“Effortless shopping with secure transactions”
Nowadays, shopping apps are necessary for today’s generation, and as time passes, the number of users increases to shop more. These apps offer unbeatable shopping prices and provide discounts every day. As a result of such growing demand for e-commerce businesses, most businesses have started to transform their offline business into a robust online shopping app.
As per the recorded survey, the shopping app market was valued at $861.34 million in 2021 and it is projected to reach around $2852.32 million in the forecast period 2022 to 2030.
This data reveals that investing in shopping is a profit-making opportunity for businesses to expand in the relevant industry’s competitive market.
So, if you also want to develop a shopping app, read this blog till the end. In this blog, we explore every little piece of information about developing a shopping app for your e-commerce business and more.
Quick Summary: In this blog, we will explore how to develop a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business and popular shopping apps. We will also provide the cost of the shopping app, robust development stages, benefits, and features.
Table of Contents
Why Do You Need A Shopping App For Your Ecommerce Business?
Today’s age of apps is known as the golden age and the globally widespread e-commerce applications are totally predictable. Customers today are in no mood to carry bags or shopping carts.
Instead, they prefer ordering everything online without leaving the comfort of their home. In 2019, e-commerce sales all across the world have hit the mark of $3.5 trillion which is projected to cross $6.5 trillion by 2022.
Smartphone usage has also surged in the last few years and an excellent mobile experience has become a must-have for increasing online sales. An e-commerce application offers a number of recurring benefits to businesses along with reducing their effort and expenses.
Online shopping app development is worth considering for your business because it is extremely convenient for online retailers or store owners. Every person today carries a handy device of their own and they are always looking for helpful applications that can make their life easy or convenient.
Hence, e-commerce applications are the most enjoyable applications for customers. These applications provide the best features in a quick and safe manner to customers.
10 Popular Shopping Apps
To build a shopping app for your e-commerce business, you must observe the existing apps to understand their functionalities and workings. So, here we provide the best e-commerce platforms for shopping:
Applications |
Launch Year |
Downloads |
Ratings |
Available Platforms |
Amazon |
2011 |
1B+ |
4.6 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Walmart |
2014 |
100M+ |
4.5 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Etsy |
2005 |
100M+ |
4.5 |
iOS, Android, Web |
eBay |
2000 |
100M+ |
4.5 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Target |
2013 |
50M+ |
4.6 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Wish |
2010 |
100M+ |
4.2 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Shein |
2008 |
100M+ |
4.8 |
iOS, Android, Web |
AliExpress |
2010 |
100M+ |
4.7 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Houzz |
2014 |
10M+ |
4.6 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Zara |
2014 |
10M+ |
4.5 |
iOS, Android, Web |
Why Do Entrepreneurs Invest in Shopping Apps?
In this digital world, people use shopping apps instead of visiting the offline shopping store. That’s why shopping apps have increased in the past few years. So, if you want to build online marketplace platform, it is one of the most profit-generating opportunities for businesses. So, here is the list of the benefits:
- Customer Engagement
- Growing Demand
- Operational Efficiency
- Data-Driven Insights
- Globally Reached
1. Customer Engagement
Let’s begin with customer engagement, a well-designed shopping app with extensive functionalities and services. These advanced or unique functions can increase customer engagement and also enhance the user experience.
They include order tracking, account management, shopping cart, shipping options, payment gateway integration, wishlist, and personalized recommendations.
2. Growing Demand
This second benefit means that shopping apps are now in high demand in the competitive market of relevant industries. They provide convenience and flexibility for users by offering rich services such as access by mobile devices, a large collection of shopping products, easier online payment, and an easy user interface. So, these can lead to growing demand for shopping apps.
3. Operational Efficiency
Let’s move to the third benefit: shopping apps can provide highly automated operations that can reduce manual or human errors. These include account management, order tracking, order status, shipping status, return or refunds, loyalty programs, flash sales, product galleries, and item availability. These can enhance the app’s performance and user experience.
4. Data-Driven Insights
For this fourth benefit, shopping apps can observe or analyze users’ preferences, purchasing patterns, demographics, favorite products, behaviors, and habits. According to the shopping app development company, this valuable data can help businesses identify new areas for improvement and improve the product’s quality based on users’ demands and feedback.
5. Globally Reached
In this fifth benefit, a shopping app with incredible features or services can attract more users globally and it can lead the way to reached every user in global. These functionality can provides immense potential to businesses to allow them to motivate more customers to use the app continuously for convenient.
7 Robust Steps to Develop a Perfect Shopping App
To develop a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business, follow the essential steps for successful or efficient app development. These development stages explain in depth how implementation stages work. So, here we provide the robust mobile app development process:
- Market Research and Requirements
- Define Basic Features
- Choose a Technology Stack
- Design an UI/UX
- Development Process
- Testing and Security
- Launching and Marketing
1. Market Research and Requirements
Let’s begin with market research. Observe or analyze existing apps to understand their functionality and work to implement them in shopping app for your e-commerce business.
Prepare a plan for competitors on how your app can defeat the popular existing apps in this competitive market of the relevant industry. Identify the project requirements or needs that must be added to your app.
2. Define Basic Features
In this second stage of development, research the features and functionality of existing apps in this competitive market. Hire dedicated developers to make a list of the core features and advanced features that can also be installed in your app according to the project’s budget. Identify your project’s ideal and secondary users and the demand of the targeted audience.
3. Choose a Technology Stack
Let’s move to the third stage of development. To develop a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business, consider robust tech stacks that can easily manage the user and admin panels..
This stage involves programming languages, databases, APIs, cloud storage, frontend and backend designs, security measurement, and testing. So, select the best tech for efficient app development.
4. Design an UI/UX
In this fourth stage of development, hire mobile app developers to design a user-friendly interface that allows users to understand the app’s features and functionality easily.
Designing an app is the most crucial development stage because it impacts the first appearance in front of the audience. It involves layout design, premium themes, inbuilt plugins, menubars, and a user or admin panel.
5. Development Process
In this development stage, assemble a highly talented development team to create a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business. The development stage is one of the most crucial stages and has many implementation phases. It includes built-in features or functions, classes, modules, abstractions, integrated modes, and more.
6. Testing and Security
Let’s move to the sixth stage of development. Security measurements are the most reliable and important phases for an app. They protect the app from third parties’ unauthorized access.
This phase involves many security resources, such as firewalls, integration security, and networking security. After that, test the shopping app under different situations and scan for bugs or glitches.
7. Launching and Marketing
In this final stage of development, it’s the right time to launch your shopping app on selected platforms, such as Android and iOS. To ensure a successful launch, hire experienced developers from a marketplace development company. Marketing is vital to the app’s success, including content marketing, product marketing, sharing it on social media platforms, and more.
The Important Features Required For A Successful E-Commerce App Development
If you want to create a high-performing e-commerce mobile application that can increase your business value and sales, it is extremely important to include the essential features that can help you to accomplish this goal.
Integrating advanced features will also make customers love your e-commerce application. In other words, you have to equip your e-commerce application with a set of exquisite features that can ease the journey of your customers along with delivering them an enhanced user experience and ensuring that their purchase is easy.
Let us walk you through the features that are required to build a shopping application for your business:
1. Registration
The ultimate objective of an e-commerce business is to facilitate its users to a great extent. What good is an e-commerce website if they ask users to fill out pages and pages of details?
In fact, a complicated registration process might make the user uninstall the application or switch to a different one. You have to make sure to integrate a simple platform registration process with 2 or 3 clicks via mobile number or social media account.
2. Multiple Payment Gateway Support
Imagine that you have got a customer for your platform who is fond of your application and willing to make purchases. But after dumping the products of his choice he realized that you do not have the payment option that is preferred by him.
Now you have lost a potential customer. To ensure the success of any mobile app development company solution, especially with e-commerce, it is extremely important to integrate multiple payment options.
For example, you can consider debit cards, credit cards, e-wallets, net banking, and similar options to facilitate customers of different interests
3. Product Search
In most cases, it is obvious that customers will take a look at all of your specific product ranges available in the catalog. Hence it is extremely important to include product search options with different categories so that it can simplify the search process and make it faster for customers to find products. You can include a search bar on the menu having easy screen visibility.
4. Push Notifications
Business owners or companies associated with eCommerce development services often feel the gap between client requirements and product supply.
However, you can fill this gap with push notifications as it is one of the most important features in any e-commerce application. It strengthens customer engagement on the platform and helps them to remain up to date with your product catalog, sales, discounts, promotions, and similar offers.
5. Integration of Social Media Platforms
If you want to get the maximum online visibility and attention from your customer prospects then social media integration is worth a try. It ensures that your e-commerce application will always remain at the forefront and it will enhance your business exposure. It will help you to leverage the benefits of user-related content and word-of-mouth marketing.
6. Entire Business Synchronization
Considering you have a high-performing e-commerce application or website and have come up with an interesting feature to ensure targeting the potential users and taking their buying experience to a higher level.
But this exciting feature is required to be launched before your marketing competitor does the same. To fulfill this reason you have to streamline time-to-market and you can simplify this by synchronizing your application. E-commerce application synchronization will save you time along with increasing your sales and you can beat the competition in the long run.
7. Product Catalog
The best mobile application development company always delivers a highly classified product catalog to e-commerce websites on mobile applications.
You can integrate this feature into your solution to turn it into an accurate shopping platform. You can also use simple product categories, high-quality pictures, image descriptions, and similar functions so that the customers can sync with your products.
8. Review And Rating
You can allow your customers to describe their product experience or give reviews and rate the same on your application. The chances are, the product categories you are providing are nowhere in the wishlist of the customers but with the help of reviews, they can achieve a sense of satisfaction. You can also respond to their comments so that they can feel valued and stick to your e-commerce brand forever.
The Cost to Build a Perfect Shopping App
The shopping app or e-commerce website development cost is usually depends on crucial factors that can change the overall development cost and make it difficult for businesses. There are vital factors such as complexity, functions, size, infrastructure, deployment platforms, maintenance, development team, and features.
Some additional costs, such as security measurements, data storage, integration with third-party services, and design requirements, can highly impact the overall development cost.
The average online shopping app development cost lies between $8,000 to $25,000 or more.
Shopping App Development |
Estimated Cost |
Time Frame |
Simple App Development |
$8000 – $12000 | 3 to 5 Months |
Mid-Complex App Development |
$12000 – $20000 | 5 to 8 Months |
High-Complex App Development |
$25000+ | 9+ Months |
Tech Stack to Develop a Perfect Shopping App
For a successful online shopping app development, you need to consider the robust tech stacks to handle the highly automated operations or tasks. So, here is the list of the advanced tech stacks:
Category |
Tech Stack |
Description |
Frontend |
Javascript, Bootstrap, CSS, HTML | These powerful platforms build robust user interfaces. |
Backend | Python, Java, PHP, Flutter | Powerful backend frameworks build robust applications. |
Database | MYSQL, MongoDB, SQL, Postman | Securely stored massive data and organized structured data. |
APIs |
REST, GraphQL | Sharing data between applications, systems, and devices. |
Authentication |
OAuth, JWT | Verifies the user’s identity and access token from a trusted server. |
Cloud Services |
Microsoft Azure, AWS | Allowing apps to access resources in the cloud. |
Important Factors To Consider Before Developing An E-Commerce Application
A new e-commerce business venture requires an in-depth knowledge of the technology that you are entering into. So, there are some factors that are worth considering before initiating e-commerce application development.
However, an experienced e-commerce web development company will take care of all these requirements but you can always have a heads up.
1. Budget
Budget is the most crucial factor that is required to be taken into account while starting e-commerce web development. The budget is also a determinant factor that can define the market effectiveness of your e-commerce application.
Make sure to have a budget estimate prior to hiring a mobile app development company so that you can understand the business model, application infrastructure, and other prerequisites.
2. Market Study
Conducting a detailed market study will help you to understand the e-commerce app market opportunities including the audience behavior, preferences, opportunities, product expansion or possibilities, and many more. Keep one thing in mind – reliable data and information will help you to drive more sales and you can take your business in the right direction.
3. Competitor Analysis
Make sure to conduct an in-depth analysis of your potential competitors as it will enlighten you about their strengths or market strategies to approach customers. Competitor analysis will also help you to understand the success rate of the industry and you can successfully pull together your e-commerce business strategies.
4. Essential Infrastructure
Depending upon the type of your e-commerce business application model you can hire dedicated developers and study your business requirements. There are many factors involved in developing an e-commerce application that can also constitute a reliable infrastructure.
The way your e-commerce shopping application feels and appears on the platforms defines user engagement and eventually, it can turn out to be a huge driving force behind the success of your application. Make sure to integrate the essential infrastructure be it in terms of team size, service providers, delivery partners, and many more.
5 Monetization Techniques to Develop a Perfect Shopping App
Most of the business wants to know how to generate new revenue streams from a shopping app. We provide the best monetization techniques to increase the overall business valuation and how many ways to earn an acceptable income. So, here is the list of the monetization techniques:
- Freemium Model
- Partnerships
- Advertising
- Subscription Plans
- Transaction Fees
1. Freemium Model
In this first monetization technique, a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business provides a basic version with limited features. To access the individual features and functions, users have to purchase additional features or subscription plans. So, these freemium models can increase the company’s valuation and user base.
2. Partnerships
In this second monetization technique, we propose a partnership with reputed companies or merchants to sell their products or services via our shopping app.
This collaboration allows us to earn a commission on every sale of their products through our app and presents a significant opportunity for increased revenue. Such partnerships can enhance the experience of other related businesses and motivate more agencies to join our platform.
3. Advertising
In this advertising monetization technique, a shopping app serves as a platform for third parties to display their products or services. By allowing these third parties to advertise, the app can generate a profitable income.
The products can be displayed in various formats, such as banner ads, native ads, video ads, image ads, and display ads, enhancing the app’s content and user experience.
4. Subscription Plans
In this fourth monetization technique, a shopping app offers various subscription plans, such as basic, premium, and enterprise. Users must buy the subscription plans yearly or monthly if they want access to the app’s premium products or services. According to the e-commerce app development services provider, these can increase the business valuation and enhance the user experience.
5. Transaction Fees
In the last monetization technique, charge a fee for every transaction in your shopping app. You can earn a transaction fee-based income to increase the overall valuation.
For example, transaction fees will be added to the checkout process if a user purchases a subscription plan. These can increase the overall business valuation and user base.
How Dev Technosys Will Help You?
Having an e-commerce application for your business is one of the most productive business strategies that you can consider in 2024. As compared to the previous years, the volume of the e-commerce mobile trend is projected to increase.
You can hire Android app developers to promote your business and develop a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business, where they can deal with their potential customers directly.
Choosing the essential features for your shopping application is another crucial step. To help you in decision-making, here are top e-commerce mobile app development companies that will be useful.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How Can I Monetize My Perfect Shopping App?
There are various crucial monetization techniques that can lead businesses to generate new revenue streams. So, here is the list of the monetization techniques:
- Subscription Plans
- Freemium Model
- Partnerships and Collaborations
- Advertising
- Delivery Fees
2. How Long Does it Take to Develop a Perfect Shopping App?
To develop a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business, it usually takes around 3 to 9 months for overall development. It depends on the project’s requirements, developer working hours, and number of features.
3. How Much Does the Cost to Develop a Perfect Shopping App?
The cost to develop a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business is $8,000 to $25,000 or more. It includes many essential factors, such as functions, features, complexity, infrastructure, deployment platforms, size, and development team.
4. Which Technologies Are Used to Develop a Perfect Shopping App?
Consider the robust programming technologies to develop a perfect shopping app for your e-commerce business. So, here is the list of the technologies:
- Python
- Java
- PHP
- Flutter
- Kotlin
5. What are the Core Features of Developing a Perfect Shopping App?
The core features of developing a perfect shopping app that can attract more users and increase user engagement. Here we provide the list of the core features:
- Order Management
- Shipping Status
- Multiple Payment Options
- Shopping Cart
- Detailed Product Descriptions