What is an e-commerce app?
An e-commerce application is a web or mobile application that enables users to purchase and sell goods and services. E-commerce apps usually include an interface for browsing available products, viewing pricing information, adding items to a shopping cart, checking out of the store, managing user accounts, and reviewing previous purchases.
E-commerce apps are similar to online product review apps, recipe apps, and web browser apps that allow you to search for products on the web. Popular e-commerce applications include Amazon, Etsy, and eBay.
Examples of e-commerce apps built with Crowdbotics:
- A recipe companion app built for a houseware company in the e-commerce industry that allows users to search for recipes they can make with products they’ve bought. This app also provides new opportunities for the company to sell more products and includes affiliate links for secondary products that users can purchase at other companies.
- A data marketplace built for the e-commerce industry that allows people to advertise certain data sets from users to enterprises.
- A subscription-based Shopify marketplace app with inventory tracking and a Braintree integration for other store fronts to use for dropshipping.
What is the typical cost to build an e-commerce app?
An e-commerce app usually costs about $37,500 to build. However, the total cost can be as low as $25,000 or as high as $50,000. An e-commerce app with a low number of features (also known as a minimum viable product, or MVP) will be more affordable than an app that includes all intended functionality.
For example, here are some previous e-commerce app price quotes from Crowdbotics:
How long does it take to build an e-commerce app?
An e-commerce app usually takes 291 hours to build. However, an e-commerce app can be built in as few as 100 hours, or in as many as 400 hours. The exact timeline mostly depends on how complicated your specific app is. As a general rule, it will take longer if you require highly custom designs, niche features, complex logic, or non-standard release platforms.
For example, some previous e-commerce apps build with Crowdbotics received the following hourly estimates:
Not seeing what you’re looking for?
Crowdbotics has quoted and built hundreds of applications for teams of all sizes. Browse our historical estimates by industry and app type to understand possible costs and considerations.
How to successfully grow your e-commerce application
An e-commerce app can attract new users by offering a large selection of merchandise, an intuitive interface, and the ability to pay for products with confidence. These apps are also commonly used for research before making purchases in physical stores. As a result, e-commerce apps should allow users to read reviews, search for specific products by keyword or brand, and save items that they want to buy in the future. E-commerce apps can increase customer loyalty by providing free shipping on certain purchases or special promotions that can only be redeemed through the app.
Risks and challenges of building an e-commerce application
An e-commerce app is exposed to the same legal risks as any other e-commerce site. You will want to ensure that your app is properly licensed (and that your company is properly licensed) and that you are meeting all of the tax laws for your target market. E-commerce applications can also be vulnerable to denial of service attacks, which may expose user data or result in financial loss. You should always build in fault tolerance mechanisms for handling server failures and protect against attempts to overwhelm your app’s resources.
