Kartly : E-Commerce Shopping App
Summary
Kartly is a lifestyle brand that sells fashion, home essentials and accessories from independent brands. Its customers were primarily shopping on their mobile devices, but the store was designed for the desktop. Web pages took a long time to load, checkout involved too many steps, and returns required a call to support.
About Kartly
The majority of shopping applications mirror the website on a smaller display. Kartly is designed for the phone: quick searches, a personalized home feed, checkout in less than a minute and tracking from payment to delivery.
Markeltree designed and built the whole product - the customer app, the backend, and an admin dashboard for managing the catalog, orders, and campaigns. The app was developed using React Native and Expo, ensuring a seamless experience on both iOS and Android devices.
The Challenges
Every project starts with real problems. Here are the core challenges we tackled for this engagement.
A Slow Mobile Experience Costs Sales: Although the majority of Kartly's traffic was from mobile devices, pages were slow to load and images were large. Each additional second resulted in more customers walking out. The app had to load quickly, load images and have scrolling without friction, even on mid-range Android devices and weak connections.
Finding Products Was Harder Than It Should Be: There are thousands of items from a variety of brands, and it was difficult for shoppers to locate what they desired. Typos were not handled, filters were too few, and categories were too many. Kartly required smart search, helpful filters, and curated collections that keep a large catalog from overwhelming shoppers.
Checkout Was Where Customers Gave Up: Long forms, forced account creation and a low number of payment options were causing shoppers to leave their carts. The new flow needed to be short, secure and flexible, with guest checkout, wallets, and cash on delivery, while still gathering all the information required to complete the order.
Every Shopper Saw the Same Store: The old site was presenting the exact same products to everyone. Without personalisation, shoppers had little reason to come back. Kartly required suggestions and recommendations that were tailored to each customer's preferences and history without being intrusive.
Returns and Tracking Overloaded Support: Customers frequently called and emailed asking about the status of an order or how to return a product. These requests were a strain on the support team and shoppers were frustrated. Tracking, returns, and refund status needed to be built into the app and accessible at all times.
One Brand, Two Platforms: The app needed smooth animations, reliable payments, consistent push notifications, and fast image loading on both iOS and Android, without hand-writing two different versions of the app. It also needed to scale on sale days, when traffic increases significantly.
Core Features Implemented
A breakdown of the core components built and delivered for Kartly.
Onboarding & Account Creation
A fast sign-up process that doesn't lose customers on the way.
Capabilities include:
- Sign up via email, phone number (OTP) or social login (Google / Apple)
- Guest checkout option
- Style and category preferences at first launch
- Saved addresses and payment preferences
- Secure login sessions
- Password recovery
New customers go from download to a customized home feed in less than a minute.
Product Discovery & Search
Enabling customers to find the products they are looking for in the shortest time possible.
Capabilities include:
- Curated collections and category browsing
- Search suggestions and typo correction
- Price filters on product listings
- Sorting by popularity, price and newest arrivals
- Visual search and barcode scan
- Fast, cached product images
Customers spend less time searching and more time purchasing.
Product Pages
Detailed pages that build trust before you buy.
Capabilities include:
- High-resolution images with zoom
- Sizing guides and variants
- Real-time stock availability
- Ratings, reviews and customer photos
- Delivery estimates based on location
- “Complete the look” and related accessories
Customers get everything they need to purchase without leaving the app.
Personalized Recommendations
A recommendation engine that gives every home screen a unique feel.
Capabilities include:
- “Picked for you” based on browsing and purchase history
- Recently viewed and trending items
- Back-in-stock and price drop notifications
- Personalized offers for returning customers
Customers discover products they would not have looked for.
Cart, Wishlist & Checkout
From interest to payment, with no friction.
Capabilities include:
- Carts that stay in sync across devices
- Wishlist and save-for-later
- One-page checkout with address autofill
- Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and cash on delivery
- Promo codes and loyalty point redemption
- Email & push notification order confirmations
The fewer steps it takes to check out, the fewer carts are abandoned.
Orders, Tracking & Returns
Post-purchase tools that lower support requests and keep customers satisfied.
Capabilities include:
- Real-time order tracking with status updates
- Order history and digital receipts
- In-app return and exchange requests
- Refund status tracking
- Delivery delay notifications
Customers always know where their order is and exactly what to do if something goes wrong.
Loyalty & Promotions
Customer-favored features that make people want to return.
Capabilities include:
- Points earned with each purchase
- Tiered rewards and exclusive member offers
- Referral codes
- Flash sales with countdown timers
- Seasonal and birthday campaigns
Loyalty is rewarded and new customers are welcomed.
Notifications
Timely messages that help and don't clutter.
Capabilities include:
- Order and delivery updates
- Abandoned cart reminders
- Price drop and restock alerts for wishlist items
- User control over notification types
Seller, Inventory & Admin Tools
Full control of the business and the brands sold on the platform.
Capabilities include:
- Seller onboarding and product uploads with bulk import
- Stock levels, pricing and low-stock alerts
- Order and delivery status management
- Customer and loyalty management
- Coupon and campaign configuration
- Sales analytics & reporting dashboards
The team can operate the entire store from a single location.
How We Built Kartly
Discovery & Product Planning
We kicked off this project by auditing Kartly's current site, understanding their drop-off points, and speaking to customers about their frustrations when shopping on mobile. We studied competitor apps, payment preferences in Kartly's target markets and the logistics of orders and returns. This resulted in a clear feature plan and user flows for browsing, checkout and post-purchase support.
Core Development
We designed the interface in Figma, created wireframes and prototypes, and built a clean, image-led design system for the Kartly brand. We then created the React Native app using Expo, including navigation, accounts, the product catalog, search, filters and product pages. The team developed the Node.js backend, database, and the initial version of the admin dashboard concurrently, allowing the team to work with real products from the beginning.
Advanced Features
We then added the elements that make people buy and remain loyal. We integrated Stripe and digital wallets for checkout, created the recommendations engine, and implemented push notifications for orders, cart reminders and price drops. Wishlists, loyalty points, promo codes, returns and seller tools came next, followed by analytics and campaign management in the admin dashboard.
Optimization & Deployment
The last part was about speed, stability and a smooth launch. We optimized image loading and search response times, load-tested checkout for sale-day traffic and audited the security of payment and data handling. After internal testing on Expo EAS, we shipped the app to the App Store and Google Play with monitoring in place.
Key Outcomes & Impact
Checkout time cut from about five minutes to under one minute
Mobile conversion rate up 38% in the first three months
Cart abandonment down 24% thanks to simpler checkout and reminders
Repeat purchases up 31% through loyalty rewards and personalized offers
Support tickets about orders and returns down 40% with in-app tracking
One React Native codebase delivering a consistent iOS and Android experience
Real-time control of catalog, stock, and campaigns from one dashboard
A platform ready for new categories, sellers, and markets
On our very first call, Markeltree got what Kartly was trying to do. I was not looking to cram a website into an app. I needed a system that felt personal and worked quickly, so customers would actually enjoy using it. Now checkout moves faster. The product suggestions also seem right for each person. The tracking and returns options helped us a lot, and our support inbox has been calmer since then.
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