PWA For E-commerce: Why Should Merchants Consider?

PWA For E-commerce: Why Should Merchants Consider?

E-commerce is on the rise to become the fastest growing industry during the Covid 19 pandemic. What about PWA for e-commerce? Can it be the right tool for merchants to attract more customers and retain past users?

Online shopping has become a new trend when government regulation of distancing and work-from-home is put forward. People now can purchase anything they want from fresh ingredients like vegetables and fruits to household necessities.

The convenience of online shopping has implied that it is now time to stop waiting for the reopening of the physical branch but developing the e-commerce website.

This post will bring merchants a high-quality solution to upgrade the online shopping experience for customers: Progressive Web App.

Let’s begin!

PWA Improves Online Store’s Performance

Reach a wider range of customers

PWA enables preloaded pages to be stored in the device. This leads to zero loading time for the information that users have already viewed in the past.

While the website works with those in good-quality connection only, PWA can reach a wider variety of customers with offline mode and background sync features.

This explains why PWA is suitable for those who constantly travel. People who live in rural or remote areas where the connection is not available anywhere are another new customer category added to the store with the introduction of PWA.

PWA also brings better experience across gadgets by making the theme more mobile-friendly and responsive. Mobile users now enjoy using the website with the PWA installation.

Increase customer engagement & conversions

Customers can now “install” the website by the pop-up “Add to home screen”. Low device storage space is not something to worry about as PWA just creates a shortcut on the device.

Offline mode allows a longer time to view the pages as consumers can access the pages in the absence of connection.

Faster loading time means to save time for users and increase the pages they can view. The more they know about the store, the higher chances they would finally order the products.

With better browsing experience, customers gain higher satisfaction when doing online “window shopping” and they are more likely to make the purchase.

PWA Development Is Budget-friendly

Let’s make a quick comparison of developing a PWA for e-commerce and building a native app.

Native app development for e-commerce, in general, requires a minimum investment of $20,000 and 3-6 months for development per operating system (Android and iOS). Not every firm has a flexible budget and waits for such a long time.

The company also needs to plan on a strategy to convince consumers to download the app. Storage space in any device is limited so users might not just download everything they see on the App Store.

On the other hand, PWA saves time for merchants by decreasing the development time to 1-3 months. If they apply Progressive Web App templates, the time it takes to build a PWA is even much faster.

No persuasion strategy is needed as PWA installation can finish within seconds and take only very little space in the user device storage.

It is great to keep updated with all the best innovations. However, most businesses are having a tough time to survive so any investment decision carried out must be weighed carefully.

For small-to-medium e-businesses, PWA integration cost might be a large amount of money but it deserves their investment due to long-term benefits with the improved online shopping experience. Then, sales revenue would soon increase and exceed what the companies spent.

Successful E-commerce PWA Examples

We also bring firms some statistics from famous brands in the world that have done PWA integration and their results.

Let’s take a look whether PWA truly lifts their business’s revenues!

Starbucks:

  • 84% decrease in weight compared to the apps
  • Double in number of orders
  • The consumers ordering from desktop reaching the same rate as the mobile users

MakeMyTrip:

  • Reducing loading time by 40%
  • Triple conversion rate
  • Bounce rate dipped by 20%

Uber:

  • Allow requests for a ride in any connection quality regardless of the device types.
  • The PWA version is only 50KB in weight and appears within 3 seconds with the 2G network.

AliExpress:

  • 74% increase in session duration rate
  • 82% rise in conversion rate among Apple users
  • Double in new users

Final Words

Adopting PWA for e-commerce websites is the solution to merchants hoping to upgrade their site performance as well as boost sales. When online shopping is becoming a global trend, it is essential to keep the website updated with the latest innovation to gain a larger market share.

We hope this post has helped businesses in having an overall understanding of PWA and considering whether to install PWA or not.

Rachael is a content writer at Pearllemon.com, who has written on a Ultimate Resume Guide, from colored diamonds to SEO software. In her spare time, she enjoys singing, sketching, cooking, and video games.