Mobile apps are one of the greatest ways Shopify SMEs can grow their store, increase sales, drive customer loyalty, and multiply their average order value.

When you think about your mobile usage, how often do you prefer to use apps over websites?

When you order food, do you use deliveroo? When you need directions, do you use Google Maps? And most importantly, when you’re browsing products on mobile, do you head over to the ASOS, Nike, or Amazon apps?

The average American has 80 apps downloaded on their phone and 88% of mobile time is spent on apps, leaving just 12% to browse the web.

Collectively, we consistently prefer an app over a mobile website, but many Shopify store owners still don’t see them as a priority.

So in this article, we'll discuss 7 reasons why mobile apps are more effective than mobile websites for Shopify stores.

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1. Increased Sales

Mobile apps convert 3x better than mobile websites and 1.5x better than desktop sites.

Plus, mobile apps have an 85% higher add to cart rate and 74% of customers use apps with an intent to purchase.

AND over 40% of all users buy more of a brand’s products after downloading their e-commerce app.

Why? Ease-of-use.

As we’ll get onto in a later point, mobile apps for Shopify stores are designed specifically to offer the best shopping experience possible for mobile, whereas mobile websites are simply adaptations of desktop sites.

It’s the difference between adding wings to your car in the hope it’ll fly vs. using an actual plane. I know which one I’d rather use for my next holiday.

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2. Increased Average Order Value

Mobile apps have a 10% higher average order value vs. mobile websites, meaning that you’re not only generating more orders, you’re selling more products within those orders.

In fact, due to their ease of use, customers view 4.2x more products per session within apps compared to mobile websites.

The natural user experience an app offers means customers can enjoy a more comfortable shopping experience. They don’t need to wait for pages to load or wonder whether the button they clicked is actually working - they can smoothly swipe and scroll through your product catalogue, finding what they want to buy.

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3. Faster Loading Times

Mobile app pages load instantly, whereas the average time for a mobile web page to load is 15.3 seconds.

Why is site speed important? A 1 second delay in load time reduces page views by 11% and nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer.

In fact, Google states that 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

Even worse - a 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. That means every additional second your page takes to load, you could be losing 7% of your sales.

If you sell $100 of goods a day, that’s $1,095 of sales a year lost just from load speed.

And going by the original stats, if your page is taking the full 15 seconds to load, that’s 100% of your sales gone.

Online competition is fierce, so you need to analyse any advantage you can get. If your site is slow, customers won’t waste their time shopping with you. With a mobile app, you’re guaranteed faster loading times - online and offline - increasing your Shopify growth, and helping your business to stand out among the crowd.

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4. Improved Customer Retention

Mobile websites only retain 40% of traffic after the first few seconds.

And improving your customer retention by 1% can lead to a 7% increase in revenue.

Thanks to push notifications, mobile app-retention isn’t a problem. Push notifications help to keep your app top of mind, driving more customers to your store immediately after being sent.

Mobile app users deliver a 190% higher retention rate when they receive one or more push notifications in their first 90 days of using the app, and when an app offers the features consumers love, 86% of consumers state their loyalty to that brand will increase.

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5. High-Converting Push Notifications

Push notifications are to mobile apps what sauce is to pasta. Alone, good pasta is delicious - but what really keeps diners coming back is a well made sauce.

What are push notifications?

Push notifications are messages that show up on your customer’s phone, even when they aren’t using the app. They’re a great way to keep in touch with your customers and let them know about new products, sales, and more.

Push notifications convert 9x better than SMS, 15x better than email and carry a 10x greater open rate.

Plus, you don’t need to worry about spam filters or getting flagged as junk mail. Your push notifications go straight to the front of your audience’s mobile device, ready for them to click-through to your app.

They’re also one of the most-effective re-engagement channels at 44.1%, beating out email at 17.1% and SMS at 4.8%.

In fact, they’re so powerful that 61% of businesses rank them as the most critical marketing channel for their business.

You can find more about push notifications in our free whitepaper.

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6. Built for Use on Mobile

79% of traffic to Shopify stores comes from a mobile device.

That means only 21% of your traffic is actually coming from a desktop user, but that’s where the majority of Shopify business owners focus their time.

With 4 out of 5 customers visiting from mobile, but mobile websites converting 3x less than mobile apps, it should be obvious why Shopify mobile apps are so powerful.

A responsive website is key to getting more conversions through mobile. Pages will load faster, the experience will be more responsive, and the customer journey will be smoother.

However, even the most optimised mobile website will still load slower than a mobile app, won’t work offline, and contain moments of awkwardness.

Mobile apps are specifically built to give your customers the best experience on mobile, and with the majority of traffic to Shopify stores coming from mobile, they’re your best channel for making more sales and growing your online store.

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7. Consumers Prefer Mobile Apps

And if all of the above still haven’t convinced you, let’s listen to your audience.

No-code Shopify mobile apps are the preference of the modern customer with 85% of consumers favouring apps over mobile websites. So, if you don’t have an app, only 15% of your customers are actually browsing your products on their favoured channel.

Imagine if you had a favourite way to shop, but the brand you wanted to buy from didn’t offer it. How likely would you be to look elsewhere?

“But my competitors don’t have a mobile app, so why do I need one?”

That’s exactly why you need one.

We’ve just listed countless proven statistics about how much better mobile apps are for your customers, so if you’re still thinking about what your competitors are doing instead of what your customers want, then your focus is in the wrong place.

We understand it can be scary to take the first step into uncharted territory - but it’s not uncharted territory. Thousands of businesses are using a Shopify mobile app builder to add to their offering every single day.

Just because the ones you’re looking at aren’t, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

You can discover more reasons why you should create a mobile app for your Shopify store by reading the article, 8 Signs it's Time to Create a Mobile App for Your Shopify Store.

Top 10 Stats That Show Why Mobile Apps are Better than Mobile Websites

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1. 79% of traffic to Shopify stores comes from a mobile device
2. Mobile apps convert 3x better than mobile websites
3. 85% of consumers prefer mobile apps to mobile websites
4. Mobile apps have a 10% higher average order value vs. mobile websites
5. They also have an 85% higher add to cart rate
6. 74% of customers use apps with an intent to purchase
7. Customers view 4.2x more products per session within apps compared to mobile apps
8. 61% of businesses rank mobile push notifications as the most critical marketing channel for their business.
9. 40% of all users buy more of a brand’s products after downloading their e-commerce app.
10. 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load & the average mobile website takes 15.3 seconds to load (mobile apps load instantly)

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How to Get a Mobile App for Your Shopify Store

If you're looking for ways to grow your Shopify store, then StoreLab can help.

Each of our plans includes using our Shopify mobile app builder to create a fully designed, personalised, and customizable iOS & Android mobile app for your store, helping you boost sales, increase AOV, and drive customer loyalty.

To find out which plan is right for you, book a call with one of our Shopify growth experts.

After creating a mobile app for her Shopify store, Carol, owner of RockThoseCurves, saw a 126% year on year increase in conversion rate, 48% year on year increase in order value, and 1307% year on year increase in online store sales. You can learn more about these incredible results here.