Converting Your eCommerce Website into Mobile App

How to Converting Your eCommerce Website into Mobile App: After setting up a complete eCommerce website and made it ready to make some money on selling products. Then, the mobile app hits. You struggle along with just a website for a few years, hoping you won’t have to spend more money for another platform.

But these days, were faced with some undeniable statistics: 51% of all internet traffic is on a mobile device compared to 42% of internet traffic on a fixed device. That means the time is here: you need to upgrade to a mobile eCommerce app. Fortunately, there a lot of tools out there today that can help swiftly and easily transition your website to an app. Plus, these tools have helped drive down costs, so you can make the transition for cheaper than ever.

Of course, it’s not quite that simple. After taking the first step – deciding it’s time to look at the how. Generally speaking, there are three broad types of app development methods: 1) Native; 2) HTML5/Web; or 3) Hybrid. The rest of this post will go into the best and worst of each method.

Native

Native apps have a reputation of being the best, but that isn’t really true. A native app is designed for specific platforms (usually Android or iOS) and generally speaking provide the best UI/UX and the most features. This is partly because Native apps are written with the same code as the device’s OS, providing clear communication and enhanced operability.

Some of the specific benefits are:

• Integration:

Native apps integrate extremely well with a device. Accessing address books, browsers, phone, and camera (to cover just a few) with a native app is exceptionally easy and occurs almost flawlessly.

• Performance:

High performing apps do best as a native app. For an eCommerce app, this is especially pertinent. While you are probably not running a lot of animations (one of the best features of a Native app), your app will need to process lots of data and refresh quickly.

• UI:

The ability to use different types of touch gestures (called multi-touch) is a key feature of Native apps. Gestures like swiping, pinching, and multi-tapping are all possible with Native apps.

It’s not all sunshine and roses though. There are a couple of downsides:

• Lower Search Engine presence:

Native apps aren’t as searchable (i.e. Google) as HTML5/web apps. This is especially big downside for businesses that rely on that search engine traffic (like an eCommerce site);

• Single platform:

Native apps need to be developed for each platform. This requires twice as much time and money to see the project to completion. Obviously, this represents something of a problem to the entrepreneur on a tight budget.

HTML5/Web-Based

HTML5 apps are sometimes frowned upon due to their similarity to website coding and a perceived lack of complexity. An HTML5 app is basically a series of websites displayed on your phone. Unlike Native apps, Web-based apps are a one-size fits all approach. For this reason it’s considerably cheaper – both in terms of money and time.

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