The problem

For 11 years, the team at obundle has been helping e-commerce brands build exceptional store experiences. With over 600 client stores in their portfolio and expertise across various industries, they've established a strong reputation in the BigCommerce ecosystem.

Despite having more than a decade of expertise in design and development, the team found themselves hesitant to dive into public app development. While they had built more than 80 private apps for clients over the years, the complexities of building and maintaining public apps for the BigCommerce marketplace kept them from fully capitalizing on this opportunity. They were concerned that time spent on public apps would pull them away from their client work.

"The development process for public apps was incredibly time-consuming," explained Andrew Riggins, founder of obundle. "Before Gadget, we were spending excessive time on infrastructure rather than focusing on the innovative features we wanted to build."

The team was bogged down by the tedious aspects of app development, with a heavy burden on DevOps, database management, and client-server interactions. Unless they could find a way to efficiently scale their app development initiatives, public apps just weren’t worth it.

David Vloedman, a developer at obundle, shared, "We found the extensive setup and maintenance incredibly time-consuming. We were spending more time on the foundational elements than on building the actual features that would benefit our clients."

But the team was looking to expand into new revenue streams so they wouldn’t need to rely solely on client work, and the BigCommerce Marketplace seemed like the obvious choice. Although the technical overhead slowed down their development process and limited the number of public apps they could feasibly bring to market, they were still sure there was a way to make it work.

‍

The solution

When BigCommerce announced a new partnership with an app development tool named Gadget, Andrew saw an opportunity. The platform promised to not only simplify app setup, but also practically eliminate the ongoing DevOps they had been struggling to justify. They opted to try the platform out, hoping that Gadget would be an efficient use of their limited resources and allow them to finally start building apps for the BigCommerce Marketplace.

"With Gadget, we could focus our development efforts on creating features that directly benefit users, rather than spending time on infrastructure setup and maintenance," Andrew explained. The team was particularly impressed by Gadget's reliability, built-in features, and the dramatic reduction in code they needed to write.

David emphasized how Gadget transformed their development process: "The platform's robustness and fault tolerance are key advantages. We no longer needed to build and maintain all the foundational elements ourselves — Gadget handled everything from DevOps to database management."

Gadget's streamlined approach allowed obundle to redirect their focus to what mattered most: creating valuable features for their apps. Instead of worrying about server configurations, authentication protocols, and database setups, they could immediately begin building the unique functionality that would set their apps apart in the marketplace.

The platform also simplified the onboarding process for new team members. With Gadget's consistent framework and intuitive interface, developers could quickly get up to speed and contribute to projects, enhancing collaboration efficiency across the team.

‍

The results

The impact of adopting Gadget has been transformative for obundle. In just a few months, they've launched six public apps on the BigCommerce marketplace — an achievement that would have been nearly unachievable with their previous development approach.

"We set an ambitious goal of launching 10 apps in just a few months, and thanks to Gadget, we're well on our way to exceeding that target," Andrew shared. "The accelerated development timeline has allowed us to bring more innovative solutions to market faster than we ever thought possible."

The team estimates that Gadget has significantly reduced their development time while simultaneously improving the reliability of their applications. This efficiency has allowed them to pursue more complex projects and expand their app portfolio without compromising on quality.

"Gadget has been a key asset as we’ve moved from building private apps to publishing multiple public apps," David explained. "The platform's reliability means we spend far less time troubleshooting issues and can focus on creating new features and improving existing ones."

With the foundation Gadget provides, obundle has overcome the technical barriers that previously limited their app development initiatives. They're now positioned to continue expanding their app offerings, with several new releases planned in the coming months.

The success of their public apps has also opened new revenue streams for the business. As they begin to implement more comprehensive marketing strategies beyond the BigCommerce app store, they anticipate even greater adoption and growth.

For obundle, Gadget has been more than just a development platform — it's been a game changer that has transformed their approach to app development and unlocked new opportunities in the BigCommerce ecosystem.

"Using Gadget has been more than worthwhile. It’s reduced our development time, improved reliability, and allowed us to do things we couldn’t pursue before." Andrew concluded. "We’re able to achieve our app development goals while making the most of our resources, and we're happy to say we’re just getting started."

‍