Africa Basics: Converting eCommerce Websites Into Mobile Apps

Sawubona Africa!

Having an effective website is considered to be a key factor for a small business’ success. However, customers have gone mobile nowadays and any small business without an on-the-go presence is missing out on massive potential business opportunities.

Why convert your website into an app?

A mobile app, on the other hand, is a software application that you download from the app store of your mobile platform (Google Play (Android devices) or the App Store (iOS devices)). Apps are fully functioning entities that exist in a separate form but can be integrated with your website.

So, why create a mobile app if your website is already responsive?

An app is “native” to the device on which it is designed to run so that it loads and operates faster than a responsive website on the same device.

Additionally, an app doesn’t need an internet connection to work, which means your mobile app can always be opened and used.

How to convert website to a mobile app?

A mobile application is one of the fastest growing categories in the mobility market today. Therefore, getting your website to a mobile app becomes a necessity. Furthermore, there are a lot of tools that help in the transition of your website to an app with reasonable costs.

Mobile compatible apps are great as they allow users to browse your website in a user-friendly manner. Generally, there are three broad types of app development methods:

1) Native

2) HTML5/Web/Progressive Web Apps 

3) Hybrid

Here comes the question, What are native, hybrid and web apps? More importantly, which is most appropriate for you and your app?

Native

Native apps are built specific to a given mobile platform (iOS or Android) using the development tools and language that the respective platform supports (e.g., – Xcode and Objective-C with iOS, & Java with Android). This kind of development offers the best user experience.

HTML5 / Web/ Progressive Web Apps

Web apps use standard web technologies—typically HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS. A web app is a nice “add-on” for some brands who want to reach 100% of their audiences. This approach to mobile development creates cross-platform mobile applications that work on multiple devices. Also, these apps can be added to the home screen of the mobile device as well. For Example- Twitter Progressive Web App

Hybrid

The bulk of the app is built using cross-compatible web technologies, such as HTML5, CSS, and Javascript. It is a translation layer to provide access to some native mobile features. For Example – PhoneGap and Apache Cordova allow this kind of development. An advantage that hybrid apps have over native is that it’s faster and easier to develop.

However, there are plenty of pros and cons, choosing the best, totally depends on the type of app.

Wrapping up

For small businesses, mobile is quickly becoming a channel for selling product or services. These tools allow web developers and web page owners to convert their websites into mobile apps devices, such as iOS, Android, and Windows Phones.

For converting your Website/ Webstore into Mobile Apps, Reach us!