Convert your ecommerce store into a mobile app
A practical guide to putting your online store in the App Store and Google Play: what belongs in a store app, which notifications earn their keep, and how to convert your live storefront into native iOS and Android apps without a rebuild.
Most store owners do not stop because they doubt the app. They stop at the quote.
A custom native build is priced like a second product, and the alternative usually presented is rebuilding the catalogue inside someone else's editor, which means running two storefronts that drift apart. Behind both sits the part nobody wants to own: App Store submission, which is the most common source of confusion and rejection for first-time publishers.
The guide below covers the whole path, including the parts Twinr has nothing to do with. If your store already works well on a phone, the app is the short part.
Why an app
A store app isn't a second website. It's a channel that lives where your repeat buyers already spend their day.
Your icon sits next to the apps they open every day. No search, no typing a URL, no competitor ad on the way in.
A push lands on the lock screen of people who already bought from you, with no ad spend and no algorithm deciding who sees it.
App-only drops, early access and member pricing give your regulars a reason to keep the app installed.
App users come back more often. Over time they become the slice of customers your growth leans on.
Step by step
Five steps from first call to a live app. We do the work; you bring the assets and sign off where it matters.
A short onboarding call to agree how your app should work and plan the launch. You share access to your store and your Apple and Google developer accounts.
We build the app on your live store, with your tab bar and navigation rules. Everything on the site, from reviews and loyalty to checkout, carries across, and you get a working preview on your own phone early.
Design and navigation tuned to your brand, with push notifications and analytics set up in Twinr. We test on real iOS and Android devices, then you give the final sign-off.
Submitted to the App Store and Google Play under your own developer accounts. We handle both store reviews, then help you announce the app to your customers.
Send abandoned cart, back-in-stock and order updates by push. Track repeat purchase and push revenue in Twinr analytics, then keep improving. Store changes reach the app instantly, with no new release.
Features to jobs
Your linen shirt is still in your cart.
Cart recovery sent as push rather than email, triggered by store state and timed by segment. Included on every plan, with no third-party service to connect.
Push campaigns and automations →The everyday tote is back.
The summer edit just landed.
Back-in-stock and new-arrival alerts reach people who already bought from you, which is the audience paid acquisition costs the most to reach again.
Segments and scheduled sends →App-only screens for loyalty, bundles and flash sales that exist in the app and nowhere else, built in a drag-and-drop canvas.
Native screens and app-only pages →In-app purchase support for digital goods and subscriptions, which Apple requires. Physical goods stay on your existing checkout, exempt from commission.
Native capabilities in every build →Offline browsing keeps previously visited pages readable, and the app shows your brand instead of a browser error page.
How the native shell works →Sessions, retention, conversion events and push-attributed revenue tracked natively, so app performance is measured separately from web traffic.
What Twinr analytics measures →Push notifications
Email open rates keep sliding and every SMS costs money. Push lands on the lock screen of customers who chose to hear from you, and with Twinr it's included on every plan.
See how Twinr push works →Store policy
The rules that decide whether a store app is approved, and what each one means for your checkout.
Apple does not take commission on physical goods and services delivered outside the app, so your existing checkout and payment gateway are allowed and nothing changes about how you get paid.
What Twinr covers: the app renders your live checkout as it is. No integration work and no revenue share on Twinr's side either.
Downloads, memberships, courses and subscriptions consumed inside an iOS app must go through Apple in-app purchase. A web checkout for these is rejected.
What Twinr covers: in-app purchase support, so a store selling both can keep physical goods on its own checkout and route digital items through Apple.
Apple rejects apps built from a commercialized template or app generation service unless the content owner submits them. A store wrapped with no native behaviour is the classic case, and it is where most website-to-app tools lose.
What Twinr covers: native navigation, onboarding, push, permissions and app-only screens, which is what review is looking for. Managed submission on Premium includes responding to reviewer questions.
If shoppers can create an account in the app, both stores require an in-app way to delete it, plus accurate privacy labels covering what your store collects.
What Twinr covers: the native account screen and permission prompts. The deletion route itself lives in your store, so confirm it exists before you submit.
Examples
2X Higher conversion
App Store Google Play Read the case study → Fashion Retail35% Growth in mobile sales in first quarter
App Store Google Play Read the case study → Luxury Jewelry Retail2.5X Customer engagement on mobile
App Store Google Play Read the case study →Build options
| Capability | Your store + Twinr | Storefront app platform | Agency or in-house build | Progressive web app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | From $25/mo | $200–$1,200/mo, often with revenue share | $30k–$150k per platform | Hosting only |
| Time to first release | Days | Weeks | 3–6 months | Immediate |
| Storefront to maintain | One, your existing store | Two, web and app | Two, web and app | One |
| In the app stores | iOS and Android | |||
| Push notifications on iOS | Built in, unlimited | Built to order | Limited | |
| Fully custom native merchandising | App-only screens | Anything you specify |
After launch
Your team keeps working exactly as it does today. The app-specific work sits with us.
You turn an online store into a mobile app by wrapping your live storefront in a native shell rather than rebuilding it. Twinr converts your existing ecommerce site into native iOS and Android apps that render your live store, then adds native navigation, push notifications, offline browsing and analytics. Products, pricing and checkout keep coming from the store you already run.
A mobile website reaches everyone, an app keeps the people who already buy from you. The practical differences are push notifications, a home-screen icon, faster repeat navigation and offline browsing, which is why apps are treated as a retention channel rather than an acquisition one. Most stores run both.
A custom native ecommerce app typically costs tens of thousands of dollars and takes three to six months for a first release. Twinr plans are published and start at $25 per month, with Growth at $85 and Premium at $125, and there is no revenue share and no per-order fee.
Twinr converts stores on Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, Dukaan, headless storefronts and custom builds. If the store runs on the web and works on a phone, it can be converted, because the app renders your live site rather than importing your catalogue.
No. Physical goods and services delivered outside the app are exempt from Apple in-app purchase, so your existing checkout and payment gateway continue to work and Apple takes no commission. Digital goods and subscriptions consumed inside the app are the exception and must use in-app purchase.
Yes. Products, prices, collections, content and promotions update in the app as soon as you publish them on your store, with no new build and no app store review. Only changes to the native shell itself, such as the app name, icon or a new device permission, need a resubmission.
The campaigns that earn the most in ecommerce are abandoned cart recovery, back-in-stock alerts and order status updates, because each one is tied to something the shopper already did. Twinr includes unlimited push notifications on every plan, with segments and automations in the same dashboard as the app.
No. Twinr builds the app from your live storefront, so products, prices, cart rules and accounts all come from the site you already run. There's nothing to expose through an API and nothing to rebuild on the mobile side.
If your store is fast on a phone, the app will be too. Twinr adds native navigation, caching and offline browsing on top, so the app feels at least as quick as your mobile site. The best speed upgrade is still a fast store.
Yes. Twinr builds a native iOS app and a native Android app from one project. Both pull from your live store, so they stay in sync and you never make the same change twice.
You do. The apps are published under your own Apple Developer and Google Play Console accounts, so the listings, ratings, reviews and installed users all belong to you.
Usually, yes. If you control the existing store listing, the Twinr app can ship as an update to it, so customers keep their install and your ratings stay. Talk to our team before you switch so we can check your setup.
Push is built into Twinr, so there's no OneSignal or Firebase account to set up. You send one-off campaigns or automations like abandoned cart and back in stock from the Twinr dashboard, target them by segment, and see the revenue each one drives.
14-day free trial, no credit card. See your own store running as a native app in about a minute.
