Progressive Web Applications: PWA Features and Benefits

Scandiweb takes pride on keeping ourselves, and, more importantly, our customers ahead of competition when it comes to the latest and best eCommerce technologies and industry practices. In fact, it is our own team that put us on this path — the largest certified Magento team in the world does not like to be the ones catching up, we want to set the standards! Hence it is no surprise that Progressive Web Applications(PWA) caught our full and undivided attention.

In this brief article, you will find a brief overview of what PWA are and why is everyone, including Scandiweb, so excited about PWA!

What are PWAs exactly?

PWA is the symbiosis of the best Native Apps and Web can offer; the cherry on top — incredible features that cannot found in either (i.e. Offline shopping).

Putting it in a narrative will help paint an easy-to-understand picture. Imagine you’re browsing an App of a service you really like. The App is fine, but it has its limitations — you prefer the website, because it offers better/more features; it’s clunky and takes up a lot of phone space; it’s also very taxing on your data plan & goes haywire when you try to use it offline; the updates are sometimes infrequent. You still use the App, because it has amazing UX, you can use it on-the-go, and it has the superior speed, characteristic to native Apps, but, whenever at home — you prefer the website.

Recent App vs website studies show, that many people indeed have faced one or multiple of the problems outlined above, and it’s likely that you have as well. PWA is the answer to these problems — combining the [UX](PWA: Instant & Smooth Videos for Incredible UX) & mobility of an application with the broad functionality of a website, while also enabling things such as seamless offline browsing, which syncs up when an internet connection is established, as well as being considerably more lightweight than your average eCommerce application and with instant loading times, it’s faster than a website!

There is substantial friction, which PWA helps remove, and as any digital marketing expert will tell you — removing friction, increases conversion. Since this is the first tailored PWA solution for Magento — augmented conversion processes is what our clients are looking for!

PWA: Features and benefits list

When it comes to PWA every feature is a benefit. A full list of them would be far too lengthy, so here are the ones Scandiweb is most excited about:

Instant loading time – if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, on average, 53% of your visitors will bounce. Furthermore, a local App serves to remove any clunkiness and lag while browsing, which are important customer satisfaction factors
Ready for App and Play stores – Get all the advantages of a native mobile App without the need to maintain additional code bases — one solutions fits all
Homescreen App save – Get right into the pocket of your customers — a native App experience without an App Store review process and expensive coding
Feels like an App, works like a website – PWA is ultimately all about UX. Taking the best of native Apps will make for a unique, engaging and immersive experience.
Offline mode – Since your store is saved on the device of the user, they can access it anywhere! Shopping, while flying across the Atlantic, deep underground on the tube, or in the middle of the Sahara desert — PWA makes it possible.
Push notifications – widely regarded as one of the most underused sales channels, well-done push notifications can increase conversions 4x
Open Source – there’s a PWA community that you can engage with! Contributions and modifications are always well received and convergent towards making the most out of this technology.
Magento First – with out of the box Magento features and API connector, getting started is elementary
SEO - Google’s search algorithms prioritise PWA! You can gain invaluable SEO points by switching to PWA and beat your competitors by ranking higher!
CRO – each of the features above, be it plugging a leak, or exploring a new sales channel, are conducive to a better conversion rate.

Find all the essential information on PWA: features, explanation of the tech, real-life case studies and much, much more. Take a look!

Want a PWA solution for your business? You’ve come to the right place!
Shoot us a message at [email protected] and let’s get to work! Or check out our PWA Solutions Page!