In this age of technological advancement, no doubt, your business needs to target customers on mobile devices. So now, the question is, “how”? Well, if you want to reach and appeal to mobile-based customers, you’re left with three choices. You develop a native app, create a responsive website or go for progressive web apps (PWAs).
With native apps, you can provide your customers with great user experience. However, these apps are not only limited to certain devices, but also have high barriers to adoption. Also, in order to use a native app, people need to download it, which means generating significant buy-in from consumer first and losing the advantage of impulse behaviour. Mobile websites, on the other hand, are quite easy and quick to get to, but they seem to be less attractive in terms of user experience. Here comes the third option – the latest mobile solution – the Progressive Web App. It combines the best of both worlds – native apps and mobile sites – while diminishing their disadvantages.
Now, what is progressive web apps?
Progressive web apps are websites that behave as well as look like mobile apps. This means you can add it to the main screen of your phone, access hardware of the device and work offline. Yes, that’s not a typo, you read that right! PWA works smoothly not only when there is full internet access, but also when there is no network or the connection is unstable. Impressed already?
Let’s discuss the benefits of PWA:
1. Works like an app
Designed like mobile apps, PWAs have all the functionalities of websites with access to the database and dynamic data. Generally, the developers choose how extensively they will program these apps. Of course, they take full advantage of the existing frameworks and provide the visitors with much better user experiences than websites.
2. Works offline
As you already know, in most cases, when there is an absence of internet connection, the websites become completely limited to be displayed properly. Progressive web apps, on the other hand, are mostly self-contained, enabling the users to browse the app when they’re not online. This helps in increasing user engagement to a great extent.
3. Mobile-first approach
Are you planning to build a native mobile app or a responsive website? We suggest you hold on. There are many established businesses out there that have already gone through all the hard work of developing a native app and providing their customers with a mobile experience. But why do all these hard work when you can offer your customers a much better experience with PWA? Yes! A good PWA has the ability to replace your company’s native app, your mobile site and even your desktop site. With its mobile-first approach, it can connect with your customers at a higher level. Sounds good?
4. Enhanced performance
A PWA works faster than your native app because of the way it caches and serves texts, images, stylesheets and other content on the websites. Result? A significant increase in the rate of user experience, conversion and customer retention. Happy?
5. No need to download
You don’t need to upload a PWA on the Google Play Store or App Store. Compared to native apps, these apps are way more efficient. They are always accessible, work on-demand and don’t take up your smartphone’s valuable memory. If you choose to use a PWA and not the native version of the same app, you’ll be able to use less data. Also, you can save it to your home screen and don’t need to go through all the hassle of a real download.
Developers are raving about progressive web apps and how it’s being used in different industries. One such industry is the food and beverage industry. Here are some examples of progressive web apps for restaurants or the food and beverage industry:
- Starbucks
An American coffeehouse chain, Starbucks released their food ordering mobile app nationwide in the year 2015. In order to add ordering functionality to its website, Starbucks wanted to create a system that would be accessible universally to both emerging and established markets. They wanted a PWA with dynamic functionality that despite being on the web platform, feels native. Also, they wanted their ordering system to be user-friendly. This is when they created a PWA. The result? Not only their overall user experience has improved, but also their mobile orders have soared! They saw an increase of about 65% in their rewards membership sign-ups.
- Ele.me
A leading food ordering company in China, ele.me noticed an explosive growth in their business. As a result, they created distinct business units within the company. Under the main domiain, these units run their micro services. This is when they realized that they need a PWA. With the PWA, the result’s been excellent. There has been a decrease of about 11.6% in the pre-cached page loading time and about 6.35% decrease in all page loading time.
- Pure Formulas
With monthly traffic of about 776.6k, Pure Formulas is one of the fastest growing e-retailers in the US in the online health and supplement sector. They were the first to invest in a PWA in their industry. They used to face problems such as slow page loading and slow checkout process, resulting in low conversion rates and high cart abandonment rates. In order to come out of this problem, they needed to create an easier and faster path to buy on mobile. This is when they implemented a PWA. The result? About 23% higher revenue per visit, about 9% increase in AOV and about 14% increase in the conversion rate. Amazing, isn’t it?
This is just the beginning. Depending on the solution you choose, a PWA can help you drive more business and avail a number of benefits such as upgrading the UX of your online store, making the management of your point of sales a lot simpler, acquiring new customers in areas of poor internet connection and much more! So, if you’re struggling with major issues including low conversion rates or long loading time, it’s high time that you embrace progressive web apps and take help of a progressive web app builder. At Digital Aptech, we have a pool of talented PWA developers who can build awesome progressive web apps. Want to partner with us? Give us a call now!
