Most shops should start mobile commerce with a fast mobile website and a short checkout, not an app. Build a shopping app when a good share of your sales comes from customers who buy again and again, and you want what a website does badly: rewards that live on the phone, push offers, or selling through live video. And know one rule before you plan the money: physical goods in an app are paid by card or Apple Pay, outside the app stores’ own billing.
Online sales are growing faster than retail as a whole. In the US, e-commerce sales in the second quarter of 2026 were 12.2% higher than a year earlier, against 6.7% for all retail, and made up 17.1% of total retail sales, according to the US Census Bureau. That figure covers all online sales, on phones and computers alike.
| Option | Good for | Weak at | What it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile website on your store platform | First-time buyers from search, ads and social links | Bringing people back without email or ads | A fast theme and a short checkout |
| Web app saved to the home screen (PWA) | Regular buyers who don’t want another app | Push on iPhone works only after the user adds it to the Home Screen | Extra work on top of the store, no store review |
| Shopping app for iPhone and Android | Repeat buyers, rewards, push offers, scanning, live video | Getting the first install | A first version from $5,000 to $15,000 with us, plus store review |
Count how many of these are true for you:
If two or more are true, get a quote for an app. If none are, put the money into the mobile site’s speed and checkout.
A first release needs fewer screens than a full store. Start with these:
Leave for later: wish lists shared with friends, chatbots and trying products on with the camera. Each one is a project of its own, and none of them helps until people open the app regularly.
Physical products are paid outside the app stores’ billing. Apple’s guideline 3.1.3(e) says physical goods and services used outside the app must be paid with methods other than in-app purchase, such as Apple Pay or a card. Google Play’s payments policy says its billing must not be used for physical goods such as groceries, clothing, housewares and electronics. So your app uses the same payment provider as your website, with Apple Pay and Google Pay on top.
Digital items work the other way. Premium features or content you unlock inside the app go through in-app purchase (Apple guideline 3.1.1). The US is the exception on both stores. Apple’s guidelines, last updated on 16 October 2026, let apps on the US storefront include buttons and links to other ways to pay. Google Play has let apps use other payment methods for US users since 29 October 2025, and developers in those programs pay Google’s service fees from 1 October 2026, according to its US policy update.
A shopping app needs a reason to be opened between purchases. Rewards are one of the clearest.
Project Steps, an iPhone app we built for a community in Chicago, turns walking into discounts and cashback at local restaurants, fitness clubs and eco stores. Users redeem a coupon by showing a unique code to the cashier or waiter. For cashback, they photograph the receipt, and the money is normally credited within 12 hours. 46 merchants joined in the first months after release (Project Steps case study).
LEV, a map app for dog owners, gives users rewards on their walks, which they turn into discounts at partner businesses. It reached 2,600+ users and 15+ partner businesses.
For a shop, points, a streak or a coupon that unlocks after the next order all give people that reason.
LIVETAG is a video platform for shopping during broadcasts. A store adds the widget to its site and streams a product presentation. Viewers see product details, put items in the cart and pay without leaving the video. The project came back to us from another contractor, and we refactored the platform and built the shoppable widget (LIVETAG case study).
A few numbers from that build. The widget connects to store platforms such as WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify. A broadcast runs with about a 20-second delay and reconnects instantly, and 10,000+ users can watch and buy at the same time. We moved the player from Vonage to MUX, which brought HD video and a playlist of saved videos, and added a chat with manual moderation, so sales staff can answer questions on air.
A shopping app doesn’t need a new store behind it. Products, prices, stock and orders stay in your store platform, and the app reads and writes them through its API. You keep one source of truth and one admin panel for your team. We took the same approach for Traza’s app, which runs on the client’s live API; our guide to adding a mobile app to a web marketplace shows how.
A first version of a shopping app typically costs $5,000 to $15,000 with us and takes 2 to 4 weeks, plus store review. One React Native or Flutter app covers iPhone and Android, and after launch the work continues at $39 to $55 an hour. A rewards program, live video and connections to several store platforms each add work.
Our mobile app development page lists what’s included. If a web app that installs on the phone is enough, see web app development.
To see your own numbers, get a free project estimate. It works in four steps:
Here is an example run of our estimate’s math with sample inputs, for a store with a shopping app: catalogue, cart, checkout and an orders admin. The inputs are assumptions: a customer spends $45 a month at a 35% margin, keeps buying for 10 months and costs $25 to win, and 200 new customers arrive each month. With those guesses, the build comes out at $5,900 to $12,300 over 5 weeks. Each customer brings $16 of profit a month and $160 over their lifetime, which leaves $135 after the cost to win them. 68 customers pay for the build. The store earns more than it spends from month 2 and pays the build back in month 4. Change one guess, such as how long a customer keeps buying, and every number after it moves.
Not at first. Start with a fast mobile website and a short checkout. An app pays off when many customers buy often, or when you want rewards, push offers or live video selling.
Physical goods aren’t sold through in-app purchase. Apple requires another method, such as Apple Pay or a card, and Google Play’s billing must not be used for physical goods. You pay your usual payment provider’s fees instead.
Yes. The app reads products and writes orders through the store platform’s API. The LIVETAG widget we built connects to WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify.
With us, a first version typically costs $5,000 to $15,000 and takes 2 to 4 weeks, plus store review. A rewards program, live video and several store integrations add to it.
Selling through a live video in which viewers see product details, add items to the cart and pay without leaving the stream. LIVETAG, a platform we worked on, lets 10,000+ users watch and buy at the same time.
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