Motel Rocks: A Mobile App Built for Global Growth

The Brand 

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Motel Rocks is an independent women’s fashion brand known for its bold, vintage-inspired styles and unapologetic attitude. Born out of a road trip across the US in the 90s, the brand has grown from a small vintage wholesale venture into a global fashion label with teams in London and Bali.

Today, Motel Rocks reaches millions of customers around the world through its e-commerce store and major retail partners like ASOS & Urban Outfitters. With a social following of over 3 million and global customerbase, Motel continues to push boundaries while staying true to its roots in individuality, freedom, and fun.

The Challenge

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Motel Rocks had big plans.

As one of the UK’s fastest-growing fashion brands, they were looking to scale internationally and needed a mobile app that could support their ambitions. They already had an app in place, built by a Shopify Plus-accredited app builder, but it was starting to fall short.

The brand had just gone through a major rebrand and launched a new online store that looked and felt like a step into the future. Unfortunately, their mobile app hadn’t kept up. The design was outdated, the user experience clunky, and critically, it couldn’t support their expansion store setup across the UK, US, EU, and Australia.

The disconnect between the app and the online store was becoming a serious issue. Customers were frustrated by the lack of consistency and functionality, which quickly translated into poor reviews and a disappointing 3.3-star app rating. For a brand that lives and breathes customer experience, that simply wasn’t good enough.

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The Solution

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Motel partnered with Venn Apps to completely redesign their mobile experience and bring it in line with their new brand identity and performance goals.

The project started with a full design and UX overhaul. Our team worked closely with Motel’s in-house designers to ensure the app didn’t just look good, but also reflected the same elevated experience customers had come to expect from the online store. The result was a sleek, on-brand interface with a smoother, more intuitive customer journey.

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To support Motel’s global operations, we built custom technology that allowed users to switch between regional storefronts directly within the app. Whether shopping from the UK, the US, Europe or Australia, customers could now access the right store in just a few taps. 

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On top of that, the Venn Apps CMS gave Motel the power to create custom homepage experiences tailored to each region. That means customers in different parts of the world see content and product ranges that are relevant to their season, preferences, and market. After all, not many people are shopping for swimsuits in the depths of winter — and vice versa.

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We also carried out a full App Store Optimisation (ASO) audit. This included new app store screenshots, keyword optimisation, and several performance tweaks designed to improve discoverability and download performance across both iOS and Android platforms.

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The Results

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Since launching the new app, the results have spoken for themselves.

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The app now has over 1.2 million downloads and consistently ranks among the top shopping apps in the UK.

App Store rating improved from 3.3 to 4.8 stars, reflecting the vastly improved customer experience.

14% increase in Average Order Value compared to the previous app builder.

146% higher conversion rate compared to the mobile web experience.

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What was once a point of frustration is now a powerful sales channel that’s helping Motel Rocks grow in key global markets.

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"The support from Venn Apps has been brilliant — they truly work with you to grow your business. Being able to launch an app for all our international stores was a huge leap forward for us. The team approaches everything with a UX-first mindset, without ever compromising on design. Since moving to Venn, we've seen a significant increase in both conversion rates and app downloads. The service has been impeccable from day one, and their expert guidance throughout the process made all the difference. Highly recommended — we're very happy customers!" Gemma, Marketing Lead at Motel Rocks

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Why It Matters

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This project shows how much of an impact the right mobile experience can have on a growing brand. For fashion retailers like Motel Rocks, it’s no longer enough to simply have a mobile app. That app needs to look the part, perform well, and reflect the full brand experience - especially when customers are shopping from around the world.

At Venn Apps, we help brands turn their mobile apps into serious drivers of growth. Whether it’s through design, custom features or ongoing optimisation, we work closely with teams like Motel’s to build apps that deliver real results.