Matalan's app is flying. You still don't need an app 📱

Matalan says orders through its app went up 20% in August and 28% in September, year on year. The new app got 1.76 million downloads in two months.

Numbers are from Retail Gazette, if you want the whole thing: https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/10/matalan-app-orders-jump-28-as-digital-investment-pays-off/

Now every small store owner will read this and ask "should I build an app too?" No. Matalan has millions of customers who come back every week. You have a few hundred a month and half of them came from one Instagram post 😅

What the app really gives them is speed. Saved login, saved card, two taps and done. That part you can copy without paying a developer for a year:

• Open your store on your own phone, on mobile data, not office wifi. Count the seconds

• Turn on Apple Pay and Google Pay. Nobody wants to type 16 numbers on a bus ❌

• Guest checkout. Don't force an account before payment

• Kill the popup that covers the whole screen in the first second

Make the website feel like an app. Then we can talk about the app.