Mobile continues to emerge as the most dominant platform for online shopping, accounting for nearly 80% of retail site visits and facilitating over 70% of orders. 

But it’s not enough to solely rely on optimising a website for mobile. 

Your online store traffic, customer experience, engagement & retention rates, and so many more aspects of your business could be improved significantly by building a mobile app for your Shopify store.

In this article, we’ll discuss 8 clear signs that it’s time to create a mobile app for your Shopify store, as well as how you can get started on your mobile app journey. 

1 - Your competitors are creating mobile apps for their Shopify store 

62% of businesses already have a mobile app or are in the process of developing one. So many stores just like yours are recognising the need to meet customers where they are - on smartphones and tablets. 

They understand that mobile apps offer unique advantages, such as enhanced user experience, increased engagement, and the ability to use push notifications for direct communication with customers. 

You likely share your target customers with your competitors, so by hopping on the mobile bandwagon, you can level the playing field and make sure you’re not left behind in the race for customer attention and loyalty. 

2 - You’re having trouble engaging and retaining website visitors

Mobile apps offer a level of convenience and accessibility that websites alone often struggle to match. With a mobile app, your customers have instant access to your products and services right at their fingertips, anytime and anywhere.

Overall, mobile apps engage and retain customers way more than mobile websites, with users viewing 4.2x more products per session, and being 3x more likely to make repeat purchases. 

That’s because you can use their powerful engagement tools such as push notifications and personalised offers to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Push notifications are messages that show up on your customers’ phone, even when they aren’t using your mobile app, driving 15x more purchases vs. email and 9x more purchases vs. SMS. 

If you own a fashion & apparel Shopify store, for example, your push notifications might include alerts for new products, exclusive promotions or discounts, reminders for items left in the shopping cart, personalised outfit recommendations, and notifications for limited-time sales or restocks.

3 - You’re looking for ways to optimise for mobile 

79% of traffic to Shopify stores comes from mobile devices.

There are many ways that you can optimise your Shopify store for mobile, including improving site speed, providing a simple checkout process, and optimising the visuals. But there’s one method that consistently proved to be the most effective - using a no-code Shopify mobile app builder. 

While Shopify does provide responsive themes that adapt to different screen sizes, with a mobile app, you have greater control over the design, layout, and functionality of your store, allowing you to create a customer experience specifically optimised for mobile devices. 

4 - You want a higher average order value (AOV) and reduced cart abandonment 

Mobile apps are much more effective at limiting abandoned carts than websites. 

One way they do this is providing customers with a simplified or one-click checkout process. By removing unnecessary steps and friction points that often deter shoppers from completing their purchases, such as too many forms or fields to fill out, you’re removing the impatience and frustration that often leads to cart abandonment.

Mobile apps also enable you to implement targeted marketing strategies to incentivise higher spending. You can encourage customers to make additional purchases, take advantage of special offers, and unlock exclusive rewards. This will help you to drive repeat purchases on your Shopify store, and ultimately, boost your AOV over time.

RockThoseCurves had a brand-new Shopify mobile app designed for their brand, alongside a bespoke series of push notifications, meaning they could stay connected, relevant, and up-to-date with their customers. 

As a result, they saw a 48% year on year increase in average order value.

5 - You want to improve your customer experience

Mobile apps provide you with access to a diverse range of customer data, offering valuable insights into various aspects of the customer journey such as browsing patterns, product interactions, and purchase history. 

Utilising this data will allow you to tailor your offerings and marketing strategies to send more personalised and targeted messaging. With 80% of customers being more likely to purchase from a brand that offers a personalised customer experience, this will not only improve your customer experience, but also boost sales.

For instance, analysing which products are most frequently viewed or added to cart can help you with inventory management or advertising strategies, so that popular and sought-after items are readily available to shoppers.

6 - Your conversion rates are starting to decline

When conversion rates start to dip, it’s often a sign that your current strategies and platforms may not be effectively meeting the needs of your customers.

On average, mobile apps have a 157% higher conversion rate than websites. One reason why mobile apps have high conversion rates is because of their speedy loading times. Shopify mobile apps are simple, and designed to be both fast and responsive, which means they load far quicker than mobile websites do. 

On average, it takes over 15 seconds for a mobile website to load, whereas mobile apps load instantly.

This provides a seamless user experience, smoother transitions between screens, and instant response to user actions, which is particularly important for mobile users who may have slower internet connections. 

Reducing waiting times leads to improved customer satisfaction and therefore, a greater likelihood of a purchase being completed.

7 - You want to make more sales during Shopify Black Friday Cyber Monday

In 2023, 51.8% of the online sales during Black Friday Cyber Monday were made through a mobile device.

Customers tend to leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load - and then the sale is lost. With the increased number of people shopping online over BFCM, it’s likely that website loading times may increase, which could frustrate users. On mobile apps, however, pages load instantly, providing a better shopping experience for customers.  

Additionally, using push notifications to engage customers quickly and efficiently, directly on their mobile device, helps you to create a sense of excitement and urgency surrounding these shopping events. 

Urgency makes shoppers jump into buying, and customers who feel like they’re running out of time are more likely to make a purchase. In fact, 72% of products purchased on Black Friday Cyber Monday 2023 were impulse buys. 

8 - Your customers are asking for a mobile app

73% of consumers are omnichannel mobile shoppers - meaning they want the option to purchase your products and offerings from multiple channels. Nowadays, it's not enough to just have a physical store and an ecommerce website.

So look out for your customer’s requests and feedback - if they’re asking for a mobile app, then it’s a clear sign that it’s time to build one. Or if you’re interested in finding out if it’s something your customer base would be interested in, then ask.

Listening to your customers and meeting their preferences shows that you value their feedback and input, and are committed to providing them with the best possible shopping experience. 

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How to create a mobile app for your Shopify store

If you want to grow your Shopify store through a mobile app, then StoreLab can help.

Both of our mobile app plans include a fully designed, personalised, and customizable iOS & Android mobile app for your store, helping you boost sales, increase AOV, and drive customer loyalty.

After working with StoreLab to create a mobile app for her Shopify store and run targeted social ads, Myfanwy Holiday, Operations Director at Dominie Luxury, saw these results…

• 174% Increase in Sales
• 417% Increase in Add to Cart Rate 
• 145% Increase in Sessions

If you’d like to see this same success for your Shopify store, you can book a call with one of our Shopify growth experts.