How Shalky Built an App Customers Returned To as Monthly App Sales Grew 30×

With Evlop, the Saudi fashion house combined native shopping with custom-designed brand sections and dedicated Arabic and English experiences, creating a more direct digital channel for customers to discover collections, return to products they love, and complete purchases.

Results at a glance

- 30× growth in monthly app sales

- 18.6× growth in monthly active users

- 50%+ of August’s monthly active users were returning users

(Growth compares Shalky’s April 2026 launch-period baseline with August 2026.)

About Shalky

Led by designer Qassem Al Qassem, Shalky combines more than 17 years of his design experience with a family fashion legacy spanning over 70 years.

Its collections include evening dresses, wedding styles, couture, and kaftans, with hand embroidery at the heart of the brand’s identity. Through its showrooms across Saudi Arabia and its international ecommerce presence, Shalky serves customers who return for new collections, distinctive designs, and special occasions.

As Shalky’s digital business continued to grow, the team saw an opportunity to strengthen the relationship with customers through a dedicated mobile experience.

For Ramy Khalil, Marketing Director at Shalky, the objective went beyond simply launching another sales channel.

“Our goal was not just to launch an app. We wanted to create a direct digital experience that keeps Shalky closer to our customers and gives them an easier way to discover new collections, return to pieces they love, and shop whenever they are ready. The app needed to support both the customer experience and our wider digital growth strategy.”

Ramy Khalil, Marketing Director, Shalky

The challenge: make repeat shopping easier without losing the Shalky experience

Shalky already had a loyal customer base and a distinctive ecommerce experience. The challenge was to translate that experience into mobile without making the app feel like a simplified version of the website.

The team wanted customers to access products faster, navigate and check out more easily, and receive timely updates when products they were interested in dropped in price or returned to stock.

At the same time, Shalky’s Shopify storefront already reflected the brand’s visual identity and functionality. Some of its brand-defining sections required more flexibility than standard prebuilt app components could provide.

The experience also needed to work naturally in both Arabic and English, including accurate right-to-left presentation for Arabic customers.

For the marketing team, maintaining consistency across channels was essential.

“Shalky has a very specific visual language. Whether a customer enters a showroom, visits our website, sees a campaign on social media, or opens the app, the experience should still feel unmistakably Shalky. That consistency was one of our main priorities.”

Ramy Khalil, Marketing Director, Shalky

The solution: combine native commerce with custom control where it mattered

Evlop’s native components supported the core shopping journey, including product browsing, customer accounts, wishlists, cart, and checkout. These experiences remained connected to Shalky’s Shopify data and operations.

For sections that required greater creative and technical control, Shalky used Evlop’s Custom HTML Block. The team recreated the video-led homepage and its call to action for the app using React Native, Shopify Liquid, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

This allowed Shalky to retain more control over the section’s content, appearance, and behavior, while Evlop’s native components continued to support the everyday commerce experience.

Using Evlop’s Conditional Section Visibility, Shalky also created dedicated experiences for English and Arabic users, including right-to-left layouts where required.

From a development perspective, flexibility was a key part of the implementation.

“From a technical perspective, we needed enough flexibility to reproduce Shalky’s custom brand experience while keeping the core shopping journey stable and connected to Shopify. Evlop allowed us to combine native functionality with custom development where we needed more control.”

Ali Ahmed, Senior Developer, Shalky

After launch, Shalky’s internal team was able to manage routine content updates and campaigns, while Evlop remained available for additional custom development and technical requirements.

The strategy: turn product interest into a reason to return

For Shalky, launching the app was only the first step. The larger strategy was to build a channel that could support repeat engagement and shorten the journey between product interest and purchase.

In practice:

- Wishlists gave customers a convenient way to save and revisit pieces they were considering.

- Price-drop and back-in-stock alerts created opportunities to bring customers back when products they had already shown interest in became available or more accessible.

- App-only discounts provided an additional incentive for customers to complete purchases through the app.

- Direct app communication gave Shalky another way to reconnect with customers around new collections and relevant product updates.

Together, these features helped create a clearer path from discovery to consideration, return visit, and potential purchase.

“Fashion purchases, especially in our category, do not always happen during the first visit. A customer may discover a piece, save it, think about the occasion, and come back later. The app gives us a stronger opportunity to stay connected during that journey and make the return experience much easier.”

Ramy Khalil, Marketing Director, Shalky

The results: from launch to a meaningful mobile revenue channel

From its April 2026 launch period through August 2026, Shalky’s app grew significantly in both usage and sales.

Monthly app sales grew 30×, while monthly active users increased 18.6×.

By August, more than 50% of monthly active app users were returning users.

Performance varied from month to month rather than increasing in a straight line. June and July both recorded higher app sales than August. Even so, August remained substantially above the launch-period baseline.

The app’s contribution to Shalky’s wider ecommerce business also increased.

At launch, the app represented less than 1% of total store sales. By August, Shalky’s Shopify sales-channel data showed that the app generated approximately:

- 10% of total store revenue

- 11% of all store orders

For Ramy, one of the most important indicators was not only revenue growth but repeat usage.

“One of the strongest signals for us was seeing customers return to the app. More than half of our active users in August were returning users. That tells us the app is becoming part of the customer journey rather than being something people download once and forget.

When the app reached around 10% of our total store revenue and 11% of orders, it became clear that it was developing into a meaningful commercial channel for Shalky.”

Ramy Khalil, Marketing Director, Shalky

Looking ahead: turning customer insights into repeat purchases

The next phase of Shalky’s app strategy is focused on personalization and customer behavior.

Ramy and his team are examining signals including:

- Repeat interest in specific collections

- Wishlist activity

- Cart value

- Previous purchases

- Product categories viewed

- Frequency of app visits

These insights can help Shalky understand which customer journeys are most closely associated with conversion and repeat purchasing.

For example, customers with a history of purchasing Haute Couture could see new couture collections more prominently in their app experience.

Customers frequently exploring kaftans could receive a more relevant product journey than someone primarily shopping for evening or wedding styles.

Additionally, shoppers with items on their wishlist could receive timely, personalized reminders that bring them straight back to their saved products to maximize conversions.

“Personalization is one of the biggest opportunities for the next stage. Someone interested in kaftans should not necessarily have the same journey as a customer looking for a wedding dress or Haute Couture. The more relevant we can make the experience, the more valuable the app becomes for the customer.”

Ramy Khalil, Marketing Director, Shalky

By continuously comparing customer journeys and refining them over time, Shalky aims to improve conversion among returning users while growing repeat-purchase revenue through the app.

Why the timing made sense for Shalky

Shalky launched its app after building a strong customer base, an established ecommerce operation, and a regular rhythm of collection launches.

The opportunity was therefore not simply to introduce another platform.

It was to create a direct digital channel between the brand and customers who were already interested in returning.

 “For us, the value of the app is the direct relationship it creates with the customer. We can introduce a collection, understand what they are interested in, reconnect with them at the right moment, and continuously improve that journey. That is where we see the long-term opportunity.”

Ramy Khalil, Marketing Director, Shalky

For fashion houses with repeat customers and frequent collection launches, a mobile app becomes increasingly valuable when it reduces the distance between product discovery and the customer’s next purchase.

Could your Shopify customers benefit from a more direct mobile experience?

See how Evlop can help you create a native, localized app shaped around your Shopify brand and the way your customers shop.

Install Evlop and Start Your Trial  |  Schedule a Demo