How to Build a Mobile App For Your Shogun Website

Do you have an eCommerce store built with Shogun? Do you want to build an app but the cost and development time is holding you back? This is the guide for you.

In this article, we’ll explore why converting your Shogun website into a mobile app with MobiLoud is a smart, cost-effective option to fuel your business growth.

Launching your app with MobiLoud lets you go to market fast, with zero effort, minimal overhead, and no risk. If you want to learn how we can almost guarantee you a positive ROI, book a free demo now.

Why You Should Build A Mobile App For Your Shogun Website

While your eCommerce website is likely optimized for mobile browsers, it is no longer enough if you want to stay competitive in the eCommerce landscape of today.

The overall trend of internet usage continues to shift towards mobile. Currently, mobile internet traffic accounts for approximately 57% of all internet traffic. Shoppers are also spending more time on mobile apps than mobile websites. 90% of mobile users’ time is spent in apps. 

Data also shows that as of the first quarter of 2024, smartphones alone generated around 77% of retail site traffic globally, responsible for generating two-thirds of online shopping orders. In 2023, mobile eCommerce sales reached $2.2 trillion and made up about 60% of all eCommerce sales around the world. This global trend is expected to even grow bigger in 2027.

Conversion rates, engagement and key metrics are also higher across the board for mobile apps vs mobile websites. Here are some key figures:

• Users view 4.2x more products per session on mobile apps vs mobile sites.
• Conversion rates on apps are 3x higher than mobile websites.
• Entertainment apps convert 233% higher than mobile web in the same industry.
• Travel apps convert 220% higher.
• Retail apps convert 94% higher.
• On-demand apps convert 307% higher.
• Overall, apps average 157% higher conversion rates than mobile websites.

These statistics clearly show that if you do not have a mobile app for your business, you’re probably missing out on a large chunk of potential customers.

Do you "need" to turn your online store into a mobile app? Perhaps not. But a mobile app can have these massive benefits for your business:

A better mobile shopping experience

Your customers will have a better time shopping on mobile than on your mobile website. Your store will be easier to navigate, with fewer of the annoyances and distractions you get when shopping on a mobile website. A mobile app allows them to shop anywhere and anytime.

Increased loyalty and retention

The better user experience directly correlates to increased loyalty and retention. If people love shopping with you, they'll come back and do it again.

Apps are tailor-made for fostering loyalty and increasing retention rates. They make it easy for people to get in, with just one tap from their home screen. And that home screen icon is a constant reminder of your brand, a permanent fixture in your customers' headspace.

This is all going to translate to a higher lifetime value from every one of your app users.

An owned sales channel

Worried about a dip in Google SEO rankings, or the constant cost of driving traffic from paid ads?

An app gives you an owned channel, not susceptible to the platform risk of Google, Facebook, or online marketplaces.

You can reach out directly to your customers through push notifications, and re-engage your customers, even if your reach on external platforms is diminished for whatever reason.

App store presence

Finally, getting into the app stores is a powerful thing.

They can provide a new acquisition channel. They also provide a ton of social proof. When someone sees you have a mobile app in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store, your brand instantly looks more legitimate and trustworthy.

Different Options for Building A Mobile App For Your Shogun Website

Mobile app development costs a lot, and adds a lot of ongoing work, which comes with significant overhead expenses. 

If speed, cost-efficiency, and maintaining your existing site’s functionality are top priorities, MobiLoud offers a solid solution to build a mobile app out of your website.

Our platform allows you to convert your existing website into a fully functional mobile app for both iOS and Android, without the need to rebuild everything from scratch. This method leverages the responsive design of your website, packaging it into a native app that can be distributed via the app stores. It supports native features like push notifications, offline functionality, and in-app purchases, providing a smooth mobile experience for your users. Since you’re not starting from scratch, this approach saves time and money, making it a smart choice for businesses that want to go mobile without the high costs of custom development.

If you’re a big brand with a ton of resources at your disposal, you might be able to afford rebuilding from scratch using these options:

Custom Native Development: This is the most customizable option, where you build separate apps for iOS and Android (which doubles the development time and cost). While this offers full control, it’s also expensive and time-consuming, requiring a dedicated team of developers to create and maintain the app. 

Cross-Platform Development: Frameworks like React Native or Flutter allow you to build a single codebase that works across both platforms. This is faster and more affordable than custom development but still requires a substantial level of coding expertise and cost as you will still need to hire a team of developers to create and maintain the app for you.

Keep in mind that the right choice depends on your business's specific needs, budget, and timeline.

Convert Your Shogun Website To A Mobile App With MobiLoud

Turning a Shogun website into a mobile app is easier than ever, if you go about it the right way. Instead of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars on mobile developers, MobiLoud makes it super accessible and easy.

Let’s wrap up by going over a few key benefits you’ll get with MobiLoud.

Move Fast and Go to Market In Days

As we mentioned, true native apps will take months to build. Using React Native would be faster than traditional app development – but it’s far from being a fast solution to turn your website into apps.

If you signed up for MobiLoud today, you could be ready to launch straight onto your customers’ smartphones in under two weeks.

You save countless hours, weeks, and months – and keep your team focused on product and marketing.

Save 90% Of The Cost

Developing a native mobile app costs tens of thousands of dollars (or more). MobiLoud takes all the labor out of the development process, and we pass the savings on to you in both time and money.

That’s why you can get great-looking, functional apps for 10% of the standard cost, and for a manageable monthly fee rather than a lump sum investment. Take the savings and reinvest them in building out your core online store, acquiring new customers, and growing your business.

Even if, longer term, you want to build true native apps, MobiLoud is a great option for building an MVP, launching fast, and testing the market before the larger investment.

Nothing To Rebuild, Nothing New to Manage, Save Your Effort and Resources

MobiLoud is the best way to build apps because it is a conversion process, there is nothing to rebuild natively, and no need to touch a line of code. Everything works automatically. All your existing plugins will work perfectly too.

How about payments, carts, and wishlists? If they work right now on your site, they’ll work just as well in-app. When we say there’s nothing to rebuild, we mean nothing.

Everything can be managed through a simple no-code interface. You don’t need to update or tweak the apps, they will update automatically with any changes, product updates, or new items on your site.

The apps can grow with your core business into the future.

Unlimited Push Notifications

Over time, your app audience will start to reflect your most loyal and engaged customers. Push gives you a direct line to these most valuable customers.

MobiLoud integrates with the best push provider on the market, OneSignal, and we set it up for you so you can send unlimited notifications that you can configure to go out automatically or manually whenever you see fit.

If you’d like to integrate push deeper into your site, you can just follow OneSignal’s excellent documentation. You can integrate your site with OneSignal’s REST API, MobiLoud allows you to send notifications to individual users, on top of broadcast messages. Just get in touch with our team to discuss the details of what you need.
You can set up push notifications to go out with shipping and delivery information, promote new products or sales, and send out coupons and app-only discounts.

MobiLoud provides a whole control panel for your users to manage their preferences for push notifications, so they can easily choose what they’ll be notified for. On your end, you’ll just need to attach a tag to notifications, to match what’s available to choose in your app.

The MobiLoud native “Alerts” screen also allows users to review all the notifications they’ve received. You can configure this to load a built-in list of notifications or to load an internal notifications screen in your web app.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to engage and re-engage customers with timely notifications.

All The Features You Need

We’ve built hundreds of apps with MobiLoud and have seen almost every edge case possible. Chances are we have a solution for the issue or request you have in mind.

Native animations, splash screen, loading spinners, native tab menus, internal or external screens, just about everything a native app has, MobiLoud apps have too.

Development and App Store Submission Done For You

Our team does everything for you. It doesn't matter how much technical ability or free time you have.

Our team helps configure and customize your apps, as well as doing all the coding on the backend. Start to finish, we handle everything - building, testing, compiling and submitting your mobile apps.

We’ll dedicate several hours to review your app with you and ensure it’s working smoothly, with the best performance and experience achievable, so you have the highest chances of approval in the stores.

App Maintenance Included

Our team will also handle all ongoing technical maintenance and new version updates for your apps. We are your mobile partners, handle anything that crops up fast and effectively, and are never more than a phone call or email away.

You won’t have to worry about security issues, new iOS versions or phones coming on the market, we’ll take care of all of that for you and update your iOS and Android apps as needed.

Full Control, Full Service

These are your own apps, you’ll be listed as the developer on the stores and every account used will be your own, you just invite us as your developer. So don’t worry about being able to replace the apps or being stuck with a provider. You’re in control and can switch away any time.

Convert Your Website to Mobile Apps Today

Whichever way you choose to build mobile apps from your website, you’re making a good decision.

Mobile apps are a great asset for any online store. They give you the opportunity to grow through a whole new channel. One with loyalty and engagement baked in.

We’ve built over a thousand apps which have been enjoyed by millions of users and we can help you launch in under two weeks for less than a contract developer’s day rate.

You’ve worked hard to build a great mobile site but what are you doing for your core customer base? Many of them wish you had an app right now, and would probably buy more from you if you did! It’s time to give them what they want.

Get in touch with one of our app experts today and you’ll be launching on the app stores before you know it.