How to Convert Your CS Cart Into a Mobile App
Unleash the potential of your CS Cart store by transforming it into a mobile app to revolutionize your customer reach, conversions, and revenue.
As mobile ecommerce continues its rapid growth, more and more people are turning to their smartphones for shopping. Failing to prioritize a mobile-first approach means neglecting a substantial customer base. While developing a fully custom native app can be expensive, an alternative option is available. By leveraging a CS Cart mobile app builder, you can create a fully-functional, high-quality mobile app for your business, all at a minimal cost.
Continue reading to explore the process of converting your CS Cart store into a mobile app.
Why You Need a Mobile App
The total ecommerce market share has seen mobile's dominance increase to over 72% in a span of five years, rising in 2022 from slightly above 52%.
This aligns with the ongoing trend of mobile internet usage, which continues to gain prominence each year. Currently, mobile surpasses desktop and tablet usage, holding over 50% of the market share.
Furthermore, an impressive 15% of Americans exclusively rely on smartphones for internet access. This signifies the future of ecommerce, where customers are not only mobile-first but also mobile-only, as highlighted by Pew Research.
While optimizing your site for mobile serves as a starting point, it falls short of delivering optimal results. Apps, on the other hand, offer an enhanced user experience on mobile devices, leading to improvements in several crucial metrics, including:
- Higher conversion rates
- Increase in average order value
- Increased product views per session
Further data demonstrates that users of ecommerce mobile apps are twice as likely to revisit the store within 30 days compared to those using mobile browsers.
Mobile apps also grant the full potential of mobile push notifications, leading to much more promising engagement rates than other marketing efforts.
Long story short: Mobile apps provide an excellent means to nurture loyal, repeat customers, fostering strong relationships for sustainable growth.
And transforming your CS Cart store into a mobile app can yield immense benefits for your business.
Can You Create Mobile Apps for CS Cart?
If you want to launch a mobile app for your CS Cart store, you won't be able to do it directly through the platform since it's optimized specifically for webstores. However, there are many ways to address this:
- Consider using a third-party CS Cart mobile app builder to build your mobile app.
- Explore tech-enabled assistance that can help you convert your CS Cart store into a mobile application.
- Engage a team of skilled engineers who specialize in Android and iOS app development to create mobile apps and link them to your CS Cart shop.
Can I Turn My CS Cart Store into an App?
Transforming your CS Cart store into a mobile app is possible through the above methods.
However, most store owners would be well-advised to skip the third choice (hiring developers to build native apps). Why? It typically requires a budget of $30,000 to $150,000 to develop a native app. And this cost is just for one operating system; you'll need to double it to launch apps for both Android and iOS which is required for a any successful app campaign.
Creating an app involves a time-consuming, complex, and expensive process from the start. Especially if your developers need to build an API and establish a connection between the backend of your apps and your CS Cart store.
Considering the financial aspect, it's likely that you don't have the budget for this. And this is without considering the annual cost of maintaining your app.
The Recurring Cost of Having an App
The recurring annual expenses associated with launching an app aren't often taken into account at the outset of the process. The ongoing maintenance and upkeep, which involve tasks such as OS updates, CS Cart updates, bug fixes, the addition of new features, and enhancements, typically amount to approximately 15-20% of the initial cost each year.
In fact, the costs can even surpass that. During the app launch at Rainbow Apparel, VP of Marketing David Cost extensively investigated this matter and discovered that the annual expenses could reach as high as one million dollars. He concluded:
"If we had an unlimited amount of time and money, we would likely opt for a custom native app. However, the maintenance alone would range between half a million to a million dollars per year."
For the sake of caution, let's assume that building apps for both mobile platforms costs $150,000. Based on this conservative estimate, the annual expenses for updates and maintenance would be $30,000.
However, for most store owners, this expenditure is excessively high. Additionally, managing multiple platforms instead of solely focusing on a website can be a major hassle. It triples the workload whenever you need to make changes to your site, disrupting your workflow significantly.
The Best Way to Turn Your CS Cart Store into an App
The best choice is to use a CS Cart mobile app builder to convert your existing store into a mobile app. This will allow users to download and install your app on their mobile devices, providing a seamless shopping experience.
By using a reliable mobile app builder, you can create a mobile app that offers most of the features found in a native app. It's a great solution for transforming your CS Cart store into a mobile-friendly platform with much less work and funds required.
The best mobile app builders provide you with a mobile application that provides approximately 90-95% of the capabilities offered by a native app, but at a more economical price and with fewer complications. However, it's important to understand that not all options in the market are suitable for building high-traffic, professional mobile apps that illustrate your brand's voice and values.
How to Convert CS Cart to App
For major brands with large funds like Zara, Amazon, Nike and so on, they may choose to employ people to code their shopping app from the ground up.
However, for those who don't have such resources, MobiLoud offers the best way to create an app. It's a straightforward, affordable, and quick option. Additionally, maintaining your apps becomes cheaper and easier over time.
Here's a step-by-step breakdown of the process.
Step One: Preview Your App or Get a Free Consultation
There are two ways you can get started:
- You have the option to dive right in and generate a free preview of your website as an app using the MobiLoud builder.
- Alternatively, you can schedule a free consultation call with one of our app specialists. They will discuss your project with you and give you an overview of the process.
Whichever option you choose, you'll see that 90% of the app creation work is already completed, as long as your site is mobile-optimized.
If you need assistance with optimizing your site for mobile first, we can absolutely do that. This step is crucial to ensure a seamless process going forward.
Step Two: Work With Our Team to Build Your App
When you're ready to begin the building process, simply sign up to MobiLoud. Rest assured that all our plans come with a 60-day money-back guarantee with no binding commitment.
Once you're on board, our team will collaborate with you to configure and design your app. Keep in mind that a majority of the work has already been done, so there's no need to start from scratch. Just a few adjustments will give your app a native look and feel.
Once you're satisfied with the proposed design, we'll take care of building your mobile app. You don't need to worry about the technical aspects - no coding or coding knowledge required!
If you prefer our team to handle the entire process from start to finish, we can do that too. Our full-service package includes all the necessary steps to configure, design, and publish your app, allowing you to have a completely hands-off experience.
Step Three: Prepare for Launch
Once your app is completed, it's time to prepare for its public release. It's essential to have a solid strategy in place to attract people to download your app.
We provide a range of assets to enhance your app's visibility, including resources for app store descriptions, launch announcements for your website and email list, press releases, and more. Additionally, you can enable extra features at no additional cost, such as smart app banners and exclusive discounts, to encourage your current customers to shop using the app.
Step Four: Launch and Submit Your Apps to the App Stores
Ultimately, we'll take care of launching your apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The procedure for submitting apps to these app stores is known for its complexity, especially for those who are new to the realm of app ownership and development. However, we have extensive expertise in this field, having successfully navigated it on multiple occasions.
Our team handles the entire app submission process with Apple and Google. We provide a 100% app approval guarantee and handle multiple submissions if required. We also offer recommendations and implement any necessary changes on your behalf. You can sit back and relax while we handle everything.
Once your app listings are live, you can officially start getting downloads and enjoying the uptick in revenue and engagement that comes with having your own CS Cart mobile app!
Wrapping Up – Why You Should Use MobiLoud to Convert Your CS Cart Store into a Mobile App
We're experiencing a mobile revolution, especially when it comes to ecommerce. It's highly likely that the majority of your current revenue comes from mobile sources. And if it doesn't, it's only a matter of time.
Your CS Cart store needs more than just a mobile-optimized website to capitalize on this trend. To fully tap into the revenue potential of your mobile user base, offering your own branded app is essential.
Fortunately, turning your CS Cart store into a mobile app has never been easier! Instead of shelling out large sums of money on mobile developers, MobiLoud offers an incredibly accessible and straightforward solution.
We'll leave you with these top benefits of using MobiLoud's CS Cart app builder:
- It costs only a fraction of what custom app development would cost.
- You can launch professional, high-quality apps in less than two weeks.
- Your apps will retain all the outstanding features of your website, including product collections, payment gateways, plug-ins, tools, themes, and more.
- Everything stays perfectly synced across web, Android, and iOS platforms. Any changes you make on your site will instantly reflect in your apps.
- You don't have to worry about submitting your apps to the app stores – we guarantee approval.
- Our team will be there for you every step of the way, handling all the hard work on your behalf.
This straightforward app builder, which requires no coding, empowers you to launch your own shopping apps and secure a prominent position in the app stores alongside the biggest brands in the world.
Contact us now to discover how we can help you launch an app for your CS Cart store. Book a free, personalized demo, and one of our app experts will guide you through the entire process.