1. Ecwid Help Center
  2. E-commerce Guides
  3. Sale hints
Knowledge base
Guides
Academy
Video tutorials
Try searching for:
Recently viewed articles:

Table of contents

esc to close

Your store as a mobile app (ShopApp®): How to promote it?

You can turn your Ecwid store into a mobile app so customers can install it and access your products from their phone screens. This technology is called ShopApp®, and any Ecwid user on a paid plan can order a store mobile app.

After you get your business-branded ShopApp® published in the App Store and Google Play, it’s time to focus on increasing the number of users. Let your target audience know about your app to convert them into customers.

In this guide, you will find the instructions on how to promote your app:

Tell about your app in social media

The best way to encourage customers to install the app is to explain what’s in it for them. Social media is a perfect place for it.

Explain why your customers would love to use the app: to learn about new arrivals, to get push notifications with your news, add products to Favorite, etc. Show the interface of your app or maybe record a video of the in-app purchase. And finally, share the link to download the app. Additionally, you can promote the post on Facebook or run ads on Facebook and Instagram to engage more audiences into installing your app.

If you have limitations on posting links on Instagram or TikTok, share the name of your app so people can find it, or add links to download the app in your profile bio or on your Linkup.

Share links to your app in customer email notifications

Your customers get emails about their order, e.g. placing the order, and marketing emails such as abandoned cart recovery notifications. Those emails contain information about your brand and links to your social media accounts. Adding links to your apps to emails makes total sense to provide your customers with additional ways to interact with your brand.

There are two ways to add links to your ShopApp® in customer email notifications: manually add links to templates, or request customizing templates for an additional fee from the Ecwid Customization team.

Manually add links to the ShopApp® in your email templates. You can customize templates yourself by adding links to download the app. That way, customers will see the links when receiving emails:

How_to_promote_your_store_mobile_app__1_.png

To add a link to download the ShopApp® to an email template:

  1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Settings → Notifications.
  2. In the Customer order notifications section, open the email template you want to edit.
  3. Add the following piece of code where you want your link to appear: 
    
 <tr>
 <td align="left" valign="top" style="padding-top: 40px; padding-bottom: 0;">
        <p style="font-family: ${fontFamily}; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; 
    color: ${colorText}; margin: 0; padding: 0;">
          <a href=”LINK TO YOUR APP”>DOWNLOAD OUR APP FROM THE APP STORE</a></p>
      <p style="font-family: ${fontFamily}; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; 
    color: ${colorText}; margin: 0; padding: 0;">
    <a href=”LINK TO YOUR APP”>DOWNLOAD OUR APP FROM THE GOOGLE PLAY</a> 
        </p>
      </td>
    </tr>
  4. Instead the DOWNLOAD OUR APP FROM THE APP STORE and DOWNLOAD OUR APP FROM GOOGLE PLAY, enter your text. Instead of the LINK TO YOUR APP, paste the corresponding links.
  5. Click Save.

Add the download buttons for an additional fee. After developing the ShopApp®, the Ecwid Customization Team can add buttons to download your app to any customer email notification template. Each time a customer receives an email from your store, whether it’s about placing a new order, or shipping information, they will see a notable button to download your app:

How_to_promote_your_store_mobile_app__6_.png

Add links to your app to the header menu of your site

Usually, shoppers use the top menu to navigate a site. You can use that notable space to highlight your ShopApp®. Depending on what site builder you use, you can add a button or menu link that will redirect your customers to download your app.

In the Instant Site (new version), you can add menu links for your app on iOS and Android:

How_to_promote_your_store_mobile_app__4_.png

Please note that on the mobile all header links are hidden inside a collapsed menu. To show visitors the link to your apps right away on all devices, use the announcement bar.

To highlight your ShopApp® in the header of your Instant Site (new version):

  1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Website and click Edit Site.
  2. In the Homepage Sections on the left, click Header.
  3. Click Navigation menu.
  4. Edit the existing link or click + Add Menu Item to create a new link.
  5. Specify the text for a link. In the Action on click, choose Go to link, and enter the link to download your app.
  6. Click Publish.

Promote your app with a site banner

You can add a clickable banner to your site with a link to your ShopApp®. Depending on what website builder you use, you can add a premade banner from the editor or create a custom banner and then embed it to your site from the backend.

In the Instant Site (new version), you can add the announcement bar that looks like a small banner and is visible at the very top of your website both on desktop and mobile:

How_to_promote_your_store_mobile_app__2_.png

To add the announcement bar with a link to your app to your Instant Site:

  1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Website and click Edit Site.
  2. Click Add Block → Announcements and choose a template.
  3. Specify the text of the announcement bar.
  4. Click + Add Action Link and enter the text for the button that will lead to your app. In the Action on click, choose Go to link, and enter the link to download your app.
  5. (optional) To change the design, switch to the Design tab.
  6. Click Publish.

There can be only one button in the announcement bar, so if you need to highlight both iOS and Android apps, you can add two announcement bars.

Alternatively, you can explain your needs to the Ecwid Customization Team so they can come up with a banner solution that fits your business.

Highlight your app in a site footer

A footer is a great section of your site to continue engagement with your audience. Your visitors may jump right to the footer to get the important navigation links. That means, content in the footer is still easily found by visitors and not treated differently because of its location.

To learn what content you can add in the footer, reach out to your site builder support or your developer. If you use Instant Site, you can contact the Ecwid Customization Team so they add buttons leading to your app in the App Store and Google Play:

How_to_promote_your_store_mobile_app__5_.png

Add links to your app to the product description

Product description can be a good place to promote your ShopApp® since shoppers tend to read about a product before purchasing it. You can encourage customers to download the app by offering a special discount, extended warranty, or product-related extra services.

You can add a link via plain text or add images and make them clickable:

How_to_promote_your_store_mobile_app__3_.png

Offer discount coupons in ShopApp® itself

It’s even possible to promote the app inside the app. You can offer a discount for the first order via ShopApp® to every customer who installs it. Just create a discount coupon that can only be used once per customer and contact the Ecwid Customization Team to display this code in a special banner in the app.

This way, once a customer installs and opens the app, they will see this discount offer for the first order in the app. Motivating, isn’t it?

Promote your app offline

Yes, you heard right – adapt offline marketing strategies to promote your app. Offline marketing is equally important as online marketing, especially if you rely on holding offline events, providing services, or your business is connected to a local community.

Here’s what you can do to promote the app offline:

  • Host an event with the local audience and announce the new app. Offer a little extra, like a free drink or a free trial session for everyone who downloads the app at that event.
  • Create a QR code to download your app, print it out and place it near the cash register in your brick and mortar store. Provide a short description why customers should download the app.
  • Design eye-catching stickers with QR codes and place it on your packaging materials, branded bags, and wherever you feel it will draw people’s attention. By scanning the QR code with their smartphone, shoppers will be redirected to the page of your app in the App Store or Google Play.

Promote the app in the App Store and Google Play

You can go an extra mile and promote your app in the App Store or Google Play to target a more general audience. That is called the App Store optimization, or ASO. It is the SEO of the mobile app world, and it’s imperative for discoverability in an oversaturated market.

Both App Store and Google Play provide their guidelines on what you can do to make the application easier to find and rank higher. In general, recommendations can be boiled down to using relevant keywords in the app description, nice-looking icons, alluring screenshots, getting good reviews from users, and running ad campaigns.

To learn more about each option and how it works on each platform, follow the detailed instructions for developers:

See the Apple guidelines for promoting your app →

See the Google guidelines for promoting your app →

Over to you

Now, when you know all the ways to promote your app among your key audience, you can apply them to get more people to download your app and interact with your brand.

Guides in this section
10
We use cookies and similar technologies to remember your preferences, measure effectiveness of our campaigns, and analyze depersonalized data to improve performance of our site. By choosing «Accept», you consent to the use of cookies.
Accept cookies Decline