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How Progressive Web Apps Help Achieve a Unified eCommerce Experience

How Progressive Web Apps Help Achieve a Unified eCommerce Experience

May 13

Written by  AJ Leale, Sr. Director eCommerce 
Imagine a situation in which a customer lands on your site ready to buy a product they wanted for a long time. They’re ready to fulfill this emotional motive.
As a way to incentivize more app downloads, you offer them 30 percent off if they buy through the app. However, your app feels nothing like the website. The colors and product descriptions are completely different.
The shopper feels confused as there is no consistency across your digital channels which adds doubt in their initial choice. They abandon your site in search for a better shopping experience. This customer is gone for life.
Keep reading and find out how progressive web apps (PWAs) help achieve a unified eCommerce experience, allowing you to prevent scenarios like the one described above.

Reduced Time-to-Task Completion

The initial tests of desktop PWAs have been eye-opening for many retailers. The findings show big improvements in desktop page load speeds. One crucial finding was related to reduced time-to-task completion (TTC), the time it takes to search for a product and add it to a shopping cart.
PWAs are up to 4 times faster than mDot websites. This increase in speed is possible because PWAs let you cache and reuse data between pages. This can minimize page load times throughout the shopper’s journey, which allows for higher conversions and revenue.

Low-Cost Engagement With Web Push Notifications

Through web push notifications, PWAs can reengage your customers even when their mobile browser is closed. Some industry benchmarks found that push notifications have higher click-through rates compared to email. This new channel is less intrusive than email and ensures that your messages won’t get lost in overflowing inboxes.
Push notifications are sent from a server to a subscribed client. They don’t require the user to be active on your website or even have their browser open. This is a low-cost way to send a new coupon, promotional offer, or discount. If you have an abandoned-cart problem, a user can be reminded to complete their order.
However, the first rule for a successful push notification strategy is to not immediately interrupt a visitor on your site begging them for permission to send notifications. You should request your user to install PWAs after their second visit to your site.

Higher Discoverability

With a PWA, users only need to find you once – through your website. This removes the barrier of having to go to an app store to download and install an app.
The great feature of PWAs is their 2-in-1 nature. They look like mobile applications, even on desktop screens. At the same time, they provide a familiar setting to those on mobile phones without compromising their usefulness.
You’ll no longer need to invest in creating solutions for each platform separately since it’s the same for all operating systems. This is economical for businesses and allows for the widest possible coverage of users.

More Inviting Interface

PWAs combine the best of your website and mobile app functionality. They can help resolve a major pain point that has troubled mobile commerce for so long – a different customer experience on desktop and mobile.
Thanks to PWAs, your users will only see content that’s essential to their needs. This content is often supplemented by smooth animations, fluid scrolling, and great navigation experiences. Such a visual environment encourages active user engagement and more time spent on the page.

Indexibility & SEO

Since behind the scene web contents are used that’s why SEO techniques are applicable on PWA’s just like they are on a website.

Offline Behaviour 

 Once more it is about putting the user before everything, avoiding the usual error message in case of weak or no connection. The PWAs are based on two particularities: first of all the ‘skeleton’ of the app, which recalls the page structure, even if its contents do not respond and its elements include the header, the page layout, as well as an illustration that signals that the page is loading.

Apps Analytics

Another major benefit of PWA’s is advanced analytics capturing that cannot be achieved in native apps. All the analytics that are used in the main website will also be used in the app that means app analytics can also be captured from mobile devices which cannot be achieved in native apps specifically third-party analytics like adobe analytics etc.

Self Updates & Secure

Apps stay fresh with new builds automatically. Also, secure because served on HTTPS. PWA’s also has the flexibility for advanced caching techniques that makes these fast and more optimized.

Conclusion

PWAs are taking over the eCommerce world and are yielding great results. They can help your brand boost customer engagement and higher conversions. They offer a native-app-like experience in a mobile-first interface and are more cost-effective than traditional mobile apps. Here you can see the global directory of progressive web apps.
Visionet’s team of experts can help your retail brand achieve a unified eCommerce experience. Contact us and we’ll help you craft a strategic roadmap for the success of your retail brand.