App or PWA
The short answer
A Shopify mobile app installs from the App Store or Google Play and lives on the customer's home screen with native push notifications, biometric checkout and persistent session state. A PWA is a mobile website with offline caching and an add-to-home-screen prompt. Apps win retention. PWAs win first-touch discovery. Most mature Shopify Plus brands run both.
The PWA wins discovery. The app wins everything that happens after it.
What an app does
Native push notifications without browser throttling. App Store and Google Play presence with review aggregation. Biometric checkout via Face ID and Touch ID. Persistent session across days. Deep linking from email and SMS into specific products. Native Shopify Checkout Kit integration. A home-screen icon that sidesteps browser UI entirely.
What a PWA does
Zero App Store or Google Play submission. No developer account fees. Instant updates without store review cycles. Lower install friction. Crawlable URLs that participate in regular SEO. Existing Shopify themes can be progressive-app-enabled with the right manifest and service worker configuration.
Picking
If repeat purchase, replenishment, drops or loyalty drive a meaningful share of revenue, an app pays back. The retention compounds on the second order. If first-touch discovery dominates the funnel and the catalogue is shallow, a PWA-enhanced site is enough. Most Shopify Plus brands eventually run both.
Why Talmee builds apps
PWAs are well-built mobile sites. The brand's existing Shopify theme developer can ship the manifest, service worker and install prompt without bringing in a third party. The reason brands hire Talmee is the structural retention advantage that only a native app plus push plus biometric checkout combination produces. That requires React Native delivery, App Store submission and ongoing release management, which sit outside what most web teams handle.
Frequently asked
Web push works on Android browsers but Apple does not support reliable web push on iOS Safari for production retention use. App-based push reaches iOS and Android natively with rich content support. For UK Shopify Plus brands where iOS represents a meaningful share of customers, the gap matters.
Indirectly. The app itself is not crawlable, but App Store and Google Play listings carry brand-name presence in SERPs and reduce dependence on paid traffic for repeat customers. For first-touch SEO discovery the website is still the primary surface.
Yes. PWA features can be added to an existing Shopify theme for £1,000 to £10,000 by a storefront developer. Native apps cost meaningfully more. The economic question is whether the retention and conversion uplift from native push and biometric checkout justifies the gap.
Yes, and most mature Shopify Plus brands do. The website with PWA features handles first-touch SEO discovery and uninstalled-customer experience. The app handles repeat retention and high-AOV checkout. Talmee builds the app side; existing storefront developers handle the PWA side.
Last reviewed 5 May 2026 · Manchester
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