PowerApp: Mobile App for Your Store

Why a store needs an app

A mobile site brings the customer in; an app brings them back. Repeat sales are the cheapest revenue in e-commerce, but a website has no tools for returning people: once the tab is closed you have to buy that customer again.

You build the home screen yourself

The home screen is configured in the admin panel, in the Cart-Power: Mobile app layout — exactly the way you build website pages. Six block types are available, each with its own templates.

• •  Products — as a grid, as small items or as a horizontal scroller
• •  Banners — regular and carousel, with video support
• •  Categories — with their own icons and a configurable number of items
• •  Brands, customer reviews and a vendor list for marketplaces
• •  The «Show all» button links to a product, a category, a filtered category, a brand or a tag — routing happens inside the app

Home screen: banners with a sale countdown, categories, blog and store reviews

Vendor and brand blocks on the home screen

Catalogue and product page

• •  Live search with query history; filters and sorting are in sync with the website
• •  Two display modes — grid and compact list
• •  Labels for promotions, new arrivals and bestsellers right in the list
• •  Image gallery and option selection without opening the product page
• •  Product tabs: features, tags, attachments, variations, vendor offers, availability by warehouse
• •  Extended reviews with photos, a promotions block, recommendations and a video gallery

Search suggestions, catalogue as a list and a grid, option picker right in the list	Filters by brand, vendor and price, labelled collections and a sale page with a countdown
Product page: gallery, price in points, reviews with photos and tabs with tags and files	Availability by warehouse, video gallery and the «Bought together» block

Cart, checkout and customer account

• •  The cart survives between sessions; saved-for-later items do not clutter the current order
• •  Reward points earned on each product are shown up front
• •  Saved addresses, shipping choice, promo codes and points, a detailed total breakdown
• •  Guest checkout: unauthenticated customers can add to cart and order
• •  Order history, one-tap reorder, returns and order messaging
• •  Points balance, language, currency and notification settings

Cart: points earned on each product, a «Recommended» block and the total	Swipe a cart row to save it for later or remove it
One-screen checkout: saved addresses, shipping choice and a total breakdown	Promo code and reward points applied during checkout
Customer account: orders, returns, points, messages and one-tap reorder	Points history, returns and settings: language, currency, push

Push notifications and campaigns

Notifications are configured in the standard CS-Cart section — separately for customers and vendors — and edited like ordinary email templates. The app has a single notification centre: a missed push is not lost and can be opened later.

• •  Segmentation across 30+ parameters: last order date, average order value, order count, activity, new and lapsed users
• •  Campaigns to people who installed the app but never signed in
• •  Multilingual texts within one campaign
• •  Images and deep links — to a product, a category, an app screen or an external URL
• •  Scheduled sending, all from the admin panel

Push on the lock screen, region detection, storefront picker and analytics

App-only capabilities

For marketplaces: the Vendor tab

On the Multi-Vendor edition vendors work straight from their phone: sales analytics, transactions and balance, product and stock management, status changes and order handling, built-in notifications. Plus multiple storefronts in one app, with the customer choosing the storefront.

The Vendor tab: balance and sales, transactions, product editing and orders

Vendor and customer messaging inside the app

What you configure without a developer

• •  App colours with a preview — loaded from the admin panel, changed without a rebuild or store review
• •  Dark theme; on a multi-storefront store each storefront can have its own scheme
• •  Icons and splash screens generated from the images you upload
• •  Side and main menus taken from standard CS-Cart menus, with icons
• •  Category icons for the home screen and the category list
• •  Every string in the app through language variables
• •  An «install the app» banner on the site for iOS and Android visitors
• •  Closing the storefront for the app alone — you can test without closing the website

Supported add-ons and platform settings

The app respects the «Track inventory» and «Out-of-stock actions» settings and supports downloadable products, geolocation and city detection.

• •  Out of the box: RMA (returns), call requests, message centre, reward points, product reviews, reviews and comments, warehouses, common products, social and Apple ID sign-in
• •  Cart-Power add-ons: Auction, Minimum order amount, OTP registration, Smart Search on Elasticsearch
• •  Third-party: AB: Stickers, AB: UniTheme2, AB: Video gallery, AB: Category Banners, AB: Motivation Block
• •  Also: product bundles, Share Cart, fast customer registration

Plans

There is one app — the plans differ in how much of the launch we take on and which licence edition your store runs on. The monthly price is exactly one tenth of the one-time price, so beyond ten months buying outright is cheaper. A subscription is easier to start with, but the app runs only while payments continue. Bought outright, it stays yours.

From the second year access to updates renews at $790 per year for a store and $1,590 for Multi-Vendor. You may also choose not to renew — the app remains yours and keeps working, but there will be no new builds for changes in store requirements.

Publishing to the stores

We publish to the App Store, Google Play, RuStore and Huawei AppGallery — the price is the same per store. The Turnkey and Marketplace plans already include the App Store and Google Play; other stores and the App plan are priced below.

Apple and Google developer accounts are registered in your name and paid at those companies' rates, so the rights to the app stay with you. We will help you register them if you do not have them yet.

Maintenance

One, three or six months of support are already included in the plan. After that the app has to be rebuilt for Apple and Google requirements, the connector watched and the product developed — otherwise the app quietly drops out of the stores.

Unused hours do not roll over; work beyond the package is $35 per hour. Take maintenance for both the store and the app and the second plan is half price.

How the launch goes

We take on the whole job: from purchase to submission takes under a week. From you we need a logo with brand colours, access to the store admin panel and Apple and Google accounts if you plan to publish.

Apps already running

Eleven stores have launched with us — from food delivery to building materials and a tea shop. Below are real screens from their apps.

Food delivery: category catalogue and guest checkout with several vendors

Release history

Development is continuous and discussed in the open — see the PowerApp thread on the CS-Cart forum: release announcements, questions from store owners and our answers.

FAQ