If you are a retailer with an online store, then you must notice an increasing number of traffic coming from mobile devices. Smart-phones account for approximately half of web traffic worldwide. According to Statista, in the first quarter of 2021, smartphones generated 54.8 percent of global website traffic. Considering these stats, you might be thinking of building an app, which might be a good idea, but again, think twice! Even though, on average, a person has more that 80 apps on his/her phone, an average person uses only 9 mobile apps per day and 30 apps per month. [i] So what is our solution? the magnificent PWA PWA – a website that almost looks and feels like an app. Without a need to be dowloaded from an app store For those of you who are not quite familiar with PWA: PWA is a website that almost looks and feels like an app on a mobile phone. The difference is that it does not need to be downloaded from the apple or android app store. But if you are now wondering about accessibility of PWA, worry no more! because you can always add an icon of PWA on your home screen, and keep it just one click away in your phone. Unlike a native app, PWA can be loaded much faster even in rural areas, with limited access to the internet. According to PWA stats, a growing number of brands are benefiting from PWA with increased conversions and increased daily, monthly active users: “Debenhams found that user journey from browsing to purchase was 2x to 4x on its PWA. The PWA delivered a 40% increase in mobile revenue and a 20% increase in conversion” Among a long list of PWA possibilities and benefits, we have identified the top four: Increased conversions “From all the case studies presented in Top 30 PWAs report, we’ve seen that for PWAs, the average conversion rate increase for mobile users was 36%. This means for a retailer doing 5M from mobile annually, the revenue from a PWA will bring additional 1.8M annually.” [ii] This can be caused from a number of factors such as improved user experience, due to optimised PWA practices for website speed and general performance. Fast loading of products, single-page experience, advanced features of engaging UX etc. In addition, brands using PWA can benefit from rankings ahead of their competitors. And lastly, PWA scores higher in delivering Core Web Vitals, which brings more secure and fast payments. 2. Value-driven digital solution Unlike an app that needs to be developed from scratch, PWA can be built as part of the website, using a single codebase for various platforms. With PWA, merchants do not need to bother about app store requirements to be published, it only takes a web browser, URL and Voila! ready to go live. 3.Reduced Bounce Rate Enhanced customer engaging experiences on PWA make users stick to the site for longer. According to Google, the majority of users bounce off when the platform takes more than three seconds to load. “The average bounce rate on PWA is 42.86% lower than on a similar mobile website.” [iii] “The average bounce rate on PWA is 42.86% lower than on a similar mobile website” 4.Increased Active Users Optimised site performance with speedy and interactive interface is a PWA’s path to an increased number of daily active users. If you want to drive engagement with existing or potential consumers then you should opt with PWA because it allows interaction with customers through push notifications, without any need for download or installation. According to findings by Smashing Ideas, different companies have seen significant uplift in customer engagement with PWA. Such as 53% more mobile sessions on Lancome, 160% more mobile sessions on MakeMyTrip, 250% more repeat visits on OLX etc. [iv] PWA can be your next strategic E-step in keeping up the pace with digital acceleration in 2022. Our dedicated team of 50 Developers at 247 Commerce has a long-term experience of building PWAs across different platforms such as Magento, BigCommerce or Shopify. And is ready to consult. [i] buildfire. (2021). Mobile App Download Statistics & Usage Statistics (2021). https://buildfire.com/app-statistics/#:~:text=The%20average%20person%20uses%209,t%20get%20used%20every%20month. [ii] Karwatka, T. K. (2019, February 11). Optimizing Mobile eCommerce — PWA and CRO. Medium. https://medium.com/the-vue-storefront-journal/cro-by-pwa-optimizing-mobile-ecommerce-9fc7586ee537 [iii] Johnson, Z. J. (2019, October 23). How Progressive Web Apps Will Change Online Business. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2019/10/23/how-progressive-web-apps-will-change-online-business/?sh=1dd3bb117370 [iv] Progressive Web Apps (PWA): Source Materials. (2020). Smashing Ideas. https://smashingideas.com/pwa-statistics/
