Today, the eCommerce business is at its peak and has been dominating the industry like never before. And when it’s possible, why not? It’s so convenient and feasible to buy products and services in eCommerce stores. If you are familiar with Progressive web apps, you know that you need to hire professional app developers to develop them for you.
If you have no or little knowledge about PWAs and want to dive deep into what is PWAs, how it’s beneficiary for your eCommerce business, the difference between PWAs and native apps, and how to migrate to PWAs, etc. then this blog is just meant for you.
What Are Progressive Web Applications?
A PWA or progressive web app is basically a web application that uses modern web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc. as well as designs to render a quicker, trustable, and engaging user experience. These apps offer various benefits to the users as they are easily installable, linkable, discoverable, secure, and highly responsive.
PWAs have gained quite popularity for eCommerce businesses. A PWA is a website resembling a mobile app development i.e. it functions as a website so the users don’t need to download it, and also renders an app-like experience to drive the customers to the website.
Why Do You Need PWA For Your eCommerce Business?
Today, 60% of traffic comes from mobile which is far more as compared to desktop traffic. A lot of merchants build PWAs for their eCommerce business to render a top-class shopping experience while engaging the audience.
Though PWAs are a new technology, many new businesses are slowly focusing on PWA development. Here’s why you need PWA for your eCommerce business.
Better User Adoption By Home Screen Installation
Just like native apps, PWAs also provide a highly engaging user experience. PWAs can be easily installed on the home screen so users can directly access them which again elevates the user experience.
Boosts User Engagement
Just like native apps, PWAs also send push notifications to mobile devices. In this way, enterprises can directly reach their audience through mobile devices.
Low Development Costs
Progressive web apps eradicate the requirement for the development, maintenance, and marketing of any platform other than PWAs. Thus, PWA development leverages an opportunity to serve all the channels through a single platform. This ultimately cuts the development costs.
Enhances SEO
SEO is a magic wand for businesses and as PWA is SEO-friendly, it’s easily discoverable by search engines. The search engines like Google and Bing can easily find any content in PWA. As it’s ranked higher on search engines, you get more audience from the web.
More Conversion
There’s no wonder that a high user experience means more conversions. Progressive web apps deliver an outstanding user experience that will significantly accelerate the conversion rate of your business.
Meaning Of Headless Commerce
As compared to traditional Commerce, headless Commerce renders more eCommerce platform options. Headless Commerce is an eCommerce solution that stores manage and offer content without any need for a frontend delivery layer. The frontend of an app or website is removed with headless eCommerce.
Flexible Front-end Development
There are a lot of difficulties in the front-end development of traditional Commerce websites, especially in Web Designing and Development. On the other hand, the front-end platform is removed in headless Commerce enabling the front-end developers to focus more on building a user experience from scratch.
Customization
With traditional Commerce, you have a tiny room for personalization or customization. Whereas in Headless Commerce, you don’t have any front end. Hence, developers can offer more customized solutions to enterprises.
The Key Elements Of Magento PWA Studio
Magento PWA Studio comprises a set of tools and libraries that enables businesses and developers to build progressive web apps. Have a look at some of the tools and libraries of Magento PWA Studio:
Build Tools
It contains the build and development tools for the Magento PWA studio project offering various features like configuration management, project setup tools, etc.
Custom React Hook & Component
It contains the custom react hook and components for the PWA studio project.
Demo Storefront & Backend
It consists of a template for the PWA studio project. In this package, you get a copy of the content whenever you set up a new storefront project.
Some other remarkable packages include Pwastudio.io, UPWARD, PageBuilder, etc.
The Key Features Of Progressive Web Apps
The features are the spinal cord of any platform and framework. Progressive web apps have various features that outshine them from traditional Commerce and native apps. Let’s have a look at some amazing PWA features.
Add To Home Page
The users can simply add the brand icon on the home page with a few clicks.
Push Notifications
eCommerce enterprises can send private messages to the customers with PWA development. This aids in increasing conversions.
Self-updates
Progressive web apps can automatically update themselves. Hence, PWAs are regularly updated and run seamlessly.
Offline Mode
This is one of the best features of PWA. PWA enables the users to revisit all the pages they have loaded before unlike other websites that just go blank with low internet connectivity.
Quick Loading
As compared to some traditional websites and native apps, PWA loads instantly and renders an amazing user experience.
The Benefits Of Progressive Web App For An Online Business
Today, enterprises are working smart and hard to get the best out of their mobile eCommerce market. Some enterprises use native apps for their business, but the advantages of PWA are worth it. Let’s have a look at the important ones:
Seamless Installation
There’s no complex or challenging procedure for developing PWA. The users can directly download PWAs from a website. Also, eCommerce businesses can place their apps on Google Playstore for more exposure.
Mobile Alike
PWAs are specifically designed like mobile apps but they offer website features like dynamic database and database access. PWA benefits from the already existing frameworks and UI/UX that delivers astounding user experiences.
No App Store Submission
As there’s no need to publish PWAs on app stores, eCommerce businesses don’t have to go through the crucial app store submission process.
Greater Reach
Irrespective of the platform, PWAs are available for every user. Along with this, PWAs can be easily shared through a link, so businesses can reach a wider audience. In short, PWAs are instantly accessible to a wider audience.
Progressive Web Apps VS. Native Apps
You might be wondering how progressive web apps are different from native apps. It’s a long debate but let’s try to compare them on some important aspects.
| Comparison Elements | PWAs | Native Apps |
| Development Cost | Much Cheaper Than The Native Apps | Needs More Money |
| Installation | Doesn’t Need Installation | Need To Install From App Store/Google Play |
| Time To Market | Quicker To Develop | Needs More Time To Develop Than PWAs |
| Updates | Instant Automated Updates | Businesses & Users Need To Update Them |
| Security | HTTPS Encryption | Needs Additional Security Based on Built-In Device Complaint |
| Offline Operation | Offline Mode Is Available | Offline Mode Depends On The App Type |
| Push Notification | Not Available For IOS Devices | Available for all |
How Much Does It Cost To Implement PWA In Magento 2?
There are three ways to convert Magento 2 websites to PWA and each one of them is associated with different costs:
Magento 2 PWA Extensions
In this method, you need to buy the module (ranging up to $150) and pay for the installation service to install and configure the extension yourself.
Magento 2 PWA Studio
In this method, you need to hire PWA developers who have powerful experience in both Magento 2 as well as PWA to create your Progressive Web App from scratch. It may take up to 6 months to build your PWA storefront and new API using Magento 2 PWA Studio tools. Hence, you need to prepare a heavy budget for this integration.
Magento 2 PWA Theme
As both the core API and PWA storefront are ready-built, your cost will only depend upon the level of customization and preferences. Here, the cost will be less as compared to the second solution and it will be more as compared to the first solution. But this one is worth it and deserves an investment.
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