How to Build a Fashion App

Wondering how to build a fashion app? 

This is a lucrative industry that is booming right now. 

The revenue of the global fashion apparel market was calculated to be 1.5 trillion US dollars in 2021 and is expected to reach 2 trillion USD by 2026, according to the Statista research report.

This means that there is loads of room for growth as well as for companies to make a big mark in this industry.

Let’s see how you can be one of them by building an innovative yet secure app for fashion inspiration. First, we will review a popular fashion app to get an insight into the target market. Then, we will discuss fashion app development steps in detail. Let’s start.

Review a Popular Fashion App

How would you differentiate your fashion app from the competition? Review a popular fashion app and see what it offers so that you understand where you should deliver a unique experience to users such as fashion bloggers, etc. Check out Etsy, a popular fashion app.

It’s available on the web, Android, and iOS. Etsy offers the following features:

• Users can explore a global marketplace of designer brands and handmade, vintage, and creative products.
• The app has a curated list of gifts, unique wedding ideas, and handmade jewelry with new styles and the latest trends.
• Etsy offers personalized recommendations from a personal stylist for stylish outfit inspiration, jewelry, art, and home products.
• You can save items and shops as favorites in your virtual closet, and you can revisit them later.
• Etsy enables users to interact with online store owners directly to get answers to their questions.
• This app offers relevant eCommerce features like cart, check-out, order management, notifications when orders are shipped, etc.
• Etsy offers secure payment options for online shopping.
• Users can discover upcoming events.
• Merchants can set up “Etsy shops” and use this app to sell, manage orders, view shop statistics, etc.
• Etsy supports several languages, e.g., English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.

Building a Fashion App – A Guide

Take the following steps to build a fashion app:

Define the scope of the project to create a fashion app

You would need to define the scope first to plan the project, don’t you? Let’s start this process by onboarding a competent project manager (PM), an experienced IT architect, and a knowledgeable team of business analysts (BAs).

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Engage with your business stakeholders to map the users’ journey through your proposed app, and define the features you would offer. You can conduct “Discovery sessions” for this.

I suggest that you offer a web app, an Android app, and an iOS app with the features that you have decided to include. Support English-speaking users, to start with.

You can enhance the app iteratively, and you should choose a development methodology that supports iterative development. I recommend that you use Agile, and you can read our guide “What is software development life cycle and what you plan for?” to learn more about it.

You would like to launch a functional app with minimal features to test your business idea, wouldn’t you? We call such a product an “MVP”, which stands for “Minimum Viable Product”.

How would you decide on the features in your MVP app? I recommend the following:

• Use tools like the “Pain and gain map” to map the pain points of users and features that address them.
• With this information at hand, use tools like the “Prioritization matrix” to prioritize the features you will offer.

Wondering how to plan an MVP? We at DevTeam.Space can help, and our guide “5 tips to create a sleek MVP” offers insights.

Zero in on the best approach to creating a fashion app

How can you improve the chances of success for this software development project? A sound approach will go a long way, therefore, I recommend the following:

• Keep the “app internationalization” guidelines in mind while designing and developing the app so that you can easily support more languages in the future. Check out “The ultimate guide to mobile app internationalization” for tips.
• Develop native mobile apps since they offer the best user experience and performance.
• Use cloud computing smartly so that you can focus on development.
• Secure your apps against cybercriminals since you will process personal information.
• Develop your APIs to implement your core features, however, you can use a few robust 3^rd party APIs to implement the non-core features.
• Use a mobile device lab on the cloud to improve test coverage.

Need help to formulate an effective development approach? We have got you covered! Check out our guide “What is the best development approach to guarantee the success of your app?” for insights.

Plan to utilize cloud platforms smartly

You want to focus on creating your planned fashion mobile app and the proposed web app, don’t you? To do so, you need to minimize time spent on IT infrastructure management.

Use a “Platform-as-a-Service” (PaaS) platform like AWS Elastic Beanstalk to build a fashion app. PaaS platforms offer the following advantages:

• They manage the cloud infrastructure, networking, operating system, middleware, and runtime environment, which enables you to concentrate on development.
• You can add database resources, integrate APIs, use DevOps tools, and scale your web app easily when you use a reputed PaaS platform.

Check out our guide “10 top PaaS Providers” to learn more about PaaS platforms.

Let’s talk about the mobile app now. You would want to focus on its front-end and business logic, wouldn’t you? This means that you need help with the mobile backend so that you don’t have to focus on that.

Sign-up with AWS Amplify, which is the “Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service” (MBaaS) offering from AWS. MBaaS platforms offer plenty of advantages, e.g.:

• Such platforms manage the cloud infrastructure and persistent storage, therefore, you don’t need to spend time building and managing the mobile backend.
• MBaaS platforms make it easier for you to integrate APIs, moreover, they also help you to implement features like user management, “push notifications”, etc.
• You can easily scale your mobile app if you use an MBaaS platform.

Our guide “How to choose the best Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS)?” offers more insights.

Choose the appropriate technology stack to develop your fashion app

Which technologies should you use? I recommend the following:

Node.js for web app development:

You want to build a scalable web app. Node.js works well for you since it enables asynchronous event-driven programming. This open-source runtime environment is based on JavaScript, therefore, many developers find it easy to work with.

A large developer community supports Node.js and offers many useful sharable tools and frameworks, which deliver better productivity to programmers. Read our guide “10 great tools for Node.Js software development” for more information.

Java for native Android development:

Java hardly needs an introduction! Most native Android developers are well-versed with Java, therefore, I recommend that you use it to develop the Android app.

Swift for native iOS development:

You surely want to have your iOS app rank high on the Apple App Store. Apple recommends Swift for iOS development and rewards developers with better “App Store Optimization” (ASO).

Swift has powerful features that help you to avoid common programming errors, moreover, this lightweight language delivers robust performance. You will have a smaller codebase if you code using Swift, and your app will be more maintainable.

Our guide “How to migrate your Objective-C project to Swift?” explains these advantages in detail.

Database solutions for developing APIs

I have earlier recommended you develop APIs to implement your core features, however, you need databases for this. I recommend the following:

• PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL is a popular open-source RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) with powerful features.
• MongoDB: A popular NoSQL document database, MongoDB is highly scalable.

Plan to secure your web and mobile apps

You will offer in-app purchases, therefore, you will process the sensitive personal information of your users. Your app should secure this information, however, how do you achieve that? I recommend the following:

• Proactively mitigate key application security risks like injection, XML external entities (XXE), cross-site scripting (XSS), insecure deserialization, broken authentication, etc. Read the “OWASP top ten” report for more insights.
• Use multi-factor authentication (MFA).
• Incorporate industry-standard encryption algorithms like AES-256.
• Use real-time threat intelligence capabilities.
• Secure your APIs. We will touch upon this shortly.
• Consider using a hybrid cloud deployment, which will enable you to run workloads that process sensitive data on a private cloud. You can run your other workloads on a public cloud.
• Integrate compliance and security testing in your CI/CD pipeline by embracing “Compliance-as-code”. Use automated tools for this so that you don’t leave security and compliance testing until the very end of your SDLC. Read “Compliance as code and applied DevOps” for more insights.
• Use next-generation firewalls and antivirus solutions.

Need guidance to secure your app? We at DevTeam.Space can help, and you can judge our capabilities by reading “How to secure your Fintech app”.

Onboard and organize your development team

It’s time for you to onboard your development team, therefore, find competent people for the following roles:

• UI designers;
• Web developers with Node.js skills;
• Native Android developers with Java skills;
• Native iOS developers with Swift skills;
• Testers;
• DevOps engineers.

How do you find competent developers that demonstrate excellent professionalism? Our guide “How to find a good software developer” is just what you need!

Your next step is to organize the team for optimal productivity, however, how do you do that? I recommend that you use the time-tested “Scrum” technique, which helps to manage Agile projects.

Take the following steps:

• Form small cross-functional teams where developers and testers work together. These teams are called “Scrum teams”, and the PM performs the role of a “Scrum Master”.
• Empower the team to estimate requirements and plan them in “Sprints”, i.e., iterations.
• Ensure that the team follows the Scrum-specific processes, e.g., “Sprint planning” to plan features in “Sprints”, “Daily stand-out meetings” for project status tracking, etc.

You can learn more about “Scrum” in our guide “How to build a Scrum development team?”.

Develop APIs for core fashion app features

How do you implement your core features? You need an approach that allows the front end to access the back end using a consistent framework, moreover, it should help you to scale your development process.

Developing APIs for your core features is the way to go, and I recommend that you develop RESTful APIs. “Representational State Transfer” (REST) is the de-facto standard for API development as I write this guide. How do you develop RESTful APIs, though? You need to take the following steps:

• Design the business logic for your core features and use a tool like Postman to develop and test the API.
• Document your API using a well-known tool like Swagger.
• Use your AWS cloud hosting account to host the APIs, moreover, use PostgreSQL and MongoDB as the database solutions.
• Employ techniques like digital signature, encryption, authentication tokens, quotas, throttling, and secure gateways to secure the APIs.
• Design meaningful API endpoint URLs, furthermore, create effective rules for API requests and responses.

Need some help with API development? Our guide “How to build RESTful API for your mobile app?” is just what you need!

Develop your fashion apps

We have come to the key stage of this project now, where you will design and develop the proposed web and mobile apps.

Let’s start with web app development, where you need to take the following steps:

• Design a user-friendly UI by following the best practices explained in “User interface design guidelines: 10 rules of thumb”.
• Use IntelliJ IDEA as your IDE, and read “js and NPM” to learn how you can use it with Node.js.
• Integrate APIs.
• Test and deploy the app with the help of the AWS DevOps tools. Read “Deploying Node.js applications to AWS Elastic Beanstalk” for guidance.

Do the following to develop your proposed Android app:

• Follow the “Material Design” guidelines and design a user-friendly UI.
• Use the Android Studio IDE to code the app in Java, and integrate APIs.
• Test the app using Espresso. Use a mobile device lab on the cloud to test the app against a wide range of devices, and I recommend the Experitest mobile device & browser lab for this.
• Publish the app to Google Play by following the instructions in “Publish your app”.

Developing your proposed iOS app involves the following steps:

• Design an effective UI by consulting the “Human Interface Guidelines”.
• Use the Xcode IDE to develop your Swift code and integrate your APIs.
• Use the Experitest mobile device lab on the cloud and XCTest to test the app.
• Follow the instructions in “Submit your apps to the App Store” and submit your app to Apple App Store.

Preparing to Develop Your Fashion App?

We have answered your key question, i.e., “How to make a fashion app?”. However, remember that you need to launch an app with sufficient differentiators in a competitive market, therefore, this could be a complex project.

Engage a reputed software development company to build a fashion app. Our guide “How to find the best software development company?” can help you find one.

If you, as a business owner or CTO, are still looking for professional software developers to help you build an innovative fashion mobile app, DevTeam.Space can help you via its field-expert software developers community.

You can easily partner with these high-quality developers to build your market-competitive mobile app by sending us your initial project specifications via this form. One of our account managers will get back to you to discuss more details on how we can help.

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