How to Build a Retail App (Without Coding)

Do you want to launch your own retail mobile app, just like massive brands such as Amazon, Nike, Target and more? 

MobiLoud lets you skip the pain and expense of retail app development and launch your own app in less than a month, keeping everything that’s great about your existing retail website and converting it to a modern, conversion-focused native app.

If you’re ready to see what an app can do for your bottom line, keep reading and learn how to develop a retail app, no matter the size of your business.

How to Build a Retail Mobile App

This guide will assume you already have a retail website, which works well on mobile. 

If you don’t have this already, we’d advise you to go and do it before thinking about launching a mobile app. For all the benefits of having your own mobile app, you can still expect most of your customers to come through the web, and serving these customers should be your priority.

As long as your website is live, responsive and optimized for the mobile web, here’s how to launch your retail mobile app:

1. Book Your Free Consultation & App Preview

Star by booking a call with one of our team of experts.

We’ll show you a working preview of your site as an app, walk you through exactly what we’ll do to create your retail app, answer any questions you have and take in any custom requirements you have.

2. Hand It Over to Our Team

Next, choose a plan - there are no long-term commitments, no hidden fees and we don’t take a cut of your app’s profits. Plans start from just $199 per month and come with a 60 day money-back guarantee.

From there, we take care of all the technical steps to bring your app to life, using native code in combination with your web code to build high-quality mobile apps, fully paired with your website.

3. Test Your App

In a couple of weeks, the first version of your app will be ready for testing. We do our own testing and QA, but you’ll also have an opportunity to test your app and get back to us with any feedback, suggestions or change requests based on your experience.

4. Let Our Team Put the Finishing Touches On Your Retail App

We’ll go ahead and put your feedback into action and ship the final version of your app, ready for launch.

We’ll also handle everything to do with the app store submission process, using our experience with the process to ensure your app will be approved and listed in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in no time.

Ready to see your retail app in action? Book a demo now.

Why MobiLoud is the Best Retail App Builder

We believe MobiLoud is the best way for online retailers to launch a mobile app. It’s the best combination of cost, time to launch and simplicity, without making any sacrifices in the quality of your app.

Here are the top reasons why you should choose MobiLoud to build your app:

Launch a Professional Retail App with No Coding, No Rebuilding

With MobiLoud you can launch high-quality, professional-standard mobile apps. Best of all, you can do it without coding, and without rebuilding anything.

Your mobile website already does 90-95% of what your app should do. Why would you want to mess around trying to rebuild this in your app, or get expensive developers involved to do what should be a simple conversion process?

With MobiLoud, you get an incredible ecommerce app, out of the box, with minimal work required. It comes with all the mobile-specific features you need built-in, such as native navigation UI and push notifications.

Little to No Overhead

The dirty secret about mobile app development is how much apps cost to maintain.

Once you add 1-2 new platforms to keep updated, and you need to hire new developers to manage each platform, your expense bill goes through the roof, and your workflow becomes bloated.

“If we had unlimited time and money, we would probably go for a custom native app, but that is half a million to a million a year to maintain.”

- David Cost, Rainbow Shops

MobiLoud requires none of this. Your apps are fully synced with your website, and we handle any technical maintenance that comes up. There’s nothing extra for you to maintain, and little to no additional overhead once your retail apps are live.

Save 90% of the Cost of Retail App Development

Developing a retail app from the ground up requires you to pay expensive app developers for probably a minimum of six months of development time. This bill can run into six, or even seven, figures.

With MobiLoud, you can go live in less than a month, for just a few hundred dollars’ investment. And the end result is more or less the same as what you’d get from a million dollar app.

Lose None of Your Website’s Features or Integrations

Other retail app builders limit the features or integrations you’re able to take into your app.

Key features, or small yet significant optimizations you’ve made to your website, may not work in the app.

That’s not a concern with MobiLoud. Your retail app will keep everything from your website, integrations with apps big or small, and even custom-built features. You don’t need to settle for an app experience that’s just a shadow of your website.

Update Your App Instantly and Keep Everything In Sync

Whenever you update your website, your app will update instantaneously. That means new product collections, pricing changes, promotional banners, design changes all show up in your app with no extra work.

No duplication of effort every time you make a change, no risk of forgetting to update your app and leaving each platform out of sync. You keep the same workflow you currently have, and the app takes care of itself.

Works on All Platforms, Locks You Into None

MobiLoud is one of the only retail app builders that works for any ecommerce website.

We work with Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce, Squarespace and any other platform, including custom ecommerce sites.

What’s more, we don’t lock you into that platform. If you want to migrate to another platform, or experiment with custom-built features, you can do so without worrying about your app not working.

Get the Help of an Expert Team

We have the experience of launching apps for over 2,000 companies, and that experience will help you navigate the mobile app space with ease. We’ll make sure you’re never overwhelmed or out of your depth.

"The team at MobiLoud held my hand to ensure our app was done properly from beginning to end. They were there to help with everything from setting up push notifications, analytics and submitting our apps to the Apple and Google app stores."

- Nick Barbarise, John Varvatos

Launch Your App with Zero Risk

If you’ve thought about launching your own retail app, but can’t justify the risk, MobiLoud is perfect. There’s virtually no risk involved.

You’re using what you already know works, and just converting that into a more mobile-friendly package.

The cost is next to nothing, there’s little to no labor or overhead required from your team, and we even give a 60 day money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with the apps.

There’s nothing to lose.

“The expense isn’t that big, and operationally, there’s not that much we have to do for the app. It’s a no-brainer.”

- David Cost, Rainbow Shops

Alternative Methods for Retail App Development

There are two other common ways to approach app development for retail businesses. Both have their pros and cons, but ultimately are not ideal for the majority of brands.

Native/Cross-Platform Development

Developing a fully custom native or cross-platform app (i.e. using React Native) is the most powerful and flexible approach.

You’ll be able to customize every pixel of your app, and optimize everything for the mobile user.

But for a retail store, native development is overkill. You don’t need to do anything drastically different in your app than on your website. You just need to replicate the same experience, with a few small touches to make it feel truly native.

Drag and Drop Retail App Builders

Other retail app builders let you configure your own app using a drag-and-drop, no code app builder.

These tools are cheap and make it easy to launch a simple app quickly. However, if you’re trying to replicate the experience of your website, you’ll always fall short.

DIY app builders have limitations, and will not be able to recreate all the same features or include all the same integrations as your website.

They also take more effort, when it comes to designing and building your app, as well as keeping it maintained, often costing more when you take into account the time you spend managing your app.

Benefits of Building Your Own Retail Mobile App

There are numerous benefits to developing and launching your own retail app. If your store is already successful and works well on the web, launching an app is a great way for your business to take the next step.

Here are the top five benefits of building a retail app:

A Contained Shopping Experience

An app lets customers shop on your store without the distractions that come with web browsers, such as browser tabs and other websites. 

It’s like the difference between shopping in a Nike store and shopping in a department store selling Nike products and a hundred other brands. You want the user’s shopping experience to be focused on your brand alone, and you don’t want it to be easy for them to click away and buy from someone else.

Increased Conversions and Retention

Apps deliver higher conversion rates and retention. 

The self-contained, mobile-optimized experience makes it easier to convert browsing users into buyers - overall, apps have a 157% higher conversion rate than mobile websites.

And instead of disappearing when the shopper closes the tab, an app remains on their home screen, making it much more likely that they’ll come back and shop with you again.

Better Engagement and Higher LTV with Push Notifications

A retail mobile app gives you access to push notifications, which are a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses.

You can use push notifications to communicate with users more quickly and effectively than email or SMS, and encourage them to open and engage with your app more often, ultimately boosting the lifetime value you get from each customer.

An Owned Sales Channel

Just about every online business has to deal with a large amount of platform risk. Wherever you get your traffic from - social media, Google search, display ads, etc - your traffic can be shut off at any time if your account gets banned, new competition enters the market, traffic becomes too expensive, etc.

An app is a sales channel and direct line to your customers that you own. You’re not so reliant on Google or Meta’s algorithms, or on a competitive ad platform, because you have your own platform where you can interact with and sell to your customers, for free.

Let Your Customers Shop Where They’re Most Comfortable

Nearly half of all ecommerce sales today come on mobile. Of these people (who spend more than $500 billion per year), a significant share prefer to use apps to shop and buy online.

You want to let these people choose their ideal shopping experience, and give them the option to use an app, as David from Rainbow Shops says:

“In our experience, users break into two camps. There are users who prefer to buy on the app and users who prefer using the browser. You can’t convince one to go the other way, you need to meet them where they are.”

Launch a Mobile App For Your Retail Business Now

Mobile apps are no longer gated to just the elite of the elite. Today, any retail business can launch their own mobile app, for a small investment, with little to no effort or technical expertise required.

MobiLoud makes it happen. We’ll turn your mobile-friendly website into a native mobile app, that looks and feels like the kind of app other brands spend millions of dollars to build and maintain, without sacrificing any of the features or improvements you’ve made to your website.

You’ll do it for a small cost, in a short timeframe, while adding little to no overhead or complexity to your workflow.

Book a demo and get a free app preview now to start the process and see what MobiLoud can do for your retail business, with your own retail app.