Ecommerce app development

Ecommerce app development is the design and build of a mobile shopping app for a retailer or brand: an app on customers’ phones that connects to the store you already run, so products, prices, inventory and orders stay in one place while buyers browse, save favourites, check out with Apple Pay or Google Pay and follow their orders. It suits retail owners and ecommerce managers whose customers buy again and again. Canada Create is a Toronto agency at 126 Willowdale Avenue serving businesses across Canada, and this page covers when a shopping app is worth building, how it should connect to your store and what to plan before it reaches the app stores.

Contents

• When a store needs an app, and when a mobile site is enough
• Native or cross platform
• Connecting the app to your store
• Product search, filters and the product page
• Checkout, Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Push notifications with opt in
• Loyalty, wish lists, order tracking and reviews
• Measuring repeat orders
• App store listing and release
• Privacy, payment and accessibility rules
• How we build and support your app
• What an ecommerce app costs
• How to choose an ecommerce app developer
• Your next step

When a store needs an app, and when a mobile site is enough

Not every online store should have an app. Many shoppers will never download one for a single purchase, and a fast, well built mobile store serves them perfectly. An app earns its place when a meaningful group of customers buys from you often and would welcome a quicker way to do it.

Signs an app makes sense

• Repeat buyers. Grocery, pet supplies, beauty, coffee, vitamins and household goods, where customers reorder the same items.
• Loyalty programs. Points, tiers or member pricing that customers want to check on their phone.
• Subscriptions and replenishment. Regular deliveries that buyers want to skip, pause or change without logging in on a browser.
• Large catalogues. Thousands of products where saved searches, recent views and fast filters save real time.
• Stores with physical locations. In store pickup, barcode scanning, digital receipts or a member card at the till.
• Drops and limited releases. Fashion, sneakers and collectibles where opted in buyers want to hear first.

When a mobile site is the better spend

A store with mostly one time purchases, such as furniture, wedding items or gifts, usually gets more from improving its mobile checkout, speed and product pages. The same is true when the catalogue is small or the brand is new and repeat behaviour is still unknown. Our ecommerce website design page covers the mobile store side. A sensible test is to look at how many orders come from returning customers and how often they reorder before committing to an app.

Native or cross platform

A shopping app has to run on iPhone and Android phones. There are two broad ways to get there, and both are sound choices for retail.

Native apps

Native apps are built separately for each platform using the tools Apple and Google provide. They give the closest fit with each phone’s features, such as wallet passes, widgets and the newest camera functions, and can feel the most polished. The cost is two codebases to build and maintain. Our iOS app development and Android app development pages describe each platform in detail.

Cross platform apps

Cross platform frameworks let one codebase run on both platforms, which suits most retail apps: product lists, filters, carts, accounts and order history work the same everywhere. Updates ship to both stores together, which matters when you change a promotion or fix a checkout issue. The React Native development and Flutter app development pages explain the two common options. The choice depends on your features, your existing web team and how much you expect to rely on platform specific features.

Connecting the app to your store

The most important design decision in an ecommerce app is that it should not become a second store. Products, prices, stock levels, promotions, customer accounts and orders should all live in the system you already run, with the app reading from and writing to it.

Shopify, WooCommerce or a custom backend

Stores on Shopify and WooCommerce can connect an app through their published interfaces, so a product added in the store admin appears in the app, a sale price set for the weekend applies everywhere and an app order lands in the same order list as web orders. Stores on a custom platform or an ERP need the same connection built to their own systems, which is often the larger part of the work. Building or extending apps that live inside the Shopify admin or its app marketplace is a different job, covered on our Shopify app development page; this page is about the app your shoppers carry.

Accounts, carts and stock in sync

A shopper should be able to add an item to the cart on the app, finish on a laptop and see the same order in both places. Customer accounts, saved addresses and order history therefore come from the store, not a separate app database. Stock should be checked at the moment of checkout so that the app never sells something the warehouse has already shipped to a web customer. Where a store also runs point of sale in physical locations, the same connection can show availability by store for pickup.

Product search, filters and the product page

On a phone, shoppers find products by searching and filtering far more than by browsing menus, so these features carry much of the app’s value.

Search that understands shoppers

App search should tolerate spelling mistakes, suggest products as the shopper types, recognize the words customers use rather than internal product codes, and show recent and popular searches. For grocery and pharmacy style stores, scanning a barcode to reorder an item is often faster than typing.

Filters and sorting

Filters for size, colour, brand, price band, dietary needs or compatibility should open in a panel that is easy to use with a thumb and show how many products remain before the shopper applies them. Saving a filter set, such as a shoe size and a preferred brand, saves returning buyers time every visit.

The product page

A product page in an app needs large swipeable images, clear variant choices, stock and delivery information, size guides and an add to cart button that stays in reach while the shopper scrolls. Good product photography matters even more on a small screen; our product photography service can supply images framed for phone screens.

Checkout, Apple Pay and Google Pay

Checkout is where an app either saves the shopper time or loses the sale. Most of the speed comes from stored details and phone wallets.

Card entry handled by a certified processor

An ecommerce app should never store or handle raw card numbers itself. Card entry is handed to a certified payment processor, whose own secure fields or payment sheet collect the card details and return a token to complete the order. This keeps card data out of your app and your servers and greatly narrows what your business has to secure. Most stores keep the processor they already use for the website, so payouts and reporting stay in one place.

Phone wallets

Apple Pay and Google Pay let shoppers pay with a fingerprint or face check instead of typing card details and addresses, which suits quick reorders. Both need to be set up through your payment processor and tested on real devices. Gift cards, store credit, loyalty points and promo codes also need to work at checkout exactly as they do on the website.

Delivery and pickup choices

The app’s checkout should offer the same shipping options, local delivery zones and in store pickup as the website, with clear dates and costs before payment. Returns information belongs on the order screen, worded the same way as on the website.

Push notifications with opt in

Push notifications are often the main reason a brand wants an app, and they are also the fastest way to get it deleted. Every phone asks the user for permission, so the request needs to come at a moment when the value is obvious.

Asking at the right time

Asking for push permission the moment the app opens usually leads to a refusal. Asking after a first order, with a short explanation such as “get updates when your order ships”, works better and is more honest. Shoppers should be able to choose the kinds of messages they want, such as order updates, back in stock alerts or offers, and change their mind in the app’s settings.

Messages worth sending

Order confirmations, shipping and delivery updates, pickup ready alerts, back in stock notices for a saved item and price drops on wish list items are messages many shoppers welcome. Promotional messages should be limited in number and relevant to what the person has bought or saved. Where a store also sends texts or email, the messaging calendar should be planned together; our email marketing service covers that channel.

Loyalty, wish lists, order tracking and reviews

The features that bring buyers back are usually simple ones done well.

Loyalty and member pricing

Points balances, tier status, member prices and a scannable member card belong on the home screen for stores with a loyalty program. The rules for earning and spending points should match the website and the stores exactly, with the balance read from the same system. Some retailers keep their loyalty data in a CRM; we set up and connect CS+, our CRM, where a business wants customer records and follow up in one place, as explained on our CRM setup and connection page.

Wish lists and reorders

A favourites list that syncs with the shopper’s account, a reorder button on past orders and reminders for items that run out on a regular cycle are the features repeat buyers use most.

Order tracking

Order status, tracking links and delivery or pickup updates should be visible in the app without the shopper hunting for an email. For stores with their own delivery, the order screen can show the delivery window.

Showing reviews fairly

Product reviews in the app should come from the same review source as the website and be shown fairly: lower ratings displayed alongside higher ones, no editing of what customers wrote and a clear written moderation policy for offensive content. Asking for an app store rating is a separate matter, governed by each store’s own rules.

Measuring repeat orders

An app should be judged on whether it changes how customers buy, not on downloads alone.

What to track

• Installs, active users and how many of them have made a purchase.
• Orders and revenue from the app compared with the mobile site.
• Time between orders for app buyers versus web buyers.
• Push opt in rates and which message types lead to orders.
• Checkout drop off points, crashes and slow screens.

App analytics should be set up before launch, should respect each shopper’s privacy choices and should not collect sensitive personal details. Nobody can promise that an app will lift repeat orders; good measurement tells you within a few seasons whether it is doing so for your customers.

App store listing and release

Every app goes through review by Apple and Google before it is published, and each store sets its own rules on content, privacy disclosures, payments and how apps describe themselves. Those rules change from time to time, so they are checked again before each release.

The listing

The store listing needs an app name, a short description, screenshots for different phone sizes, a privacy summary that matches what the app collects and a support contact. These pages decide whether people install. Our app store optimization service covers the listing and visibility work in depth.

Releases and updates

We prepare test builds for your team to try before submission, respond to reviewer questions and plan regular updates as the phone platforms change. Approval is decided by the stores, so no developer can promise a launch date or a pass; what we can do is prepare a build and listing that follows the published rules.

Privacy, payment and accessibility rules

A shopping app collects names, addresses, order histories and often location, so privacy needs to be planned from the first screen. PIPEDA applies to personal information collected through the app, which means explaining what is collected and why, collecting only what is needed and protecting it. For shoppers in Quebec, Law 25 adds its own requirements for consent and transparency.

Card payments follow PCI DSS, the payment card industry’s security standard, and handing card entry to a certified payment processor keeps card data out of your app. Push notifications and texts need opt in, and commercial texts fall under CASL, which calls for consent, clear sender identification and an easy way to unsubscribe. The app stores set their own review and payment rules. For accessibility, building to WCAG keeps the app usable with screen readers, larger text and voice control, and in Ontario the AODA sets accessibility requirements for many organizations. This is a marketing observation, not legal advice.

How we build and support your app

It starts with a free review of your store, your platform, how customers buy today and what you hope the app will change. You then receive a written plan and proposal with fees quoted in writing, covering the features, the platform choice, the store connection and what happens after launch.

Design, build and test

Screens are designed and reviewed with you before development. The app is built against your store’s data, tested on real iPhone and Android devices with real products, carts and test payments, and shared as test builds for your team. Developer accounts with Apple and Google are opened in your company’s name.

Support after launch

After release, apps need regular care: updates for new phone operating system versions, fixes, changes to match store rules and new features as you learn what buyers use. Ongoing support is agreed in writing. For broader software needs beyond shopping, our custom software development and web app development services may fit, and a separate page in this batch, SaaS development, covers subscription software products.

What an ecommerce app costs

Every ecommerce app is quoted in writing after the free review, because the scope ranges from a focused reorder app on an existing Shopify store to a full shopping app connected to a custom backend, loyalty system and store network.

What drives the price

• Native apps for each platform or one cross platform codebase.
• Your store platform and how much connection work it needs.
• Catalogue size, variants and the depth of search and filtering.
• Loyalty, subscriptions, gift cards and member pricing.
• In store features such as pickup, scanning and member cards.
• Push notification types and personalization.
• Accessibility, languages such as French, and the devices to test.
• Support and updates after launch.

Apple and Google developer account fees, payment processor fees and any third party licences are paid to those providers under their own terms and shown separately from our fees.

How to choose an ecommerce app developer

Many developers can build an app; fewer understand how a shopping app should sit on top of a live store with real stock, promotions and returns.

Questions to ask

• How will the app connect to our store so products, stock and orders stay in one system?
• Will card entry be handled by our certified payment processor?
• How will you ask for push permission, and what messages will we send?
• Native or cross platform, and why for our store?
• How will loyalty, gift cards and promotions work the same as on the website?
• What support do you provide after launch, and how are updates planned?
• Who owns the accounts? The answer should be you, including the developer accounts and the code.

Our main app development services page explains how we approach apps of every kind, and Canada Create can review an existing app or a plan from another developer.

Your next step

Before the free review, it helps to know three things: the platform behind your store, roughly how large the catalogue is and how often your regular buyers come back. With that, we can say plainly whether a shopping app or a stronger mobile store deserves the budget, and then send a written proposal. Retail owners and ecommerce managers can phone our Toronto office on (416) 273-9030, use the 24/7 toll-free sales and support line on +1 (800) 808-9235, or share the store address through our contact page for app enquiries. Every app enquiry gets a reply within one business day, and you are welcome to bring your store data to our office at 126 Willowdale Avenue, Suite 3, Toronto.