Por Stiven Cartagena
July 21, 2026
Global e-commerce sales are forecast to reach a staggering $5.24 trillion by 2026, with direct-to-consumer and mobile commerce acting as the fastest-growing segments in the retail industry. Despite this massive growth, brands are facing an increasingly expensive challenge, paid customer acquisition costs are skyrocketing every year. To tackle this industry-wide hurdle, bootstrapped Shopify app developer StarApps has announced the acquisition of the enterprise mobile app platform AppMaker in an all-cash deal.
Founded in 2016, StarApps has scaled its business without outside venture capital, generating more than $6 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). The company's merchandising apps are currently utilized by over 30,000 merchants, including an elite cohort of more than 2,500 stores operating on the Shopify Plus tier. By acquiring AppMaker, StarApps is absorbing a platform that already powers native mobile applications for over 200 enterprise brands, which collectively process more than $100 million in annual gross merchandise value (GMV).
With the Shopify platform now accounting for a 14% share of all e-commerce sales in the United States, ecosystem partners like StarApps play a critical role in how brands connect with buyers. As advertising becomes prohibitively expensive, businesses are actively shifting their budgets and attention toward retention strategies and owned channels. In this new landscape, native mobile apps sit at the top of the priority list, as they consistently drive the strongest repeat purchase behaviors of any channel a brand controls.
"Mobile apps are the most powerful retention channel a brand can own," stated Saleeh K, Founder of AppMaker. "Our customers consistently see some of their highest repeat purchase rates and strongest loyalty metrics through their app. Joining forces with StarApps allows us to bring this impact to many more brands, at scale".
The performance metrics underscore the immense value of this strategy. Brands using AppMaker have reported conversion rates up to three times higher, a 28% revenue growth within their first year, and a fivefold increase in customer lifetime value (LTV). Importantly, leveraging these native apps has also enabled businesses to reduce their advertising spend by up to 30%.
Historically, Shopify merchants looking to launch a mobile app faced a difficult tech trade-off, they either had to rely on templated products with limited flexibility or fund expensive, time-consuming custom builds. The AppMaker acquisition is specifically designed to remove this constraint entirely.
AppMaker's defining feature is its open architecture model. Unlike most mobile app platforms that lock brands into a fixed product roadmap, AppMaker allows a brand's internal tech team—or its Shopify development partners—to build custom features directly on top of the underlying platform. This prevents merchants from facing long wait times in an external provider's queue whenever they need a bespoke feature rolled out.
"We've spent years helping merchants improve how customers shop online," said Shashank Agrawal, Founder of StarApps. "The next step was helping brands nurture stronger relationships after that first purchase. AppMaker, which has achieved an exceptional enterprise platform that complements what we do, allows us to support merchants across a much larger part of the customer journey". Agrawal noted that integrating AppMaker is the "perfect fit" for what StarApps is trying to achieve on an enterprise level.
Following the acquisition, AppMaker will continue supporting its existing customers and partners while leveraging StarApps' massive scale and distribution network on Shopify. Together, the unified entity aims to develop software that seamlessly bridges the gap between web and mobile, enabling e-commerce brands to create faster, highly personalized, and high-converting shopping experiences.
