Boost Your Shopify Sales with a Mobile App

Shopify has quickly become one of the world’s most popular eCommerce platforms. It powers more than one million businesses across the globe.

In fact, Shopify controls 31% of the total eCommerce market share in the United States. 

It’s the most searched for eCommerce solution on Google, and the fastest-growing eCommerce platform in existence at the moment. So if you’re currently using Shopify to sell online, you’ve definitely made the right choice.

As a Shopify store manager, it’s your responsibility to make sure that products are selling. 

Having an eCommerce website is a good start, but it’s not enough to maximize the potential of your online store. A website alone, even if it’s mobile-friendly, is just the tip of the iceberg.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling or what industry you’re in; your Shopify store needs a mobile app. 

There is a common misconception out there that mobile commerce apps are only used by enterprise stores and global chains. That’s a myth, and couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

The market dictates mobile app usage, and consumers worldwide prefer to shop via mobile apps. So any small or medium-sized business will benefit from a mobile commerce app as well.

You may not realize it, but your Shopify store is competing with big brands like Amazon. These companies have set certain expectations in the minds of your customers. So to stay competitive and reach as many people as possible, your Shopify store must adapt and launch an app.

As an expert in the mobile space, I created this guide to explain exactly how you can leverage a mobile app to boost Shopify sales. 

Push Notifications

One of the most significant advantages of a mobile commerce app is the ability to stay in contact with your customers. Communication is limited on a Shopify web store on its own.

Right now, you’re probably relying on email to reach shoppers. But lots of factors need to go your way in order for an email campaign to be successful.

First, you need to turn website visitors into email subscribers. That’s easier said than done. It usually requires a visitor to take at least a couple of steps to complete the process. If someone buys a product from your Shopify store, you might give them an option to automatically opt-in to emails, but some customers won’t go for that. 

Once someone joins your email list, communication still isn’t promised. Your emails need to be delivered and opened by the recipients. 

Considering the average person receives 121 emails per day, there is no guarantee that this will happen. 

That’s where push notifications come into play. To communicate with customers via push notifications, all they need to do is download your app from the app store.

In terms of engagement, push notifications beat emails in every category. 

That’s because push notifications appear on a user’s mobile device similar to a text message. The chances of them reading it and opening the message are much higher than a promotional email buried in someone’s inbox.

While you should definitely be using push notifications to drive Shopify sales, just make sure you do so with caution. Sending too many messages can be annoying, and it’s one of the reasons why users mute push notifications. 

As a Shopify store owner, you should only send push notifications that add real value to app users. 

• Flash sales
• Discount codes
• Delivery notifications

These are ideal examples of what you should be using. Just saying hello or sending a weekly newsletter as a push notification won’t be effective and could ultimately backfire. 

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are one of the best ways to retain your customers. 

A loyalty program gives people an incentive to spend more money and increase their shopping frequency. Both of these metrics will boost sales of your Shopify store. 

Can you have a customer loyalty program without a mobile app? Absolutely. But an app will really take your program to the next level. Here’s why.

Aspect	Without Mobile App	With Mobile App
Customer Engagement	Limited to website visits	Accessible anytime via phone
Loyalty Tracking	Requires login and navigation	Instant access with a click
Program Visibility	Often an afterthought	Constantly visible on mobile

For starters, it’s unlikely that your customers will visit your website on a daily basis. Even your best customers may only online buy from your Shopify store once or twice per month. They probably aren’t eager to check their loyalty status if they need to land on your website, log in, and navigate to their customer profile. So the program almost becomes an afterthought.

However, your customers use their phones every day. Your app is just a click away at any given moment. This makes it easy for them to track their status and gives them an incentive to reach the next level.

Take a look at some of the top reasons why people continue to participate in loyalty programs. 

Nearly 50% of people said that they participate because the program is accessible through a mobile app. 

If you look at all of the top mobile commerce apps on the market today, they all have customer loyalty programs. A simple mobile app builder, like BuildFire, has plugins that provide customer loyalty functionality for native mobile apps. This will be an easy way for you to drive customer engagement. 

I recently wrote an article about Sephora’s app and customer loyalty program. They took an old loyalty program and revamped it to drive sales and conversions on their app. You can follow their lead and take the same approach for your eCommerce app. Alternatively, you can create a loyalty program with full customization. 

Flexible Payment Options

With a mobile app, you can give your customers more choices when it comes time to collect payments. Don’t assume that everyone buying from your Shopify store has Visa or Mastercard.

You need to offer as many different payment options as possible. This will improve your conversion rates at checkout.

More than half of all checkouts on Shopify come from a mobile device. 

But 30% of mobile shoppers won’t complete the purchase process if the experience isn’t optimized for their device. An app is by far the best way to optimize mobile checkouts.

If you create an app for your Shopify store, it’s much easier for you to add different payment options to accommodate the preferences of mobile shoppers. 

• All major credit c

Think about your current checkout process. What steps does a customer need to take if they want to buy something?

Step	Description
1	Find product
2	Add product to cart
3	Navigate to cart
4	Enter name
5	Provide contact information (email, phone number)
6	Enter email address
7	Provide billing information
8	Enter shipping information
9	Finalize checkout

That’s a lot of steps. With each added step, it gives your customers an opportunity to change their minds, get frustrated, or make a mistake causing them to abandon the process. 

We have already established that nearly 60% of all Shopify sales come from mobile devices. So if you don’t have an app, then you’re forcing your customers to buy from your mobile site. Going through this checkout procedure on a small screen is tedious, and won’t result in high conversion rates.Without an app, tracking a delivery can be a pain. You’re forced to send a separate email with the third-party tracking number. Customers must open that email, copy the number, open a new tab for the carrier’s website, paste the number, and then search for it. This isn’t practical.

Without App	With App
Send a separate email with tracking number	Track order status directly in the app
Open email and copy tracking number	View shipment updates in seconds
Open carrier’s website and paste number	Receive notifications for delivery

But from an app, they can view the status of an order and shipment in just seconds with a couple of clicks.

Beyond that, you can also offer enhanced customer support directly in the app. If a customer has a question, your app can facilitate live chat with a customer service representative.