How to Convert Intershop Into A Mobile App

As more and more people embrace smartphone shopping, it's never been more important for businesses to prioritize mobile optimization for their online stores. This involves converting your Intershop store into a mobile app to cater to the mobile-centric audience.

The mobile ecommerce market is experiencing remarkable growth, with a larger number of individuals now preferring to shop using their smartphones. Ignoring the mobile platform and solely focusing on desktop can result in missing out on important customer groups.

While creating a fully custom native app can be an expensive effort, there is another option: leveraging an Intershop mobile app builder. This enables you to create a fully-functional and top-notch Intershop mobile app with minimal investment.

Read further to learn how.

Why You Need a Mobile App

The market share of mobile in the ecommerce industry exceeds 72%, having risen from just over 52% within a period of five years.

This reflects the overall trend of mobile internet usage, which progressively favors mobile each year. Mobile now commands over 50% of the market share in contrast to desktop and tablet.

Moreover, 15% of Americans today exclusively use smartphones for internet browsing. This means that they solely depend on their mobile devices for accessing the web. This points towards the future of ecommerce, with customers who are not just mobile-first but also exclusively mobile.

Simply optimizing your website for mobile is a good beginning, but it falls short. Mobile apps offer a better user experience, resulting in enhancements in several vital metrics, such as:

 
• Higher conversion rates
 
• Increased average order value
 
• More products viewed per session

More data shows that customers who make use of ecommerce mobile apps are twice as likely to revisit the store within 30 days, in comparison to those using mobile browsers.

Furthermore, mobile applications provide you with the means to fully embrace mobile push notifications, which achieve average open rates of 20% and click-through rates of 28%.

Apps grant you a valuable asset to nurture and work with loyal, repeat customers.

Is it a requirement to transform your Intershop store into a mobile app? Not necessarily. However, an Intershop mobile app can offer significant advantages for your business.

Can You Create Mobile Apps for Intershop?

Intershop's features and uses are geared towards webstores, which means you cannot directly publish a mobile app through Intershop. To build a mobile app using Intershop, you'll need add-on resources to make the connection.

Here are some alternatives:

1. A third-party solution that offers Intershop mobile app builder.
2. A technology-enabled service that streamlines the transformation of your Intershop store into a mobile app, catering to your specific needs.
3. Collaborating with a skilled team of developers to design and develop Android and iOS apps that seamlessly integrate with your Intershop store.

Can I Turn My Intershop Store into an App?

You can transform an Intershop store into an app using one of the methods mentioned above.

Still, it's advisable for the majority of store owners to disregard the third option of hiring developers to create native apps. The main reason for this is the substantial cost associated with mobile app development. Creating a native app alone can range from $30,000 to $150,000. And remember, this cost is only for one operating system. To launch apps for both Android and iOS (which is highly recommended), you'll need to double this cost.

Creating an app involves a time-consuming, complex, and costly development process. It becomes even more intricate when your developers need to build an API and establish a connection between the back end of your apps and your Intershop store.

You may not have the budget for such an investment, and that's without considering the annual costs to maintain your app.

The Recurring Cost of Having an App

Many individuals overlook the ongoing costs associated with launching an app. Maintenance and upkeep, including OS updates, Intershop updates, bug fixes, and the addition of new features and improvements, typically account for around 15-20% of the initial cost each year.

In fact, the costs could potentially be even higher. David Cost, VP of Marketing at Rainbow Apparel, thoroughly researched this during their app launch and discovered that the annual expenses could reach up to a million dollars.

"If we had unlimited time and resources, we would likely opt for a custom native app. However, the maintenance alone would cost half a million to a million dollars per year."

David Cost, VP of Marketing, Rainbow Apparel

Let's take a conservative estimate and assume that building apps for both mobile platforms would cost $150,000. Considering updates and maintenance, a cautious estimate would amount to $30,000 per year.

For most store owners, this expenditure is simply too much to bear. Not to mention the added headache of managing multiple platforms instead of focusing solely on their website. It triples the workload whenever changes need to be made to the site, needlessly complicating the workflow.

The Best Way to Turn Your Intershop Store into an App

The most effective way to turn your Intershop store into a mobile app is by using a dedicated mobile app builder.

An Intershop mobile app builder allows you to convert your Intershop website into a mobile app that exhibits similar functionality to a native app. Users can conveniently download and install this app on their mobile devices.

Skilled mobile app builders offer you a mobile app that provides 90-95% of the features available in a native app, but at a lower price and with less hassle. But, its important to understand that not all choices on the market are suitable for developing high-traffic, first-rate mobile apps that showcase your brand effectively.

How to Convert Your Intershop Site Into an App

When it comes to big brands like Nike, Target, or Zara, considering the resources at their disposal, they could consider engaging professionals to write the code for their shopping app from the ground up.

Suppose you're not a big brand, MobiLoud is clearly the best way to go when it comes to app development. It's a user-friendly, cost-effective, and speedy choice. What's more, the long-term maintenance of your apps becomes much more economical and manageable.

Here's an easy-to-follow guide to walk you through the process.

Step One: Preview Your App or Get a Free Consultation

You have two starting points available.

1. To can see you a preview of your site as an app by using MobiLoud builder for free.
2. You may also schedule a free consultation call with one of our app experts. They will guide you through the process and provide an overview of what to expect.

No matter which option you choose, you will find that 90% of the work required to create your app has already been done, as long as your site is optimized for mobile.

If you require assistance with optimizing your site, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to support you! This step is crucial for a seamless process.

Step Two: Work With Our Team to Build Your App

When you're prepared to start building, simply sign up to MobiLoud. All our plans come with a 60-day money-back guarantee, and there's no long-term commitment required.

After signing up, you'll team up with our experts to customize and design your app. At this point, much of the groundwork has already been laid. You won't have to start from square one and develop a completely new user interface. Instead, you'll make a few tweaks to give it that authentic native app look and feel.

Once you're pleased with the design, we'll begin the process of building your mobile app. Our team handles all the technical aspects, eliminating the need for you to engage in coding or possess coding expertise.

If you prefer, our team can handle the entire process from beginning to end. With our all-inclusive package, we will take care of everything necessary to configure, design, and publish your app, giving you the freedom to be completely hands-off.

Step Three: Prepare for Launch

After you've finished building your app, it's time to gear up for its grand launch. To attract users to download your app, it's important to have a well-thought-out launch plan.

We provide various assets for app store descriptions, launch announcements on your website and email list, press releases, and other promotional materials. Moreover, you can take advantage of additional features at no extra charge, like smart app banners and app-exclusive discounts, to entice your existing customers to use the app for shopping.

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

We'll then release your apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

The process of submitting your app to these stores is famously challenging, especially for first-time app owners and developers. However, we've gained extensive experience from countless submissions and have a deep understanding of the process.

Our team handles the entire app submission process with Apple and Google. We provide a 100% guarantee for app approval and take care of multiple submissions if necessary. We also offer recommendations and implement any required changes on your behalf, so you can sit back and relax.

Once your app listings are live, you can officially begin attracting downloads and reap the numerous benefits of having your very own Intershop mobile app.

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

We are currently experiencing the mobile revolution. It is highly likely that the majority of your revenue comes from mobile users. If not, it will in the near future.

Your Intershop store requires more than just a website optimized for mobile. Having out own branded app will maximize your revenue potential from mobile users.

Today, transforming an Intershop store into a mobile app has never been easier, provided you approach it correctly. Instead of spending large sums of money on mobile developers, MobiLoud offers a highly accessible and user-friendly solution.

Here are a few of the key advantages of using MobiLoud’s Intershop app builder:

 
• It comes at a significantly lower cost compared to custom app development.
 
• You can launch professional and high-quality apps in under two weeks.
 
• Your apps will retain all the outstanding features of your website, including product collections, payment gateways, plugins, tools, themes, and more.
 
• Everything is seamlessly synchronized across web, Android, and iOS platforms. Any changes you make on your site will immediately be reflected in your apps.
 
• You no longer need to worry about submitting your apps to the app stores – we guarantee approval.
 
• Our team will guide you every step of the way, taking care of all the heavy lifting so you can focus on other aspects.

This simple and code-free app builder enables you to launch your own shopping apps, positioning your Intershop store alongside the world's leading brands in the app stores.

Contact us now to learn more about how we can assist you in launching an app for your Intershop store. Schedule a free, personalized demo and one of our app experts will provide a comprehensive walkthrough of the entire process.