How to Make Your Magento Store Mobile Friendly: Mobile App or Responsive Design

As mobile devices are becoming more advanced, mobile web browsing and shopping is starting to take over PC-based browsing. To stay up to date with the shopper’s trends Magento website owners need to take their Magento websites mobile. How can you decide what options there are and how much does a Magento Mobile website cost? […]

By Gentian Shero

As mobile devices are becoming more advanced, mobile web browsing and shopping is starting to take over PC-based browsing. To stay up to date with the shopper’s trends Magento website owners need to take their Magento websites mobile. How can you decide what options there are and how much does a Magento Mobile website cost?

Lets start with what is a Magento mobile eCommerce website. A Magento Mobile website is a mobile friendly version of your store or a Magento website built with a mobile friendly, responsive theme or via a mobile app through Magento.

Prospective customers can download the app to their mobile devices. When they open the app, they will be presented with a mobile-enabled version of your storefront, complete with catalog and checkout. They will have much the same capability using the app as they would using the usual web version of your store, but tailored for the mobile device. Visitors that are visiting your website using smartphones and tablets will find it easier to navigate, shop and check out.

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There are a few options to choose from in order to get your Magento website to go mobile.

The first option is to do it directly through Magento, by purchasing a Magento application key, enrolling into the iOS Developer Program, and provide Magento with your iOS account username and password. Magento then completes the submission process to the respective marketplaces and maintains code for a low annual or monthly fee.Magento Mobile is supported on iPhone, iPad and Android devices, and you can choose which of these devices you want your app to run on. For each of these devices, there is a setup fee plus a recurring monthly or annual fee for maintenance.

When you set up your Magento Mobile account, you get to customize your app with one of the available themes, plus device-specific features and custom colors. Magento will take care of getting your app into the app stores and performing any necessary maintenance.

Magento Mobile is priced per device family (iPad, iPhone, and Android). As of February 2014, each of them costs (rounding up) $699 for setup plus any other fees that might apply. If you want support for all three, the cost for the first year, is almost $2097.

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The problem with apps is that there are so many of them. A mobile user can easily install dozens on their mobile device which leads to an app overload — how to pick out your app from among the many. The difficulty for you as an online store owner is to make your app noticeably unique and striking — and the limited customization capability of Magento Mobile is unlikely to give you the scope you would need to make your app stand out.

The second option is creating your own app independent of Magento. The cost and complexity would be considerable, but you could get the result you wanted. You would be re-inventing the wheel, and there could be bugs that don’t want to die.

The third option, is to go the mobile web route by using a responsive Magento theme. A version of your storefront tailored specially for mobile devices could substitute for a native custom built app. From the point of view of a mobile user, there is little functional difference between hunting for an app and calling up the web browser to go to your mobile version of the website. As long as the navigation is easy, they can find what they need, and they can actually check out, a mobile website may work.

There are a great many commercial products you can install on your site that will detect mobile devices and present users with a mobile-enabled version of the website. They usually offer multiple themes you can choose from that will present your pages in a coordinated way. Some give you the ability to apply custom colors and other features. The result may or may not be ideal — you may need to adapt parts of your site for mobile devices to make them usable.

FREE CONSULTATION!

Need help setting up your Magento website? Contact us today to talk about how we can help you. We have a variety of solutions to fit MOST budgets! Fill out our contact form by clicking here and you will receive a response, typically within hours!

This option, using a responsive Magento theme, can be achieved in two ways. If starting fresh, we highly recommend using a responsive template from the get-go. If you already have an existing Magento website that is not responsive you can buy a Magento responsive/mobile Theme and istall it on top of your existing website. The second option can be a DIY project or by employing the services of a company like us to create a version of your site that is optimized for mobile use but still maintains the appearance and functionality of the full-size original. Customers would have a similar experience with your site whether using their mobile device or their laptop. On the move or at their desk, the experience would be familiar and predictable.

Bottom line is this: If your storefront is Magento, you can quickly and easily get a mobile presence using Magento Mobile. The draw back with Magento Mobile is that customization is more limited. The other, more expensive option is creating your own mobile app. The less expensive route is creating a mobile website or store front by using a resposive Magento theme or template.

Best,

Genti

Chief Strategy Officer at

Gentian, CSO and co-founder of Shero Commerce, guides the company and client digital strategies. He's an expert in technical SEO, Inbound Marketing, and eCommerce strategy.