From Web-Only to 34%of Revenue, in 90 Days,via a Native App.
A £3.1M DTC brand sold exclusively through its Shopify website, with no owned channel to reach repeat customers beyond email and SMS. We built native iOS and Android apps synced to the existing Shopify backend, with push notifications and app-exclusive perks designed in from the start. Within 90 days of launch the app was driving over a third of total revenue.
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Client DTC ecommerce · £3.1M annual revenue · web-only via Shopify
All the Repeat Customers, No Channel to Reach Them
The brand is a DTC ecommerce business generating £3.1M in annual revenue, selling exclusively through a Shopify website. Repeat customers made up a growing share of that revenue, but every one of those repeat purchases was still being earned the same way a first purchase was — an ad click, an email open, or a direct visit to the site.
There was no owned channel sitting between those visits. Email and SMS worked, but both had a cost per send and a ceiling on open and click rates, and neither was instant. There was nothing free and immediate to re-engage a browser the moment it mattered, and nothing on-site that treated a repeat customer any differently from someone arriving for the first time.
Three Gaps Standing Between the Brand and Its Repeat Customers
The discovery process looked at retention specifically, not traffic or conversion. All three gaps were structural — nothing a campaign or a discount code would have fixed for long.
No owned mobile channel
With no app, every repeat purchase still required an ad click, an email open, or a direct site visit — so acquisition cost stayed high even for customers who had already bought once.
No real-time engagement tool
Email and SMS both carried a cost per send and a ceiling on open and click rates. Neither could re-engage a browser or a past buyer instantly and for free the way push notifications could.
No loyalty or exclusivity mechanism
Nothing made a repeat customer feel differently treated from a new one, so there was no structural reason for a buyer to come back beyond habit or another discount.
Built and Launched Over Ten Weeks
Friction removed before code was written, one commerce system rather than two, and opt-in designed into the first thing a new user sees rather than asked for later.
- Weeks 1–3
Discovery and UX architecture
We mapped the existing customer journey, identified the highest-friction points in the mobile web experience, and designed the app's core flows — browse, cart, checkout, order tracking and account — around removing those specific points rather than replicating the website one to one.
friction removed, not replicated - Weeks 4–7
Native build and commerce integration
Native iOS and Android apps were built and synced to the existing Shopify backend, so inventory, pricing and orders stayed in one system with no duplicate management. Push notification infrastructure was integrated from the start, alongside app-exclusive perks — early access to drops, app-only discounts — to give customers a clear reason to install.
one commerce system, not two - Weeks 8–10
Launch, onboarding and retention loops
An in-app onboarding flow incentivized account creation and notification opt-in at signup. A launch campaign across email, SMS and site banners drove initial installs, and automated push flows — cart abandonment, back-in-stock, order updates — mirrored the brand's existing email and SMS flows from day one.
opt-in built into signup
Ninety Days Post-Launch, Measured Against a Web-Only Baseline
| Metric | Before | After (90 days post-launch) |
|---|---|---|
| App downloads | 0 | 28,400 |
| Push notification opt-in rate | — | 71% |
| Revenue share from app | 0% | 34% |
| Repeat purchase rate (app users) | — | 2.1x higher than web-only |
Within 90 days the app became a meaningful revenue channel in its own right, and app users are repeat-purchasing at more than twice the rate of customers who shop only on the website — the clearest sign the app is working as a retention tool rather than just another place to check out.
A Retention Tool First, an Acquisition Channel Second
The app worked because it was built to solve retention before it was asked to do anything else. Free, instant push notifications and app-exclusive perks gave existing customers a reason to keep coming back without adding to paid ad spend, while syncing to the existing Shopify backend kept operations simple instead of creating a second system to manage.
Is Every Repeat Customer Still Costing You an Ad Click?
Brands that sell only through the web pay to win the same customer's attention back every time — an email open, a retarget, a direct visit — because there is no owned channel sitting on their home screen. A free call is enough to tell you whether a native app would pay for itself against your own repeat-purchase numbers.