Flutter Apps for eCommerce: What Do You Need to Know if You Consider Mobile App Development?
You’ve made the decision – it’s time to enter mobile platforms with your online shopping app. You see that many of your customers buy on smartphones, and the market prognosis looks promising.
One of the first questions to ask yourself at this point is regarding technology. Most likely, you’ll have to choose between native and cross-platform apps. The latter often means using Flutter, lately an increasingly popular solution.
In many cases, it’s a recommended option, but you should know that it’s not universal.
Find out the reasons for considering Flutter for eCommerce app development and learn when it may not be the best choice for your business.
Flutter and the mobile app development
If it’s the first time you’ve heard about Flutter, you should know it’s a cross-platform solution alternative to native apps. The latter are developed specifically for a selected platform (iOS or Android).
Cross-platform apps allow you to create one codebase that runs on several platforms, not only iOS and Android but also web, desktop, or IoT.
In recent years, many software developers have chosen Flutter for their projects. In the 2024 Developer Survey by StackOverflow, in a section Other frameworks and libraries, Flutter was the 8th most popular answer given by professional developers. They were asked to name a technology in which they have done extensive development work in the past year.
Learn more about Flutter from our guides:
- What is Flutter? A Comprehensive Overview for Product Owners
- Why Use Flutter for Mobile App Development? Pros and Cons
- Flutter vs Kotlin Multiplatform
- Develop Your Next Mobile Game with Unity and Flutter
Reasons to develop a Flutter eCommerce app
Like most solutions, Flutter has its pros and cons. When considering benefits for the eCommerce industry, it’s best to take into account several especially important matters.
#1 The Flutter app is earlier on the market
Do you want to launch the app before Black Friday, Christmas, or another deadline that comes closer faster than you’d wish? Even Flutter doesn’t make it possible to build a complex eCommerce app in a few days or weeks. Nevertheless, it can significantly speed up this process.
You only build one codebase for Android and iOS platforms, so the app development takes less time. Although you must still test the app on various systems and devices, you spend fewer hours writing code.
Another Flutter feature worth mentioning is Hot Reload. It enables software developers to see how their code runs in the app in real time, immediately after they write it. This solution optimizes building apps because we can spot and solve potential problems earlier.
If your online store is relatively small and you have very few requirements regarding the UI, there’s one more option worth considering. Our software developers can create your mobile app even faster with AI tools that work with Flutter, such as FlutterFlow.
Mind that such an app may look generic, and some usability issues will not be addressed due to the short deadline. Nevertheless, the key features will run correctly. As a temporary solution, it may be enough for your eCommerce business to grow.
#2 Appealing UI, consistent with your brand’s image
There are several main requirements the mobile app’s UI should meet.
- It must be user-friendly, intuitive, and accessible.
- The design should apply the brand’s style guidelines and be consistent with the web app if the company has one.
- The interface must look appealing and aesthetically pleasing.
The good news is that Flutter can help you achieve all this. It lets you build apps with customizable widgets that create various elements of the user interface and are responsible for their behavior. They are divided into several categories, such as Assets, Images, Icons, Layout, Styling, or Accessibility. In the official documentation, you can find the complete list.
The fact that there are so many widgets allows us to create projects that are unique and reflect the brand’s identity. It’s a perfect solution when you want to customize your mCommerce app.
If you need apps to look almost like native ones, you can use libraries that imitate iOS (Cupertino) and Android styles (Material Design).
#3 Budget-friendly mobile eCommerce apps
App development projects require a lot of resources, tools, specialistic skills, and the attention of many experts. Inevitably, it generates costs, especially when you choose native technology. Luckily, Flutter can minimize them. Look at the juxtaposition below.
Native Android and iOS apps = 2 software developers writing code in Swift and Kotlin
Flutter app = 1 software developer writing code for Android and iOS in Dart
With Flutter, you hire only one software developer instead of two. This way, you save money. Of course, you still have to pay the same for the QA testing, project management, and UX design. Nevertheless, the project cost is significantly lower compared to native app development.
#4 Easy to implement analytics, payment systems, and delivery methods
If you have an eCommerce web app, you probably check many metrics regularly. This way, you learn about user behavior and preferences and monitor the app’s performance.
In Flutter apps, you can quickly implement analytical tools. Many popular platforms have integrations with Flutter, including Google Firebase, Amplifier, AppsFlyer, Mixpanel, etc.
The same applies to other platforms most eCommerce apps use, such as systems for choosing shipping options or payment gateways.
Compared to Swift and Kotlin, Flutter is a relatively new technology in the software development market. The stable version was launched in 2018. Nevertheless, many tools popular in the eCommerce industry offer SDKs that enable their integration with Flutter apps.
#5 Better User Experience (UX)
In the world of eCommerce apps, where the competition is intense, you need to provide the best user experience if you don’t want to be left behind. Part of this is possible thanks to widgets. They allow you to develop UI design that aligns with the best UX practices.
But there are other, more technical matters you must also address. The most important is the app’s high performance and its capability to load fast.
Flutter can ensure it because its apps compile into native code directly, without a bridge, unlike, for example, React Native. As a result, Flutter apps run faster.
Another fact worth mentioning is that Flutter relies on Impeller, the graphic engine that can render animation fast and, above all, makes the app more stable.
Examples of Flutter eCommerce apps
Many marketplace and eCommerce apps have been created with Flutter. Both big players and less-known brands are interested in the opportunities it offers. See some examples of their apps.
eBay Motors
It’s an online marketplace for users interested in buying or selling cars. The eBay Motors team chose Flutter because it enables them to build iOS and Android apps faster than native solutions. The result is 98.3% of shared code, including the UI, business logic, domain models, analytics, network stack, and the CI pipeline.
Screenshot source: Google Play Store
ABOUT YOU
Another well-known brand that uses Flutter is ABOUT YOU. Customers choose this app to buy fashion items comfortably. The focus is on personalization that encourages customers to discover new products they may enjoy. Users also receive customized notifications that remind them to check what the app offers.
Screenshot source: Google Play Store
Naked Wines
This app aims to facilitate browsing and buying exclusive alcohol online. Among its features is a chat that connects customers with winemakers and a label scanner that lets users quickly find info about wines and those who make them.
Screenshot source: Google Play Store
ROMWE
The team behind this app started by building the PoC version with Flutter, and the results convinced them to choose this technology for good. The app was efficient, and its performance met the team’s expectations.
Screenshot source: Google Play Store
Alibaba Group’s Xianyu
Xianyu app is a marketplace offering secondhand products. Flutter was a time-saving solution as the development team only has one codebase to maintain now. This cross-platform technology also ensures that users have a fast-loading app, which improves the UX.
You can read more about Flutter app examples on our blog or browse various projects on itsallwidgets.com.
When Flutter is not the best solution for eCommerce apps?
Although it offers a lot, sometimes Flutter is not the right choice. Here are some examples of cases when we advise choosing a different technology.
When your target group operates on old devices
Flutter apps require more memory space on smartphones compared to native apps.
Although the difference is not huge, it may be a problem for the target audience that tends to use older models of devices. If they are your potential customers, consider choosing Kotlin or Swift.
When your software development team is more familiar with Kotlin than Flutter
If you develop the app with a trusted team that has already worked with you on different projects and knows native technologies well, consider Kotlin Multiplatform. This technology also lets you share some parts of code between iOS and Android. You only have to develop the UI separately.
KMP relies on Kotlin, a language used in Android app development, so your team will learn it faster than Flutter. It’s worth a try because the team already knows your company, its goals, and its culture, which facilitates the project execution.
Native UI is one of the top priorities
Flutter apps can imitate native look and feel, but they are not the same as natively coded apps. If you think that to ensure the best user experience, you must have native UIs on Android and iOS, then again, KMP might be a better option.
Kotlin Multiplatform allows you to develop the app faster than when choosing native technologies, but you build UIs separately so that the design is dedicated to each platform.
Conclusion: Flutter in mobile eCommerce apps
When choosing among various mobile eCommerce solutions, you need to consider many factors. Some are related strictly to business, such as budget, deadlines, and KPIs, while others focus more on customer satisfaction, user engagement, and usability.
The technology has a significant impact on all of these matters. You need a cost-effective solution that will also enable a fast app development process. It also has to make the execution of your ideas possible so that the end user gets an app that meets their requirements, loads fast, and pleases the eye.
If you need help choosing a technology for your mobile eCommerce app, let us know. We’ll advise you and prepare the project cost estimation.
