Reasons To Choose Progressive Web Apps For Ecommerce Business

Progressive web apps or PWA is not a pioneering concept. This technology has been around since 2015 and a lot of companies & brands, from various industries, have utilized it to sustain a competitive edge in the market.

Many renowned names like Twitter, Ali Baba, Trivago, and more gained a colossal user base with increased conversions through progressive web apps.

The tale of the success of these sharks in the industry is simply inspiring, especially for small and mid-sized ecommerce businesses, to turn up to progressive web app development. The ecommerce domain cannot ignore the supremacy of progressive web apps.

Progressive web apps behave like native apps and assure a seamless user experience for mobile users. However, a survey of ecommerce decision-makers reported that only 8% of businesses are aware of PWA & its use. More than half of businesses aren’t aware of PWA or still evaluating it.

The prime reason behind this is the lack of knowledge about ecommerce PWA. In this blog, you’ll come across the role of PWA in ecommerce and how it benefits an online store.

Why PWA Are Vital?

Mobile app development is essential for every ecommerce business to succeed in the market. It has been predicted that by 2026, consumers would download 143 billion apps from the Google Play Store and 38 billion from the App Store respectively. However, there’s always another side of the story.

Not all customers prefer downloading ecommerce apps on their iOS and android mobile devices. Instead, they visit the website & place orders. The prime reason behind not downloading the app is space occupancy by native apps.

Since these apps occupy ample space, operating & navigating through them might become a fuss. Users will find the other way round to shop and online sellers cannot afford to lose their customers.

This is when ecommerce PWAs come into the picture. Since they are equipped with the best features of native mobile apps, ecommerce PWAs are considered The Best option for providing a seamless shopping experience to customers.

Web developers state that ecommerce PWAs have more advantages as compared to mobile apps. Let’s find out some key advantages of PWA over mobile apps.

Why PWA is Better Than Mobile Apps?

The number of mobile users is constantly on the upsurge. In 2021, there were 7.1 billion users globally which is projected to increase up to 7.26 billion in 2022. Considering the pace, there will be 7.49 billion mobile users across the world.

With that being said, it is clear that having a mobile app becomes essential to boost the reach. However, many businesses can save a lot of resources by getting the same functionality as that of a progressive web app. Here’s my ‘proof of statement’ below.

Extensive Reach

A progressive web app doesn’t discriminate between devices. It is configured to run on different devices and platforms. It can be accessed effortlessly with a link. Hence, the hassle of downloading a mobile app gets curbed.

Saves Resources & Time

Native apps for iOS and Android platforms require periodic maintenance like debugging & redesigning for a better user experience. On the other hand, progressive web apps do not require frequent maintenance.

Accessibility & Speed

As per a survey conducted, it was found that the abandonment rate of ecommerce was 85% in the second quarter of 2022 in the United States. Buyers tend to quit shopping if the app is too slow. This means that users prefer an instant response from an app.

Ecommerce PWA addresses this grievance well because they are designed for offering a smooth mobile experience to users. The progressive enhancement makes a webpage load faster owing to the integration of modern web technologies and frameworks.

Improved Conversions

Satisfied customers are equivalent to improved conversion rates. Progressive Web Apps, as compared to mobile apps, offer a seamless shopping experience to users. This, in return, generates profit for the company.

That being said, PWAs are bound to provide a better online shopping experience to customers. How do PWAs benefit ecommerce businesses, I’ll tell you ahead.

How PWA Can Actually Benefit The Ecommerce Industry?

A lot of ecommerce businesses get their traffic from mobile phones. Undoubtedly, creating a web app for smartphones is vital. But, conversion rates from mobile apps have been reduced owing to different factors like being buggy, too slow to load, etc.

It means that there’s enough room for ecommerce PWA. A lot of brands, including Twitter and Ali Baba, witnessed an upsurge in their revenue after switching to progressive web apps.

An ecommerce business gets the following benefits from the following features of PWA.

Push Notifications

Progressive web apps can easily send notifications to the user, just like a mobile app does. Since these notifications prompt on the device screen, they do not go unnoticed by the user.

User Adoption

PWA is a hybrid between a website and a mobile app. As stated previously, they have the same functionality as that of a native app and offer a seamless shopping experience to users.

Instant Performance

PWA bag the accolade when it is about speedy performance. They run smoother than a mobile app, load faster, and occupy less space on the server and user device without hindering performance.

Improved SEO

Google indexes websites when they’re optimized rightly and by this, we mean strong SEO optimization. Feeding the right amount of keywords to the website attracts search engine crawlers.

When the web app is indexed rightly, it is obvious that the website will appear in the top search results. All in all, it would be a win-win situation for the ecommerce business.

Reduced Development Costs

It is better to develop PWA for ecommerce businesses than a mobile app because it streamlines the investment by eliminating multi-channel investment. By choosing PWA over a mobile app, one can save a lot of time and money spent on building a responsive website, iOS and Android apps, and Windows 10 apps (exceptional).

Signing Off

Although the adoption of ecommerce PWA is yet to gain pace, there are many reasons to believe that PWA will replace a lot of apps. Cheers to its functionality and features that perform better than native apps.

A fully implemented PWA can transform ecommerce websites owing to its commendable offline capabilities. More and more companies are looking for better web technologies and there is no doubt in that PWA would step into the frame.