Mayank Patel
Sep 25, 2024
6 min read
Last updated Sep 25, 2024
In the ever-evolving realm of digital interaction, cultivating a robust online identity takes precedence for enterprises striving to connect with broader demographics and enhance revenue. One remarkably potent method to realize this goal lies in the creation of a mobile commerce application. Nevertheless, the eCommerce app development cost might significantly influence the decision to venture down this path.
The advent of mobile commerce represents a transformative force affecting businesses, irrespective of their size. As per Statista, projections suggest that mobile e-commerce transactions could represent an astonishing 72.9% of all e-commerce sales by 2021. This observable shift underlines an escalating necessity for maintaining a formidable mobile footprint while showcasing the remarkable potential for enterprises to engage with a larger consumer base via such applications.
Nonetheless, embarking on the journey of e-commerce application development often demands considerable capital investment, making it imperative to grasp the elements influencing e-commerce mobile app development cost. By dissecting the expenditures tied to various phases in the development journey and weighing the ramifications of features, aesthetics, and platform selections, enterprises are empowered to make wise choices regarding their mobile initiatives while ensuring they gain optimal value from their financial commitments.
The e-commerce app development cost can fluctuate dramatically based on multiple influential factors, spanning from the intricacy of the application to its embedded features, the selected platform, and the geographical placement of the development crew. Let’s delve into each element more thoroughly:
1. App Intricacy: One of the foremost contributors to e-commerce app development cost resides in its sophistication. A straightforward application boasting fundamental elements such as product directories, shopping carts, and payment processors may require an investment ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Conversely, an intricate app incorporating advanced functionalities like tailored suggestions, augmented reality features, and multi-vendor capabilities could surpass $100,000.
2. Features and Functions: The inclusion of specific characteristics and functionalities in the e-commerce mobile app development cost. Some prevalent features that tend to elevate costs encompass:
3. Platform Selection: The decision regarding the platform also plays a critical role in shaping the cost of e-commerce app development cost. Crafting native applications for both iOS and Android yields higher expenses compared to devising a cross-platform application utilizing frameworks like React Native or Flutter. Nonetheless, native apps typically enhance user experience and performance.
4. Location of Development Team: Finally, the geographical location of the development team significantly impacts e-commerce mobile app development costs in India versus other regions. Engaging developers situated in India often proves to be a more economical choice compared to those in the United States or Europe, with costs potentially ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 for a basic app. However, it becomes vital to juxtapose cost against quality, ensuring that the development team possesses the requisite skills and experience to deliver a successful project.
Also Read: How to Create Unique User Experiences with Your E-commerce Platform
To provide a clearer picture of the e-commerce app development cost, let us dissect the financial implications tied to each phase of the development journey of eCommerce app developers:
In the realm of eCommerce app features, certain fundamental features are crucial for creating a successful platform:
Also Read: 5 Hacks/Techniques to improve e-commerce sales funnel
When it comes to selecting an e-commerce app development company, several key factors warrant careful consideration:
At Linearloop, we take pride in our status as one of the premier e-commerce app development companies in India. Our dedicated team brings extensive expertise in creating top-notch e-commerce applications for enterprises, regardless of size. We leverage cutting-edge technologies and adhere to best practices to guarantee that your application is user-friendly, secure, and primed for success.
Creating an e-commerce application can represent a considerable financial commitment; however, it also serves as a formidable asset for boosting sales and expanding your business horizons. By comprehending the various elements that impact e-commerce app development costs and selecting the most suitable development partner, you can build an application tailored to your business objectives while delivering an exceptional user experience for your clientele.
At Linearloop, we dedicate ourselves to supporting businesses of all sizes in realizing their e-commerce aspirations. We are a reputed e-commerce app development company that guides you through the entire process of e-commerce app development, from initial planning and research right through to deployment and beyond. Reach out to us today to discover more about our e-commerce app development services and how we can assist you in elevating your business to new heights.
Keep in mind that while e-commerce app development costs represent one aspect to consider, it is equally essential to prioritize the creation of an app that is user-friendly, engaging, and rich in features to address the specific needs of your target audience. By investing in a high-caliber e-commerce application, businesses can unlock a plethora of new avenues for growth and triumph in the swiftly evolving landscape of mobile commerce.
How to Practically Implement Microservices in Retail
Microservices have evolved from a tech buzzword to a practical architectural choice for modern ecommerce businesses. But for retailers, especially D2C brands navigating scale, personalization, and agility, implementing microservices isn't just about choosing a new tech stack—it's about redesigning how your organization ships value to customers. This guide doesn’t aim to glorify microservices but to dissect the actual process of implementing them in a way that avoids common pitfalls and aligns with retail business goals.
Retail, particularly ecommerce, is a battlefield of real-time demand shifts, multichannel orchestration, and aggressive experimentation. Monolithic systems, even well-built ones, struggle under this pressure. Microservices promise faster iterations, specialized scalability, and cleaner team autonomy—but more importantly, they map well to the modular nature of retail domains.
Think about it:
Decoupling these capabilities into independent services allows for parallel development, better fault isolation, and easier third-party integration. But these benefits only accrue when the migration and operational maturity align with business needs.
Also read: CDPs vs CRMs vs DMPs
Microservices start with people, not code. Conway’s Law—"organizations design systems that mirror their communication structures"—applies hard here. Teams that aren’t organized around business capabilities will find it hard to own microservices end-to-end. Before writing a single line of service code:
Avoid the trap of building microservices with a shared database or centralized deployment team. That’s just a monolith in disguise.
If this transformation feels daunting, you're not alone—we can help you plan, architect, and even implement this journey end-to-end, tailored to your business needs. Book a time now.
Here’s a structured approach to implementation that balances technical rigor with business continuity.
Start with mapping out domain boundaries:
Deliverable: A domain map showing logical service boundaries, ideal team mappings, and coupling hotspots.
Also Read: How to Handle SKUs with No Historical Data (e.g., New Drops, Collabs)
Before building services:
Think of each service as a public API product, even if it’s only consumed internally.
Avoid boiling the ocean. Choose a business capability that:
Example: Refactor the Search & Recommendations feature into a standalone service. It’s critical for conversions, yet usually interacts minimally with transactional systems.
Goals:
Also Read: Why Retail Tech Needs to Think in Probability, Not Certainty
Once the pilot proves successful, scale to core commerce flows:
Use a strangler pattern—let new microservices intercept parts of the monolith gradually. Route only specific requests to the service and expand coverage as confidence grows.
Microservices need a reliable platform to thrive. Skimping here will lead to unstable systems and operational chaos.
Security, compliance, and governance can’t be afterthoughts. Invest in API gateways, zero-trust networking, and encrypted service-to-service communication from day one.
Also Read: How Gen Z is Forcing Retailers to Rethink Digital Strategy
Data is the thorniest part of microservices in retail. Here’s how to handle it practically:
Beyond engineering success, microservices should move the needle for business outcomes.
Business KPIs:
Technical KPIs:
Retailers shouldn’t approach microservices like a single replatforming event. Instead, treat it like progressive renovation. Prioritize customer-impacting services, learn from each rollout, and keep feedback loops tight between engineering and business teams.
Mayank Patel
Apr 24, 20256 min read
CDPs vs CRMs vs DMPs: Cut Through the Jargon to Build a Unified Customer View
Customer experience is the true battleground. Founders often chase down metrics—conversion rates, ROAS, retention—but overlook a more foundational problem: fragmented customer data. While many businesses are investing in sophisticated tools, the underlying challenge remains the same. Without a coherent and unified view of your customer, your brand's efforts to optimize campaigns, personalize outreach, and improve support will always be second-rate.
You might have a support ticket sitting in Gorgias, a browsing session in Shopify, a cart abandonment trigger in Klaviyo, and an ad campaign running on Meta—all targeting the same person, but functioning as silos. This fragmentation leads to inconsistencies in messaging, delays in personalization, and wasted ad spend. Worse, it erodes customer trust. For a founder, the true cost isn't just operational inefficiency—it's lost revenue and a weakened brand promise.
Here’s where things get tricky. Industry jargon often clouds the real function of these tools. So let’s define them in plain, functional terms:
Core Function | Primary User | Data Type | Retention Focus | |
| CRM | Manage relationships, sales pipeline, and customer interactions | Sales & Support | Known,PII-based | Long-term |
| CDP | Unify data across sources, build persistent customer profiles, enable real-time actions | Marketing & Product | Known + behavioral | Long-term |
| DMP | Aggregate anonymous behavioral data to fuel ad targeting | Advertising Teams | Anonymous, cookie-based | Short-term |
Unlike CDPs, CRMs aren’t designed to handle behavioral or real-time data. DMPs, meanwhile, specialize in anonymized, third-party data—largely for ads. A CRM is your team’s logbook. A DMP is your ad campaign fuel tank. A CDP is the glue binding your entire customer understanding together.
Also Read: How Gen Z is Forcing Retailers to Rethink Digital Strategy
CRMs were born in a different era—a time when B2B sales reps tracked prospects, calls, and deals. They made sense in a world of one-on-one client relationships. But ecommerce and modern retail are different beasts. Here, the customer journey is fast, nonlinear, and omnichannel.
The reality is that CRMs don't scale well to today's data-heavy environment. They don't process real-time behaviors like browsing sessions, purchase tendencies, or even micro-interactions such as email opens and product video views. Trying to retrofit a CRM into a behavioral decision engine is like putting a turbocharger on a bicycle.
As customer behavior becomes more digitized and instantaneous, the need for a system that can ingest, unify, and act on behavioral signals in real time becomes urgent. Enter the CDP.
Let’s make this even more tangible. Imagine a single customer, Jane Doe:
How do these tools interact with Jane?
Also Read: How to Handle SKUs with No Historical Data (e.g., New Drops, Collabs)
Retail founders don’t need another bloated dashboard or abstract KPI. They need insight with actionable depth. The critical questions:
These aren’t just data questions. They’re business model questions. And the answers only emerge when data systems are designed to talk to each other, rather than act like isolated oracles.
That’s why understanding the interplay between CDPs, CRMs, and DMPs is foundational. You’re not choosing one over the other—you’re orchestrating a system where each plays a defined role.
Modern CDPs are engineered to ingest enormous volumes of data, resolve identities across touchpoints, and enable immediate personalization. Think of them as the real-time nervous system of your business.
Key capabilities:
With a CDP like Segment, mParticle, or RudderStack, you can:
Also Read: Why Retail Tech Needs to Think in Probability, Not Certainty
CRMs still serve critical functions, especially for:
However, CRMs should be recipients of processed insights, not raw behavior logs. Syncing thousands of event-level details into a CRM clutters the system and reduces usability. Instead, they should be used for:
CRMs are not decision engines. They are relationship memory banks.
DMPs may feel increasingly outdated in a cookie-less world, but they still provide value in certain niches:
The key limitation? DMPs rarely retain data long-term. They operate in short cycles, focused on immediate reach and scale rather than personalized retention. They play a role, but only in the upper funnel.
Also Read: Do Shoppers Love or Fear Hyper-Personalization?
These examples bring CDP value to life:
1. Predictive Post-Purchase Flow A
CDP tracks user behavior post-checkout, combines with historical LTV data, and suppresses discounts for high-value customers while triggering proactive support for those who return frequently.
2. Real-Time Personalization
A user browsing for winter jackets is instantly added to a segment. Your site surfaces winter accessories, and an SMS triggers with a bundle deal. No engineering tickets. Just action.
3. Ad Suppression Logic
A customer who opened a Klaviyo campaign and purchased should be suppressed from Meta retargeting for 72 hours. Your CDP makes this call automatically.
The narrative that CRMs are obsolete is misguided. What’s true is they are often used beyond their design intention. Trying to make a CRM your behavior engine leads to cluttered profiles, frustrated teams, and brittle workflows.
Instead:
When CRM is treated as the support team’s lens—not the marketer’s hammer—its value shines.
Integration is where most stacks go to die. Here are best practices:
Ask these questions before committing:
Your customer stack isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about building clarity and alignment across your data, tools, and touchpoints. CDPs, CRMs, and DMPs each have their place—but only if used in concert.
When your data is stitched together, your teams can:
Your brand’s value isn’t just in your product. It’s in how well you understand and serve the person buying it. That starts with data done right.
Mayank Patel
Apr 22, 20256 min read
