Consumers now prefer shopping using their smartphones more than ever.
In fact, Smartphone shopping is already on track to contribute over 50% of online spending by September 2022, according to Adobe Digital Economy Index.
Furthermore, experts also believe that the post-COVID-19 Pandemic, mobile commerce & online shopping will continue to grow.
So, improving the mobile shopping experience, for eCommerce businesses, is one of the most critical investments right now.
And today, Progressive Web Apps are probably the best way to deliver a great mobile shopping experience to customers.
PWAs are known for replacing responsive websites & native apps with a single web app that works on all devices.
In this post, we’ll explain more about PWAs and what they can do for your eCommerce business.
Convergence of Two Technologies
Before we explain about PWAs, it’s best that we look at the technologies that will eventually eclipse – native mobile apps & responsive websites.
If you’re already own an eCommerce store, you probably already know, and in fact, use both of them right now.
Responsive websites, for starters, are basically dynamic web pages that change automatically to suit the browser and the device they’re interacting with.
In responsive websites, you usually start with the desktop design and make modifications for small screen devices.
The results are almost always imperfect, especially when users are accessing through older device browsers.
Specifically, load times can be slow, navigation may not work efficiently, and users sometimes might have to zoom in to view content.
In a nutshell, responsive websites are nothing but an attempt to fit all mobile devices with the same code, while native mobile apps, on the other hand, are custom-coded for each mobile OS separately.
Most eCommerce businesses that opt for native mobile apps usually build for two platforms – iOS & Android.
These apps provide a solid user experience but they also come with their own disadvantages.
For example, most consumers often forget native apps they have downloaded.
According to a study, more than 95% of native apps are often abandoned 90 days after they are downloaded. Another survey also found that only 12% of smartphone shoppers find browsing apps convenient.
So, if your mobile conversion rates are not up to the mark as you’d like, this is one of the reasons it may be.
However, there is a solid way to increase your mobile conversions – PWA!
Progressive Web Apps: An Overview
PWAs are an alternative to native apps & responsive websites combined. They are capable of delivering a richer mobile experience through a single code base from a standard browser.
Unlike responsive websites, PWAs are designed for mobile-first to ensure all content fits comfortably on smartphone screens and its URLs can load even if the device is offline.
Another way PWAs are superior to native apps & responsive websites is because PWA allows online shoppers to save them to their smartphone home screens.
In addition, PWAs can also access other smartphone capabilities such as Cameras, Push Notifications, etc. to offer a more interactive shopping experience.
Simply put, PWAs combine the best features of native mobile apps & responsive websites and they’re perfect for mobile commerce.
But, if you’re still unconvinced, below we’ve explained what PWA can do for your eCommerce business in detail.
What PWAs Can Do For Your eCommerce Business?
Many global businesses have already adopted the PWA including Starbucks, Uber, Twitter, Google, and many more.
The main reason these high-profile businesses embraced PWA is because they wanted to deliver a better mobile experience.
And guess what? – They actually did!
But, if you’re wondering if there are any tangible benefits of PWA for eCommerce businesses, there are many compelling business benefits.
Let’s check them out below.
1 – Lowers Development Costs
PWAs can provide a great user experience on all kinds of devices (Desktop, Smartphones, Tablets) using a single code base.
That means if you build a PWA for your eCommerce business, you no longer need to develop & maintain two separate native apps for iOS and Android.
This, as a result, can save you 20% of total development costs every year. In other words, PWAs have lower overall overall costs of ownership.
2 – Improves Mobile Experience
The majority of smartphone users don’t like to shop on their mobile devices because web pages are often slow to load.
But, PWAs provide a much more enjoyable shopping experience compared to responsive websites.
According to Google Research, PWAs have proven to increase user engagement by a whopping 137%.
Eleganza, for example, adopted PWA and witnessed page load time became 23% faster, pages per session increased by 76%, and server reaction time increased by 327%.
Another considerable example of PWA success is Xercise4Less, a gym-chain from U.K.
When the company noticed that 80% of their total traffic came from mobile devices, they decided it was time to adopt PWA.
And as soon as they launched their new PWA store, they witnessed the following amazing results.
- Bounce rate reduced from 41.7% to 7.8%.
- Average page views increased from 4 to 7.
- Witnessed increased membership sales.
3 – Boosts Mobile Conversions
PWA, in addition to improving the mobile experience, have also proven to boost the mobile conversions. And if you think about it, it makes sense because when a eCommerce store is offers better, faster experience & is easier to use, people are more likely to buy.
In fact, there are many examples where PWAs have doubled and even tripled conversions for different kinds of businesses.
For example, after switching to PWA,
- PetLove witnessed 280% increase in conversions.
- The Grand Velas Riviera Maya witnessed 54% increase in conversions.
- Treebo experienced 400% increase in conversions.
Concluding Thoughts…
The future of PWAs is so bright and promising that even Adobe has created PWA Studio, a development environment to build Magento PWAs quickly and easily.
If you’d like to learn more about it or check out its live demo, feel free to visit our Magento PWA Studio for more information or contact us for consultation.
