The digital revolution has brought a substantial change in the taste and choices of consumers. With the continued shift in technology and trends, many radical changes have changed consumers' purchasing habits. Consumers started leaning more towards mobile and web-based applications to get everything they need at their fingertips.
If we put light on the ongoing scenario, then we're are struggling due to the Pandemic. Millions of people and organizations worldwide have incurred massive losses in their businesses and even shut them down.
But do you know the Pandemic was nothing less than a significant turning point for Amazon?
Let's see how!
Turning Point For Amazon!
Amazon generated amazing profit as the pandemic boom continues. Its net sales increased 38% to $386.1 billion, compared with $280.5 billion in 2019.
You may be thinking we're going off-topic, but it's essential to give you insights into Amazon's story. When the leading eCommerce giant, Amazon, can shift customer's minds & purchasing decisions through its youtube videos, ads, Instagram feeds, and Facebook posts, then it wouldn't be impossible for every one of us anymore.
Our whole objective to explain to you Amazon's success story in the Pandemic is to dive deeper into the customer's demands. The Pandemic has boosted the number of mobile users exponentially. And we can say that people have started using mobile devices extensively.
According to Statista, there are around 3 million smartphone users in the world. China is leading the race with almost 912 million mobile users, followed by India 439 million users and US 270 million mobile users. On average, users spent five to six hours on their phones daily for work-related or other crucial tasks of their life.
So, you can analyze that mobile phones are no longer limited to calling only. It has become the essential medium between the customer and the businesses because it influences their purchasing decision.
The trends have already docked in the market for mobile-first apps. This means you'll have to develop a mobile app that is more user friendly and easy to access on mobile devices.
What are Progressive Web Apps?
We know you're very curious about PWA, like how it comes into the picture and what makes it powerful amongst the leading giants. Let's understand the concept by taking an example of Poland's Kubota shoe company, which came into existence in 1994 in the Polish market. The company was so disturbed about the sales and revenue, especially when it had Nike and Adidas like competitors in the polish market. Still, later on, it showed up its real potential to the market and stood among their competitors.
Though Kubota was also running a physical and an online store, it still failed to generate the desired revenue. One thing that changed Kubota, and it started observing glorious return, is their PWA store. The company launched its PWA store and has seen a 26% growth of average monthly visitors and 192% daily visitors.
Hopefully, you have a little glimpse of how powerful PWA is.
Let's dive deeper!
PWA is the beautiful package of exclusive features that make web apps robust, scalable and dynamic in terms of user experience. Progressive web apps use trending web browser APIs and advanced improvement strategies to deliver a native app-like user experience to cross-platform web apps.
To call a Web App a PWA, technically, it should have the three most essential features.
- Secure contexts: Your PWAs must have secure contexts so that they can serve your users with a reliable, fast, and engaging experience. It is your top-notch priority when you head to build progressive apps; you consider secure contexts from serving your site to implementing an authentication flow. In short, progressive web apps must be served over HTTPS.
Tip: If you want to ensure security, network resilience, fast loading speed and better engagement of users, then it is advisable to use Firebase in PWAs.
- Service Workers: If you want to provide your users with a rich offline user experience, push notification and periodic background synchronizations, similar to native apps, then your PWA must incorporate with service workers. A service worker is a script that runs in the background of your browser, independent of a web page. It will unlock the gateway to many potential features that don't need a web page or user interaction and enhance your users’ experience.
- Manifest file: The last yet most important feature that your PWA must-have is the manifest file. This will feature ensures how your PWA behave on the users' device. Many browsers operate PWA manifest; many say NO to load every value you specified in your PWA to appear.
Tip: Use PWACompat, a library that browses your PWA Manifest and automatically inserts relevant meta or links you want to get displayed on the users' device.
Why Must You Pay Attention to the Progressive Web Apps?
There are a ton of reasons to pay attention to progressive web apps. Why don’t we begin with PWA stats that can better help you realize its growing demand?
According to Statista, around 24% of e-commerce companies planned on investing in progressive web apps (PWA) in 2020.
- Butcher of Blue, Men’s clothing store in Amersfoort, Netherlands, increase its mobile users by 154%, faster page load speed by 85%, and conversions by 169% using PWA.
- ZEE5, a Streaming platform, launched a PWA to expand its reach. Using PWA, the company observed 3× faster and 50% reduced buffering time.
- Tajawal and Almosafer, flight booking apps, observed an increase of 3× in conversion rate from 0.3% to 1.2% within two weeks. Not just this, they saw 3× reduced page load time from 13s to 3.6s.
- The Starbucks, chain of coffeehouses, using PWA has skyrocketed daily active users by 2×.
So, are you surprised with the fantastic results leading companies have seen using their PWAs? If you also want to see a surge in sales funnel, boost in revenue and conversions, then building PWAs would be your best decision ever.
If you still doubt whether you build PWAs or not, then these benefits will clarify all of your queries.
Benefits of PWAs
The list of benefits of PWAs are limitless but will we put light on some of the most interesting you must know.
Work without network
The first and the most impressive benefit of progressive web apps is they work offline, without requiring any internet connection. One question that may definitely be touring your mind “how PWAs work without the internet?” The answer is pretty simple. When users access their PWA online, all the data get saved automatically, and when they go offline, they can easily access their data offline.
No installation hassle
Progressive apps are very easy to install than traditional native apps. Without going through any complicated installation process, users can download them directly on their respective devices. When there is no hassle of installation, users will likely get engaged with your PWA and will lead to an improved user experience. Improved user experience will benefit you in multiple ways, such as a surge in sales and better conversion.
Faster loading speed
Progressive web apps have faster loading capabilities. Compared to other websites or native apps, progressive web apps cache and serve images, text, videos, stylesheets and other essential data with an efficient underlying technology that enables them to maintain excellent speed. If you’re aiming for less than 3 seconds of loading speed to drive more visitors to your app, then PWA is the best option to go with. With faster loading speed, reduced server load time, and Google’s mobile-first indexing like benefits, you can boost visitors rates and perk up conversion rates.
PWAs are secured
Progressive web apps are secured. You don’t have to get worried about its security. Like other web or native mobile apps, PWAs also depend on HTTPS protocols to ensure data is safe and there is no risk. HTTPS is a protocol that will allow for better authentication of the accessed website and helps with the protection of privacy and data integrity. It is liable for superior security for your PWAs.
Compatible with Magento1 & Magento2
Another extremely tremendous benefit of progressive web apps is they are compatible with Magento1 and Magento2. You don’t have to bother about their migration into these two platforms.
Always up-to-date
Progressive apps’ seamless functionalities allow them to stay up-to-date. All the latest updates get updated automatically without asking for any permissions or authentication. Allowing permission repeatedly can be a little irritating than responsive native web apps usually do, but there is no such issue in PWAs. This is the reason that users and developers are getting more leaning towards PWAs.
Improved conversion rate
PWAs has ultimate features and functionalities that engage users better than web or native apps and increase conversion rates and revenue. Do you know which feature help in increased conversions the most? Pop up notifications! PWAs allow pop-up notifications to attract users’ attention and allow them to visit your app to see what you’re offering. All of it eventually leads to improved conversion rates.
Saves time and resources
Developing these apps needs little effort and minimal resources. There is no need to involve dedicated mobile app developers to build PWAs.
Are Progressive Apps the Future of Mobile?
Absolutely. A Big Yes! Progressive apps are not going anywhere in this year and coming years. Its high-end features and capabilities have won million of industry giant’s hearts and took their business to the next level. Though responsive web apps have also held millions of outstanding benefits they are unable to meet user’s expectations in a way users’ demands. This is why it is to be predicted that progressive web apps are going to shine in the next era. Let’s explore more about why PWA has a bright future.
- PWAs are very helpful as they behave like mobile apps, but there is no need for mobile-specific development and extra resources.
- These apps are lightweight, which makes them user friendly.
- Developers no need to learn the mobile development technology for PWAs.
- PWAs can be easily accessed by installing on your machine like any other apps and without being dependent on the browser.
- These apps are responsive enough to work on any device.
Concluding Remarks
Progressive apps seem to be the future of mobile web applications allowing web app developers to create awesome apps with all the features users demand the most. Along with helping developers elevate users experience, PWAs also help them make happier clients who want to expand their business through PWAs. With PWAs, you can achieve your target audience a rich user experience and earn excellent sales funnels, conversions, and revenue. That's what you always wanted to achieve!
So, what are you waiting for? Just hire the best progressive web app developers near you and consult your app requirements with them. By thoroughly listening to your needs, they will meet your expectations.
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The problem with developing "native" apps is that they can be expensive and often use a significant amount of data and storage on the user device. However Progressive Web Apps have improved performance and better user experience over mobile or web software that too with interrupted internet connection. That’s why PWAs have gained much popularity. Checkout it’s marvellous benefits for your business.