Amazon Appstore has opened its shelves to web-based apps. Developers can now submit URLs for their HTML5 web apps and mobile websites and have Amazon offer that content through the Amazon Appstore. 

Until now, Amazon has only offered native apps for Android and Kindle Fire devices through their storefront. A distribution mechanism of Amazon’s scale would be a first for developers offering up HTML5-based apps. 

Amazon notes that in the past, developers had required third-party software to convert mobile web content to native apps to participate in an appstore. Amazon hopes to remove that roadblock by providing distribution through the Amazon Appstore. 

Amazon is also offering developers access to its in-app purchases API, which is available for JavaScript. 

Mike George, vice president of Amazon Appstore, Games and Cloud Drive, said developers told Amazon that making their web apps available for mobile devices is hard because many times it means rewriting their app, which takes extra time and often requires third party tools. 

“By launching support for HTML5 web apps in the Mobile App Distribution Program, we’re giving web developers the tools they need and all the benefits that native apps already enjoy in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire,” George said in a statement.