As online shopping is becoming more popular among consumers, the business should also consider starting to build and expand their online store. Progressive Web Application, the new technology developed by Google, can be the answer to all the concerns about creating an e-commerce business.
Firms are all competing to gain a larger market share in the e-commerce industry. Improving the current online shopping site is one way to beat other rivals. Installing Progressive Web Application is one way for website development, and it would not let merchants and users down.
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
1/ What Is Progressive Web Application?
Google first presented the Progressive Web Application in 2015. It is the hybrid of a website and a native app. The true PWA meaning is to deliver app-like features to website users.
Most users do not even realize they are surfing PWA but think that it is an app.
This is because there are only some slight differences between PWA and a native app. In this blog post, the detailed information about PWA will be discussed.
2/ What Are The Benefits Of Progressive Web App For Users?
Install In Seconds
With the feature “Add to home screen”, PWA makes it possible to install a website on a smartphone. Customers now no longer need to find the website in the history or type the URL to revisit the store.
Users can finish the installation just by tapping on the “add to home screen” popup. Then, whenever customers want to access the e-commerce website, they need to tap the icon, and the store will appear in a second.
Use without network connection
The offline mode feature of PWA allows customers to view pages in areas with no connection. This function helps customers re-access pages that have loaded once before.
It brings more time for clients to review the products carefully and read the information in detail to make a wise choice. Plus, PWA users also make the most of their time as they can find something to do when they are offline.
Order in offline mode
With a website, if customers are ordering products then the connection got lost, they will end up losing all the data you have filled in for the order. This may discourage them from ordering the product again as the process of refilling data is rather time-consuming.
For Progressive Web App, orders made in offline mode will be processed after the Internet is reconnected. Merchants would not risk losing any orders just because of low-quality connection.
Load content fast
Progressive Web Applications also decrease the waiting time for pages to load. With PWA, devices restore the website layout, so regardless of the level of connection quality, the website will still appear instantly.
This also contributes to the PWA’s low bounce rate, which will be beneficial for maintaining the Google ranking.
Get notifications from stores
If customers find daily accessing the website tiring and time-wasting, push notification from Progressive Web App will surprise them.
With this advanced feature, clients are always informed of new things coming up in-store. Hence, they will not miss any sales promotion, grand opening, restock of limited products.
Worry less
PWA uses HTTPS instead of HTTP like regular websites. Thus, PWA increases website security so it can protect customers from the risk of being stolen personal information.
Plus, PWA enhances the clients’ trust in the brand. If merchants have any of their customers’ accounts being hacked, the incident would immediately cause a sharp decrease in sales from the online store.
3/ What Are The Benefits For Merchants?
Improve SEO rankings
Content and layout are designed differently for each type of gadget—this increased responsiveness. Highly responsive websites also have a top ranking in Google search results.
The fact that customers rarely slide to the 3rd page of the search result also indicates that PWA is vital to keep attracting new store visitors.
If mobile apps can only be discovered when accessing the App Store or Google Play, a click on Google can immediately take customers to the PWA store.
This is because the Progressive Web App still has URLs, and it can appear on Google search results. Thus, this will create a steady rate of new customers coming to the e-commerce store.
Save time and cost
The time to develop Progressive Web Application is 1-3 months (shorter than building a native app: 6 months).
The cost for PWA installation is $1,000-5,000. Meanwhile, developing an app alone is at least $10,000.
Communicate effectively with customers
Push notification is an integrated feature of Progressive Web Application. This is a cheap way of advertising but turns out to be more effective than other traditional communication channels like banners, posters,…
The online stores could exactly reach the targeted customers who are genuinely interested in their products.
Plus, merchants can design the push notification message content to be appropriate for different kinds of customers which helps to build a long-term relationship between stores and customers.
Final Thoughts
E-commerce stores should integrate Progressive Web Application as soon as possible. The website quality is a crucial factor in determining if customers would decide to purchase the products and form a long-lasting relationship with the brand.
Hesitance to build PWA means other PWA stores could steal your customers. We hope through our articles, e-commerce merchants feel less stressed in finding ways to enhance the experience of online stores.