Build a React Native eCommerce App with Crystallize
React Native is a popular framework for building cross-platform mobile apps. With this in mind, we've built React Native ecommerce app boilerplate from scratch, and in this short tutorial, I will explain how to use it.
2 minutes
React Native has been showing relevant growth during the last 5 years and it is often voted as one of the best frameworks for app development. The strongest feature of React Native is that it allows you to use the same code base for both Android and iOS. This in turn allows for faster app development, implementation, and ease of maintenance.
Modern businesses need to be able to deliver a unique shopping experience on many different screens and platforms and having an App has become more of a standard practice than a necessity.
When building your App you typically need a backend from which you’d serve your product's data, and marketing content and manage and receive orders. As a headless commerce platform Crystallize is perfect for a fast backend for your App with both product information and the rich marketing content you need to build enjoyable App experiences.
Let me explain how we got your back(end).
Depending on how applications work on your smartphone you can distinguish three types:
- Native Apps ie apps developed for a specific device or operating systems such as Android, iOS, or Windows (think about apps you download from app stores).
- Web Apps ie software stored on a server and delivered through a browser interface (think about websites/web apps like Gmail, Docs, etc.).
- Hybrid Apps ie are apps that combine features from native apps and with components from web apps.
Native Apps have some benefits compared to mobile web and progressive web apps. Firstly they are available in the iOS and Android marketplaces. They have often more snappy interactions. Better offline capabilities. Also, many managers have this “We need an App” attitude.
When you are building an App that has products, or in-app purchases, you need a place to define those products. Often you also have marketing content to enrich the customer experience. The marketing content could be as simple as recipes with how-to videos to market your kitchen appliances.
You can also create grids that highlight products and rich content like recipes. The shopping process ends in a purchase, this is where the order management and fulfillment pipelines come in. Here you can have a custom flow of orders to e.g. ship a physical package or enable an in-App feature. Webhooks allow for simple automation of order management.
All of this can be beautifully managed in Crystallize by your marketing team. And you have access to it all via the fast GraphQL eCommerce API.
To help you get started we have created an open-source React Native eCommerce boilerplate. It is fully open-source and licensed under the MIT license. You can therefore use it as a starting point, also for commercial use.
Check the Livestream we have had for more details.