Ecommerce • Featured • Smartphones/Mobile Applications

eCommerce App Builder Comparison

April 15, 2022
14 Min Read
Image courtesy of Pixabay

Whether you’re a business owner, marketer, or technical specialist, you’ll have noticed that commerce is moving to phones. This is happening at a lightning pace, so it’s increasingly necessary to build a mobile application for your eCommerce business. Let’s take a look at the state of the market to see why.

The mCommerce Market and Statistics

We’ve collected some wowing mCommerce statistics that show the pervasive popularity of mobile eCommerce and the rising demand for eCommerce mobile app builders.

Statistics of eCommerce App Users Patterns

As you can see, mCommerce is constantly growing, and it’s becoming increasingly important for eCommerce businesses to create or reinvent their mobile apps. Next up, we take a closer look at why.

Benefits of Building a Mobile App for eCommerce Businesses

  1. Convenience. Using a mobile application for purchases is safe, personalized, and easy. According to Dynamic Yield, 76% of users say they shop on their smartphones because it saves time. Being able to scan, tap, or snap on your mobile device is all about the easiness that consumers enjoy so much.
  2. Wider audience. In a couple of years, the number of mobile users is expected to grow significantly. It’s a good motivation for eCommerce businesses to get acquainted with mCommerce and start offering their products and services on eCommerce mobile apps or mobile-optimized web stores.
  3. Brand loyalty. One of the key advantages of eCommerce mobile apps for businesses is their ability to create brand loyalty. When making purchases, users tend to choose their favorite companies’ applications. That’s why mobile apps serve as a bridge between online stores and customers.
  4. Income. Mobile eCommerce apps will increase your income. They give any customer the opportunity to make purchases from your eCommerce store. That means more active customers, which means higher profits.
  5. An advanced marketing strategy. The advanced functionality of eCommerce mobile applications allows business owners to better track user interaction and get more detailed analytics. This data will help them make content more personalized, incentivize customers to buy more products, and generate specific recommendations.
  6. Enhanced usability. With mobile applications, your customers don’t need to have access to the Internet for them to work properly. You can load heavy animations, enjoy exclusive navigation, and even add gamification features. Everything is possible thanks to the enhanced usability of eCommerce mobile solutions.
  7. Informing customers about company news. If you include a push notification feature in your eCommerce application, you get a great tool for communicating with customers. You will be able to inform users about the latest news, hot offers, discounts, and loyalty programs. Your store can always be at the top of their minds.
  8. Speed. As a rule, mobile applications are 1.5 times faster than mobile websites. Applications store information locally on your device, so if you need to recover any kind of data, you can do so in a couple of seconds. On mobile websites, the information will have to be brought from the web servers, which can take much longer, depending on the system speed.

Criteria for Selecting an eCommerce Mobile App Builder

Based on our extensive experience in eCommerce app builder development, we gathered the most important criteria you should consider while choosing a shopping app builder for your business.

1. Your unique business needs. Make sure that your mobile eCommerce app builder will let you create your shopping application for iOS, Android, or both. Choose an eCommerce app builder that works well with all the types of products you sell (online, physical, pack, or a combination).

2. Clear and simple back-end dashboard. Make sure that the app can send push notifications. Later, all you’ll need to do is to use personalized graphics and content with an appealing title to attract users. Additionally, try to choose an eCommerce app builder that has a flexible DIY editor for the home screen. It will save you time and effort especially during holidays, sales, etc.

3. Simple UI/UX design. It’s a good idea to use a shopping app builder that allows for content optimization for mobile screens. This will make your app much simpler for your customers to use. Only the most profitable offers and popular products should be placed on the main screen, as well as a menu that lets users navigate to other parts of your app. Use the principles of visual hierarchy, which say that important objects should immediately grab the user’s attention. Pay attention to the minimalistic interface of the catalogs. Don’t overload your customer. Increase the size of the selected products to persuade customers to make a decision.

4. Focus on sales. This criterion is relevant for eCommerce mobile applications that are focused mainly on selling products within an application. The search panel is crucial because it’s where the shopping process starts. Try to make it visible and provide the option to search by various filters and criteria. Include “add to cart” or “buy now” buttons so that customers can go straight to check out when they’ve made their choice. Combine good design with a performance-oriented and high-speed architecture and a sales focus. This way you will lead the user immediately to checkout.

eCommerce App Builder Comparison List

Here are the top eCommerce app builders that will help you create an app at minimal cost:

  • Appery.io
  • Mobincube
  • AppYourself
  • Shoutem
  • AppMachine
  • Goodbarber
  • Swiftic
  • BuidFire
  • MobAppCreator

1. Appery.io

This is a cloud-based, drag-and-drop eCommerce app builder designed to create hybrid mobile and responsive web apps. The app builder allows you to create apps like native by using APIs that operate smoothly across iOS and Android devices. Appery.io supports the most popular frameworks like Apache Cordova, Ionic, and jQuery Mobile and allows you easily add third-party plug-ins for Cordova to get the most out of the framework. With Appery.io, you can design your interface easily, because it lets users simply move UI components on the development board in order to create sophisticated interfaces.

With Appery.io, app deployment has never been so easy. You can submit apps to application marketplaces (Google Play, App Store) and enable the automatic updates feature to upgrade your applications directly from the Appery.io shopping app builder. Additionally, you can share your mobile project with team members. Developers, customers, business users, and designers can contribute to your project through the cloud.

Key Features:

  • User-friendly drag-and-drop builder. With Appery.io, you don’t have to be a developer to launch your new project. All you need to do is to study their documentation, register an account, and select UI components for your app. Appery.io also provides easy-to-use app templates for eCommerce businesses to boost their productivity.
  • Powerful functionality. Appery.io allows you to create a mobile or hybrid mobile application with the help of pre-set modules and templates and a cloud back end. You can easily customize every app component to meet your goals.
  • Painless integration. In addition to a wide selection of Ionic 5 and JQM plug-ins, the Appery.io app builder merges your apps with any database or IT system.

Pricing plans:

  • Beginners — $25/ month
  • Pro — $70/ month
  • Team — $135/ month
  • Ultimate — $500/ month

2. Mobincube

Mobincube is an eCommerce mobile builder for everyone. You can easily create a mobile application and start making money. The app builder allows you to build complex pages and use specific features. It’s not the most user-friendly platform, but it does have some great functionality. In Mobincube, you can add HTML modules to your application, like advanced forms, user account registration screens, access to different branches of the app depending on inputs (type of device, time, region, language), and animations. Since Mobincube is financed via advertising, it’s free to use. You can also purchase a subscription based on the options you need for your specific application.

The eCommerce section offers basic product pages (title, description, price). The only payment gateway is PayPal. With Mobincube, you can start selling on Android and iOS.

Key Features:

  • Push notifications
  • Navigation bars
  • Google Maps
  • Source code
  • Large databases
  • Remote content
  • Google Analytics

Pricing plans:

  • Free — €0/ month
  • S — €2,99/ month
  • M — €9,99/ month
  • L — €19,98/ month
  • XL — €49,99/ month
  • XXL — €99,99/ month

As you can see, the prices are quite competitive, and there are plenty of templates to choose from.

3. AppYourself

This shopping app builder was created by a German company in 2011. It allows users to create apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and pure HTML5 apps. AppYourself also provides custom development at your request, which is a great option. The interface is user-friendly and easy to navigate. It also features its own online store module, and support is quick to respond when you contact them. Additionally, the Connect App feature allows you to update your app on the go.

Thanks to the eCommerce section, you can create products and product categories. The product page looks simple with a name, description, price, and taxes. The design quality is pretty good and looks professional. PayPal is the only integrated payment method.

Key Features:

  • table booking options via Open Table and Resmio
  • loyalty cards
  • eCommerce
  • photo galleries
  • the usual newsfeed streams
  • templates
  • CMS
  • user management
  • push notifications

Pricing plans:

  • Smart — €46/ month
  • Business — €89/ month
  • Business — €89/ month

4. Shoutem

The company opened in 2011 and now offers a very comprehensive product. The Shoutem mobile eCommerce app builder provides 30 features and 40 templates to build and customize your eCommerce application. It can be any time of app: event, dating, business, or content. Shoutem apps can be published on both iOS and Android. The platform of this app builder is completely updated, so it’s easy and fun to use. The templates are sophisticated and offer a bunch of customization options. The Shoutem shopping app builder boasts a social feature where users can share their opinions, comments, and photos. It’s especially useful for event or community applications.

As for the eCommerce section, the app builder allows users to create their own shop directly from the platform or integrate with a Shopify shop. On a product page, you can add an image, description, price, and discounts. You can create products and product categories and visualize your shop directly thanks to the back preview mode.

Key Features:

  • Multiple extensions
  • Themes
  • Push notifications
  • Onboarding
  • Dashboard
  • Custom apps
  • Business logic in the cloud
  • Mobile backend and CMS
  • Automatic SDK updates
  • Easy app building and publishing/republishing

Pricing plans:

  • Android Only Builder — $79.00 /month*
  • Standard Builder — $129.00 /month*
  • Professional Builder — $229.00 /month*
  • Reseller — From $599.00 /month*
  • Shoutem Pro Essential — $1,199.00 month
  • Shoutem Pro Premium — $1,999.00 month
  • Shoutem Pro Growth Package Add-on — From $677.00 month

*Discounts of up to 20% are available when paying annually.

5. AppMachine

The name of this eCommerce app builder speaks for itself. AppMachine automates monotonous processes. All you need to do is to give your website’s link, and the platform will import everything your application needs. The platform works around building blocks, each of which becomes a feature of the app. Content and design are managed within each block. Although it’s not intuitive from the start, the idea is impressive. The AppMachine shopping app builder allows you to import or export your product as well as integrate it with other services thanks to APIs. You can publish your eCommerce application on Android and iOS, send push notifications, promote your application via a QR code, and get detailed statistics.

The eCommerce section is simple but lacks a bit of detail. There are no sales statistics, and the only integrated payment method is PayPal. There’s a bit of customization available, but it’s limited to just one image.

Key Features:

  • Build apps using data from your business website
  • Import data from Excel documents
  • Design your own layout
  • Connect web services
  • Publish native apps
  • Promote your app on the free AppMachine app site
  • Use the AppMachine Previewer to see the app live on your smartphone while you’re building it
  • Test your app while you build it

Pricing plans:

  • Plus App — $49.00 /month
  • Pro App — $69.00 /month
  • Reseller Bundle — $99.00 /month
  • Reseller Bundle XL — $300 /month

6. Goodbarber

The Goodbarber eCommerce app builder is one of the most innovative platforms on the market today with more than 30,000 apps. Their templates are very stylish, and the user experience is great. The app offers a lot of advanced features, including push notifications and a powerful and robust CMS. Unlike other shopping app builders, Goodbarber is mostly focused on eCommerce apps. You can build your own application from scratch without a single line of code. The Goodbarber app builder offers a wide range of eCommerce features including auto-login, one-click checkout, discounts, coupons, permanent cart, promo banners, push notifications, shipping advanced settings, product import, and export.

The product pages are very detailed, and there’s a feature to manage variants and discounts, as well as to integrate similar products. The Goodbarber mobile app builder allows you to add up to nine images on every product page. There’s also the option to create collections and subcollections to categorize your shop. The payment methods include Stripe, PayPal, and Apple Pay. The apps can be published on iOS, Android, and the web (Progressive Web Apps).

Key features:

  • Geofencing
  • iBeacons
  • Social networking
  • Chat
  • Statistics and order tracking

Pricing plans:

  • Standard — €25 /month
  • Full — €48 /month
  • Premium — €96 /month

7. Swiftic

The Swiftic shopping app builder is one of the biggest players in the eCommerce market. It now powers more than a million apps around the globe. The initial goal of this platform was to serve eMerchants and retailers who want to publish their apps on different stores (Google Play and App Store). The eCommerce app builder provides a wide range of building blocks, such as eCommerce, user reviews, a loyalty card feature, events, and appointment scheduling integrations. There are seven different templates that you can match with six navigational styles. Background images, colors, and icons can also be adapted.

For eCommerce, it’s possible to integrate external stores (e.g. Shopify, Etsy, eBay). It’s an economical solution especially for businesses that own a shop on a different platform. Additionally, it’s possible to manage your shop directly from the Swiftic platform, although there are limited customization options (price, tax rate, shipping fee, title, and description). The only available payment method is PayPal.

Key features:

  • Loyalty cards
  • Push notifications
  • Deliveries
  • In-app coupons
  • Scratch cards
  • Catalogs
  • Menus and ordering
  • Scheduling
  • Entries for each of your branches
  • In-app forms to get purchase requests
  • Advanced analytics
  • Help from experts

Pricing plans:

  • Monthly — $39 /month
  • Yearly — $48 /month
  • 2 Years — $41 /month

8. BuildFire

More than 30,000 businesses have used this software to build mobile applications. The BuildFire shopping app builder allows you to create any type of application and publish them on iOS and Android without coding skills. In addition to the eCommerce app builder, BuildFire provides you with custom development services for a fee. You can create event, content, eCommerce, and religion apps using BuildFire’s intuitive and high-quality platform.

The eCommerce section provides integration with Shopify, so you have to have a Shopify website to do eCommerce with BuildFire. The platform has integration with PayPal and Stripe and offers push notifications. However, if you have a large audience, push notifications are limited.

Key features:

  • Access control
  • Mobile development
  • Interactive emulator
  • More than 150 plug-ins
  • The BuildFire SDK
  • In-app purchases
  • Push notifications at every step of the user journey
  • User management, security, access settings
  • Advanced analytics

Pricing plans:

  • Growth — $159 /month
  • Business — $299 /month
  • Enterprise — $424 /month

Conclusion

Building a mobile application for your eCommerce business can significantly impact user experience and increase customer engagement. In this sense, an app builder is a great way to create the eCommerce app you want and spend minimum resources on it. Before choosing a shopping app builder, identify the main criteria that are relevant to your (price, UX/UI, focus on sales, etc.) Once you’ve done so, it will be much easier for you to make a choice.

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Alesia Traichuk

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