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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Shopee?

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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Shopee?
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How much does it cost to build an app?

How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Shopee?

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App development

Develop Credibility and Trust

World-class app development that allows you to start, run and grow your business.

Building a custom app can boost your brand's trust and credibility, ultimately benefiting your business in the long run. We will discuss the following topics:

1. Reputation Management
2. Customer Support and Engagement
3. Data-Driven Decision Making
4. Demonstrating Social Responsibility

A well-made custom app can dramatically improve your brand's marketability and reputation. A trustworthy app will show that you are dedicated to providing top-notch goods and services. As a result of knowing they can rely on you, your clients and business partners will have more faith in you.

A custom app also strengthens your brand identification by demonstrating your professionalism and attention to detail.

Customer Support and Engagement
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A custom app enables you to offer personalized customer support and engagement, helping you address the unique needs and pain points of your African target market. 

By incorporating in-app support features, such as chatbots, help centres, or direct communication channels, you can provide timely assistance to your users, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty. 

This level of support also encourages users to share their positive experiences with others, further boosting your brand's credibility.

Data-Driven Decision Making
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You may get useful user data through custom app creation, giving you insights into user behavior and preferences. You may improve your app and broader business strategy by studying this data and making wise decisions.

Delivering a more individualized experience for your users is made possible by a data-driven strategy. This helps to increase their faith in your brand and ultimately ensures that they will stay visiting.

Demonstrating Social Responsibility
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Putting money into a customized app that caters to your target market's needs demonstrates your commitment to social responsibility.

You can showcase your brand's dedication to having a beneficial influence by developing an app that takes into account regional difficulties, environmental issues, or social issues that are pertinent to your audience.

This thoughtful approach to app creation not only strengthens the integrity of your brand, but it also appeals to customers who value companies with a clear sense of mission.

Custom App development

Benefits of Custom App Development

World-class app development that allows you to start, run and grow your business.

Imagine custom app development as an expert chef crafting a personalised menu for their restaurant. Just as a meticulously planned and executed meal can leave diners with a memorable culinary experience, a custom app is specifically designed to cater to your business's distinct needs and objectives, leaving a lasting impression on your users. 

Investing in custom app development offers several advantages, including:

  1. Improved user experience
  2. Increased efficiency
  3. Competitive advantage
  4. Higher profitability
  5. Seamless Integration with Existing Systems
  6. Enhanced Flexibility and Adaptability
Improved user experience
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A custom app allows you to create an interface that is tailored to your target audience, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable experience. By focusing on the preferences and expectations of your users, you can craft an app that not only meets their needs but also delights them with personalized features and intuitive navigation.The best part? If you develop an app that your users love, you ensure that they keep coming back for more and turn them into lifelong customers.

Custom apps can be designed to streamline business processes and boost productivity. By automating repetitive tasks, integrating with existing systems, and providing real-time data access, custom apps empower your team to work more efficiently and make informed decisions quickly, just like a well-tailored suit that enables effortless movement and comfort.

A unique app helps you stand out from the competition and attract more customers. In a world where off-the-shelf solutions are abundant, a custom mobile app acts as a distinctive and exclusive suit that sets you apart in the crowd, showcasing your brand's personality and commitment to providing a superior experience.

A well-designed app can generate increased revenue and improve customer retention. By offering a memorable and engaging user experience, your custom app encourages users to continue using your services and make purchases. It's akin to wearing a sharp, tailored suit that not only grabs attention but also instils trust and confidence in your brand, ultimately resulting in increased profitability.

Custom app development enables seamless integration with your existing systems and third-party applications. This ensures a smooth flow of data between various platforms, enhancing communication and collaboration within your organization. The ability to integrate effortlessly is like having a versatile tool that easily connects and works in harmony with other components in your business ecosystem.

As your business evolves, a custom app can be easily modified or expanded to accommodate changing requirements and market trends. This adaptability is like having a dynamic strategy that can be adjusted and fine-tuned to suit your business's changing needs, ensuring continued relevance and success in an ever-changing environment.The benefits don’t just stop there though. If you want to build trust and credibility with your customers, a custom app is a great way to do so.

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Pivoting and Iterating

Investing in custom app development can be expensive, but being open to pivoting and iterating based on market feedback is crucial to ensure long-term success. By adapting your app to the ever-changing needs and preferences of your target market, you can stay ahead of the competition, increase user satisfaction, and maximize your return on investment.

Encourage users to provide feedback and reviews, which will help you identify pain points and areas for improvement. By addressing these concerns, you demonstrate your commitment to serving the unique needs of your users, enhancing your app's credibility and increasing user satisfaction. Tools like in-app surveys, app store reviews, or social media can be used to gather feedback and gauge user sentiment.

Iterate Based on User Data
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Analyze user behaviour and engagement data to understand how your app is being used and identify potential bottlenecks or areas of friction. By making data-driven decisions, you can prioritize improvements and new features that will resonate with your audience, maximizing the impact of your development budget and efforts.

As you adapt your app based on market feedback, be prepared to allocate resources for ongoing updates and improvements. While this may increase your app's overall cost, the benefits include increased user satisfaction, reduced churn, and ultimately, higher long-term profitability. Regular updates also demonstrate your commitment to delivering a high-quality app experience tailored to your users' needs.

Adopt a flexible, agile development methodology that enables prompt iteration and change in response to market feedback.

Your app will stay relevant and helpful to your target market if you are receptive to user needs and can swiftly pivot and make adjustments.

By prioritizing products and enhancements that have the greatest impact, an agile methodology can also assist you in managing development expenses more successfully.

While it's essential to iterate and adapt your app based on user feedback, it's also crucial to balance this with innovation and forward-thinking. Continuously explore new technologies, trends, and market opportunities to ensure your app stays ahead of the curve and caters to the evolving needs of your user base. By striking the right balance between adaptation and innovation, you can maintain a competitive edge and secure long-term success for your app.

App development

The Importance of UX and UI

Creating an outstanding user experience and design is crucial for a successful app. A well-designed app should be visually appealing, intuitive, and user-friendly.

  1. Consistency: Consistent design elements throughout the app, such as typography, colours, and button styles, create a unified look and feel. This consistency reduces the cognitive load on users, helping them navigate your app with ease and understand its functionality more quickly.
  2. Simplicity: A simple and uncluttered interface reduces distractions and makes it easier for users to focus on the tasks at hand. Strive for a minimalistic design by eliminating unnecessary elements, using whitespace effectively, and prioritizing essential features.
  3. Feedback: Providing feedback, such as visual cues and confirmation messages, helps users understand the results of their actions. This can include animations for button clicks, success messages for completed tasks, or error messages when something goes wrong. Clear feedback enhances user satisfaction and encourages continued use of your app.
  1. Understand your target audience: Research your users' demographics, needs, preferences, and behaviours to tailor your app to their expectations. Conduct surveys, interviews, and usability testing to gather insights that help shape your app's features and design.
  2. Use clear navigation: Intuitive navigation is essential for a positive user experience. Implement well-organized menus, easily accessible search functions, and recognizable icons to help users find their way around your app effortlessly.
  3. Optimize for performance: Fast loading times and smooth performance are critical for user engagement. Optimize your app's code, reduce file sizes, and use efficient algorithms to ensure your app runs quickly and seamlessly on various devices.
The Impact of Good Design on App Adoption and Retention
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Higher app adoption rates and greater client retention result from spending money on excellent design and user experience. A well-designed app has a higher likelihood of being passed along by users and being used again, which leads to better ratings, word-of-mouth advertising, and long-term success.

App development

Security Considerations for App Development

In today's interconnected digital world, app security is paramount. We take a look at some vital security considerations.

The Privacy Act of 1974 is the primary privacy regulation in America that regulates the sharing of data. The Privacy Act governs how federal agencies may gather, utilize, and disclose personal information. Individuals are given specific rights under it, including the ability to access and update their personal information, and federal agencies are required to protect such data from illegal disclosure.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for health information, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) for financial information, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for children's online data are just a few federal laws that deal with privacy and data sharing in addition to the Privacy Act. Additionally, each state has its own privacy laws that could offer additional protections.

Keep up with the latest security threats and best practices, such as incorporating multi-factor authentication, securing APIs, and using secure coding practices. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments can help identify potential weaknesses and protect your app from emerging threats.

Working with Trusted Vendors
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Select a reputable development partner with a proven track record in security best practices, like Scrums. A reliable vendor will prioritize security throughout the development process and help you build a secure app that meets industry standards and best practices.

Scrums.com provides high quality engineering teams to scaling enterprises at lower costs. Scrums.com designs, builds, deploys and maintains custom software that gives scale-ups the opportunity to grow world-class businesses.

Scrums.com provides high quality engineering teams to scaling enterprises at lower costs. Scrums.com designs, builds, deploys and maintains custom software that gives scale-ups the opportunity to grow world-class businesses.

How much does it cost to build an app?
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How Much Does It Cost To Build An App Like Shopee?

Learn how app costs, digital payments, & mobile-first trends in Asia & South America impact Shopee-like apps.
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Building an app like Shopee requires understanding regional markets’ mobile-first preferences, rapid digital adoption, and growth trends. Shopee, a fast-growing eCommerce platform, has captured users' hearts across Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Latin America. With intertwined emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Argentina, and Indonesia, localized trends play a dominant role in influencing not only user experience but also app development costs.

In Southeast Asia and South America, mobile usage is the primary way consumers access the internet. Countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, and India are experiencing exponential mobile internet penetration. This thriving mobile-first ecosystem creates an opportunity for apps like Shopee, which tap into the demand for digital payments, social shopping, and seamless mobile interfaces.

Developing an app like Shopee for these markets implies understanding diverse consumer preferences, including the choice of affordable mobile devices, variable internet quality, and an evolving fintech landscape. The costs connected to each development aspect depend on navigating local market complexity, user demands, and integrations, making custom app development essential.

Platform and Device Compatibility

Platform and device compatibility can significantly influence both your custom app development process and your app development budget, especially when targeting markets in Asia and South America. Android is the dominant mobile operating system in regions like India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Argentina due to the widespread availability of low-to-mid-tier smartphones. Countries like Brazil and India see high Android penetration because affordable devices are essential in these regions, prompting app developers to optimize performance across a broad spectrum of mobile hardware.

While major cities in Brazil and India may have consumers using premium devices, many emerging markets in Latin America and Southeast Asia rely heavily on budget-friendly smartphones. This device fragmentation adds complexity when managing platform compatibility, as building an app similar in scope to Shopee requires custom development to accommodate lighter APK versions. Ensuring smooth functionality on low-end devices becomes critical for reaching users across various phone types.

Furthermore, alternate app distribution platforms, such as Huawei’s AppGallery or Amazon’s App Store, may be required in regions where government regulation restricts mainstream platforms like Google Play. These considerations stretch development timelines and increase the project's overall cost. Those wondering, "How much does it cost to build an app?" should remember that device compatibility and platform adjustments are vital factors that drive up costs in complex markets. Ultimately, regional platform requirements and device diversity considerably shape the custom app development process, influencing usability and budget.

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Design and User Experience (UX/UI)

Design and user experience (UX/UI) are critical in ensuring the success of an app like Shopee in regions such as Asia and South America. Countries like India, Brazil, and Indonesia are highly mobile-dependent, so a mobile-first approach is essential. In these regions, users demand apps that perform well, prioritize data efficiency, and provide a seamless user flow. At the same time, visual engagement should remain high to capture users' attention.

For an app catering to the Indian market, developers must carefully design interfaces supporting multiple languages, especially given India's linguistic diversity. Offering regional language support isn’t just an advantage—it's essential. The UX design must consider different literacy levels by incorporating intuitive visual icons and simplified navigation. In contrast, Brazil's younger, dynamic audience seeks interactive features and convenience, meaning the UX/UI should reflect a lively yet easily navigable design catering to this tech-savvy, mobile-oriented crowd.

Lightweight design becomes especially crucial in markets with relatively high data costs or slow internet speeds. This is common in smaller rural areas across South America and Southeast Asia. Reducing the size of images, minimizing load times, and optimizing for low-end devices can improve user retention and decrease bounce rates, ultimately saving on app development costs by reducing the need for constant troubleshooting. In summary, thoughtful UX/UI design tailored to regional specificities can significantly enhance overall app performance and user satisfaction across diverse markets.

Integrations with Third-Party Services/External Systems

Integrations with third-party services and external systems enhance an app's functionality, especially when dealing with localized solutions in Asia and South America. Seamless integration with these services improves the user experience and opens up new opportunities for expanding the app’s reach in key markets.

For example, payment system integration is critical in fintech or eCommerce apps like Shopee. Each region has its preferred payment methods, and adapting to them ensures users a smoother experience. In Brazil, integrating with the Pix system is essential as it has become one of the leading payment platforms, favored mainly for its speed and simplicity. Similarly, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) dominates India’s digital payment landscape, making it a requirement for apps targeting users in this country. While these unique integrations may present technical challenges—such as ensuring the app can handle real-time payment confirmations or compliance with local financial regulations—they're invaluable in earning user trust and driving app accessibility.

Beyond payments, integrating with region-specific logistics services or healthcare APIs can significantly benefit apps that rely on hyper-local deliveries or sensitive data management. For eCommerce apps, integrating third-party local delivery services enables faster turnaround times, improving the user experience immensely. For instance, healthcare apps in Latin America would benefit from using regional health data APIs that ensure compliance with local privacy laws, improving service reliability and user trust.

Incorporating localized third-party services maximizes an app's potential reach and ensures it meets its users' unique needs, making investing in these integrations worthwhile for long-term success. Whether expanding into new fintech, logistics, or healthcare markets, seamless, localized third-party integration is essential to app development.

Database & Back-End Infrastructure

The back-end infrastructure powering an app like Shopee must be robust, secure, and highly scalable, especially in regions like Asia and South America, where user bases are rapidly expanding. Managing large, complex databases of users requires cost-effective and flexible solutions to cope with fluctuating demands.

In countries like India and Indonesia, where app usage grows exponentially, leveraging cloud-based databases such as Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft Azure becomes essential. These cloud platforms offer the scalability needed to handle high-load capacities, ensuring that the app remains fast and responsive even as the user base continues to rise. Scalability and server efficiency are critical to avoid frustrating downtimes during peak usage, helping maintain a reliable, consistent user experience.

Beyond performance, cost considerations significantly shape back-end infrastructure, particularly in sectors like payments and logistics. Reducing operational costs per transaction while maintaining security and efficiency is critical in these industries. Pay-per-use cloud models help minimize expenses when scaling while maintaining the ability to manage large volumes of data across different regions. Additionally, advanced caching and automated load-balancing features these services provide can further enhance performance while keeping costs manageable.

Overall, back-end architecture decisions must balance performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency to support continuous growth while delivering a seamless user experience in fast-growing markets like India, Indonesia, and other parts of Southeast Asia and South America.

Ongoing Maintenance and Updates

Ongoing maintenance and updates are essential in rapidly evolving mobile markets like Southeast Asia and South America. These regions experience continuous growth in user adoption, changing preferences, and technological advancements, making it critical for apps to stay current. One of the main factors requiring constant attention is compliance with local regulations. Laws concerning data storage, privacy, or even app accessibility can change frequently, and failure to adapt could result in service interruptions or penalties. For example, if a government enacts new data storage regulations, immediate updates would be required to ensure compliance and maintain user trust.

In addition to legal considerations, evolving user preferences also drive the need for regular updates. Mobile users are constantly looking for apps that are both user-friendly and aligned with their local contexts. Integrating new features or making UI adjustments based on user feedback can significantly enhance engagement and retention. Likewise, updates to digital payment systems like UPI in India or Pix in Brazil must be incorporated swiftly to ensure seamless financial transactions.

While these updates may increase development and maintenance costs over time, particularly with monitoring and adapting to multiple regions, they are vital for sustaining an app’s longevity and relevance. Ensuring smooth functioning, regulatory compliance, and user experience enhancement is essential for an app to thrive in these diverse and fast-paced markets. Regular maintenance is not just a requirement but a strategic investment in the app's future success.

Team Expertise and Location

One of the most significant factors influencing the development cost is team expertise. Countries like India and Argentina are known for their growing pool of IT talent with expertise in app scalability and fintech, making them prime outsourcing hubs for custom app development.

Engineers in Brazil, exceptionally skilled in gaming or eCommerce ecosystems, offer deep insights into mobile-first users that dominate the LATAM region. Several companies have collaborated with local UX designers to create culturally relevant, region-specific apps.

By hiring regionally experienced developers, you reduce overheads and tap into experts who understand the nuances of the target demographics, contributing to a more culturally resonant and compelling app.

Hidden Costs & Miscellaneous Factors

Data Usage Concerns: Countries like Indonesia and Brazil have high data costs relative to income. Offering lightweight data usage options and offline functionalities can prevent customers from losing their data due to poor internet access.

Payment Integration: Regional payment systems like UPI in India or Pix in Brazil are non-negotiable. However, this complicated payment infrastructure will require extra integrations, boosting app development costs.

Legal and Compliance Costs: India's recent data localization laws and South American digital regulations necessitate compliance protocols that will impact how you handle data storage and encryption, increasing the legal aspect of app development.

What Makes This App Category Unique?

Developing an app like Shopee means navigating unique challenges specific to the growing eCommerce and mobile payment markets in Asia and South America. From Brazil’s passionate smartphone users to India’s rapidly digitalizing rural areas, apps in these regions cannot rely on a "one size fits all" approach. Localizing payments, language, logistical support, and even the way products are advertised play dominant roles in the cost and complexity of building your custom app.

To develop a successful, region-specific app, critical trends across both continents, including emerging cashless economies, mobile-first ecosystems, and the necessity for well-integrated social features, must be considered.

Ready to tap into the rapidly growing markets with a localized app like Shopee? 

Connect with skilled developers at Scrums.com, who have deep expertise in creating mobile-first, region-specific apps. Let us help you build something exceptional for your unique audience. Contact us today for a custom quote!