Category: Ecommerce

WooCommerce is one of the workhorses of modern ecommerce, powering millions of stores and sitting on top of the vast WordPress ecosystem of themes and plugins.

That flexibility is one of the main reasons why people choose it: you can layer subscriptions, bundles, upsells, loyalty programs, custom checkouts, and more on a theme that fits your brand.

Once you start looking at turning your WooCommerce store into an app, you’ll see pricing that’s all over the map.

Some tools promise “instant apps” for a few dozen dollars a month, while agencies quote five- or six-figure projects to rebuild your storefront.

The bigger problem isn’t just how far those price points are from each other, it’s how different the outcomes are.

At one end, you get lightweight apps that struggle with real-world themes, plugins, and custom checkouts.

At the other, you pay a premium to recreate the WooCommerce experience you already have, then take on the ongoing cost of keeping it all in sync.

This guide cuts through the noise with a WooCommerce-first look at the real cost of turning your site into an app.

Option 1: Custom Native Development

This is the traditional route: you pay an agency or in-house team to architect and build custom apps from scratch that talk to your WooCommerce backend.

The Upfront Cost: $50,000–$200,000+

Modern app development pricing guides typically put simple apps in the $5,000–$50,000 range, medium-complexity apps around $50,000–$120,000, and complex apps starting at $120,000 and easily exceeding $200,000, depending on features and integrations.

A serious WooCommerce app rarely lands in the “simple” category. You’re rarely just listing products; instead, you’re reproducing:

• Your full WooCommerce catalog and categories
• Variable products, attributes, and filters
• Coupons, taxes, and shipping logic
• Subscriptions, memberships, bundles, and other plugin-driven features

By the time an agency has recreated all of that, $50,000–$100,000+ for a robust WooCommerce app (iOS + Android) is very normal. From their vantage point, they’re effectively building you a second ecommerce frontend.

If you want more insights to ecommerce app costs, check out our breakdown.

The Timeline: 6–12 Months

Custom WooCommerce apps aren’t quick to ship.

Most modern app cost guides tie cost bands directly to timelines: simple apps taking 2–4 months, medium apps 4–8 months, and complex builds 9–18 months. Ecommerce apps typically fall into the medium-to-complex category.

When you add WooCommerce-specific API work, plugin integration, and the need to support both iOS and Android, you’re realistically looking at 4–9+ months of work before you have a production-ready app tied closely to your store.

During that time, your WooCommerce site continues to evolve, but your app is locked behind phases, backlogs, and sprints.

The Hidden Costs

This is where WooCommerce merchants really feel long-term pain:

• Maintenance & OS Updates: Every year, iOS and Android ship major updates. Guides like this app development cost overview highlight that the “true cost of ownership” includes post-launch updates, bug fixes, and compliance work that can add thousands (or tens of thousands) per year.
• Two Platforms, Two Codebases: With separate iOS and Android apps, every new WooCommerce feature you want to surface like wishlists, subscriptions, loyalty enhancements must be implemented and tested twice.
• Rebuilding WooCommerce Plugins: WooCommerce’s power comes from plugins and extensions: Subscriptions, Memberships, Smart Coupons, advanced shipping, specialist gateways, and more. When you go fully custom, those don’t simply “carry over.” Each one usually needs a dedicated integration, or a partial reimplementation of its logic inside the app.

That’s why a WooCommerce app project is rarely “one and done.” Once you own those codebases, you also own the long-term upkeep.

Option 2: DIY App Builders

DIY app builders typically promise to generate an app from your WooCommerce store in minutes. But once you’re a serious, mid-market merchant, you don’t stay on the cheapest tier for long.

Subscription Costs: $70 – $600+/month

Most SaaS-style builders don’t charge a mandatory setup fee at all. You typically just pay your first month plus the app-store accounts: about $99/year for the Apple Developer Program and a $25 one-time registration fee for Google Play. 

On the more “plugin/lifetime license” side, WooCommerce-specific builders are usually sold as one-time licenses in the low–mid hundreds of dollars per app

In practice, the plans aimed at growing brands tend to land in the low-to-mid three figures per month.

Popular ecommerce app builders offer WooCommerce and webstore plans that start around $70/month and climb into the $200–$600/month range for “growth” or “pro” tiers.

Sometimes they offer an extra percentage of in-app sales on top or optional multi-year “one-time” licenses running into the thousands.

Check out a more in-depth review of these tools in our guide to WooCommerce mobile app builders.

The Hidden “Time Tax”

The real cost of a DIY WooCommerce app isn’t the monthly fee, it’s the time you spend battling limitations and edge cases.

With a builder, you are:

• Configuring navigation, menus, product feeds, and categories.
• Tracking down why certain product variations or categories don’t appear correctly.
• Troubleshooting broken coupons, shipping rules, or tax calculations that work perfectly on your main WooCommerce site.
• Dealing with App Store and Google Play submissions and rejections yourself.

If your time is worth $100/hour, and you invest even 30–50 hours into setup, adjustments, and app store back-and-forth, that’s $3,000–$5,000 in hidden cost before factoring in ongoing tweaks as your store evolves.

Every theme change, checkout optimization, or new plugin can mean revisiting your builder setup.

Option 3: Vendrux

Vendrux exists specifically for this use case: WooCommerce merchants who want a serious app, without rebuilding their store from scratch.

Instead of trying to recreate WooCommerce in native code, we use your existing site as the engine for your iOS and Android apps.

That means:

• Your theme, layout, and brand carry into the app.
• All your WooCommerce plugins and extensions like subscriptions, memberships, coupons, advanced gateways, shipping rules work the same way they do on your website, because the app is powered by it.
• You keep managing everything from the WordPress/WooCommerce dashboard you already know.

Change a product, promotion, or checkout flow on your WooCommerce site and your apps reflect that automatically. No double maintenance, no second catalog, no separate CMS.

The Cost Structure

Vendrux is billed as a recurring subscription, with a one-time setup fee covering the upfront build and publishing of your app.

It’s a predictable, flat cost. The subscription starts at $1,499 per month, with a $5K setup cost. That’s a premium price, compared to simple no-code app builders; but Vendrux is a premium service, for brands that can’t fit within a simple template.

The cost reflects the ongoing, managed service you get from us. Vendrux isn’t just a tool or a platform; we’re a partner, just as invested as you in the success of your app.

The “Done-For-You” Value

Vendrux is more expensive than most DIY mobile app builders. But that’s because we aren’t a DIY app builder.

• We build your app: Our team does all the technical work to bring your app to life.
• We submit it: We handle the submission & publishing process to the App Store and Google Play Store.
• We maintain it: We handle the regular maintenance required to keep your app fast and up to date.

This is value that goes above and beyond the cost you see on a pricing table. Instead of spending hours of your team’s time managing your app, you get an expert team taking care of everything app-related for you.

Summary Comparison Table

Here’s how the first year usually looks for a WooCommerce store:

Final Thoughts

When you zoom out, the real cost picture is pretty clear.

Commissioning a custom native WooCommerce app means committing $50,000+ just to get to launch, then signing up for an ongoing maintenance burden. You get power and flexibility, but you pay for it in capital, complexity, and time-to-market.

DIY builders can look inexpensive at first, but the real cost shows up in the time you spend managing them and in the compromises your best customers feel in the experience.

A strong app should convert mobile traffic and help you drive more repeat purchases and higher lifetime value from your core audience.

Entry-level plans may start at a few dozen dollars per month, yet every limitation, workaround, and broken integration chips away at your brand.

Vendrux takes a different path.

Instead of rebuilding WooCommerce, we turn the store you’ve already proven into iOS and Android apps in a matter of weeks. You keep your existing theme, plugins, checkout flows, and growth experiments and we handle the heavy lifting.

The result is a fully featured ecommerce app at a fraction of custom development costs and without the DIY time tax.

You don’t need to rebuild WooCommerce in a separate codebase. You need a partner that can take the store you already know converts and make it instantly accessible from your customers’ home screens.

Ready to see what your WooCommerce store looks like as a top-tier app? Book a demo with Vendrux today.

Cart abandonment is the most frustrating metric in e-commerce. You pay for the traffic. You get them to your site. They browse, they click, they add to cart. And then… silence.

They leave.

If you’re a Shopify store owner, you know this pain well. You aren’t just losing a single sale; you’re losing the acquisition cost (CAC) and the potential lifetime value (LTV) of that customer.

The reality is stark: Research from the Baymard Institute shows that the average cart abandonment rate sits at nearly 70%.

That means for every 10 shoppers who add an item to their cart, only three complete the purchase. But here’s the good news: a significant chunk of that revenue is recoverable. You just need the right blueprint.

This guide isn’t just about “saving” a few sales. It’s about building a retention engine that automatically captures lost revenue and increases revenue per customer over time, using a mix of fundamental best practices and advanced strategies that most of your competitors are ignoring.

Why Shoppers Abandon Carts

Before we fix the problem, we have to understand the bleeding. Why do 7 out of 10 people walk away at the finish line?

According to Statista, abandonment rates have been climbing steadily. But why? It’s rarely just one thing. Usually, it’s a combination of friction points that cause a shopper to hesitate and eventually leave.

• Unexpected Costs (48%): Shipping, taxes, and fees that appear only at checkout are the #1 conversion killer.
• Forced Account Creation (25%): Friction is the enemy. If you force a user to create a password before they pay, they will leave.
• Complicated Checkout Process (18%): Too many fields, too many pages, or a confusing layout.
• Trust Issues (19%): If the site looks sketchy or doesn’t show security badges, credit cards stay in wallets.

There’s a hidden fifth reason that’s often overlooked: The Mobile Web Experience. Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is growing, but it has a problem: conversion rates on mobile web are significantly lower than on desktop.

Navigating a store on a mobile browser can be clunky. The browser UI competes for space, forms are harder to fill out on a small touch keyboard, and tabs get lost. This friction is a major driver of cart abandonment.

Reduce abandonment before you ever send a reminder. Steal 15 more ways to cut cart abandonment in your store

Strategy 1: Optimize the Checkout Experience

The best way to recover a cart is to prevent it from being abandoned in the first place. You need to remove every possible barrier between “Add to Cart” and “Pay Now.”

1. Guest Checkout is Non-Negotiable

Don’t force users to create an account. Period. Enable guest checkout on Shopify. You can always ask them to save their info after the purchase is confirmed.

2. Be Transparent with Pricing

Surprise costs are the top reason for abandonment.

Show estimated shipping and tax costs on the cart page, not just the checkout page. Better yet, offer a “Free Shipping” threshold and display a progress bar (e.g., “Add $15 more for free shipping”).

This boosts Average Order Value (AOV) while reducing abandonment.

3. Offer Express Payment Options

Typing out a 16-digit credit card number on a smartphone is a nightmare.

Enable digital wallets like Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal. These allow users to checkout in seconds with a fingerprint or face scan, bypassing the tedious form-filling process.

4. Flash Trust Signals

Place security badges (Norton, McAfee, or simple “Secure Checkout” icons) near the “Place Order” button. It sounds small, but it reassures first-time buyers.

Strategy 2: The Perfect Abandoned Cart Email Sequence

Email marketing is the classic recovery method. It’s reliable, cost-effective, and familiar to customers. A well-structured email sequence can recover a significant portion of lost sales.

To actually move the needle, you need a strategic sequence.

Open Rates Reality Check: While effective, email has its limits. Average open rates for ecommerce emails hover around 20-25% according to Klaviyo benchmarks. Abandoned cart emails perform better (often 40-45%), but you’re still missing more than half of your audience.

Here is the 3-part sequence that works best:

Email 1: The Helpful Nudge (1-4 Hours Later)

• Goal: Customer service, not sales.
• Tone: Helpful, casual. “Did something go wrong?”
• Content: Show the item they left. Provide a direct link back to the checkout.
• Do Not: Offer a discount yet. You don’t want to train customers to wait for a coupon.

Email 2: Social Proof & Objection Handling (24 Hours Later)

• Goal: Remind them why they wanted it.
• Tone: Excited, confident.
• Content: “Still thinking about it?” Include 2-3 reviews or testimonials specifically about the product in their cart. Remind them of your easy return policy or satisfaction guarantee.

Email 3: The Closer (48-72 Hours Later)

• Goal: Create urgency.
• Tone: Urgent, final.
• Content: “Last chance.” This is where you drop the incentive. Offer 10% off or free shipping, but put a time limit on it (e.g., “Expires in 24 hours”).

Want ready-made timing and copy ideas? Use this high-converting abandoned cart sequence across email, SMS, and push

Strategy 3: SMS and Messenger Marketing

If email is the workhorse, SMS is the racehorse.

It’s fast, direct, and almost impossible to ignore. SMS marketing is powerful because it’s immediate, but that immediacy comes with a catch: it’s intrusive.

You have to be careful not to annoy your customers, or they’ll unsubscribe just as quickly as they opted in.

When you use SMS for cart recovery, keep each message short and to the point as you’ve got roughly 160 characters, so every word has to earn its place.

Always include a link, ideally using a URL shortener, that takes shoppers straight back to their pre-filled checkout so they can complete their purchase with minimal friction.

Make sure you’re compliant with regulations like TCPA and GDPR, and only send SMS to people who’ve given explicit consent.

In terms of timing, a good rule of thumb is to send the message about one hour after abandonment, or to use SMS as a final “last call” alongside your email sequence.

To execute all of this effectively, you can lean on tools like Yotpo, Klaviyo, or Postscript, which are built to handle SMS flows and Shopify integrations.

Strategy 4: Retargeting Ads

Sometimes, you don’t have their email or phone number. This is where retargeting ads come in. You can “follow” users who visited your cart page to Facebook, Instagram, and Google.

Retargeting ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google allow you to “follow” shoppers around the web.

You can show them the exact products they left behind. Shopify notes that retargeting is a key strategy for keeping your brand top-of-mind.

Strategy 5: Push Notifications

Here is the new reality: Email and SMS are incredibly valuable channels, but they’re also more saturated than ever.

Inboxes are overflowing. “Promotions” tabs hide your best emails. SMS filters are getting aggressive.

If you want to cut through the noise in 2026, you need a channel you control.

It should be free to send and show up right on your customer’s lock screen or notification tray for people who’ve installed your app and turned notifications on.

That channel is push notifications.

Why Push Wins on Retention

• High Visibility for Engaged Customers: Unlike emails that can get buried in the “Promotions” tab or ads that get scrolled past, push notifications can appear directly on the lock screen for customers who have your app installed and have opted in to notifications.
• Higher Engagement: Push notifications often see higher click-through rates than email, especially for time-sensitive offers and recovering abandoned carts, where average cart abandonment rates are over 70%.
• Deep Linking: You can deep-link a notification directly to the user’s cart in the app, so with one tap they’re back where they left off and ready to check out.
• Cost: Unlike ads or SMS, push notifications are generally free and unlimited.
• Speed: They are instant. A user taps the notification, and the app opens right to the checkout flow.

In our 2025 Ecommerce Mobile App Benchmark Report, we found that ecommerce apps recover 17% more abandoned carts when push is added on top of email and SMS flows.

The Barrier (and the Solution)

To send native push notifications, you need a mobile app. This is where Vendrux comes in.

Many Shopify owners stop here. They assume an app costs $50k and takes six months to build. That is no longer true.

Vendrux lets you turn your existing Shopify store into a premium native iOS and Android app in just a few weeks.

You do not rebuild anything. Your current website is the base, so your plugins, themes, and checkout flow still work.

You also get a real native app experience with smooth navigation and a focused environment that keeps your store front and center.

The “Abandoned Cart Push” Playbook

With a Vendrux app, you can set up an automated flow just like email, but with higher engagement:

1. User adds to cart in the app.
2. User leaves.
3. 1 Hour Later: A push notification is sent to users who have installed your app and enabled notifications: “You left something behind! 🛒”
4. Tap: The app opens instantly to the checkout page with their cart ready to go. In just a couple of taps, they can complete their purchase using the same payment methods they already use on your site (for example, Apple Pay or Google Pay where available).

This kind of low-friction experience is a powerful driver of ROI for top brands, especially among their most loyal customers.

Top Shopify Apps for Recovery

To build this ecosystem, you need the right tech stack. Here are the heavy hitters:

• Klaviyo / Omnisend: The gold standards for Email and SMS automation. They integrate deeply with Shopify and allow for complex segmentation.
• PushOwl: A popular web push notification app. (Note: Web push is less effective than native app push, as it doesn’t work on iOS in the same way).
• Recart: Excellent for Facebook Messenger marketing.
• Vendrux: A powerful solution for native app push notifications. It integrates with tools like Klaviyo and OneSignal, so you can manage your app push campaigns right alongside your email flows.

Turn cart recovery into a scalable retention channel. Download the Push Notifications for Ecommerce Guide and build a high-ROI push strategy

Final Thoughts

Recovering abandoned carts is not just about saving a single sale. It is about building a better customer experience and increasing the value of every customer over time.

A smooth checkout, well timed emails, and the high visibility of push notifications can work together to boost both revenue and retention.

Start by optimizing your checkout so customers do not drop off at the last step.

Use email for detailed, persuasive follow ups that answer questions and remove doubts. Use SMS when you need a quick, urgent nudge that is hard to miss.

Add retargeting ads to bring back people who left without giving you their email or phone number.

If you want to truly future proof your store and maximize LTV, you need to own your main engagement channel.

That means having your own app.

Turning your Shopify store into a native app with Vendrux gives you a powerful retention tool: a direct line to your customer’s pocket through push notifications.

Stop leaving money on the table. Get a live preview of your future app today to see the potential of your webstore.

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If you haven’t heard of Whatnot yet, you are missing one of the biggest shifts in ecommerce since the rise of Shopify.

While headlines focus on TikTok Shop, a dedicated marketplace app has quietly built a massive, hyper-engaged empire. It is not just another place to list products; it is a live, twenty-four-seven auction house that feels more like a video game than a store.

Whatnot is growing fast. In November 2025 alone, downloads grew 541% versus November 2024, reaching 1.61 million new installs in a single month.

It has evolved from a niche platform for Funko Pop collectors into a global live shopping juggernaut moving billions in gross merchandise value (GMV). For ecommerce founders, this signals a critical trend: the line between entertainment and shopping is gone.

While livestream shopping has already exploded in markets like China and Southeast Asia, Whatnot shows how that model is now taking hold in the US and other Western markets, blurring the boundaries between ecommerce, social media, and entertainment.

In this article, we will break down how the platform works, the numbers behind its rise, and whether you should treat it as a serious sales channel.

What is Whatnot? (eBay Meets Twitch)

At its core, Whatnot is a live shopping marketplace, a mashup of eBay’s auction mechanics and Twitch’s live streaming interactivity.

Sellers go “live” on video to auction items in real-time. Unlike traditional ecommerce where a customer browses a static catalog, a Whatnot session is an event.

The host might be cracking open packs of rare trading cards, showcasing vintage streetwear, or running “sudden death” auctions where items sell in seconds.

From Niche to Mainstream

The platform launched in 2019 with a focus on a single, obsessive community: Funko Pop collectors. The founders bet that enthusiasts didn’t just want to buy items; they wanted to verify authenticity and hang out with other fans.

That bet paid off. Whatnot mastered the “trust” verification process for collectibles and quickly expanded. Today, it covers over 250 categories. While it is still huge for mobile app market statistics in the collectibles space, it has aggressively moved into:

• Fashion and Beauty: Now one of its fastest-growing segments.
• Sneakers and Streetwear: Where hype culture drives massive auction volumes.
• Electronics: Reselling refurbished or overstock tech.
• Luxury Goods: Authenticated handbags and watches.

It creates a “FOMO” (fear of missing out) environment that static websites simply cannot replicate.

How Does It Work? The Mechanics of Live Selling

If you open the app, you don’t see a grid of product photos. You see a feed of live video streams. Here is how the mechanics drive sales volume that traditional retailers can only dream of.

Live Auctions and Speed

The heart of the app is the live auction. A seller holds up an item, starts a timer, and viewers bid in real-time.

• Sudden Death: Sellers can run auctions that last just 10–15 seconds.
• Bidding Wars: Every time a bid comes in late, the timer extends slightly, creating adrenaline-fueled wars.
• Buy It Now: Sellers can pin items for immediate purchase, but the action is usually in the bidding.

Breaks and Mystery Boxes

In categories like trading cards, sellers host “breaks.” A buyer purchases a “spot” in the break, and the host opens sealed packs live on camera. The buyer gets whatever cards belong to their spot (e.g., a specific team or player). It turns shopping into a gamble and a spectator sport.

Community and Chat

This is the “social” part of social commerce. Viewers aren’t just buying; they are chatting with the host and each other. They follow their favorite sellers and get push notifications every time they go live.

This creates a habit loop that is incredibly powerful for retention, something we often discuss when analyzing the benefits of mobile apps for DTC brands.

The Numbers: Is Whatnot a Real Contender?

It is easy to dismiss live shopping as a fad, but the data suggests otherwise. Whatnot has put up numbers that make it a serious player in the US ecommerce landscape.

Revenue and Valuation

The platform has attracted massive capital from top-tier investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator.

• In early 2025, Whatnot raised a Series E round at a $4.97 billion valuation.
• By late 2025, reports indicated a valuation climbing even higher, reaching $11.5 billion.
• TechFundingNews reports that the platform has secured nearly $1 billion in total funding.

Sales Volume (GMV)

• Estimates show Whatnot hitting $359 million in revenue in 2024, growing over 100% year-over-year.
• The platform facilitated approximately $3 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in 2024, according to data from Sacra.
• The company targets $6 billion in sales in 2025.
• During Black Friday 2025, the platform generated over $75 million in sales in a single day.

User Growth and “Stickiness”

The most impressive metric isn’t just the money; it’s the attention.

• The average user spends nearly 80 minutes per day in the app.
• Top sellers are generating millions in annualized revenue.
• According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this retention is driven by the community aspect, where small businesses act as micro-influencers.

These ecommerce mobile app statistics outperform almost any traditional retail app on the market, showing that the gamification of shopping works.

Get the numbers on how apps outperform mobile web in our mobile apps vs mobile websites breakdown

Whatnot vs. TikTok Shop

If you follow ecommerce trends, you are likely comparing Whatnot to TikTok Shop. Both are fighting for dominance in the US live shopping market, but they are fundamentally different beasts.

The “Commerce-First” Difference

TikTok started as an entertainment app and later layered in commerce. Most users still open it primarily to be entertained, and product discovery happens as part of that experience.

• TikTok Shop leverages massive algorithmic reach. A video can go viral to millions of people who weren’t looking to buy anything.
• Whatnot is a destination app. Users open it specifically to shop. The intent is commercial from the moment they click the icon.

Different Audiences

• TikTok skews broadly Gen Z and mainstream. It is great for low-AOV impulse buys, viral beauty products, and gadgets.
• Whatnot dominates the “enthusiast” economy. It is for collectors, hobbyists, and people looking for specific, often higher-value items like rare sneakers, vintage luxury bags, or graded comic cards.

As noted by eMarketer, while TikTok Shop is driving the “awareness” of live shopping, dedicated platforms like Whatnot are where deep, community-based commerce is thriving.

Should Your Brand Sell on Whatnot?

Today, Whatnot is still dominated by independent resellers and small businesses, rather than major retail brands. But that’s exactly what makes it interesting: it’s a glimpse of where mainstream ecommerce could be heading, as larger brands begin to experiment with live shopping the way they already have with TikTok Shop.

If you are a DTC ecommerce brand, should you be rushing to set up a Whatnot account?

The answer is: It depends on your product and your team.

Benchmark your own app plans against the report on how many ecommerce stores actually have mobile apps

The Case For “Yes”

1. Inventory Liquidation: Running a “Mystery Box” or “Vault Sale” can clear thousands of units in an hour without degrading your site premium.
2. Hype Launches: For streetwear or limited-run fashion, live drops create frenzy.
3. Customer Intimacy: It puts a face to the brand, building deep loyalty.

The Case For “No”

1. Talent Intensive: It requires a charismatic host who can talk non-stop for hours. Without one, you will fail.
2. Margin Compression: Between fees (roughly 8% + 2.9%) and auction deals, margins will be lower.
3. Audience Mismatch: If you sell commodities or utility items, the auction format adds little value.

The Strategy: Test It and Build Retention

Right now, the smart move is to keep a close eye on Whatnot and run small tests if your brand fits live selling.

If you sell collectibles, fashion, beauty, sneakers or hype-driven drops, it is worth trying a few shows and seeing how fees, discounts and host time stack up against the results.

Whatnot could become the next major ecommerce channel in the same way TikTok Shop has taken off, but you should not rely on it for long term customer relationships. Use each sale to move buyers into your own ecosystem.

Add inserts and QR codes to your packaging, invite people to join your email list or SMS program, and point them toward your own branded app for early access and perks.

Get the mobile app loyalty and retention playbook to turn superfans into long term VIPs

Final Thoughts

Whatnot is a fascinating glimpse into the future of shopping. It shows that consumers are craving connection, entertainment, and “gamified” experiences, not just efficient checkout flows. Its 541% year-over-year download growth and 1.61 million new installs in November 2025 show that this trend is only accelerating.

As more established ecommerce brands test live shopping, platforms like Whatnot could evolve from niche collector hubs into mainstream sales channels, much like TikTok Shop is becoming for social commerce. It’s part of a broader global trend where ecommerce, entertainment, and social media are merging into a single experience.

However, for serious ecommerce brands, a third-party marketplace should never be your only strategy. While Whatnot offers reach, it also charges fees and owns the customer.

The best brands use Whatnot to build hype and acquire new fans, while driving their most loyal customers to their own mobile app.

A dedicated app gives you similar notification power, but with far fewer competitor distractions and full control over your customer relationships and first-party data.

If you want to learn how to promote your ecommerce mobile app and build a retention channel you actually control, Whatnot is a great inspiration, but it shouldn’t be your only play.

The following article was contributed by StoreLab. StoreLab is a Shopify Growth Service that helps Shopify businesses boost their online sales through performance marketing, mobile apps, and creative services. 

In 2026, Shopify is more competitive than ever, and guessing your way to growth won’t cut it.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide, to help you navigate ecommerce and put strategies into action that actually get results.

Four Ways to Grow Your Sales (and Bottom Line)

The tactics here are tested and proven, built to deliver quick results while also laying the groundwork for success that sticks: 

1. Run organic & paid social campaigns 
2. Improve your Shopify store’s mobile experience
3. Focus on customer loyalty & retention tactics
4. Maximise sales & AOV with strategic promotions

They will help you to generate immediate sales as well as build a loyal customer base who keep coming back. By following these four strategies, you’ll stay ahead of the competition and position your Shopify store for more long-term, sustainable growth!

Let’s jump in…

1 – Run Organic & Paid Social Campaigns

Paid and organic social campaigns work best when they support each other, and in 2026, this combination is going to be one of the fastest strategies for growing your online store. 

Paid advertising remains one of the most effective ways to get your products in front of the right audience. You’ll see instant impact through traffic spikes and sales conversions, while also strengthening your Shopify store’s long-term brand visibility and expanding your customer base. 

Meta ads, in particular, are a standout option thanks to their precise targeting capabilities. You can reach shoppers based on demographics, interests, browsing behavior, or even past purchases, ensuring your promotions appear in front of people who are most likely to convert.

Meta’s range of formats – carousel, video, and collection ads – also give you flexibility to showcase products in engaging, authentic ways. 

While paid ads accelerate immediate results, organic social keeps your audience warm, engaged, and connected over time. Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest are especially powerful because their built-in shopping features make browsing and buying seamless for followers. 

The goal of organic content is to build genuine relationships, spark conversations, and nurture a loyal community. By sharing valuable, relatable posts that highlight your brand’s personality, story, and expertise, you create trust that leads to long-term growth.

2 – Improve Your Shopify Store’s Mobile Experience

Mobile is where your customers live. In fact, nearly 8 out of 10 visits to Shopify stores come from mobile devices, and that number is only rising. In 2026, if your store isn’t fully optimised for mobile, you’re leaving money on the table. You need to meet shoppers where they prefer to browse! 

Start by making sure your desktop site translates smoothly to mobile. Pages should load quickly, navigation needs to be intuitive, and checkout should be frictionless. 

Beyond a responsive website, consider a dedicated mobile app. Shoppers prefer browsing on apps – they’re faster, smoother, and designed for mobile from the ground up. What’s more, users of mobile apps add over 4x more items to their carts, making it a simple but effective way to grow sales without constantly chasing new customers. 

The advantages of having an app for your Shopify store are clear: 

• Higher conversions & larger baskets: Faster load times, simplified navigation, and smooth checkout make it easier than ever for shoppers to move from browsing to buying. Apps also see an 85% higher add-to-cart rate compared to mobile sites. 
• Fewer abandoned carts: Streamlined mobile experiences mean less distraction and delay, so more shoppers complete their purchases.
• Speedy shopping experience: Unlike some mobile websites, apps handle high traffic smoothly, keeping users engaged and moving through checkout. 
• Push notifications that drive action: Remind customers about saved items, flash sales, or limited-time discounts instantly. Personalised notifications like “Your saved beige puffer jacket is now 20% off” create urgency and encourage impulse purchases. 
• Personalised recommendations: Apps can show products tailored to browsing history, preferences, or past purchases, helping customers find what they want faster. 

Popular app builder tools include vendrux, which has an impressive plan ideal for startups with expert support and simple setup, and StoreLab, which is a growth service geared towards more established Shopify businesses and offers a holistic approach including app development, Meta ad campaigns, and creative services. 

Whatever your business size or goal, there’s a mobile solution designed to fit your needs.

3 – Focus on Customer Loyalty & Retention Tactics

According to Forbes, acquiring a new customer can cost 5-7x more than retaining an existing one, and in a market that is becoming more and more saturated, this matters more than ever.

Competition is fierce, marketing costs continue to rise, and consumers are overwhelmed with choices. So, 2026 will be more than just attracting new shoppers; it’s about keeping the customers who already know, trust and love your brand.

Retention starts with showcasing reviews, user-generated content (UGC), and social proof across your store and social channels. When potential buyers see real customers using and enjoying your products, like in the example from Glossier above, it builds instant credibility and reduces the hesitation that often comes from purchasing from new or unfamiliar brands. UGC also reinforces authenticity, which is key with how crowded ecommerce is becoming.

Rewarding loyal customers is another great strategy. Having a valuable loyalty program, exclusive discounts, birthday rewards, or VIP-only early access to sales can make customers feel seen and appreciated, ultimately encouraging more repeat purchases. In many cases, merchants rely on tools like a Shopify loyalty app to help manage these programs and keep customer engagement organized behind the scenes.

Subscription services can further strengthen retention by offering convenience. Whether it’s refillable products, curated sets or boxes, or bundles, these subscriptions create ongoing engagement and sales, as well as more recurring and predictable revenue.

By prioritising loyalty and retention for your Shopify store, you’ll build stronger customer relationships, increase lifetime value (LTV), and stand out. Plus, by improving your experience, nurturing existing customers, and retaining new ones, you naturally create a better overall customer experience that attracts new shoppers organically, or through word-of-mouth. 

4 – Maximise Sales & AOV with Strategic Promotions

Turning a customer’s cart into a bigger sale doesn’t have to feel pushy, it’s about giving shoppers options they actually want. Upselling, cross-selling, and bundling let you do exactly that: guide customers toward products that complement their purchase while also growing your AOV. 

Consider this: 72% of sales teams rely on upselling and cross-selling, and these efforts contribute to roughly 30% of their overall revenue. By guiding customers to products that complement their original purchase, you help them discover more of what they love and boost your sales in the process.

Here’s some ways to implement these promotions on your Shopify store: 

• “Complete the Look” Bundles: Ideal for fashion, beauty, or lifestyle brands. Pair related items (like a foundation with a matching concealer) or offer a discounted bundle including multiple complementary products. 
• Complementary Discounts: Encourage multi-item purchases by offering small savings on items that go together, such as a yoga mat and resistance bands or a handbag and wallet set.
• Checkout Upsells: Suggest useful add-ons like gift-wrapping, premium shipping, or exclusive accessories to increase AOV while improving the shopping experience. 
• Tiered or Bundle Promotions: Reward larger purchases with deals like “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” or “Save 15% on Bundled Sets” to motivate higher spending. 

Running strategic promotions like these is especially powerful around major shopping events like Black Friday and the Christmas holiday season. Customers are already primed to buy, and well-timed upsells, cross-sells, and bundles can significantly increase both revenue and customer satisfaction.

You should also make sure to promote these offers across social media, email campaigns, push notifications, and paid ads during these key sales events to reach your audience wherever they are and maximise impact.

Final Thoughts

Remember, seeing more success for your Shopify store in 2026 won’t happen overnight. Getting your strategy right takes time, and a willingness to test, measure, and adjust.

The stores that thrive aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets, they’re the ones that combine data-driven decisions with a real focus on making the customer experience perfect.

Think of growth as a continuous process: every new strategy, every tweak, and every insight adds up. Some tactics will deliver immediate wins, while others lay the foundation for growth that builds over time.

By staying patient, learning from what works (and what doesn’t) and prioritising your customers’ experience at every touchpoint, you’ll set your Shopify store up for huge wins in 2026.

Customer engagement in ecommerce is more important than ever. As shoppers tighten their budgets, merchants are realizing that promotions alone won’t build a sustainable business.

The reason is simple: customers are now pickier. They compare options. They hunt for the best value. That’s why long-term growth depends on building strong relationships, not just driving one-time purchases.

In fact, Twilio notices brands that have mastered customer engagement were 41% more likely to report their conversion rates as “much higher” compared to the previous year.

In this guide, we’ll share six actionable customer engagement strategies for your brand, plus which metrics to track and how to avoid common mistakes that hurt customer engagement. 

Customer Engagement in Ecommerce: The Definition

Customer engagement in ecommerce is every interaction a customer has with your brand. These interactions happen across multiple touchpoints throughout the customer journey. 

When we talk about customer engagement, we’re looking at what prompts customers to interact with your brand and how often those interactions occur.

The goal is to turn these experiences into real, positive relationships. When you get this right, you build loyalty, drive repeat purchases, and grow your business over time.

A great product or competitive price may attract customers. But engagement is what keeps them coming back for more.

Customer engagement often gets mixed up with customer experience and customer satisfaction:

• Customer engagement is the way customers engage with your brand over time.
• Customer experience is how they feel after those interactions.
• Customer satisfaction measures how well your product meets their needs.

Why Customer Engagement in Ecommerce Matters (With Metrics)

Strong customer engagement directly impacts your store’s growth and performance, including:

• ‍Higher cart value: Engaged customers tell you a lot about their preferences. Use this insight to recommend add-ons and personalized upsells that increase average order value. ‍
• More customer-driven feedback: Engagement keeps you connected with your customers. You get clearer insights into what they need and expect. And when problems come up, you can fix them fast.  
• ‍Shorter sales cycle: The more you engage, the more customers trust you. And when they trust you, they decide faster. They already know your brand, your value, and your quality. ‍
• Stronger customer loyalty: A good customer engagement practice helps build emotional connections. This keeps customers coming back. It reduces the chance they’ll switch to competitors. ‍
• Better customer satisfaction: When you deliver relevant, timely, and personalized experiences, customers feel understood. This leads to higher satisfaction and a stronger impression of your brand.

To measure customer engagement, keep an eye on these metrics on your online stores:

• Click-through rate (CTR): How often people click your emails, social posts, website links, or notifications.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of visits that lead to a purchase.
• Returning customer rate over time: The number of customers who come back within a given period.
• Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page.
• Time spent per session: Average time users spend on your site.

Learn more: Customers engage more often, and for longer, in mobile apps. See how much, in our exclusive Ecommerce Mobile App Benchmark Report.

6 Actionable Engagement Strategies (With Real Examples)

Enough with the theory and numbers. Below are six actionable customer engagement strategies, each paired with real examples.

Personalized Customer Engagement

The best customer engagement should feel personal. Instead of treating every shopper the same, you tailor each interaction to their preferences and needs.

Beauty Pie does this well. The popular cosmetics brand has created a simple questionnaire that helps users find the most relevant products.

This kind of personalization increases customer engagement. Customers spend more time with the brand, feel more confident buying, and are more likely to come back. 

Collect and Showcase Feedback & Reviews

Let customers know their voices matter. Inviting and responding to feedback is a key part of customer engagement. It shows that you value your customers and their opinions beyond the transaction.

Make it easy for them to share feedback. At the same time, display those reviews on your website. When people see their opinions matter, they feel valued. And valued customers stick around.

Wise Trail Running knows. For every product page, the brand includes a “They talk about us” section that highlights real customer reviews.

This builds trust with new shoppers and shows existing customers that their feedback helps shape better products. When brands invite feedback and visibly act on it, customers are more likely to interact, trust the brand, and return.

Build Engagement in a Human-Centric Way

Build your customer engagement strategy on trust and empathy.

Whether you sell online or in person, customers want to feel like people, not transactions. Lead with that, and loyalty will follow.

United By Blue is a great example of making things feel human. The brand adds an “Accessibility Adjustments” section. It includes multiple options to improve usability for different needs, like “ADHD Friendly Profile” and “Vision Impaired Profile.” There’s also a live chat button so customers can reach a real person fast.

These aren’t big, splashy features. But they show customers that the brand sees them. That’s what human-first engagement looks like.

Leverage Community Engagement Channels

To build genuine relationships, foster a sense of community.

Create spaces where customers can connect. Use social media, online forums, and exclusive events. When customers feel part of something bigger, they become loyal advocates.

Kylie Cosmetics nails this. Founder Kylie Jenner has a massive social media following. She regularly engages with these fans through product launches, restocks, and sneak peeks. This builds hype and keeps her audience hooked.

But Kylie’s influence alone doesn’t drive the brand’s success. The company also sends PR packages to high-profile beauty influencers. These creators review and promote the products to their own audiences. This helps the brand tap into wider beauty communities.

What started as a makeup line has grown into a lifestyle. That sense of community is what keeps customers loyal and engaged.

Engage Customers at the Right Moment

One effective way to boost customer engagement is to prompt customers to act at key moments in their shopping journey.

When customers see a progress bar like “Add $15 more for free shipping!”, it transforms passive browsing into active participation. They’re now engaged in reaching a goal, not just shopping.

It’s a simple tactic, but easy to get wrong. Set it too high, and customers abandon their cart. Set it too low, and you lose profit.

Check your average order value first. Then set your threshold slightly above it to avoid cart abandonment. 

Blanc Space is a great example. The phone case brand sets its free shipping threshold at €45. Their cases cost €23 to €30 each. This pushes customers to add a second item to qualify.

Make Every Purchase Meaningful With Reward Programs

Shopping feels more memorable when customers receive something extra.

Reward programs show customers you value them. They build long-term relationships beyond a single purchase.

Witch, Please! understood this goal. They wanted to engage with customers without confusing points programs. With Koin, they launched a simple cashback program. Customers earn store credit with each purchase and can redeem this credit on their next order.

As a result, the customer engagement strategy drove a strong increase in returning customers and generated more than $34,000 in total sales.

How to Know If Customer Engagement is Working

There’s a fine line between engaging customers and pushing them away. Watch for these signs to see if your engagement efforts work:

Customers return for repeat purchases

This is the easiest way to measure success.

Repeat purchases show that customers are satisfied. They like your products and shopping experience. Over time, this loyalty creates a steady revenue stream that benefits your business.

People engage across your omnichannel touchpoints

If your customers engage across all the channels you expect them to be on, your customer engagement strategy is working well. You can then refine each channel along the way as you uncover new insights and customer behaviors.

Engaged customers don’t stick to just one channel. So be present where your customers are.

For example, if your customers buy on mobile, make your site fully responsive. Similarly, if your customers frequently engage through email or social media, those channels should deliver a consistent experience that supports their buying journey.

Customers leave positive reviews 

Reviews and feedback are the two best indicators of customer satisfaction. They show how customers truly feel about their experience with your brand. Consistent positive feedback signals your engagement efforts are working.

Don’t be discouraged if customers don’t leave reviews. Sometimes, people are simply busy or forget. All they need is a gentle nudge to share their experience and provide feedback. Consider offering small incentives, like gift cards or store credit, to increase response rates.

However, creating meaningful engagement isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Common Mistakes That Hurt Your Customer Engagement

Before you get started, know what could go wrong.

Many brands unintentionally drive customers away. These mistakes can quickly damage your brand perception and erode customer trust.

According to Emplifi, 70% of consumers admit that they will leave a brand after just two bad experiences. 

Here are common mistakes merchants make when executing their customer engagement in ecommerce:

Create too many pop-ups with the wrong timing

Pop-ups are great for engagement. You can capture emails, promote offers, or reduce cart abandonment.

However, pop-ups create frustration when they appear too frequently, at the wrong moment, or interrupt the browsing experience.

To maintain positive engagement, set pop-ups to appear after customers scroll 75% of the page. Or show them after two page views.

This approach gives visitors time to understand your brand first, improving trust and the likelihood of conversion.

Neglect customer data protection

Customer engagement in ecommerce is built around trust. When customers share personal information, they expect you to protect it.

But most merchants overlook this. KPMG reports that 60% of consumers believe companies routinely misuse their personal data.

Before building engagement, prove yourself reliable. Essential privacy practices include:

• Being transparent about your privacy policy.
• Applying SSL certificates (HTTPS) on every page.
• Using trusted, PCI-compliant payment processors.
• Complying with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

Overlook user experience

Your landing page makes or breaks whether customers shop on your site.

A well-designed site shows you’re credible and professional. Clear navigation, fast loading, and mobile-friendly design all contribute to a seamless experience.

A poorly designed site signals the opposite. Consider this: If you don’t invest in a quality site, why should customers trust your products over competitors?

Final Thoughts

Customer engagement is about building genuine relationships. Turn first-time buyers into loyal advocates.

The six strategies in this article give you a strong starting point. Start by understanding your customers. Then find the channels they use most. From there, implement strategies that fit their behavior and preferences. Test, measure, and refine as you go.

Remember: customer engagement is a continuous commitment to creating positive value at every touchpoint.

2025 was a big year for mobile commerce – especially shopping apps.

The majority of shoppers today are mobile-first. They’re convenience-first. They’re largely becoming engagement-first.

In 2025, live shopping finally hit the mainstream. Discount marketplaces like Temu kept their grip on the top of the charts. And resale apps had their best year yet.

This report breaks down the 13 trends that defined mobile commerce in 2025, based on data from Sensor Tower, Appfigures, Statista, and company disclosures.

Read more: Check out our Top Shopping Apps of 2025 – original rankings listing the 25 top-performing shopping apps of the year.

Executive Summary

Here are the most significant numbers and biggest players on the scene in 2025:

• Whatnot grew downloads 541% year-over-year and hit $6B in GMV
• Temu remained the #1 shopping app globally for the third year in a row, with 530 million monthly active users
• Vinted was named Best Retail App 2025 in the UK; the US secondhand market grew 14% to $56 billion+
• Blinkit led global ecommerce download growth at 165%
• Holiday 2025 hit $257.8 billion in online spending (November-December), up 6.8% from last year

The pattern that stayed consistent across the whole market was that apps that got people to come back (not just buy once) were the ones that grew.

13 Trends That Defined Mobile Commerce in 2025

1. Live Shopping Went Mainstream

Live shopping app Whatnot did $6 billion in GMV in 2025 – double what they did in 2024. Downloads grew 541%. In November alone, they added 1.61 million new installs.

Here’s the stat that gets people’s attention: users spend 80 minutes a day on Whatnot. That’s more than Netflix.

Live shopping works because it combines entertainment with commerce. People tune in, they build relationships with sellers, and they keep coming back.

Apps like Whatnot are just the beginning. Live shopping is already massive in certain markets, like Southeast Asia. In 2026, expect this channel to become an even bigger factor in Western markets.

2. Community-Driven Sellers Beat Anonymous Storefronts

Whatnot’s sellers aren’t faceless merchants. They’re collectors, enthusiasts, experts. People follow them.

The platform’s reward program drives a 20% lift in repeat purchases. That’s not a small number.

When buyers trust the seller (not just the platform) they buy more and come back more often.

3. Discount Marketplaces Held Their Ground

Temu remained the #1 shopping app in the world (in terms of new downloads) for the third straight year. 

The numbers are hard to wrap your head around: 1.2 billion total downloads, 530 million monthly active users, top ranking in North America, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Japan, and South Korea.

They spend over $2 billion a year on marketing. They connect directly to manufacturers. They keep prices lower than almost anyone else. It’s a hard model to compete with.

4. Fast Fashion Kept Growing (Controversies and All)

SHEIN had 74 million downloads in the first half of 2025. Their supply chain runs on 7-day production cycles. Estimated revenue hit $58.5 billion.

There’s plenty of criticism around labor practices, environmental impact, and IP issues. But the download numbers keep climbing, especially among younger, price-conscious shoppers.

5. Resale Had Its Best Year

Vinted grew revenue 36% and was named Best Retail App 2025 in the UK. The US secondhand market hit $56 billion, up 14% from last year.

This isn’t just a Gen Z thing anymore. Sustainability concerns are real, and so is the appeal of saving money. Vinted’s zero-fee model gives them an edge over competitors who take a cut.

6. Quick Commerce Proved It Works

Indian instant delivery app Blinkit grew downloads 165% from January to October. That made it the fastest growing ecommerce app in 2025.

Their promise: groceries in 10 minutes. In dense urban markets, with people living increasingly busy lives, that’s a huge selling point.

This category is still mostly an emerging-market story, but it’s starting to show up in US cities too.

7. Discovery Beats Search

Whatnot’s whole design is built around stumbling onto things you didn’t know you wanted. They have an “and whatnot” section – basically uncategorized stuff – where new categories emerge organically.

Add to that the success of TikTok Shop, where consumers discover new products rather than searching for a specific thing, and the growing dominance of influencer-leg UGC ads, and we’ve got a major trend to follow.

Users say they’re more satisfied when they find something unexpected than when they search for something specific and find it.

For years, ecommerce was about making search as efficient as possible. Now the apps winning on engagement are the ones that make browsing feel like discovery.

8. Niche Apps Found Their Footing

Sole Retriever (sneaker drops and raffles), ThriftAI (thrift store arbitrage), and other category-specific apps stayed in the top 100 shopping app rankings all year.

They do one thing really well for a specific audience. The big marketplaces can’t match that level of specialization. If you’re deep into sneakers, Sole Retriever does things Amazon never will.

9. BNPL Became Part of Shopping, Not Just Checkout

Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay were all mainstays in the top 15 shopping (and shopping-adjacent) apps throughout 2025.

But they’re not just payment apps anymore.

Klarna has marketplace features now. Affirm keeps expanding merchant partnerships. They’re becoming shopping experiences, not just payment options.

10. Big Retailers Adapted Well

Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy all maintained positions in the top 25 most-downloaded shopping apps. The Amazon Shopping app has 105+ million monthly active users.

While niche apps and discount retailers are having their moment, the big players in retail are still seeing major success.

Their advantage is logistics: same-day delivery, in-store pickup, returns anywhere. Mobile apps make that more convenient. For a lot of shoppers, that convenience beats lower prices elsewhere.

11. Rewards Programs Keep People Coming Back

Capital One Shopping, Fetch Rewards, and similar apps stayed among the top 15-30 most popular shopping apps the whole year.

The mechanics are simple: use the app, get money back, repeat. Fetch’s automatic receipt scanning makes it even easier. Once people start accumulating rewards, they don’t want to stop.

12. Marketplaces Consolidated, But Differentiation Still Won

Despite competition, long-standing marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Alibaba all remain hugely successful.

Each one carves out a distinct lane: eBay has auctions, Etsy has handmade goods, Alibaba has B2B.

But newcomers like Whatnot and Vinted still grabbed share by doing something different; live shopping and zero-fee resale. Format innovation still works.

13. Global Expansion Pays Off

Temu grew across North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and South Korea. Blinkit scaled across India. Whatnot expanded to Europe with 340,000 hours of weekly livestreams.

Emerging markets are adopting mobile commerce fast – sometimes faster than developed markets.

What This Means for Ecommerce Brands

A few things stand out from the data:

1. Engagement matters more than transactions.

The apps that grew weren’t just optimizing for checkout. They were getting people to spend time; 80 minutes a day in Whatnot’s case. Brands that treat their app as a destination, not just a store, see better results.

2. Community creates loyalty.

Push notifications, personalization, rewards programs: these things work. But the deeper play is building a relationship where customers actually want to hear from you.

3. Discovery is underrated.

Search optimization is table stakes. But the apps winning on engagement are the ones surfacing products people didn’t know they wanted.

4. Mobile-first is the expectation now.

If it wasn’t before, it’s clear now that your customers are mobile-first. You should be designing your experiences with mobile in mind – as well as building mobile-first retention channels like apps.

5. Retention beats acquisition.

Customer acquisition costs keep rising. The math favors brands that get more value from customers they already have.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Based on what we saw in 2025, here are some predictions for where the market is heading in 2026:

• Live shopping will expand to more categories and more markets
• Discount marketplaces may face more regulatory pressure, especially in the US and EU
• Quick commerce will keep growing in emerging markets and start testing in more US cities
• Resale will keep accelerating – it’s not just a young-consumer trend anymore
• Retention will become the main battleground – the brands that win will be the ones that get customers to come back

The brands that treat mobile as a core channel, not an afterthought, are the ones set up to grow.

Build Your Mobile App with Vendrux

The data here tells a clear story: retention, convenience, and mobile-first engagement are hugely important for today’s shoppers.

And that’s where mobile apps stand out.

Apps drive engagement and retention in ways mobile web doesn’t.

Vendrux turns your existing website into a native mobile app. Same storefront, same checkout, same experience, always in sync. Push notifications to reach your best customers for zero cost. 

Everything’s done for you. Vendrux handles the build, app store submissions, and maintenance.

You get the benefits of an app without the usual cost or timeline.

For brands who want to stand out in 2026, turning your site into an app is the best way to do it.

Get a free preview of your app to see what’s possible, and map out your path to launch.

Report published January 2026. Data sources: Sensor Tower, Appfigures, Statista, Business of Apps, company disclosures. Coverage Period: January – December 2025. Markets: United States (primary), Global context. Platforms: iOS App Store + Google Play. Compiled by Vendrux – turn your ecommerce website into an app in 30 days.

Getting a customer to buy once is hard. Getting them to buy again is even harder.

For most ecommerce brands, retention is the biggest lever they’re not pulling. You spend money acquiring customers, they make one purchase, and then they disappear. Maybe they come back in six months. Maybe they don’t.

The math is brutal: acquiring a new customer costs 5-7x more than retaining an existing one.

And with customer acquisition costs up 60% over the past few years, brands that can’t retain customers are burning money.

Mobile apps are one of the most effective tools for solving this problem. They address the core reasons your customers aren’t coming back, and deliver a proven lift in one of the most important metrics for your business.

Check out more data on how mobile apps move the needle for ecommerce brands in our latest Ecommerce Mobile App Benchmark Report.

Why Customers Don’t Return

Before we talk about solutions, it helps to understand the problem.

Customers don’t come back for a few predictable reasons:

They forget about you

They bought something, it was fine, but you’re not top of mind when they need something again. Someone else’s ad reaches them first.

It’s too much friction to return

They have to find your site, remember their login, maybe re-enter payment info. Every step is a chance to abandon.

You can’t reach them

Email open rates are around 20%. Social algorithms decide who sees your posts. You’re competing with every other brand for attention.

They don’t feel connected to your brand

There’s no relationship. You’re just another online store.

When the customer wants to make another purchase, they only come back to you if you’re able to win the bidding war again.

How Mobile Apps Drive Retention

A mobile app addresses all four of these problems.

1. You’re on Their Home Screen

This is the simplest advantage, and it’s underrated.

When someone downloads your app, your brand is now sitting on their phone. Every time they unlock it, there you are. You’re not competing with 47 browser tabs or buried in a bookmark folder.

Home screen presence keeps you top of mind without spending a dollar on ads. When that customer needs something you sell, you’re one tap away.

The numbers reflect this: app users return 2-5x more often than mobile web visitors. It’s not because the app is magic. It’s because you’re right there, easy to access, constantly visible.

2. Push Notifications Bring Customers Back for Free

This is the retention superpower.

With email, you’re lucky to get 20% of people to open it. And that’s if it even lands in the primary inbox.

Push notifications are different. They pop up on the phone’s lock screen. Open rates are 30-50%, sometimes higher. Nearly 100% visibility.

And here’s the key: there’s no cost to send them.

No ad spend. No cost-per-click. You’re reaching your best customers directly, whenever you want.

A few ways brands use push notifications for retention:

• Restock reminders. “Running low on your last order? Reorder with one tap.”
• Back in stock alerts. “That item you wanted is available again.”
• Personalized recommendations. “Based on your last purchase, you might like this.”
• Sale announcements. Flash sale notifications can drive immediate traffic.
• Loyalty updates. “You’re 50 points away from your next reward.”

Each of these is a touchpoint that brings someone back who otherwise wouldn’t have thought about you that day.

The conversion rates are strong, too. Push notifications typically see 6%+ conversion rates. Compare that to the 1-2% you might see from email or ads.

3. Frictionless Return Visits

Every piece of friction between a customer and a purchase is a chance for them to drop off.

On mobile web, returning to buy something means:

• Finding the site (or remembering the URL)
• Waiting for the page to load
• Logging in (or resetting a forgotten password)
• Navigating to the product
• Entering payment info (or finding the saved card)

In an app, it’s:

• Tap the icon
• Browse (already logged in, payment info saved)
• One-tap checkout

This isn’t just convenience. It’s the difference between someone completing a repeat purchase and someone getting distracted halfway through.

Apps reduce the cognitive load of buying from you again. That matters more than most brands realize.

4. Longer, More Engaged Sessions

When someone visits your site on mobile web, you’re competing with everything else on their phone. Notifications popping up. Other tabs open. One swipe away from Instagram.

In an app, there’s less distraction. It’s just your store.

The result: app users spend 3-7x longer per session than mobile web visitors. They view 4x more products. More browsing means more products discovered, more items added to cart, and bigger orders.

Session length directly correlates with both conversion and retention. The more time someone spends engaging with your brand, the more likely they are to come back.

5. Loyalty Programs Actually Work

If you have a loyalty program, you’ve probably noticed the same thing most brands notice: participation is lower than you’d like.

People sign up, earn some points, and then forget about them. Email reminders get buried. The program becomes an afterthought.

An app gives your loyalty program a home.

Points balance is visible every time they open the app. Progress toward the next reward is clear. Redemption is easy.

You can also use the app to drive deeper engagement:

• Double points for in-app purchases
• App-exclusive rewards
• Push notifications when they’re close to a reward tier

Loyalty programs and apps are built for the same goal: turning one-time buyers into repeat customers. Together, they’re more effective than either one alone.

6. A Direct Relationship with Your Best Customers

Here’s something that gets overlooked: the people who download your app are already your best customers.

Someone doesn’t download an app from a brand they’re lukewarm about. They download it because they like you, they plan to buy from you again, and they want easier access.

An app gives you a direct line to these high-value customers. No algorithms deciding who sees your content. No ad platforms taking a cut. Just you and your most engaged buyers.

That relationship compounds. 

The more they use the app, the more loyal they become. The more loyal they become, the higher their lifetime value.

The Retention Math

Let’s make this concrete.

Say you have 100,000 customers. Your current repeat purchase rate is 20%. That’s 20,000 customers buying again.

Now imagine you launch an app. 15% of your customer base downloads it (15,000 people). These app users have a repeat purchase rate of 50% – consistent with what brands typically see.

That’s 7500 repeat purchases from app users alone.

If your average order value is $75, that’s $562,500 in additional revenue from repeat purchases – customers who might not have come back otherwise.

And that’s before factoring in the higher AOV that app users typically show (10-50% higher) or the fact that app users make purchases 2-5x more frequently.

The point isn’t the specific numbers. It’s that retention improvements compound. 

A mobile app doesn’t just shift purchases from web to app. It creates net-new revenue from customers who would have otherwise churned.

What About the Cost?

The traditional objection to mobile apps has been cost and complexity. Custom app development can run six figures and take 6-12 months.

But that’s not the only option anymore.

If you already have a mobile-optimized website (and you probably do – that’s where most of your traffic comes from), you don’t need to rebuild everything from scratch.

Your website already handles:

• Product pages
• Checkout
• Account management
• Navigation
• All your integrations (reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, etc.)

Vendrux converts your existing website into a native app. Same design, same checkout, same features. Fully synced – when you update your site, your app updates automatically.

You get the retention benefits of an app (push notifications, home screen presence, one-tap access) without the cost and complexity of building something from scratch.

You could add six-figures plus in new revenue, for around $1-2K per month. That’s about as big of a no-brainer as there is.

Is an App Right for Your Brand?

Mobile apps aren’t for every brand. If you’re just starting out and don’t have repeat customers yet, an app probably isn’t the priority.

But if you’re an established ecommerce brand with a loyal customer base, and you’re struggling to keep those customers coming back, an app is worth serious consideration.

The brands seeing the best results typically share a few characteristics:

• Strong mobile traffic. If 60%+ of your traffic is mobile, your customers are already comfortable buying on their phones.
• Repeat purchase potential. Consumables, subscriptions, fashion, pet supplies; categories where customers buy regularly.
• An engaged audience. People who follow you on social, open your emails, buy multiple times.

If that sounds like your brand, an app can turn occasional buyers into loyal customers, and loyal customers into your most profitable revenue stream.

Getting Started

If you’re curious whether a mobile app makes sense for your brand, here’s how to think about it:

1. Look at your repeat purchase rate. If it’s lower than you’d like, an app can help.
2. Check your mobile traffic. If it’s the majority of your traffic, your customers are ready for an app.
3. Consider your LTV. The higher your potential customer lifetime value, the more an app investment pays off.

Most growing brands today should have their own mobile app. And Vendrux is the best way to do it.

We’ll give you a free preview so you can see exactly what your store would look like as an app – no commitment required.

If retention is a challenge for your brand, it’s worth exploring.

Get your free preview now, or book a free consultation to go over your project in more detail.

Here’s the typical omnichannel approach: unify the data layer, connect the CRM, make sure the email matches the website matches the social ads. And that’s the right instinct.

But then someone says “we should have a mobile app,” and the whole thing falls apart.

Not because mobile apps are a bad idea. Apps account for 94% of time spent on mobile devices, and drive more conversions, more repeat purchases and higher AOV than mobile websites.

For any brand with consistent revenue, the app channel is the highest-LTV touchpoint you can add.

The problem is how most apps get built. Traditional app builders create a parallel universe: a separate content system, a separate design system, separate integrations, separate updates. 

You launch the app and it looks great on day one. Three months later, it’s running last season’s promo banner while your website has moved on. Your Klaviyo flows trigger in the app differently than on web. Your loyalty program works on the site but glitches in the app.

That’s not omnichannel. That’s two channels pretending to be one.

And if you build a custom native app, the same thing happens – at 50x the price.

There’s a better way to think about launching a mobile app for omnichannel brands.

The Channel That Quietly Falls Out of Sync

You’ve probably seen this play out, even if you haven’t named it.

Brands like yours invest real money into their omnichannel stack. They connect their POS to their ecommerce platform. They build unified customer profiles across email, SMS, and web. They run coordinated campaigns across social, search, and marketplace channels.

Then they launch a mobile app. 

Suddenly, they’re managing two storefronts. The website gets updated daily by the marketing team. The app gets updated whenever someone remembers to log into the app builder dashboard (or whenever your email to the dev agency gets actioned… if you remembered to send it).

The result is predictable:

• Product pages diverge. The website has updated descriptions, new photography, fresh reviews. The app is stuck with whatever was pulled in at launch.
• Promotions don’t match. You run a flash sale on the website, but the app still shows full price because someone forgot to update the app-side banner.
• Checkout behaves differently. The payment options, shipping calculators, or discount code logic works slightly differently in the app, because it’s a separate implementation.
• Integrations break. Your reviews widget, size guide tool, or loyalty program works fine on the website but either doesn’t exist in the app or uses a different version with different behavior.

None of this is theoretical. It’s the default outcome when your app and website run on separate systems. And I literally see this from real mobile apps all the time.

The irony is painful: the mobile app, which should be your most personal and high-converting channel, becomes the one that undermines the consistent experience you’ve built everywhere else.

Why Traditional App Development Creates This Problem

Whether you build your brand’s app with a drag-and-drop mobile app builder, or you contract a custom development shop, these things all share the same fundamental architecture: they rebuild your storefront from scratch using APIs.

Your ecommerce platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, whatever you’re running) exposes product data through its API. The app pulls that data and renders it inside a completely new front end. 

Different templates, different design logic, different rules for how everything displays.

This creates three major problems.

Every customization needs to be built twice

That custom size guide you spent weeks perfecting on your website? It doesn’t exist in the app unless someone rebuilds it there. 

The Yotpo reviews integration you painstakingly configured? Same story. 

Your custom landing pages for seasonal campaigns? You’ll need to recreate them in the app builder every single time.

Your marketing team can’t operate independently

On the website, your team updates content, launches promotions, and swaps out banners without touching code. 

In the app, those same changes usually require either the app builder’s dashboard (which has its own learning curve) or a support ticket to your app vendor (which goes straight to the end of their backlog).

Feature parity is a moving target

Your website evolves constantly. New integrations, A/B tests, checkout optimizations, third-party widgets. 

The app starts behind and falls further behind over time because every improvement needs to be ported over separately.

The net effect is that brands either invest heavily in a dedicated app team to keep everything in sync (which defeats the purpose of simplifying your stack) or they accept that the app will always be a stripped-down, slightly stale version of their website.

Neither option is great if you’re trying to deliver a consistent experience across channels.

The Fix: Make Your App an Extension of Your Website

There’s a fundamentally different way to build a mobile app, and it solves the omnichannel consistency problem by design rather than by effort.

Instead of rebuilding your storefront from scratch using APIs, Vendrux takes your existing website and delivers it inside a native iOS and Android app. 

Your website becomes the app. Same content, same checkout, same integrations, same everything.

The app delivers your full website experience inside a native container, adding native capabilities like push notifications and deep linking on top. 

This architecture eliminates the entire category of “keeping the app in sync” problems, while maintaining the same native experience customers expect.

Here’s how life changes (for the better) with this approach.

One update, every channel

Because the app is rendering your website, there’s no second system to update.

When your marketing team changes a product description, swaps a homepage banner, launches a new collection, or updates pricing, those changes appear in the app instantly. 

Full integration parity

Every third-party tool that works on your website works in the app automatically. 

Klaviyo popups, Yotpo reviews, Smile.io loyalty points, Afterpay checkout, custom size guides, live chat widgets. If it runs on your site, it runs in your app. No integration work, no separate configuration.

Your existing team runs the app

The people who manage your website already manage your app. 

There’s no app developer on staff, no separate content pipeline, and no app builder dashboard to learn. Your Shopify admin (or whatever CMS you use) is your app’s CMS too.

Checkout stays identical

This is the one that matters most for conversions: the checkout flow in your app is the same checkout flow on your website. 

Same payment methods, same discount code logic, same shipping calculators, same post-purchase upsells. Zero divergence.

Your customers get a fast, native app experience. Your team gets zero additional operational overhead.

What the App Channel Actually Adds to Your Omnichannel Stack

If the app is essentially delivering your website, you might wonder what the point is. Why not just focus on the mobile web?

The answer is in the native capabilities that a mobile app unlocks on top of your existing experience.

Push notifications

Email open rates have been declining for years. SMS costs money per message and faces increasing regulatory pressure. 

Push notifications land directly on your customer’s lock screen – with open rates around 20% and they cost nothing to send after the initial setup. 

For abandoned cart recovery, flash sale alerts, back-in-stock notifications, and loyalty rewards, push is unmatched.

An owned channel

An app is a channel you own, 100%. You own the conversation, the data, the messaging.

You’re not reliant on Google’s search algorithm, on ad auctions, or your emails landing somewhere other than promotions/spam.

App Store presence

Your brand appears in the App Store and Google Play alongside the biggest retailers in the world. Customers can find you by searching. They see ratings and reviews. 

It signals legitimacy in a way that a mobile website bookmark never will.

Home screen real estate

Your app icon sits on the customer’s phone, competing for attention with maybe 30-40 other apps they use regularly. 

That’s fundamentally different from competing with every other website in a browser tab.

It keeps your brand top of mind by default, and leads to far more engagement from your best customers.

Because the app is built on your website, you get all of this without sacrificing anything. 

Your full product catalog, your complete content library, your entire checkout flow, every integration you’ve built. It all carries over.

How to Build a Low-Maintenance, Omnichannel Mobile App

Adding an app channel through the website-to-app approach is simpler than most brands expect.

With Vendrux, it’s just three steps from now to launch.

1. Book a strategy call. Share your website URL and talk through your goals. The Vendrux team will assess fit and walk you through exactly how the app will look and perform for your specific store.
2. Get your custom app preview. The team builds a working preview of your native app so you can see it in action before committing. You’ll see your actual website, your actual products, your actual checkout, all running inside a native app.
3. Launch in 30 days. Vendrux handles the build, App Store submissions, and launch. Your app goes live on both the App Store and Google Play while you focus on running your business.

From there, your app stays in sync with your website automatically. No ongoing maintenance. No developer needed for content changes. 

You get the benefits of a native mobile channel, with the app infrastructure done for you, and no duplicate work.

It’s the best way to launch an app that adds to your revenue, not to your to-do list.

Adding a Channel Shouldn’t Mean Adding Complexity

The whole point of an omnichannel strategy is to make things simpler for your customers. 

They shouldn’t notice the transitions between your channels. They shouldn’t get a different experience depending on which touchpoint they happen to be using.

But too often, adding a mobile app does the opposite. It adds complexity for your team and inconsistency for your customers.

It doesn’t have to be that way. When your app is an extension of your existing website rather than a separate rebuild, the omnichannel promise actually holds. 

One experience, every channel, no extra operational burden.

If you’re running a brand that’s ready for an app channel but doesn’t want to manage another platform, book a free strategy call with Vendrux. 

There’s no commitment required. We’ll just walk you through the process, share some examples of what’s possible, and give you a clear picture of what the app channel can do for your business.

We’ve built over 2,000 apps for brands in exactly this situation. From first call to App Store, you could be live in about 30 days.

Ready to explore it? Get in touch and get a free consultation now

If you run an ecommerce brand and SMS is a meaningful part of your marketing mix, you know the rules are getting tighter. 

What you might not know is how much tighter, how fast things are moving, and what your options actually look like when SMS stops being the easy win it used to be.

This isn’t a “kill your SMS program” article. SMS has earned its place in your marketing stack. Open rates near 98%, click-through rates in the 21-35% range, and a direct line to your customer’s most personal device. The channel works.

But working well and being sustainable are two different things. 

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has been around since 1991, and it’s never been enforced as aggressively as it is right now. Combine that with rising per-message costs and stricter carrier requirements, and the math on SMS starts to look different than it did two years ago.

Here’s what’s actually changing, what it means for your brand, and where push notifications fit into the picture.

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What the TCPA Actually Requires (And What Changed Recently)

The TCPA was originally written to stop robocalls. Over the past decade, it’s expanded to cover text messages, and the enforcement machinery has caught up.

Here’s what you need to know as an ecommerce brand:

The basics that haven’t changed:

• You need “prior express written consent” before sending marketing texts
• Consumers must be able to opt out at any time
• Each unsolicited text can result in $500 to $1,500 in statutory damages per message
• There’s no cap on total damages, which is why class actions regularly reach millions

What changed in 2025:

The FCC’s revocation of consent rules took effect on April 11, 2025. Under these rules:

• Consumers can revoke consent through “any reasonable means” (not just replying STOP)
• Businesses must honor revocation requests within 10 business days
• This applies to both marketing and informational messages

The FCC also codified that Do Not Call Registry protections apply to text messages, closing a loophole some businesses had relied on.

There was also the saga of the “one-to-one consent” rule. 

The FCC proposed requiring seller-specific consent for each individual company contacting a consumer, which would have made lead-sharing and multi-brand consent forms essentially worthless. 

The 11th Circuit ultimately vacated that rule in August 2025, finding the FCC had overstepped its authority. But the fact that it got that far tells you which direction regulators are heading.

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Keep in mind we are not legal experts, and none of this is legal advice. To be sure of complete and accurate information, make sure you check in with a legal professional.

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The Enforcement Numbers Are Hard to Ignore

In Q1 2024, there were 239 TCPA class actions filed. In Q1 2025, that number hit 507, a 112% year-over-year increase. 

Through September 2025, over 2,128 TCPA lawsuits were filed, a 57.9% increase over the same period in 2024.

Nearly 80% of all TCPA lawsuits are now class actions. For context, only about 5% of other consumer protection cases are filed as class actions. Plaintiff firms are expanding operations specifically to increase TCPA filing capacity.

Recent settlements from retail and ecommerce brands:

• DSW / Designer Brands: $4.43 million settlement (approved August 2025)
• Zales Jewelers: $7.5 million settlement (September 2025)
• Albertsons: $5.95 million settlement for telemarketing calls and texts without consent
• &Pizza: $750,000 settlement for texting customers who had already opted out

The &Pizza case is worth pausing on. That wasn’t some massive brand-wide violation. It was a company that kept sending marketing texts after people said stop. A mistake any growing ecommerce brand could make with a poorly configured SMS tool or a messy subscriber list.

The Cost Problem Beyond Compliance

Even if you stay perfectly compliant, SMS is getting more expensive.

A standard US SMS message runs $0.01 to $0.05 per send, depending on your platform and message type. MMS (messages with images) costs more, typically around $0.04 per message. 

That doesn’t sound like much until you do the math at scale.

A brand sending 100,000 messages a month is looking at $1,000 to $5,000 in message fees alone. 

Add platform subscription fees, carrier surcharges ($0.003 to $0.01 per message), number registration fees, and the cost of dedicated compliance staff or legal review, and SMS becomes one of the more expensive channels in your stack.

Carrier fees have been steadily increasing. The major carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) introduced surcharges for commercial messaging that didn’t exist a few years ago. 

And then there’s the hidden cost: the internal resources you spend managing compliance. Maintaining consent records, processing opt-outs within 10 business days, auditing your subscriber lists, training your marketing team on the rules, and retaining legal counsel to review campaigns. 

None of that shows up in your per-message cost, but it’s real.

10DLC

10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) is the registration system US carriers now require for any business sending text messages from a standard phone number.

Before 10DLC, you could get a number and start texting. Now you need to:

• Register your brand
• Submit each messaging campaign for approval
• Wait for vetting

Registration fees run $4 to $15 depending on the carrier, with some requiring annual renewal. Your throughput (how many messages you can send per second) is tied to a “trust score” the carriers assign based on your brand size and registration details.

Lower trust scores mean stricter rate limits, which can be a real problem during flash sales or time-sensitive campaigns. If you skip registration entirely, your messages get silently filtered or blocked.

It’s one more layer of cost and operational overhead that didn’t exist a few years ago.

Where Push Notifications Fit In

Push notifications and SMS do fundamentally the same thing: put a message on your customer’s phone screen in real time. 

The difference is in how they get there and what rules apply.

Here are some of the advantages of push notifications:

No regulatory exposure

Push notifications aren’t covered by the TCPA. There’s no statutory damage risk, no class action liability, no FCC oversight. 

Users opt in through their device’s native permission system (the standard iOS or Android prompt), and they opt out by toggling a switch in their phone’s settings. 

The entire consent model is managed by Apple and Google at the operating system level. It’s significantly safer – not going to end up with a $7.5 million lawsuit.

No per-message cost

Once you have the infrastructure in place, push notifications are free to send. 

There are no carrier fees, no per-message charges, no surcharges. Whether you send 1,000 or 1,000,000 notifications, the marginal cost is zero.

Comparable reach and engagement (with caveats)

SMS generally has higher reported open rates and click-through rates. Those numbers are real and worth respecting. But they’re also somewhat misleading – especially regarding push.

Push notifications land right on the lock screen, essentially “opened” already. Many studies regard a push “open” as a long-tap that shows the full message (longer messages have a little bit cut off). Some regard an open as tapping on the notification and opening the app.

That’s a lot different than opening an SMS.

You could argue that push notifications have a 100% open rate, since they’re almost guaranteed to be seen on the lock screen.

The Honest Comparison: SMS vs Push Notifications

The right comparison isn’t push vs SMS in isolation. It’s the total cost of each channel, including compliance overhead, legal risk, and per-message fees, relative to the revenue it generates.

Here’s the birds-eye view of how SMS and push notifications stack up against each other.

Where SMS still wins:

• Higher raw engagement metrics (open rate, CTR)
• Wider reach: doesn’t require app install
• More established channel with more mature tooling (Klaviyo, Postscript, Attentive all have deep ecommerce integrations)

Where push notifications win:

• Zero regulatory risk under TCPA
• Zero per-message cost
• Deep linking directly into native app content (product pages, carts, account screens)
• Rich media support (images, action buttons, custom sounds) without MMS surcharges
• No carrier approval, registration, or number provisioning required
• Consent model is built into the operating system. There’s nothing to manage on your end.

Where it’s genuinely close:

• Abandoned cart recovery (both channels perform well here)
• Flash sale and limited-time offer announcements
• Loyalty and rewards program engagement
• Re-engagement campaigns for lapsed customers

The Shift That’s Already Happening

Here’s what we’re seeing from successful brands. They’re not abandoning SMS – but reducing their dependence on it and building push notification capabilities in parallel.

The logic is straightforward. If you’re spending $3,000 to $5,000 a month on SMS message fees, plus platform costs, plus internal compliance overhead, and one bad list hygiene day could trigger a seven-figure lawsuit, the risk-adjusted cost of that channel is higher than it looks on a spreadsheet.

Meanwhile, push notifications through a native app cost nothing per message, carry no legal risk, and convert at rates that make them worth the investment in the app itself.

This is especially true for brands that already have (or are building) a mobile app. If your customers are installing your app, you have a direct line to them that doesn’t route through carriers, doesn’t require consent management infrastructure, and doesn’t put you in the crosshairs of an industry that filed over 2,000 lawsuits in nine months.

Should You Abandon SMS?

None of this means you should shut down your SMS program tomorrow. 

And push notifications are not a direct replacement for SMS either, because you can’t reach every person on your SMS list with a push notification (only those who have your app installed).

But you should be adding push notifications to the mix. For the people you can reach, they’re more reliable, more cost-effective, and arguably more powerful on a message for message basis.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how to assess your SMS strategy – how to make sure you’re safe from lawsuits, and how to start branching out into new channels like push.

• Short term: Audit your SMS compliance. Make sure your opt-out processing meets the new 10-business-day requirement. Review your consent records. If you’re using shared consent forms or lead-gen partners, understand exactly what consent you actually have.
• Medium term: If you have a mobile app, invest in your push notification strategy. Segment your audience, build automated flows (abandoned cart, browse abandonment, back-in-stock), and start measuring push performance alongside SMS. You’ll likely find that push drives meaningful revenue at a fraction of the cost.
• Long term: Consider what it would take to shift your most expensive SMS campaigns to push. High-frequency campaigns (daily deals, flash sales, loyalty updates) are the best candidates. You won’t be able to shift all of these messages to push; but you can potentially replace SMS with push just for customers who have your app.

For brands that don’t have a mobile app yet, this is one more reason to consider it. The direct messaging channel alone can justify the investment, especially when you factor in the compliance costs and legal risk you’re avoiding.

Getting Started with Push Notifications

If you’re running an ecommerce store and you want to add native push notifications to your marketing mix, you need a mobile app. 

Not a PWA (which can only send web push notifications – which are far less effective than native push), but a real native app on iOS and Android.

Vendrux builds native apps from your existing ecommerce website. Your site, your checkout, your integrations, all delivered as a native app with full push notification support. 

No rebuilding your store from scratch, no managing a separate codebase, no sacrificing the features your customers already use.

Here’s what that process looks like:

1. Book a strategy call. Share your website URL with us, discuss your goals, and we’ll assess whether an app is a good fit for you.
2. Get a custom app preview. Our team builds a personalized preview so you can see exactly how your store looks and feels as a native app.
3. Launch in 30 days. We handle everything. Your app goes live on the App Store and Google Play while you focus on running your business.

We’ve built over 2,000 apps over the last 10+ years, including apps for global ecommerce brands like John Varvatos and Jack & Jones. 

If you’re curious whether a native app (and the push notification channel that comes with it) makes sense for your store, book a free strategy call now to discuss it, get your questions answered, and start making push a part of your marketing stack.