.

In all likelihood, you don't have the resources for this - plus, you need to factor in the cost of maintaining the app each year.

The Recurring Cost of Having an App

It's easy and common to overlook the recurring yearly expenses associated with creating an app. But to sustain and manage that app, any necessary OS updates, AbleCommerce updates, bug fixes, new features, and improvements could cost a minimum of 15 to 20 percent every year of the initial expenditure.

And in many cases, it could reach an even higher price tag. David Cost, VP of Marketing from Rainbow Apparel, conducted a thorough investigation when they were launching apps, and established the cost could be as high as one million dollars annually.

“If we had inexhaustible resources and the time to match, we would most likely opt for a custom-built native app, yet that would be half a million to one million a year to sustain.”

By playing it safe, let's suppose that it costs $150,000 to fabricate apps for both mobile platforms. The conservative estimation for overhauls and upkeep is $30,000 every year.

That's a major burden for the majority of store owners to bear. Not to mention the headache of having to manage multiple platforms from then on, instead of just your site. That triples the amount of work you need to do anytime you decide to make alterations to your portal, adding an extra layer of complication to your process.

The Best Way to Turn Your AbleCommerce Store into an App

The most suitable choice is to switch your AbleCommerce store into an app by utilizing an AbleCommerce mobile app builder.

A mobile app builder can convert your current AbleCommerce website to a like-native mobile app, which users can download and install on their phones.

The finest mobile app builders give you a mobile app that has 90-95% of what you can get with a native app, but costs less and comes with less difficulty. But be aware that not all options offered in the market are suitable for building apps with high traffic that do your brand justice.

How to Convert AbleCommerce to App

For major companies such as Nike, Target, and Zara, the cost of hiring a team to create their shopping apps from the ground up can be worth the investment. But if you’re not a big brand with a generous budget, then pairing your AbleCommerce site with the MobiLoud app builder is the perfect solution. It’s cost-effective, fast, and easy to take care of your apps in the future. Let's break down the process one step at a time.

Step One: Preview Your App or Get a Free Consultation

You can proceed in one of two ways.

1. You can generate a free preview of what your site will look like as an app in the MobiLoud builder.
2. Alternatively, book a free consultation call with one of our app specialists to go over your project and get an overview of how our process works.

Either way, you’ll find that 90% of the work to create your app is already done as long as your site is already optimized for mobile.

If you need assistance optimizing your site, let us know and we can take that on too! This is a critical step to make the rest of the process as effortless as possible.

Step Two: Work With Our Team to Build Your App

When you’re set to begin creating, sign up to MobiLoud. All our plans come with a refund guarantee within 60 days of service, and there are no long-term commitments involved.

You’ll collaborate with our team to configure and design your app. Keep in mind that most of the work is already done. You don’t have to build a new UI from the ground up, just a few adjustments to make it look and feel like a native app.

Once you’re satisfied, we’ll get to work and build your mobile app. We manage everything technical -  you don’t have to write code, or even have a clue about the coding process.

If you'd rather our team manage the whole process, from beginning to end, we’d be delighted to do that too. Our full-service package comes with everything necessary to configure, design, and publish your app, allowing you to be completely hands-off.

Step Three: Prepare for Launch

After your app is developed, you'll be ready to launch it to the public. It's essential to have a solid plan in place to inform people and inspire them to download your app.

We provide assets to support this, including app store descriptions, launch announcements for your website and email list, press releases, and more. Plus, you can set up additional features at no extra cost, like smart app banners and app-exclusive discounts, to incentivize your existing customers to use the app for their shopping needs.

Step Four: Launch and Submit Your Apps to the App Stores

Finally, we'll launch your apps to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

This submission process is known for its difficulty for first-time app owners and developers. But our team has gone through the procedure thousands of times we fully understand all its aspects, so you have nothing to worry about.

We can guarantee an approval rating of 100% with both app stores, and will take responsibility for multiple submissions if necessary. You can leave all the work to us.

Once your listings are live, you can officially start getting downloads, and begin witnessing the many benefits of having your own AbleCommerce mobile app!

Wrapping Up – Why You Should Use MobiLoud to Convert Your AbleCommerce Store into a Mobile App

The mobile revolution is here to stay. Most of your current revenue likely originates from mobile sources. If not, it will soon.

Your AbleCommerce store requires more than a website optimized for mobile devices. To maximize your earnings from mobile users, offering your own branded app is essential.

In the present day, converting a AbleCommerce store into a mobile app is more convenient than ever if handled correctly. Instead of spending tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars on mobile developers, MobiLoud offers a highly accessible and straightforward solution.

We'll close with the key pros of utilizing MobiLoud's AbleCommerce app builder:

 
• It costs only a fraction of the price of custom app development.
 
• You can launch top-notch, professional apps in less than a month.
 
• Your apps will preserve all the qualities that make your website exceptional, from product collections to payment gateways, plug-ins, tools, themes, and more.
 
• Everything stays synchronized across the web, Android, and iOS platforms. Any changes made on your site will be immediately reflected in your apps.
 
• You won't have to worry about submitting your apps to the app stores; we guarantee approval.
 
• Our team will support you every step of the way and handle all the challenging tasks, so you can relax.

This user-friendly app builder, which requires no coding, enables you to launch your own shopping apps and establish your presence in the app stores alongside renowned global brands.

Contact us now to learn more about how we can assist you in launching an app for your AbleCommerce store. Book a free, personalized demo, and one of our reliable IT experts will guide you through the entire process so you know what to expect.