In an era where smartphones are constant companions – the first thing people see in the morning and the last before sleep – "mobile-first" design has evolved from an innovative strategy to an absolute necessity in eCommerce. As consumers increasingly shift purchasing behavior to mobile devices, online stores failing to optimize for this reality are watching market share steadily erode.
But responsive web design alone is no longer enough. With growing expectations around speed, personalization, and convenience, app mobile development has become a strategic priority for eCommerce brands aiming to boost engagement and retention. A dedicated mobile app offers smoother navigation, faster performance, and native features like push notifications - all of which contribute to a superior customer experience.
The problems facing non-mobile-optimized stores are numerous and costly. Customers promptly abandon websites that load sluggishly on their phones. Frustration mounts when they must constantly pinch to zoom text or struggle with miniature tap targets. Shopping carts get deserted when mobile checkout processes resemble digital obstacle courses rather than smooth transactions.
Considering that, let’s start today’s blog by exploring key indicators that a website lacks proper responsive design - and when it might be time to consider going beyond that with a mobile app.
What are the common symptoms of non-responsive design?
Navigating a non-responsive website on a mobile device can be as frustrating as trying to read fine print without glasses. This issue emerges particularly in businesses with outdated technology that haven't updated their websites for extended periods, or in new implementations that prioritize desktop design while overlooking mobile optimization. This oversight is especially common in traditional industries or specific sales models, such as B2B, where it is assumed that customers will primarily use desktop devices. In reality, over half of users might browse and purchase via mobile devices.
The most common interface usability issues include difficult-to-navigate menus, buttons, and forms that are nearly impossible to interact with on small screens, and critical elements that require pinpoint precision to tap. Slow loading times are also a typical problem for non-optimized mobile sites, with heavy images and unnecessary scripts causing pages to load significantly slower on smartphones, discouraging users from continuing their shopping journey. Perhaps most damaging are the layout problems that interfere with purchase completion – poorly positioned or completely invisible elements that make viewing products, adding items to cart, or completing transactions unnecessarily complicated.
These problems create numerous negative business impacts, including high bounce rates as users quickly abandon the site, decreased conversion rates, and reduced sales performance. Additionally, these mobile usability issues can negatively impact search engine rankings and reduce the effectiveness of paid advertising campaigns that rely on website quality scores.
So, what can businesses do to reduce or eliminate the mentioned problems?
What are the solutions for poor mobile performance?
RWD (Responsive Web Design)
Implementing Responsive Web Design is the foundational approach, where your website dynamically adjusts to various device sizes. This ensures that whether a customer is viewing your store on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop, they'll experience a layout specifically optimized for their screen dimensions. RWD eliminates the need to develop and maintain separate mobile and desktop versions, streamlining both development and ongoing maintenance.
Performance and loading speed optimization
Mobile users are particularly sensitive to loading times, with research showing that abandonment rates increase dramatically after just a few seconds of waiting. Online businesses can optimize the mobile experience by:
- Compressing images without sacrificing quality
- Minimizing code and removing unnecessary scripts
- Implementing browser caching strategies
- Using lazy loading for content below the fold
- Prioritizing critical CSS rendering
These techniques ensure the website loads quickly even on slower mobile connections, keeping potential customers engaged with your content rather than watching loading spinners.
Mobile testing and simplified interface
Regular testing across different mobile browsers and devices helps identify usability issues before they impact customers. Focus on creating a simplified interface that prioritizes the mobile user's needs:
- Larger, easily tappable buttons (minimum 44x44 pixels)
- Streamlined navigation with clear pathways to products
- Forms designed specifically for mobile input
- Touch-friendly product galleries and filters
- Simplified checkout process optimized for smaller screens
Alternative: Dedicated mobile application
For some businesses, creating a dedicated mobile application offers significant advantages. An app provides a user experience built from the ground up for mobile devices, more intuitive and faster than a mobile website.
Beyond usability, apps offer marketing capabilities like push notifications that can alert customers to promotions, abandoned carts or new product launches. They also make customer engagement easier with loyalty programs and reward systems.
Additionally, mobile applications are great at personalization, offering tailored offers and more targeted promotions based on customer behavior and preferences. That’s why many businesses are including apps as part of their eCommerce strategy, the benefits go way beyond just UX.
When considering a platform migration for your store, even if you don't plan to create a mobile application immediately, it's worth ensuring that your chosen platform will support app development in the future and allow direct integration with your eCommerce system.
Types of Mobile Applications for eCommerce
When considering mobile applications for an eCommerce business, it's important to treat them as a separate software implementation investment, just like the eCommerce platform itself. Before diving into specific technologies, businesses need to decide which type of mobile application implementation best suits your business needs. Let's explore the three main approaches:
Native Applications (Swift/Kotlin)
Native applications are developed specifically for each platform using the platform's preferred programming language – Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. This means creating separate codebases for each operating system.
Key advantages:
- Maximum performance and reliability
- Full access to device features and hardware
- Superior user experience with platform-specific design patterns
- Enhanced security capabilities
- Better integration with the operating system ecosystem
Main drawbacks:
- Higher development costs (two separate codebases)
- Longer development time
- Dual maintenance requirements
Who should invest in native apps?
Native apps represent the premium solution for established brands with loyal customers who make frequent purchases. They're ideal for businesses in industries like food, fashion, cosmetics, and subscription services where purchase frequency matters and personalization creates differentiation. Companies with substantial marketing budgets looking to build their own direct marketing channel through push notifications will benefit most from this investment. Conversely, smaller stores with low traffic, businesses without strong brand recognition, or companies with limited budgets should typically prioritize other digital marketing channels first. If your products don't encourage repeat purchases or you lack a clear app promotion strategy, the investment in native development may not yield sufficient returns.
Cross-platform applications (React Native/Flutter)
Cross-platform solutions use a single codebase to create apps for both iOS and Android, leveraging frameworks like React Native or Flutter. This approach significantly reduces development time and costs while maintaining good performance.
Key advantages:
- Single codebase for multiple platforms
- Faster time-to-market
- Lower development costs
- Easier maintenance
- Large developer community and support
Main drawbacks:
- Some performance limitations compared to native apps
- Occasional compromises in platform-specific functionality
- Potential challenges with complex features
Who should choose cross-platform development?
Cross-platform development offers a pragmatic middle ground for growing businesses that need mobile presence but must balance functionality with cost efficiency. This approach is particularly valuable for startups and mid-sized eCommerce companies wanting to test the mobile channel without committing to full native development. It's perfect for retailers looking to quickly launch an MVP or businesses requiring basic offline functionality and push notifications with moderate personalization needs. However, companies with highly specialized technical requirements like AR, offline payments, or system-level geolocation should look elsewhere. Similarly, eCommerce sites with enormous traffic volumes where milliseconds of performance matter or projects with substantial budgets that can afford fully optimized native experiences might find cross-platform solutions limiting despite their improving capabilities.
Progressive Web Applications (PWA)
A PWA is an enhanced version of a mobile website that functions similarly to a native app – users can install it on their home screen, and some features (like push notifications and offline functionality) work like in an app environment. This approach offers a balance between web and app experiences.
Key advantages of Progressive Web Apps:
- No app store (apple app store or google play store) download required
- Lower development costs than native or cross-platform apps
- One codebase for all platforms
- No app store approval process
- Easy updates and maintenance
- SEO benefits of being web-based
Main limitations:
- Restricted access to device features compared to native apps
- Variable browser support for advanced features
- Less integrated with the device ecosystem
When is PWA the right choice?
PWAs represent an excellent solution for businesses seeking to improve mobile user experience without the full complexity and cost of app development. They're particularly well-suited for companies with limited budgets, as they're more cost-effective to maintain than traditional apps. However, PWAs do have limitations. Stores needing full access to device capabilities like Bluetooth or geofencing will find them restrictive. Businesses for whom app store presence is a strategic branding priority or premium brands requiring ultra-refined animations and interactions may find the compromises too significant. Similarly, eCommerce sites with complex offline logic or advanced functionality might be better served by native development despite the higher costs.
How does Sylius support mobile application development?
Sylius provides exceptional infrastructure to support and streamline mobile app development. This architectural foundation significantly reduces development time and complexity compared to other eCommerce solutions.
However, mobile applications don't come out-of-the-box with Sylius or as part of the Sylius Plus commercial license. While Sylius facilitates connection with mobile applications through its API-first approach, the app itself requires separate development. Therefore, when planning your implementation budget, you should allocate a separate budget for creating the application and its ongoing maintenance.
Sylius requires specific technical approaches:
PWA (Headless): frontend based on Vue.js/Nuxt.js that communicates with the Sylius backend using REST or GraphQL API.
Native applications (e.g., Swift, Kotlin) and cross-platform applications (e.g., React Native, Flutter): these applications are completely independent of Sylius's frontend layer and, like PWAs, use its API to integrate with eCommerce logic.
Let's explore the specific ways Sylius supports seamless mobile app development:
Modern API based on API Platform
Sylius APIs are built with API Platform, a powerful framework for developing modern API-driven projects. In the Sylius architecture, the API forms the foundation, with two independent pillars offering intuitive GUIs for both admin and shop interfaces. This design provides a decentralized approach to building eCommerce systems, allowing the store to be divided into smaller components by leveraging Sylius' modularity and flexibility.
This modular API-first architecture enables businesses to choose best-of-breed components without being constrained by the legacy monolith architecture present in other eCommerce solutions. Developers can customize and scale the eCommerce platform with greater flexibility and efficiency by selecting only the best features without overloading systems with redundant elements.
Ready-to-use endpoints
Sylius comes with an extensive set of endpoints that handle core eCommerce operations such as product management, shopping cart functionality, order processing, and user management. These pre-built endpoints provide immediate functionality that saves significant development time when connecting your mobile application to your eCommerce backend.
This means your developers can focus on creating an exceptional mobile user experience rather than recreating basic eCommerce functionality, accelerating your time to market and reducing development costs.
Easy API modification and expansion to meet application needs
Sylius allows for the straightforward adding, modifying, or removing of endpoints to meet your specific mobile application requirements. For example, if you want your mobile app to display orders in a simplified version - showing only status and date - you can create a specialized endpoint that returns just this information instead of using the more data-heavy standard API.
This flexibility means that online businesses can start with a mobile application as a plugin to your store and gradually expand the API, adding new features and integrations without rebuilding the entire system.
Support for popular payment and delivery methods
Sylius supports popular payment gateways (such as Stripe, PayU, and Mollie) and delivery methods that can be easily integrated into your mobile application without building everything from scratch, like the DHL shipping services. This pre-built support significantly reduces the complexity of implementing crucial functionality in the mobile app.
Scalable solutions with secure authentication
What’s more, Sylius facilitates easy user authentication in mobile applications. After logging in, users receive a token (JWT) that enables secure order placement and account management. This token-based authentication system follows industry best practices for security while providing a smooth user experience.
Furthermore, Sylius's architecture is very flexible and scalable, making mobile app implementation an investment that doesn't limit future store development. You can seamlessly extend app functionality and integrate with other eCommerce systems, CRM, or marketing platforms as your business needs grow.
Below are two real-world examples of companies that successfully leveraged Sylius to power their mobile experiences, each with different scopes, industries, and integrations.
Mytheresa
Mytheresa, a global leader in luxury fashion eCommerce, leveraged Sylius as the foundation for its mobile app. Faced with the limitations of its legacy Magento Enterprise system, the company needed a modern and scalable solution that could seamlessly power its mobile experience. Sylius offered the flexibility and performance required to handle millions of users across over 130 countries, along with advanced merchandising operations, including product sorting, daily price updates, and real-time availability. Its API-first architecture enabled smooth mobile app integration, allowing Mytheresa to deliver a high-end shopping experience tailored to the expectations of fashion-forward consumers. The modular design of Sylius also supported rapid development of a custom mobile frontend without being constrained by legacy backend logic.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Full case study available here</div>
Planeta Huerto
Planeta Huerto, part of the Carrefour Group and one of Spain's top online marketplaces, has built its digital ecosystem around Sylius, with a strong focus on mobile and product information management. The project involved developing a dedicated mobile app connected to Sylius via APIs, offering users a streamlined and responsive shopping interface. To support its extensive catalog, Planeta Huerto also integrated a robust PIM system. Sylius acted as the central hub, enabling real-time data exchange between the PIM, the mobile app, and other business systems like ERP, logistics, and customer service platforms. This architecture allowed Planeta Huerto to deliver a consistent cross-channel experience while efficiently scaling and expanding its mobile capabilities.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Full case study available here</div>
Wrapping up
Mobile optimization is no longer optional for eCommerce businesses, with responsive design serving as the minimum standard and dedicated apps offering enhanced engagement for established brands.
Consider a mobile application when you have frequent repeat customers, significant mobile traffic, and a budget allocated not just for development but also for maintenance and marketing. When planning Sylius integration, remember that mobile apps require separate investment and should be chosen based on your specific business needs rather than trends. Leverage Sylius's API-first architecture to reduce development complexity while planning for feature expansion and ongoing improvements.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-100">Our team specializes in helping eCommerce businesses develop effective app development process and mobile strategies tailored to their unique needs. Contact us for a consultation about your mobile eCommerce needs and let our experts recommend the best solution for your store.</div>
