Progressive Web App: What are They? Why are they Mandatory in eCommerce?

The Progressive Web App (PWA) is emerging as the future of mobile web apps. The technology is improving at an unimaginable scale. The consumer's habits of consuming the internet and related services are changing. And in the eCommerce sector, things are getting even worse. The consumers are expecting the same website experience as Amazon from every small scale store owner.

The giants are applying all their technological abilities and all other resources to deliver the best ever experience of shopping to the users. And in the habit of consuming the best services, the users are expecting the same from the small scale retailers. And in the process of competing with the giants, the functionalities like PWA can come to rescue. Here we will understand what is PWA? And why they are mandatory for all the eCommerce store owners out there?

What is Progressive Web App (PWA)?

The progressive web apps are the websites which deliver the performance like native mobile apps. All the majority of the benefits of having native mobile apps can be availed with progressive web apps on mobile. They look, feel, and behave exactly like native apps. Which means they can deliver great performance, incredibly fast loading speeds, and offline working capabilities.

With all these functionalities, the chance for the conversion and sales also increases for your business. The PWA enabled website icon can be added to the home screen of the mobiles. Even those websites can be loaded without an internet connection too. The functionality of the PWA app is available for Android and iOS both. For all the online business owners, the PWA comes with hell lot of benefits. 

Let us discuss the major benefits of Progressive Web Apps one by one.

Better accessibility for the users

Your business will be easily accessible by your users. You can direct them to add your app icon to the home screen of their devices. And users do not need to go through the app store download & update cycles. Your business will be visible in front of them 24/7. Even PWAs are operational when there is no internet. Which is the even bigger advantage of PWA.

Lightning-fast speeds

The website speed is important like never before. The users are getting impatient. If your website is taking more than three seconds to load, the user is more likely to leave. The PWA offers great website loading speeds. They work great with the cache memory of the website and avoid all the loading delays. 

The wide audience adoption rate

The app stores are filled up with millions of apps. The user's phones already are filled up so many apps. Hence instead of making them download your app, they can get the same experience directly from your PWA website. Even they can store your app icon on their home screen too. Hence with the Progressive Web App, you have a wide audience to adopt your products and services.

No app development cost needed

If we talk about fully-fledged Android & iOS app, you need the large development team, fully aware of the development languages such as Java, Kotlin, PHP, Objective-C, and Swift. And PWA apps are made from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. And with the availability of several apps, plugins, and tools, the PWA apps can be created without coding too. The majority of the eCommerce CMS has apps & plugins that enable this functionality with ease.

No approvals needed from app stores

When we upload an app on the Google play store and Apple App store, the app needs to match the criteria of Google and Apple. They do not allow any kind of adult content. If your business is associated with the vape, alcohol, or any sexual content, you may get rejected by app stores. On the other hand, there are no such conditions for PWAs.

Freeway to enable this functionality for your business

Yes, you read it right. There is a free Shopify app to enable this functionality for free. If you are a Shopify store owner, there is a free app named "PWA ‑ iOS & Android Mobile App." The app delivers all the functionalities that we mention above. The app offers customizable PWA app, cache & pre-cache settings, analytics, how to install guides, and support for the Shopify app users. Download this free app for your Shopify store, and leverage all the functionality of the PWA app for your business. 

The final words

Smartphone penetration has changed the habits of internet consumption for users. The users these days, are spending more time with their smartphones instead of computers. More then 60% of the internet is being browsed through the smartphone. Hence having a mobile app is a must for any business. 

For all the business in the initial days of their business, they need a cost-effective alternative to target smartphone users. And the PWA delivers the best option to all those small scale business owners. Download the above mentioned PWA Shopify app and enable all these functionalities for your business NOW!!

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