Shopify mobile app development
Turn your Shopify store into a mobile app that outsells your website
We design, build, launch, and grow native iOS and Android apps for Shopify and Shopify Plus brands. Your catalog, your checkout, your customer data — in a channel where conversion rates run 2–3× mobile web and you own the notification, not the algorithm.
- Live on the App Store and Google Play in 4–6 weeks
- Native checkout via Shopify's Checkout Sheet Kit — Apple Pay, Shop Pay, all of it
- Push notifications you own outright — no CPM, no deliverability tax
- You own the developer accounts, the listings, the ratings, and the data
Key facts about Conversion's Shopify mobile app practice
Last updated · By Tarun Kapoor, Founder
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, USA
- Shopify Plus Partner since
- 2019
- Platforms
- Native iOS + Android
- Standard launch timeline
- 4–6 weeks to both stores
- Checkout
- Shopify Checkout Sheet Kit
- Typical engagement
- $12K–$90K · then pay on results
- Store account ownership
- 100% yours, always
- Build approaches
- Platform-built or custom React Native
- Markets served
- United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia
About the service
A mobile app is the only channel where you own the customer relationship
4–6 Week Launch
iOS + Android
You Own Everything
Accounts + data
Pay On Results
Post-launch growth
Roughly 80% of ecommerce traffic now arrives on a phone, and almost all of it lands on a mobile website that was designed as a desktop site squeezed narrower. Meanwhile the two channels brands rely on to bring that traffic back — paid social and email — keep getting more expensive and less reliable. CPMs rise, creative fatigues in days, inbox placement is decided by someone else's classifier.
A native app inverts that. The customer installs you once and you gain a permanent home-screen position, a logged-in session that never expires, and a notification channel with no auction and no deliverability tax. The store shell is already on the device, so browsing feels instant rather than merely fast. That combination is why app cohorts consistently buy more often, spend more per order, and stay longer than the same brand's mobile web cohorts.
Conversion designs, builds, launches, and then operates that channel. We're a Shopify Plus Partner, not a platform reseller, so the first thing we do is model whether an app is genuinely incremental for your traffic profile — and tell you plainly if it isn't. When it is, we ship it in four to six weeks on your Shopify catalog, cart, and checkout, with every developer account and store listing registered to you.
After launch the work shifts from building to compounding: merchandising the home screen against the campaign calendar, running push and in-app messaging with holdout groups, testing PDP and cart layouts, and reporting contribution margin rather than vanity install counts. That growth work runs on our pay-on-results model — we earn on incremental revenue, not on a retainer.
Why most Shopify apps underperform
A bad app is just your mobile site with an install step in front of it
We've audited and rebuilt dozens of Shopify apps that launched, flatlined, and got quietly abandoned. The failure is almost never the platform — it's one of these three decisions, made early and never revisited.
It's web views wearing a native costume
The home screen is native, then the moment a customer opens their account, their subscription, or a size guide, a browser view loads and the illusion collapses. Every web view costs you a load, breaks the gesture language of the platform, and hands back the exact friction the app was supposed to remove. We build the screens that matter — PDP, cart, account, order tracking, loyalty — natively, and reserve web views for genuine edge cases like legal pages.
Nobody was made responsible for installs
The app ships, the launch email goes out, installs spike for nine days and then decay to nothing. An app with 2,000 installs is a rounding error no matter how well it converts. We treat the install funnel as a growth channel with an owner and a number: smart banners on mobile web, post-purchase and shipping-confirmation prompts, packaging QR codes, a Klaviyo install sequence, and an app-only offer that makes switching worth it today.
Push is used as a megaphone, not a channel
The fastest way to destroy an app is to send every subscriber the same promotion daily. Uninstalls climb, opt-outs compound, and the channel you paid to own becomes worthless within a quarter. We cap frequency per user, segment by behaviour and lifecycle stage, run holdouts on every campaign so lift is measurable rather than assumed, and weight the calendar toward triggered flows — abandoned cart, back in stock, price drop, replenishment — over broadcasts.
Not sure an app is right for your brand? Let's model it before you build it.
Book a 30-minute call. We'll pull your mobile web conversion rate, repeat-purchase rate, and retention curve, and model the incremental revenue an app would realistically add — including the cannibalisation you should expect.
30-minute call · No commitment · Custom quote in 48 hours
What we do
Everything from the first wireframe to the hundredth push campaign
Full-service Shopify mobile app development and growth. Strategy, design, build, integrations, store submission, install acquisition, retention, and CRO — one team accountable for the channel's revenue number rather than its launch date.
App Strategy & Revenue Modelling
Before design, we model whether an app is incremental for your traffic. Mobile web conversion baseline, repeat-purchase rate, retention curve, realistic install-rate assumptions, and an honest cannibalisation estimate — so the business case is made on your data, not on category averages.
- Mobile web + cohort baseline
- Install-rate and adoption model
- Cannibalisation and incrementality view
- Channel P&L with contribution margin
Native App Design
Every screen designed for thumbs, not for a narrower desktop grid. Home, collection, product, cart, search, account, and post-purchase — laid out in a mobile-native pattern language and built on your existing brand system so the app reads as an extension of the brand, not a template.
- Full screen-by-screen Figma system
- Native iOS + Android pattern parity
- Brand tokens, type scale, motion
- Merchandising blocks marketing can edit
iOS & Android Build
Genuinely native apps on both stores, backed by your live Shopify catalog. Real-time product, inventory, collection, customer, and discount sync through the Storefront and Admin APIs. Built on a maintained app platform, or custom in React Native when the requirement demands it.
- Native iOS and Android release
- Real-time Shopify catalog sync
- Offline-tolerant browsing
- Crash-free rate monitored from day one
Native Checkout Integration
Checkout runs through Shopify's Checkout Sheet Kit — an in-app native sheet, not a browser bounce. You keep Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay, every configured payment method, Shopify's fraud engine, and full checkout extensibility on Plus. Zero added PCI scope on your side.
- Checkout Sheet Kit handoff
- Apple Pay + Google Pay + Shop Pay
- Checkout UI extensions on Plus
- Shopify Functions for discounts and delivery
Push & Lifecycle Messaging
The reason to own an app. Abandoned cart, back in stock, price drop, replenishment, order shipped, and win-back — plus segmented broadcasts tied to the campaign calendar. Frequency-capped per user, holdout-tested, and reported on incremental revenue rather than open rate.
- Triggered flow library at launch
- Behavioural + lifecycle segmentation
- Frequency caps and quiet hours
- Holdout groups on every campaign
App-Only Offers & Merchandising
The app needs a reason to exist that mobile web can't match. App-exclusive pricing and drops, early access windows, gift-with-purchase, in-app-only bundles, and a home screen merchandised against the live campaign — editable by your marketing team without a release.
- App-exclusive discounts and drops
- Early access and launch queues
- Gift-with-purchase and bundle flows
- No-code home screen merchandising
Loyalty, Subscriptions & Reviews
The retention stack rendered natively, not in a web view. Points balances, tier status, subscription management, review capture, and UGC galleries — integrated with the tools you already run so the app deepens retention instead of forking it.
- Smile.io / LoyaltyLion / Yotpo
- Recharge / Skio / Stay AI
- Okendo / Yotpo / Judge.me
- Native order tracking and returns
Install Acquisition & ASO
An app that nobody installs converts nothing. We build the owned install funnel first — smart banners, post-purchase prompts, packaging QR, email and SMS sequences — then layer Apple Search Ads and Meta app-install campaigns once the retention curve justifies paid spend.
- Owned-channel install funnel
- App Store + Play listing optimisation
- Ratings velocity programme
- Deferred deep linking on every link
App CRO & Ongoing Growth
The app is a channel we operate, not a project we hand over. Monthly experiment cycles on PDP, cart, and home merchandising, release cadence kept current with iOS and Android SDK changes, uninstall-cohort analysis, and reporting against contribution margin.
- A/B testing on PDP, cart, home
- Monthly release cadence
- Uninstall + retention cohort analysis
- Pay-on-results growth engagement
The stack
The platforms and integrations we ship on real Shopify apps
We standardise on a proven stack rather than picking novel tooling per project — so your app stays maintainable, and any senior engineer who joins later can read it.
App platform
Shopify core
Push & messaging
Search & merchandising
Subscriptions & loyalty
Analytics & attribution
The app advantage
Four things an app does that mobile web structurally cannot
These aren't optimisations you could win back with a faster theme. They're capabilities that only exist once you have a home-screen install.
Owned reach
A notification channel with no auction
Push costs nothing per send, has no CPM to bid on and no inbox classifier deciding whether it arrives. Ecommerce push open rates typically land in the 6–12% range against email's low-single-digit clicks. When paid CPMs spike in Q4, this is the only reach you still control.
Session economics
Permanently logged in, permanently loaded
The app shell already lives on the device, so there's no cold page load and no render-blocking third-party script tax. The customer stays authenticated indefinitely, with saved addresses and payment methods. Fewer taps to purchase is the whole conversion mechanism.
Stable CAC
Retention that doesn't re-buy the same customer
Every repeat purchase driven through the app is a purchase you didn't pay Meta to retarget. As the installed base compounds, blended CAC falls without any change to your acquisition spend — because a growing share of revenue arrives through a channel with no media cost.
Home-screen presence
A brand icon between their bank and their messages
An install is a customer choosing to give you permanent space on the most valuable screen they own. It creates unprompted brand recall no amount of retargeting buys, and it is the clearest signal in your data of who your genuinely loyal customers are.
Already have an app that's stalled, buggy, or off-brand?
We migrate apps between platforms while keeping your existing listings, install base, ratings, and reviews intact — customers just receive it as an update. Typical migration is 3–5 weeks.
30-minute call · No commitment · Custom quote in 48 hours
Our process
From decision to live on both stores in 4–6 weeks
App-fit audit
Week 1. We pull your mobile web conversion rate, repeat-purchase rate, and retention curve, then model the app's incremental revenue against realistic install and cannibalisation assumptions. If the numbers don't support a build, we say so and quote CRO instead.
Design & platform decision
Weeks 2–3. Platform-built or custom React Native, chosen on total cost of ownership rather than preference. Then every screen designed in your brand system — home, collection, PDP, cart, search, account, post-purchase — with merchandising blocks your marketing team can edit.
Build, integrate, QA
Weeks 3–5. Catalog sync, native checkout, and the full integration surface: reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, search, helpdesk, and attribution. Real-device regression across the iOS and Android matrix, then TestFlight and Play internal testing with your team.
Submit, launch, grow
Weeks 5–6 and onward. Store submission with optimised listings, the owned-channel install campaign, and the launch offer. Then the monthly growth cycle: push programme, merchandising, A/B tests, and contribution-margin reporting.
Honest comparison
Mobile web, a DIY app, or an app we build and run
We also build Shopify themes and run CRO, so we have no incentive to push you toward an app. Here's the side-by-side we'd want if we were buying.
Want the revenue model for your store, not a case study?
Send us your traffic and repeat-purchase numbers and we'll build the app channel P&L — install curve, expected conversion delta, cannibalisation, and payback period — before you spend anything.
30-minute call · No commitment · Custom quote in 48 hours
Why Conversion
An agency that runs the channel, not a shop that ships a build
We model app-fit before we quote a build
Not every brand should have an app. Low repeat-purchase rates, thin mobile traffic, or a considered-purchase category with long gaps between orders can all make the maths fail. We run the model first and tell you plainly — we'd rather quote CRO on your existing store than sell you a channel that won't earn.
Platform-agnostic, with no reseller incentive
We build on Appbrew, Tapcart, Vajro and Shopney, and we build custom React Native. We take no commission from any of them, so the recommendation follows your catalog, integration surface, and UI requirements — and we'll show you the total-cost-of-ownership comparison that produced it.
Install acquisition is part of the scope
Most app projects end at submission and quietly die at 2,000 installs. Ours include the owned install funnel — smart banners, post-purchase prompts, packaging QR, Klaviyo sequences, launch offer — because an app nobody has installed cannot convert anyone.
We measure incrementality, not vanity metrics
App conversion rate flatters everyone, because app traffic is returning traffic. We report new-customer share, cannibalisation, holdout-tested push lift, and channel contribution margin — the numbers that tell you whether the app added revenue or merely relocated it.
Shopify Plus Partner
Deep familiarity with Checkout Sheet Kit, checkout extensibility, Functions, Markets, and the Customer Accounts API — plus the theme and CRO context to keep the app and the web store merchandised as one brand rather than two disconnected experiences.
Pay on results after launch
The build is fixed-scope and fixed-price. Everything after it — push, merchandising, CRO, install growth — runs on our pay-on-results model. We earn on the incremental revenue the channel produces. No flat retainer, no incentive to keep the engagement busy.
What you walk away with
A live app on both stores — and the accounts that control it
Every Conversion app engagement ships these artifacts. Accounts, listings, data, and design files are yours from day one and stay yours if you leave.
Strategy
- App-fit audit and revenue model
- Platform TCO comparison
- Install funnel plan
- Push and lifecycle calendar
- Measurement and holdout framework
Design
- Full Figma screen system
- iOS and Android pattern parity
- App icon and splash assets
- Store screenshots and preview video
- Merchandising block library
Build
- Native iOS and Android release
- Shopify catalog and checkout wiring
- Reviews, loyalty, subscription integrations
- Attribution and analytics setup
- Device-matrix QA report
Launch
- App Store and Play listings, optimised
- Developer accounts registered to you
- Owned install campaign assets
- Triggered push flow library
- 30 / 60 / 90-day growth plan
Engagement models
Fixed-scope build. Pay-on-results growth.
Build pricing is fixed and quoted in 48 hours. Platform licence and store accounts are billed to you directly — we never mark them up. Post-launch growth runs on results.
Launch
$12,000
4–6 weeks · one-time
Design, configure, and ship a native iOS and Android app on a proven platform, with the install funnel and push flows live on day one.
- App-fit audit and revenue model
- Full screen design in your brand system
- Native iOS + Android build and submission
- Checkout Sheet Kit and catalog sync
- Core integrations: reviews, loyalty, helpdesk
- Triggered push flow library
- Owned-channel install campaign
Launch + Growth
$12,000 + results
4–6 weeks, then monthly
Everything in Launch, then we operate the channel — merchandising, push, CRO and install growth — earning on incremental revenue.
- Everything in Launch
- Monthly merchandising and campaign cycle
- Push programme with holdout testing
- A/B testing on PDP, cart, and home
- Monthly release cadence
- Contribution-margin reporting
- Pay-on-results commercial model
Custom Build
$35K–$90K
10–16 weeks
Custom React Native app for brands whose UI, catalog complexity, or integration requirements exceed what a platform can express.
- Custom React Native architecture
- Bespoke UI beyond platform templates
- ERP / PIM / 3PL integration
- Custom configurator or bundling logic
- Multi-market and multi-currency
- Source code ownership
- Dedicated release and on-call runbook
Frequently asked
Shopify mobile app questions
What is Shopify mobile app development?
How much does a Shopify mobile app cost?
How long does it take to launch a Shopify mobile app?
Do mobile apps actually convert better than mobile web?
Will an app just cannibalise my existing mobile website sales?
Which mobile app platform do you build on — Appbrew, Tapcart, or custom?
Who owns the app, the developer accounts, and the customer data?
Do push notifications actually work, or do people just disable them?
Can the app handle subscriptions, loyalty, and reviews?
How does checkout work inside a Shopify mobile app?
What does App Store Optimization involve for an ecommerce app?
How do you drive installs after launch?
Can you migrate our existing app from another platform?
What ongoing work does an app need after launch?
Do you work with brands outside the US?
Related services
One partner for app, storefront, CRO & growth
Most Conversion clients run their app alongside development, CRO, and marketing with us — one team, one P&L, and a mobile experience that stays consistent across both channels.
Shopify Development Agency
Custom Shopify and Shopify Plus development — conversion-tuned themes, checkout extensibility, custom apps, and migrations.
ExploreShopify CRO Agency
Research-driven A/B testing on PDP, collection, and checkout — so the web store converts as hard as the app does.
ExploreShopify Marketing Agency
Meta and TikTok ads, Google, Klaviyo email and SMS, and CRO sprints — the demand engine that fills the install funnel.
ExploreReady to build?
Give your best customers a faster way to buy from you
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll review your mobile traffic, repeat-purchase rate, and retention curve, and tell you honestly whether an app is the right next investment — and what it would realistically earn. Fixed-scope quote in 48 hours.
No credit card · No commitment · Pay only on results