A mobile app builder for e-commerce is software that turns a brand's online store into a phone app for Android and iPhone, without the brand writing any app code. The app shows the same products, prices and stock as the website, because it reads them from the store's e-commerce platform.
Why would a brand want an app at all, if it already has a website? There are three reasons. First, an app can send push notifications. A push notification is a short message that appears on the phone's screen, even when the app is closed. Second, an app keeps the shopper logged in, so a repeat order takes a few taps. Third, the shoppers who install a brand's app are usually its most loyal customers, and they tend to order more often. So brands use the app to reward them.
Building an app from scratch needs Android and iPhone developers, and a team to keep the app updated. A builder removes that work. On a web page, the brand chooses a layout, its colours and its menus. The builder creates the app and publishes it on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, under the brand's own name. When the brand adds a product or changes a price on its website, the app shows the change at once.
Here is a typical case. An ethnic-wear brand in Jaipur has 40,000 customers who have bought from its website. It launches an app, and 6,000 of these customers install it within three months. Before its Diwali sale, the brand sends a push notification to the app users only: "Early access: the Diwali collection opens for app users tonight." A customer engagement platform, connected to the app, sends this message and chooses the time. The app also shows each user's points from the brand's loyalty programme. A shopper who has 450 points, worth ₹450, uses them to pay part of the price of her next kurta.
A builder has limits. Every app it makes is assembled from the same set of ready-made screens. So a brand that wants a feature no other brand has, such as trying on glasses with the phone's camera, still needs its own developers. The builder is the cheaper way to get a standard app that works well.
An app is also different from selling on WhatsApp, where shoppers order inside a chat. An app must first be installed, while WhatsApp is already on almost every smartphone in India. Many brands use both: WhatsApp to reach every customer, and the app for the loyal ones.