Low Code Explosion: Why 37 Of The Top 50 Retail Apps Are Hybrid

Conventional wisdom says that the best possible mobile app is a native app using native code running natively. So why are 74% of the top retail apps in America not following that advice?

According to data I recently analyzed for a client, it’s because conventional wisdom is wrong.

At least on one major point.

Native apps are mobile applications that run on native code: a dedicated codebase for each targeted platform, like Swift for iPhone apps, or perhaps Java for Android apps. Hybrid apps are built with web technologies like HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and run inside a native layer to operate on a mobile device. Native apps generally need to be built in native code “by hand,” while hybrid apps are often be built in low-code development platforms.

Low code is a critical part of that story. Even games, the type of app that above all others needs to be highly performant, are increasingly built on low code platforms like Godot and GameSalad.

And other kinds of apps — like e-commerce apps — are even easier to build with low-code tools.

You’d think that Amazon would know a thing or two about mobile commerce. After all, the company owns a legitimately mind-blowing 38% of the retail e-commerce market, according to eMarketer. You’d also think major global brands like Etsy, Groupon, Walmart, and Nike know what they’re doing in mobile commerce. All of them offer hybrid apps, not native apps, just like Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Best Buy, and dozens of other top brands that are prominent on the App Store and Google Play top app charts for the U.S.

The two major reasons why are simple: it’s indisputably quicker, and it’s arguably better.

Arguably better in terms of user experience

For great mobile commerce experiences, the app you see is only the tip of the iceberg. Behind the visible 10%, there’s 90% of the work.

Hybrid apps can leverage all the work that e-commerce brands have already invested in their websites. The infrastructure behind an app that enables a great experience is the catalog of products, the customer single-sign-on, the record of purchases, the access to support, the history of messages, the shipping information, and more. This infrastructure is the 90% of the iceberg that you don’t see when just browsing the Amazon app, for example, for a new laptop. Rebuilding all of that infrastructure for mobile in native code — and then forevermore supporting two versions of your company’s key commerce infrastructure — is just a waste of time and money. Having it available “out of the box” in a good low code development platform helps brands deliver great customer experiences.

Indisputably quicker in development

Plus, of course, there’s the speed factor.

Hybrid apps can be built in low code mobile development platforms which significantly accelerate launch times.

“Our tests indicate low-code speeds mobile development 10X — but the more complex the project, the faster it goes,” says Jon Nordmark, CEO of Iterate.ai and former CEO of eBags, acquired by Samsonite. “For example, we work with a $60-billion dollar retailer who was told by a large consulting firm that one mobile development project would take a year to prototype in a traditional format. With a low-code strategy they’ve been able to build a full e-commerce platform and a curbside pickup solution in 11 days, from scratch.”

Health and wellness company Doterra found the same, company VP Seth Winters told me in an episode of the Low Code Ninjas podcast. (Full disclosure: I run Low Code Ninjas with co-host Peggy Anne Salz for a client, FollowAnalytics). In a few months, Winters built a low-code app that would have taken his company years in native code.

“It’s just incredible the rate at which we can do it,” he says.

Sunil Rao, global head of consumer goods go-to-market for Salesforce, explains why that’s particularly compelling in 2020, the year of Covid-19, and the year of disruption.

“We’ve been catapulted into the future,” he says. “From last year’s 14% online sales [we’re now] around 30%.”

If the goal is a unified experience no matter what channel a customer chooses — one login, one shopping cart, one view of support communications — going hybrid is a critical enabler.

“How do you have one experience between your website and your app? Take a step back … it’s thinking about it from a platform-first approach,” says Rao. “If I’ve done that the right way, then I can serve up more capabilities without having to go rewrite core components.”

That’s particularly important in 2020. In many cases of states and cities with staged shutdowns and closures, e-commerce and mobile commerce are the only options to remain functioning, or perhaps the customer-preferred options. That means speed to market matters.

Downsides to hybrid apps and low code development?

The good news is that hybrid apps are no longer what they were a decade ago, or even five years ago. They’re no longer slow, unwieldy, and awkward looking. In addition, they no longer have issues acting like native apps, working offline, and accessing on-phone capabilities like the camera, touch and/or face ID, or Apple/Google payment functionality.

“That was a problem before, but not any more,” says FollowAnalytics founder Samir Addamine. “The reality is that the quality of the network makes it possible, and you now have offline capabilities on hybrid apps.”

There are still a few potential negatives to low code, of course, depending on what development platform you choose. Each platform comes with a learning curve, says Mang-Git Ng, CEO of Anvil Foundry. In addition, once you’ve chosen a platform, you’re generally locked into that platform for months if not years, and if over time you outgrow it, there could be significant extra work to re-architect everything in a different platform, or in native code, says Ben Michaelis from ThinkEngine.

Brands looking at a low code development platform also need to be very clear on what they want and how it will grow along with them.

“These solutions provide generalized approaches to solving development problems for specific businesses or subject domains,” says Bryan Osima, a software engineer (and the CEO) at Unvietech Software Solutions. “Problems arise when you need to program anything more specific or complex than some of the basic and generic functionalities and interactions that these [low code/no code] systems typically provide.”

In other words: caveat emptor. And, do your due diligence.

There are, however, low code development platforms for mobile that integrate seamlessly with native code, enabling custom development layered on top of out-of-the-box features.

One thing is obvious: the data clearly indicates that hybrid is the way most top mobile retailers in the U.S. are going. That means going hybrid (and probably using low code tools) is providing more value than it takes away. And ultimately, this indicates that hybrid apps and low code tools have matured sufficiently that conventional wisdom is now wrong, and hybrid apps can actually offer a better user experience than native apps.

At least in terms of what a brand can quickly, affordably and reliably deliver.

The full Low Code Explosion report is available here.