A lot of Shopify stores are wondering: why are so many major Shopifiers suddenly launching mobile apps? From leading fashion brands like Fashion Nova, Chubbies, and Planet Blue, to niche stores like Figs, The Jungalow, Patta, and The Hundreds—the migration towards mobile apps is mounting fast. As a no-code mobile app platform for Shopify stores, we spend a fair amount of time talking to eCommerce managers answering this question, and we spend an equal amount of time getting to understand their pain, concerns, and general eComm woes. So, how do you know if it’s time for your brand specifically, to have a mobile app? Here are five clear signs that it’s your turn to shift to a mobile-first strategy so that you can effectively grow your business—and revenue.

1. You’re struggling with customer retention.

Retention is by far the biggest challenge we hear about when talking to Shopify stores. The typical story is this: a curious customer stops by the store, perhaps eventually makes a purchase, and then they disappear and never come back. Or, stores are finding that session length is cut short, the average order value is unimpressive, and the frequency of purchase is next to nil.

There could be a dozen reasons for these scenarios—all of which are alleviated by a mobile app. To start, mobile websites are comparatively slow. With mobile apps, your site is native, meaning every single page is pre-downloaded and requires zero wait time to navigate, making them six times faster than mobile web. This is especially important in an increasingly impatient user base, where every second your Shopify page spends loading results in a 7% loss in your conversions.

Another reason retention is a struggle is because reminders to shop through channels like email are lost in the competition abyss. With channels like push notifications, reminders are front and center, immediately improving traffic to site. Point blank, customer retention increases up to 80% with a mobile app, increasing traffic, session length, average order value (AOV), and ultimately conversion.

2. You’re not seeing an impressive return on your investments.

For many eComm managers, two things are precious: time and money. If you find that you are exhausting resources, hiring agencies, and spending a lot of time analyzing data and trying to optimize your content based on obscure interpretations and data hypothesis, you are wasting what’s precious. It’s in your best interest to source a mobile app platform that does all of this for you without an added cost, optimizing your mobile experience based on experimentation with proven results, saving—you guessed it: time and money.

Another investment many Shopify stores are making is SMS text platforms, which are relatively successful considering they have high open rates and effectively drive traffic to site. The problem is, they’re expensive, with payers being financially penalized when they want to broaden SMS reach. Unlike SMS, which increases charges when you increase reach, mobile app push notifications never increase cost—whether you send a message to 1k, 10k, or 100k subscribers.

Push notifications also have incredibly high visibility, don’t require opening to view, can be segmented and personalized to a given audience and, the best part—are completely free to send. If you are investing in a mobile strategy, your return should be reliable, consistent, and backed by facts instead of guesswork or reach punishment.

3. Conversions are dropping off at checkout.

Another common issue we hear from Shopify stores is high abandoned cart rates. Many stores feel tangible money is being left on the table. Why are carts being consistently filled, and consistently left behind? While there can be several factors, the data-driven reason is due to the checkout experience itself. With too-many form fields, checkout ease becomes a considerable issue. Add to that needing to change passwords due to forgotten login information and painstakingly punching in credit card details, abandoned carts have become a nearly ubiquitous pain point amongst mobile websites.

Not to mention, 53% of consumers will leave a mobile page that takes longer than three seconds to load—so if your checkout is slow you are going to see drop-offs. Mobile apps quickly tighten up these issues on the very basis that checkout takes an average of 5 seconds to complete. With mobile apps, a user’s information is already locked and loaded and with a full integration suite of all payment options, customers are able to checkout on autopilot.

4. You have high mobile traffic, but low mobile orders.

This is another frustrating phenomenon. Your store has all of its ducks in a row: your social following is growing steadily, your engagement is at an all-time high, your email open rates are solid, and your mobile traffic rate is higher than ever. So why aren’t your mobile orders reflecting the success of your funnel? Because your mobile experience needs improvement.

Users need to feel a distinct sense of value from your site. Loyal customers should be rewarded with a VIP community, exclusive access, or flash opportunities. New customers should have immediate invitations to be part of your intimate community. These are opportunities available in a controlled mobile-app environment, where first-time purchase offers aren’t buried inside inboxes, and where site speed is a given not a luxury.

5. You rely heavily on third-party entities.

So many Shopify stores have disseminated their reliance on agencies, developers, integrations, and social media. Ultimately, when your revenue is contingent upon the success of these third parties, you relinquish control of your store. Bottom line is, your bottom line should not overly rely on entities outside of your Shopify store, because—as 2020 has so humbly taught us, you never know when something might change. Whether it’s the banning of TikTok, a global pandemic, or an adjustment to the algorithm, store owners need self-reliance in order to succeed.

A mobile app is a channel you can own and oversee independently as a reliable source of privately-owned data and home-grown revenue, and also gives you a direct line to your customers through push notifications. Prioritize self-reliance as your lead source of revenue, instead of over-diversifying your third-party reliances. Its the best insurance policy you can create for yourself and will ultimately give you the ability to thrive regardless of third-party success.

Interested in creating a no-code mobile app? Want a free mobile app design? Book a demo and talk to our experts.

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