Mobile apps aren’t a “nice-to-have” anymore. They’re a proven growth lever. 

Your best customers are shopping on mobile. It’s getting more expensive to acquire new customers, which (among other things, like tariffs and manufacturing costs) are cutting into margins.

It’s never been as important as it is now to build and nurture owned channels, where you control the customer experience. Every brand has a website and an email list. But less than 5% have their own mobile app.

That needs to change. Especially because today, mobile apps are more accessible than ever before. You don’t need to be Nike or Adidas to be able to afford your own app anymore.

There are a lot of ways to build a mobile app. But not all are effective. We’ve been in the mobile app development industry for more than 12 years, so we’ve seen every mistake made by brands launching apps without the right prep and research.

Keep reading, and we’ll explain five different ways you can choose to build your own app and help you figure out the best pathway to long-term ROI.

Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App

If you sell directly to consumers and don’t have a mobile app, you’re leaving revenue on the table. 

It’s about meeting customers where they shop and giving them a faster, stickier, more engaging experience.

Mobile is already dominating e-commerce. Over 70% of e-commerce traffic comes from smartphones, and nearly all Gen Z and Millennial consumers shop directly from their phones. 

Apps give these shoppers a cleaner and smoother user experience (even if the app’s features aren’t that much different from the website).

It’s faster and easier to open the app than it is to get to your website. And it allows your brand to stay top of mind, with an icon on the customer’s home screen – and direct communication via push notifications.

Convenience and mindshare matter most for your best customers – the people who are likely to come back and shop with you regularly. 

Offering an app makes the shopping experience easier for these people. It’s not necessarily about reaching new customers with the app. It’s about keeping hold of your most valuable buyers and extracting more out of these high-potential segments.

Five Ways to Build & Launch a Branded Shopping App

If you’re in agreement that a mobile app can add value to your business, the next step is figuring out how to make it.

Pay close attention, because the wrong method can lump you with a huge dev bill, massive overhead, and divert your attention away from other areas of your business.

The key? Keep investment and overhead manageable, particularly the ongoing work required to run your app, by creating a seamless integration between your app and website.

Let’s run through five different e-commerce app development methods, break down their pros and cons, and tell you which to avoid.

Option 1 – Turn Your Site into a PWA

A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a lightweight way to let users “install” your website as an app-like experience, directly from their browser.

It sounds appealing. PWAs are built with regular web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), so you get a quick, cheap, and unified experience. However, PWAs come with major limitations.

Pros:

• Very fast to ship, with minimal development
• Uses your existing codebase – no duplication
• Indexed by search engines for SEO benefits

Cons:

• Not a true native app (requires the browser to run)
• No App Store or Google Play presence (you miss out on the discoverability and trust of getting into the App Stores)
• Push notifications are unreliable on iOS (browser-based, less visible)
• Most users don’t know how to “install” a PWA, so most won’t

Bottom Line: A lot of people promote PWAs as a cheap alternative to native apps. But they’re really not the same thing. If you’re extremely cost-constrained or unconvinced of mobile apps’ ROI, a PWA can be a temporary stopgap. But understand that it’s not a true substitute for a native mobile app experience.

Option 2 – DIY No-Code / Low-Code App Builders

These tools offer drag-and-drop app design interfaces that sync with your e-commerce backend, allowing you to build an app without coding.

This cuts down the cost and complexity of app development while letting you launch a real mobile app (not a PWA).

Pros:

• No dev skills needed – just drag and drop
• Quick setup with built-in Shopify integration
• Budget-friendly subscription pricing ($200–$1k/month)

Cons:

• Apps feel templated, limiting brand expression.
• Struggles with advanced functionality or custom workflows
• Large ecosystem for Shopify app builders, but not many that support other e-commerce platforms
• Takes more work than you think to manage and keep your app up to date

Bottom Line: These work for brands with straightforward product catalogs and limited dev resources. It’s not the worst way to build a mobile app. But you need to factor in a certain amount of operational overhead to manage the app, and understand that there are going to be limitations you can’t get around.

Option 3 – Custom Native or Cross-Platform Development

This is the classic agency or in-house route: hire developers to build you a fully custom mobile app using native (Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android) or cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter. It gives you full control, with no limitations – but at a steep cost.

Pros:

• Best-in-class performance and user experience
• Full access to device APIs (Apple Pay, biometrics, AR, etc.)
• Scalable architecture with total customization

Cons:

• High upfront cost: $150K–$1M+ in year one
• Requires ongoing dev resources (2–3 full-time engineers to maintain)
• Long time to launch (6–12 months typical)
• Separate Android and iOS builds or add complexity from cross-platform frameworks

Bottom Line: This is the route most people think of when you suggest that they launch a mobile app. But with the cost and long-term overhead, native development is only realistic for major enterprises with deep pockets. It’s also overkill for e-commerce apps. Even for big brands, it’s worth questioning whether that last 3% of polish is worth the 20x cost.

Option 4 – Custom Hybrid (Ionic, Cordova, Capacitor)

Hybrid app frameworks let you wrap your website in a native shell, producing apps that look and behave like native mobile apps but are powered primarily by web views. You save time and retain web parity, but inherit some complexity.

Pros:

• Much faster and cheaper than pure native builds
• Leverages your existing web codebase
• Can be considered a “real” app – listed in app stores and supports push, tab bar, etc.
• Your existing web dev team may be able to build it

Cons:

• Still requires significant development work (3–6 months of effort)
• Your team is responsible for building, debugging, and maintaining it
• Adds tech debt that may be hard to unwind later

Bottom Line: This could be a decent middle ground if you want full control over the app and have enough dev resources to manage a project in-house. But it is a full-time job, so consider that if you want your team’s focus to be on product-led growth, rather than maintaining tech.

Option 5 – A Website-to-App Service

For brands that want native apps without rebuilding from scratch, a powerful alternative is to convert your website to an app with something like MobiLoud.

This is similar to option 4. You use your existing website to power the app, and the web-to-app service creates a native shell that essentially turns your existing website into real iOS and Android apps.

The difference is, it’s a managed process. The lift from your team is lower, as is the overall long-term overhead.

Pros:

• Speed: Launch in 4–6 weeks, not months
• Cost: Fraction of custom dev (setup + <$1k/month)
• Simplicity: Your app stays in sync with your site – no double maintenance
• Native features: Push notifications, tab bar, Apple Pay, deep linking
• Full-service: The service handles everything from configuration to store submission and ongoing updates
• Flexible: Works with any tech stack, including Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and custom builds

Cons:

• Your site still needs to be optimized – converting your site to an app won’t fix a slow or poorly designed website
• Can be a little more expensive than DIY tools (but with lower labor costs)

Bottom Line: This path delivers the best total value for 90% of ecommerce brands. You get a true native app experience with none of the headaches of development or ongoing upkeep. For growing DTC brands, it's the fastest way to unlock the benefits of mobile apps while staying focused on your core business.

How to Choose the Right Option

Choosing the right path to launch a mobile app is key. Choose wrong, you’re looking at long-term overhead and operational debt that makes it a lot harder to maintain ROI.

There are pros and cons to each development method. For some business models, you’ll want to build natively. For some, a PWA alone might be enough.

Here are the most important considerations for an ecom business.

1. Upfront Cost & Time to Launch

Think about how much you are investing, and how long it will be until your app goes live (and starts making money).

Custom builds tie up capital and push ROI months down the road. No-code tools and web-to-app services are the most cost-effective and fastest options (that give you a real mobile app).

2. Ongoing Maintenance

Apps need upkeep. Many options put that all on your plate, meaning developer hours, bug fixes, and App Store resubmissions.

You can end up turning into a tech business, with no time left for where your profit actually comes from – products.

No-code tools come with a notable maintenance load, too. Not as much as native development, but you still need to dedicate a moderate amount of time to updating the app to keep it consistent with your website.

3. User Experience & Flexibility

Your app should be at least as good as your website. If it’s stripped down, hard to navigate, or missing key flows, users won’t adopt it.

Templated no-code app builders often fall short here. Native development gives you full flexibility without limits, but at a cost.

A web-to-app service is really the best option here. You get a high degree of flexibility (whatever you build on the web, you can translate to your app), without the tax of building out a new codebase.

4. Integration with Your Site

Can your app fully reflect your current tech stack – your analytics, checkout flow, loyalty programs, and custom plugins?

Many simpler options (like no-code tools) struggle here. They have some pre-built integrations, but they struggle to fully transfer functionality and integrate your website and app.

You end up with features missing in your app and inconsistent user experiences across platforms, which is not ideal.

5. Access to Native Features

You might think your app needs a host of powerful native features to justify its existence.

You don’t, really. Some apps need a ton of native functionality. A shopping app is not that different from a mobile website.

All you need are a few additions – push notifications, a downloadable app (with an icon that sits on the user’s home screen), App Store listings, and the ability to create some app-exclusive experiences (like exclusive/early access product drops or app-only discounts).

Avoid overbuilding. Focus on the features that boost retention and LTV. As long as these are present, you can start moving the focus to simplicity rather than power.

Biggest Mistake to Avoid

The biggest mistake we’ve seen from brands with mobile apps is underestimating the long-term cost and effort. 

Custom builds require a full-time team. No-code tools need more handholding than expected. The best app is one you can afford to maintain and improve over time, with minimal distraction from your core business.

That’s where done-for-you web-to-app tools like MobiLoud shine: you get a premium native experience with low lift, fast time to value, and long-term sustainability.

Final Thoughts: Pathway to ROI

A mobile app isn’t a guaranteed winner. But when e-commerce businesses launch their own app and don’t get any meaningful results, it’s usually not because of a bad build. It’s some combination of these three things:

• Poor promotion: If users can’t find the app, they won’t download it. Smart banners and QR popups on your website, and email/SMS campaigns to your existing list are easy ways to drive installs.
• Overspending: If you sink $150K+ into an app, your path to ROI becomes longer and riskier. Most DTC brands never need to spend that much.
• High maintenance load: Managing updates, fixing bugs, and rebuilding app-specific features eats up time. That overhead kills efficiency and reduces ROI over time.

The good news? With the right model, ROI is straightforward.

A successful app doesn’t need to double your revenue overnight. It just needs to capture your best customers and get them shopping more often.

You just need around 10% of your customers to download the app. Getting these buyers to shop more often, shop for longer, convert at a higher rate, and ultimately spend more will give you a straightforward path to ROI.

That is, assuming you don’t overspend on bells and whistles you don’t need, and it takes up all your team’s time just to maintain.

If you can launch fast, keep costs low, and keep the experience consistent with your website, your app will pay off quickly and continue to deliver as a high-performing retention channel.