Getting started

StoreToNative turns your WooCommerce store into a native iOS and Android shopping app. It is not a web page inside an app shell: the shop, search, product pages, cart and account screens are native, and they read your live catalog from your store. Checkout runs on your own payment gateways, so nothing about your payments, shipping or taxes changes, and StoreToNative takes no cut of your sales.

What you need

You can connect a store and design an app in an afternoon. Publishing to the stores needs a few things that take longer, so start them early.

Needed for	What	Where to get it
Connecting	A WooCommerce store served over https with published products	Your existing store
Design	A square app icon, ideally 1024 × 1024 with no transparency	Your designer, or use your site icon
Publishing	A privacy policy URL and a support email	Pages on your own domain work best
Publishing to Android	A Google Play Console account ($25, one time, paid to Google)	play.google.com/console
Publishing to iOS	An Apple Developer Program membership ($99 per year, paid to Apple)	developer.apple.com

Apple requires every store to publish under its own developer account (App Store Review guideline 4.2.6). StoreToNative cannot publish your app under ours, and the console walks you through the setup. Companies enrolling with Apple need a D-U-N-S number, which can take a week or two, so apply first.

The path

1. Connect your store. A five-step wizard checks your store, takes API access, names the app and creates it. Your catalog starts syncing straight away. See Connect your store.
2. Install the companion plugin. Optional but recommended: it pairs your store with a short code, hosts the files that deep links need, adds an install banner to your website, and checks your store for the settings that quietly break a mobile app. See The WordPress plugin.
3. Design. Pick colours, fonts, navigation and a storefront style, lay out the home screen, and switch add-ons on. The phone preview shows your real products as you work. See Design studio.
4. See it on a phone. Make a test build and install it on your own Android phone. An iPhone preview app is on the way but not in the App Store yet. See Builds and Preview app.
5. Publish. Make a store build, then work through the Google Play and App Store checklists. See Publish to Google Play and Publish to the App Store.
6. Grow. Send push campaigns, print QR codes, add the install banner, and read what the app earns. See the After launch guides.

Changes reach installed apps on their own

This is the idea to keep in mind while you work. Almost everything you change in the console reaches apps that are already installed the next time a shopper opens them, with no new build and no store review: colours, fonts, layout, home-screen sections, banners, intro slides, legal links, discount codes and add-on switches.

A new build is only needed for the native shell of the app: the name on the phone’s home screen, the launcher icon, the app id, the launch-screen colour, and the deep-link domain if your store moves. The console says which is which wherever it matters.

The trial

Every workspace starts with a 14-day trial. Everything up to the stores works during the trial: designing, building, and installing the app on your own Android phone. Store publishing unlocks when your plan is activated. See Plans and billing.

Finding your way around

The console sidebar is grouped the way you will use it: Dashboard, then Your app (App Builder, Builds, Publish), After launch (Push, Growth, Analytics), Developer (Webhooks & API) and Workspace (Billing, Support, Settings). Press ⌘K or Ctrl K to search every page by name or by what it does. The assistant bubble in the corner answers questions about where a setting lives and what a plan includes, and takes you to the right screen. It never changes anything on your behalf.