Which Platform is Best to Build an eCommerce Application

Which Platform is Best to Build an eCommerce Application

In the rapidly progressing world of eCommerce, mobile applications have become a necessary component. It helps a business to reach a much larger audience and improve its customer experiences. Yet, there are tons of mobile technologies available in the market. Which one should you choose for your eCommerce business? 

It is vital to make the right decision while selecting the most suitable technology for building your mobile application. Experts will recommend you refer to an e-commerce application development company to get the best development services. This blog post will help you understand about the most popular mobile technologies available and learn their benefits for your e-commerce firm. 

Native Mobile Apps: The OG Experience

These applications are developed for a specific operating system. For example, iOS with Objective-C or Swift or Android with Kotlin or Java. You will get the highest performance, and best user experience, and gain access to device-specific features. Developing a native eCommerce application will give you seamless integration with a particular operating system.

They will enjoy superior performance compared to other development alternatives. However, these e-commerce application development services will be time-consuming and expensive. 

Hybrid Mobile Apps: A Flexible Option

These applications are famous for combining the best of both native and web technologies. Your e-commerce application development company will use different web technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript for developing hybrid mobile apps. 

Using frameworks like Flutter, React Native, or Ionic could be another option for developing cross-platform apps. Your business will find it more cost-effective to target multiple platforms. E-commerce businesses can expect an almost native-like experience and access to more device features. This is significantly lower than the native approach. 

You can enjoy a shorter development cycle. Yet, you may not get the full potential of performance and responsiveness from native apps. 

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs): A Lightweight Solution 

These applications are essentially websites that function and behave like mobile applications. Your users can access them via a web browser and explore an app-like experience. It is possible to push offline capabilities, push notifications, and device access with PWAs. Your e-commerce application development company will use standard web technologies to prepare the app for all platforms. It essentially removes the need for separate codebases. 

Your shoppers can easily find them through search engines and don’t need to install the app on their devices. Yet, Progressive Web Apps are infamous for having limited access to some device features and similar performance to native applications.

Cross-platform Development: Reaching Multiple Platforms at Once 

An e-commerce application development company would use frameworks like Xamarin and React Native for cross-platform development. It enables the developers to write code once and employ it around multiple platforms effectively. 

You will create a decent balance between native and hybrid approaches with the help of these frameworks. It uses a shared codebase, while you will be still able to access platform-specific features. The e-commerce mobile app development cost is also lower with this approach. 

Your company will spend less time in the development cycle. At the same, you can deploy the application faster than the native approach. However, I don’t want you to expect high performance and access to the latest features with cross-platform development. 

Don’t be in the Dilemma 

Finding the right mobile technology for your e-commerce mobile app could be challenging. I personally recommend finding a trustworthy company that provides high-quality e-commerce application development services. 

They will consider various factors, including budget, target audience, desired features, and time constraints to suggest you the best mobile technology for the job. 

Native applications might be best if you want the best performance and user experience. Yet, you need to dedicate more hard work to the development cycle. 

Hybrid apps can help you lower the e-commerce mobile app development cost. At the same time, PWAs are ideal if you want accessibility and ease of use more than anything. Moreover, many businesses prefer going with cross-platform development to create a balance between native and hybrid approaches. 

Ultimately, the decision should depend on your particular requirements and constraints. It is advisable to get an expert to find the best e-commerce platform application. They will properly asses your project requirements and determine the best technology. 

Requirements to Consider While Finding the Right Mobile App Development Technology and Approach 

Evaluate Your User Experience and Design Needs

The user experience and design of your eCommerce mobile app will play a vital role in retaining customers. These days people are looking for a refined and smooth user experience. Native apps are popular for providing a more refined and intuitive user experience. These applications have tight integration with the platform’s design regulations. It gives you a more engaging and seamless shopping experience. Yet, you can also achieve similar results with hybrid apps and PWAs. Your development team has to put in additional effort to ensure consistency across various platforms. 

What Are Your Performance Goals?

Fluidity and performance could be determining factors of success for an e-commerce application. Native apps are popular for more optimized for their respective platforms. Thus, you can expect to achieve better performance, faster loading times, and much smoother animations for your digital product.

Your e-commerce app can also take full advantage of device hardware such as the camera sensor, GPS, or fingerprint scanner, more effectively. Hybrid apps and PWAs can also let you do this, but they may not match the smoothness of native apps. However, the high development cost is often a big concern with native applications.

Time-to-Market: How Fast Do You Want to Deliver the App to the Market?

The time to launch your e-commerce application to the market has a huge impact on business objectives and user perception in today’s market. It usually takes a longer time frame to develop and launch native applications. These apps have separate codebases for each platform and extensive features. Thus, you have to spend more time with your e-commerce application development company. 

If time is a vital aspect of your business goals, I recommend you consider implementing cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Xamarin. They can help you to fast-track the development process. Your development team can use the same codebase for different platforms to increase their working pace. You can also consider PWAs if you are looking for a very lightweight solution. 

Maintenance and Updates are a Necessity

When you are finding the best e-commerce platform application, you have to consider long-term maintenance and update requirements. If you are taking the native approach, then you have to spend more time and effort to provide updates for each platform. 

Hybrid apps and PWAs can save you time and effort as they have a shared codebase. it makes maintenance and updates faster and more streamlined. The web-based nature of PWAs also enables super-fast deployment of updates to the users. They can directly access the latest version of your app without updating anything on their own. 

Integration with Backend Systems is Vital If You Have Too Many Features 

If you have extensive backend systems, then ensure that mobile technology provides seamless integration capabilities. There could be multiple features in your backend systems, such as payment gateways, customer databases, inventory management, live tracking, etc. You will find mobile technologies will give you APIs and libraries to provide these integrations to your e-commerce app. Yet, native apps might give you more platform-specific APIs and libraries. At the same time, hybrid apps and PWAs mainly rely on web APIs for smooth integration.

Final Words

Selecting the right mobile technology for your e-commerce application can be less stressful when you have an expert with you. This expert should provide you with trustworthy e-commerce application development services. It will help you ensure high performance, super user experience, and reliable security features. You also need to provide your input after analyzing your requirements and limitations. Then only your business can provide the best digital shopping experience to your users.