WooCommerce mobile app development
A WooCommerce shop already holds your products, prices and orders. An app on top of it gives repeat customers a faster way to buy, and gives you push notifications you do not have to rent from anyone.
Two ways to do it, and they cost very different amounts
The cheap route is an app that talks to WooCommerce over its REST API. Your shop stays where it is, the app reads the same catalogue, and orders land in the same admin you already use. This suits a shop that works well and simply wants a mobile channel.
The other route is replatforming: moving the catalogue, customers and orders onto your own API and keeping WooCommerce only until the new system has proved itself. That costs more and is worth it when the plugin stack has become the problem rather than the solution.
- App over the WooCommerce REST API, shop untouched
- Full replatform onto Laravel and PostgreSQL, with the old site running in parallel
- Published under your own Apple and Google developer accounts, not ours
What we found doing this for a wholesaler
A cash and carry in Leicester ran on WooCommerce with a plugin for every feature. Trade pricing, delivery slots and account ordering had each been bolted on, and every update was a chance for the checkout to break.
We moved them onto a Laravel and PostgreSQL platform with a Next.js storefront, then built the customer ordering app, a staff app for the counter and warehouse, and a driver app for deliveries. The WooCommerce site stayed live alongside it until the new one had proved itself.
- 1,571 products, priced per trade account
- Orders typed once by the customer, not twice by staff
- Invoices and delivery notes printing from the counter
What it costs and how long it takes
An app over an existing WooCommerce shop is the cheaper starting point and usually lands in a few weeks. A replatform with apps on top takes a few months, and you use working parts of it long before the end.
Either way you get a fixed price against a written scope before anything is built, and changes are quoted before they are made. No day rate.
Questions people ask before starting
Can you build an app without changing my WooCommerce shop?+
Yes. The app talks to WooCommerce over its REST API, so the shop, the plugins and the admin all stay as they are. Orders placed in the app appear in the same WooCommerce order list.
Will the app work with my existing plugins?+
It depends on the plugin. Anything that exposes its data through the REST API can be supported. Plugins that only render on the website, such as page builders or some pricing rules, have to be reimplemented in the app, and we tell you which ones before quoting.
Do I own the app and the code?+
Yes. The repository is yours, and the app is published under your own Apple and Google developer accounts, in your company name.
When is it worth leaving WooCommerce entirely?+
When the plugin licences and the breakages cost more than the platform returns, or when you need something the plugin ecosystem cannot do, such as per-customer trade pricing tied to a counter POS and a delivery app.