How PWA's help your e-commerce business

Above 50% of online spending will be through smartphones according to Adobe’s Digital economy index by september 2022 which indicates how the consumers are increasing their usage of smartphones for shopping. The ones who used it to increase their loyalty credit have shown a considerable growth from 26.8% in 2019 to 34.8% in 2020.

And with much uncertainty looming over the existing pandemic, the only possibility for mobile commerce and online shopping is to expand.

Therefore it is imperative that you take steps to enhance the mobile experience for customers as it is the single best investment that you can make right now to increase your revenue and business volumes. PWA’s(Progressive Web Apps), helps businesses to provide the best experience for customers across mobile devices and desktops. They take the place of a patchwork of responsive websites and mobile apps to replace it by a single code base which functions for all endpoints.

We will examine more closely what PWA’s are and how it can boost your business proposition

Technologies that may be eclipsed

Responsive websites and native apps are the two technologies that might get swallowed with the entry of PWA’s. They have plenty of limitations and as far as customers are concerned, they are just managing with what they get.

Let's take the case of responsive websites. They are web pages that change dynamically to match the device and browser that they are involved with. The desktop design is the starting point and then it is modified depending on the screen sizes leading to imperfect results like poor navigation, the need to zoom so as to view content, very slow load time etc.

Coming to native apps, they are custom coded for different mobile OS, typically iOS and Android. These apps offer very good experience integrating the smartphone features like camera and push notifications but native apps also have limitations like 90 days after the app is downloaded, most of them, in fact as close as 95% of them are deserted and left behind. Just 12% of mobile shoppers find browsing in it convenient. The storage space needed for the app is also very high and they consume much bandwidth with frequent updates.

Therefore you need something more effective to really bring conversions to your business

PWA’s

PWA’s was introduced by Google, as an escape from responsive web pages and mobile apps and to provide a better mobile experience by using a single code base from the browser. You just need to build one set of PWA’s and can use them in any device and also give the best user experience. They are built with technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript and designed keeping the mobile first concept. Therefore text can be included comfortably in the mobile screens with easy to use and simple forms. Also, the URL’s load even in offline mode which gives shoppers the latest cached model of the site. The speed of the page load times is also excellent due to the intelligent approaching to caching

The inclusion of metadata which allows shoppers to save them to their home screens, gives an app like experience to PWA’s. They enhance the interactive experience, by accessing the smartphone features like push notifications and camera. All this for consumers without the worry of downloading PWA’s and consumption of bandwidth due to frequent updates.

PWA’s take the best from both the native apps and responsive websites to ideally suit mobile commerce.

How PWA’s can improve your business

Many of the top notch businesses have already switched to PWA’s including Alibaba, Google, Lyft, Starbucks to name a few in order to make the mobile experience for customers better. Another added advantage of PWA’s are that the development costs are lower and you no longer need separate mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Improved mobile experience

According to Google research, there is an increase in engagement of 137% with PWA owing to better user experience. PWAs was used by Eleganza, a fashion retailer in the Netherlands and the results they received were nothing short of astonishing. After launching their new site they discovered that the page load speed had become 23% faster, server reaction time 327% quicker and there was a 76% increase in the number of pages viewed per session by visitors.

More mobile conversions

PWA’s also showed results in increasing the conversion rates with Treebo showing a 400% growth and Pet love 280%.

A game-changer for B2B enterprises

Apart from customer-facing businesses, B2B enterprises can also benefit from PWA’s. In Germany, PINO uses PWA’s to complement their sales team. Their traveling salespeople place orders for customers even in remote locations with minimal bandwidth using the PWA, and their orders are automatically transferred once they are back in connectivity to the Magento Commerce back end and this helps in enhanced business operations.

Conclusion

PWA’s have already proven to be a much more efficient and cost-effective way in connecting customers to businesses irrespective of what device they use. Playing a pivotal role in increasing conversions, PWA’s are proving to be game-changers in the world of mobile commerce and online shopping

Working as a Digital Marketing Specialist at POFI Technologies, a software development company offering ecommerce solutions for various business entitites.