How Hippoland increased customer engagement and loyalty with a mobile app for iOS and Android?

As one of the leaders in the Bulgarian market for children’s products and toys, Hippoland continues to actively expand its digital presence. In the age of mobile commerce, customers expect fast, convenient and personalised access to their favourite brands directly from their mobile devices. To meet these expectations, Hippoland took the next strategic step by developing its own shopping app for iOS and Android. After more than 10 years of successful collaboration, the brand once again trusted the Stenik team to deliver the project.

Key improvements

• Convenience and easy access: The app is available on the App Store and Google Play and provides a fast, convenient and personalised shopping experience directly from a mobile device.
• Direct marketing channel: Push notifications for promotional campaigns, exclusive deals and special offers delivered directly to app users.
• Omnichannel synchronisation: Automatic synchronisation between the mobile app, the Magento online store, the ERP system and physical stores, providing up-to-date product, price, stock and customer information.
• Marketing strategy optimisation: Centralised collection and analysis of customer data for more accurate segmentation, personalised campaigns and more effective marketing activities.

Business goals

• By developing the mobile app, Hippoland aimed to expand its digital presence, reach more customers, increase customer loyalty and further develop its omnichannel strategy by bringing online and offline shopping together into a consistent customer experience.
• The main business goals of the project included:
• Gaining a competitive advantage and creating a new sales channel;
• Improving customer engagement and loyalty;
• Increasing sales and engagement through push notifications;
• Providing a consistent omnichannel customer experience;
• Managing content and marketing activities centrally through the existing Magento administration panel.
• Collecting and analysing data.

The solution

Our app development team created a mobile app for iOS and Android based on the cross-platform Flutter technology. It is fully integrated with Hippoland’s Magento platform and forms part of the existing eCommerce ecosystem, using the same product catalogue, business logic, integrations and administration panel as the online store.

All products, prices, stock levels, customer profiles and orders are synchronised automatically and in real time between the mobile app, the Magento platform and the ERP system. Orders placed through the app are sent directly to Magento and processed in the same way as orders placed through the online store.

Thanks to the existing integrations with the ERP, payment, logistics and other external systems, the mobile app uses the infrastructure already built for the online store. This speeds up the app implementation, makes maintenance easier and enables centralised management of content, promotions and business processes through Magento.

Mobile shopping with a focus on UX

The mobile app interface follows modern app UI/UX practices and reflects the visual identity of the online store, providing intuitive and familiar navigation with a focus on improved mobile functionality.

The main navigation is designed for speed and convenience and is positioned at the bottom of the screen, while categories and dynamic filters are available at the top to make product discovery easier.

Marketing and conversion optimisation

The Hippoland mobile app includes a range of marketing and UX features designed to encourage repeat purchases, increase customer engagement and improve conversions throughout the shopping journey.

Personalised push notifications

The app provides a direct marketing channel through personalised push notifications based on customers’ interests and shopping behaviour. Users receive information about new products, promotional campaigns, special offers and personalised recommendations, as well as abandoned cart reminders. The app also makes it possible to re-engage inactive users through targeted campaigns. This allows Hippoland to stay connected with its customers, encourage repeat visits and purchases, and use an effective marketing channel to increase customer engagement.

App rating pop-up

After a purchase is completed in the app, an automatic pop-up invites customers to leave a rating and review on the App Store or Google Play. This helps build social proof and attract new customers, while also improving the app’s visibility and ranking in the app stores.

Deep linking infrastructure

A deep linking infrastructure was implemented to connect the website and the mobile app within a single digital ecosystem. Users who reach a product or promotion through an advertisement, email, push notification or social media are directed straight to the relevant screen in the app without having to go through the home page. This provides faster access to the desired content, a better customer experience and more effective marketing campaigns.

Checkout process

Login required to access checkout

When users proceed to complete their order, the app requires them to log in to their account or create a new account if they do not already have one.

Billing information management

When completing an order, customers can request an invoice at the payment step by selecting the “I want an invoice” option.

• Guest users can enter the required invoice details, which are submitted together with the order.
• Registered users can select one of their previously saved invoice profiles or enter new details, which they can choose to save to their account for future orders.

From their account settings, registered users can manage their billing information and maintain several different invoice profiles at the same time. Each profile can be edited or deleted at any time.

Shopping cart with a free delivery progress indicator

The app shows in real time how much more customers need to spend to qualify for free delivery. This encourages them to add more products to their cart and helps increase the average order value (AOV).

Additional features include:

• Phone number validation;
• Predefined delivery rules.

Omnichannel features

The mobile app connects the online store with Hippoland’s physical retail network and provides a consistent customer experience across all channels.

The following features were implemented:

• Order tracking - the tracking number and current shipment status have been added to the details of each order. This allows customers to easily track their delivery directly through the mobile app.
• Real-time stock availability in physical stores - customers can check whether a product is available at a specific Hippoland store.
• Physical store locator - customers can access information about the location and opening hours of every store in the Hippoland retail network directly through the app.
• ERP synchronisation of customer and product data between online and offline channels.

Third-party integrations

The mobile app is integrated with the payment, logistics and marketing solutions used within Hippoland’s digital ecosystem.

• BORICA for online card payments;
• Speedy for delivery to offices and parcel lockers;
• Econt for delivery to offices;
• BoxNow for delivery to parcel lockers;
• Evropat for delivery to addresses and offices.
• Mailchimp for automatic newsletter subscription.
• UniConsent for Mobile: Integration of a professional GDPR consent management system specially optimised for mobile apps.

The result

By launching the mobile app, Hippoland took the next step in the development of its omnichannel strategy and digital presence. The solution brings together the online store, physical stores and loyalty programme within a single ecosystem, creating a more direct connection with customers and providing new opportunities for personalisation, marketing automation and customer engagement.

The app provides a more convenient mobile shopping experience, access to personalised recommendations and special offers, and an effective communication channel with customers. In this way, Hippoland improves the overall customer experience and creates a strong foundation for higher engagement and the long-term development of its digital ecosystem.