How to Convert Your Drupal Commerce Site Into A Mobile App

In 2023, having a mobile app for your Drupal Commerce store is not just advantageous - it's essential. Mobile ecommerce continues to grow exponentially, with customers increasingly relying on their smartphones to shop. If you want to maximize your reach and revenue, you need to have an effective presence on mobile. Fortunately, MobiLoud makes it easy to turn your Drupal store into a fully functional mobile application.

In this post, we'll show you how you can leverage the power of mobile to extend your brand reach, increase conversions, and ultimately grow your business. Keep reading to learn the steps for turning your Drupal Commerce store into a mobile app.

Why You Need a Mobile App

Mobile dominates the ecommerce market, accounting for over 72% of the total share in 2022. This figure has seen a significant increase from just over 52% within a span of five years.

The growing trend of mobile internet usage further emphasizes the importance of mobile. When compared to other devices, mobile now captures over 50% of the market share, surpassing desktop and tablet combined.

It's worth noting that 15% of Americans exclusively rely on smartphones to access the internet, demonstrating a shift towards a mobile-only audience. This signifies the future of ecommerce, where customers are not just mobile-first but mobile-reliant.

But solely optimizing your website for mobile isn't enough. Mobile apps offer a superior user experience when compared to mobile browsers, resulting in various key metric improvements, including:

• Better conversion rates
• Higher average order value
• Increase in number of products viewed per session

You can find additional data indicating the benefits of having a mobile app for ecommerce here and explore some of the best ecommerce mobile app builders here.

Moreover, ecommerce mobile app users are twice as likely to revisit the store within 30 days compared to those using mobile browsers! Apps provide the advantage of utilizing mobile push notifications, which lead to significant increases in opt-in rates, open rates and click-through rates.

This highlights the advantage of utilizing a dedicated app as a strategic tool for nurturing loyal and repeat customers, further enhancing your business prospects.

While it may not be obligatory just yet, transforming your Drupal Commerce store into a mobile app can yield tremendous benefits for your business, and will likely soon be a necessity for everyone in the ecommerce space.

Can You Create Mobile Apps for Drupal Commerce?

You can’t publish a mobile app straight away from Drupal Commerce, being that it is made specifically for webstores. You'll need to invest in other resources to create an app with Drupal Commerce, like:

   
1. A third-party Drupal Commerce app builder.
   
2. A tech-powered service to turn your Drupal Commerce store into a mobile app.
   
3. A group of developers to build apps for Android and iOS and link them to your Drupal Commerce store.

Can I Turn My Drupal Commerce Store into an App?

You can quickly turn a Drupal Commerce store into an app using one of the methods mentioned above.

However, the majority of store owners will probably want to steer clear of the third option (hiring developers to build native apps). Primarily, this is due to mobile apps being costly. It requires anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000 to create a native app. And that is just for a single operating system - you’ll have to double this expense to introduce apps for Android and iOS (which is recommended).

App development is laborious, challenging and pricey from the outset. Even more so when your developers have to create an API and connect the back end of your apps to your Drupal Commerce store.

You likely don't have the budget for this - and that's before we contemplate how much it costs yearly to keep your app running.

The Recurring Cost of Having an App

It's understandable that most people don't take into consideration the recurring yearly expenses that come with the development of an app. Maintaining the OS, keeping up with Drupal Commerce updates, fixing bugs, adding features, and any other improvements come at a price of approximately 15-20% of the initial cost each year.

David Cost, VP of Marketing at Rainbow Apparel, looked into this more closely and discovered the cost could even reach up to a million dollars annually:

“If we had an abundance of both money and time, a custom native app would likely be the best option. The upkeep for that, however, is exorbitant; up to one million dollars yearly.”

Let's say that creating apps for both mobile platforms costs $150,000 at a low end estimation. Conservatively, the expenses for updates and maintenance will be around $30,000 every year.

That amount is too great for many business owners to afford. Additionally, managing multiple platforms instead of just your website, means three times the effort anytime changes need to be implemented, crowding your workflow with unwanted complexity.

The Best Way to Turn Your Drupal Commerce Store into an App

The ideal method is to turn your Drupal Commerce store into an app with the help of a mobile app builder.

A mobile app builder can take your current Drupal Commerce website and turn it into a nearly-native mobile app that users can download and use on their mobile devices.

Top-rated mobile app builders allow you to get a mobile app that has almost 95% of the features you would get with a native app, at a lower cost and with minimal effort. However, you must be mindful that not all the options out there can create high-traffic, high-quality mobile apps that make your brand stand out.

How to Convert Drupal Commerce to App

If you’re a huge company like Amazon, H&M or Nike with loads of resources to burn, chances are you'll have the people and funds to create your shopping app from scratch. But if you're not one of those big brands, MobiLoud is the way to go. It's simple, cost-effective and speedy. Not to mention, it's much more affordable and easier to maintain in the long run.

Here's how it works:

Step One: Preview Your App or Get a Free Consultation

You can choose from two different starting points:

1. Generate a free preview of what your web page will look like as an app in the MobiLoud builder.
2. Book a free consultation call with one of our experts to examine your project and explain our workflow.

With either choice, you’ll see that 90% of the labor needed to create your app is already finished, as long as your website is currently optimized for mobile. If it's not, don't worry! We can factor in optimizing your website into the plan, as this is a significant step to ensure the rest of the journey is effortless.

Step Two: Work With Our Team to Build Your App

When you’re ready to begin the process, sign up to MobiLoud. We offer a 60-day refund with all of our plans, and no long-term commitment is required.

You’ll collaborate with our team to design and configure your app. Keep in mind that most of the hard work is done. You don’t need to build a new user interface from the ground up, just a few modifications will make it look like a native app.

Once you’re happy with the design, we’ll start building your mobile app. You don’t have to have any programming knowledge, because we take care of all the technical aspects for you.

If you’d like us to manage the whole procedure, from start to finish, we've got your back. Our full-service package consists of everything required to design, configure, and publish your app, allowing you to be totally hands-off.

Step Three: Prepare for Launch

Once your app is finished, you'll get ready to launch it to the public. Having a launch plan in place is vital to spread awareness and attract people to download your app.

We make this easy by supplying assets for app store descriptions, launch announcements for your website and email list, press releases, and more. Moreover, you can configure additional features at no extra cost, including smart app banners and app-exclusive discounts, to encourage existing customers to shop using the app.

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.

The submission process for these app stores is known for being difficult, specifically for first-time app owners and developers. But with us, you can rest assured knowing we’ve experienced the approach multiple occasions and understand it inside and out.

Let us handle the app submission process for you, dealing with both Apple and Google. We assure you a 100% app approval guarantee, and if needed, we'll take care of multiple submissions and make any necessary recommendations and adjustments. You won't need to lift a finger!

Once your listings are live, you can officially start getting downloads and reap the many benefits of having your own Drupal Commerce mobile app.

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

We're in the midst of a mobile ecommerce revolution. The majority of your current revenue likely comes from mobile device users. And if it doesn't, it won't be long before it does.

Your Drupal Commerce store needs more than just a mobile-optimized website to be successful. To maximize your revenue potential from mobile users, it's crucial to offer your own branded app.

The good new is that transforming a Drupal Commerce store into a mobile app is easier than ever before when you work with an app builder like MobiLoud. Instead of allocating significant funds toward mobile developers, we offer an incredibly accessible and user-friendly solution.

Let's revisit some of the key advantages of using MobiLoud's Drupal Commerce app builder:

 
• It costs only a fraction of what custom app development typically entails.
 
• You can launch professional, high-quality apps in less than a month.
 
• Your apps will preserve all the elements that make your website exceptional, from product collections to payment gateways, plug-ins, tools, themes, and more.
 
• Everything stays perfectly synchronized across the web, Android, and iOS. Any changes you make on your site will be immediately reflected in your apps.
 
• You can rest assured that your apps will be approved in the app stores without any worries or hassle.
 
• Our team will guide you every step of the way, taking care of all the heavy lifting on your behalf.

With this simple and code-free app builder, you can effortlessly launch your own shopping apps and secure your place among globally-known brands in the app stores.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with us now to learn more about how we can assist you in launching an app for your Drupal Commerce store. Book a free, personalized demo, and one of our app experts will walk you through the entire process.