Modest, a company founded by four engineers from President Obama's re-election campaign, today introduced a mobile commerce platform for retailers designed to allow them to create a free mobile app store or drop a smooth shopping experience into an existing mobile app in minutes.

"Sadly, e-commerce hasn't changed much in 15 years, despite the fact that technology has evolved, the popularity of smartphones has exploded and people shop with an intention to have what they want instantly," Modest CEO Harper Reed said in an announcement. "Shopping carts have no business being on a phone. We have created a mobile-commerce platform retailers are able to install and use in a few clicks and gives consumers the ability to buy from anywhere in just a few taps."

The creators behind Modest are Reed and CTO Dylan Richard, who brought careers in retail (Threadless and Crate & Barrel) and politics (Obama's re-election campaign) to the company "to imagine the future of commerce with this platform." Modest's platform is designed to integrate with any commerce platform, along with automatic Shopify and Magento integrations and more to come. Android, Apple Pay and PayPal support also are coming soon, the company said.

"The Modest team was behind bringing crowdsourcing to life and mobilizing the digital momentum of Obama's political campaign, arguably one of the most pivotal campaigns in our lifetime," said Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, in the announcement. "With their track record and a commitment to creating a seamless, sleek and efficient platform, Modest is poised to create major shifts in the mobile shopping experience."

The Modest freemium platform was one year in development and designed so that retailers could easily add a mobile commerce strategy to their business model.

"We focus on your mobile commerce strategy so that you don't have to," Reed said.

Modest is intended to create a new kind of mobile-shopping experience where consumers can easily make purchases on their phone. Retailers find scalable revenue streams, easy pricing bundles and frictionless setup processes, the company said. Modest also is designed to easily drop its solution into retailers' existing mobile applications, integrating a clean shopping environment to current mobile strategies.

"We have passionate customers who were already interacting with our coffee brand in our current mobile app," said Matt Riddle, head of e-commerce at Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, an early Modest adopter. "In one afternoon, Modest dropped in an elegant purchasing option for easy shopping for our Intelligentsia enthusiasts. We love it!"

The opportunity Modest is stepping into is significant, the company said, as the number of mobile devices today outnumbers the global human population, with nearly 90 percent of consumers owning a mobile phone and 30 percent a tablet. In 2015, millennials are expected to have a purchasing power of $2.45 trillion. They prefer mobile as their main way to be reached and interact.

Modest is currently offering iOS apps free service for the first six months.