PWA for Retail Industry – The Present, Future, and Beyond!

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The last decade had a continuous wave of technology where PWA sprouted its head most successfully. Right now, technologies don’t just have to make lives easy and comfortable, it has to be mobile-friendly. Though mobile apps are performing well in this sphere, B2C mobile apps find it difficult to attract users due to a large number of apps are already available. This is where PWA comes like a storm, and stands out as the best alternative of the native apps for the retailers. PWA for retail industry is truly bliss. Finding out benefits of PWA in retail business? Well,  PWA benefits for retailers, can be summed up as:

PWA is a cost-effective medium that offers an optimal mobile experience by fulfilling the needs of retailers and redefining the overall selling experience.

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Benefits of PWA in Retail Business – Why is it Winning?

In the age of digitalization, people are used to getting what they want with a simple tap on smartphones. These convenient and efficient solutions are winning the hearts of users. PWA is one step ahead in terms of adding more value to the user experience while browsing. This is how PWA changes the game of retail industry. 

1. Mobile-friendly Site – More traffic

Companies always try to get more organic traffic on their website. Now, there are different ways of increasing inorganic traffic on a website. However, to get more organic traffic, websites have to be SEO-friendly, so that they can rank on Google.

At present, mobile-friendliness is a major parameter for all search engines to rank websites. A set of data from Statista says that the total number of mobile users at present is 3.8 billion (50% of the global population). Not just that, a large number of people spend more than 3 hours a day on their smartphones. Consequently, a mobile-friendly app plays a crucial role in achieving success.

PWA is itself a mobile-friendly solution that runs on any browser. Although PWA is not actually a native app, it behaves like one. It never hampers the appearance of a website irrespective of browser or network strength As a result, search engines are more likely to index these sites on the SERPs. Check specific PWA benefits for retailers here:

• Commonfloor had 10% higher traffic with PWA
• Starbucks got 2x more orders after switching to PWA
• Pinterest had 40% more traffic with a 40% higher revenue rate after building PWA
• Twitter witnessed 70% more tweets
• Nikkei 58% more subscriptions and 50% increase in the number of daily users

Thus, PWA creates a difference in the retail industry. 

Check out: PWA vs Headless PWA

2. Super-Fast Page Loading – Higher Customer Engagement

PWA mobile applications are popular for providing a seamless customer experience. Statistics say that companies after switching to PWA have a higher customer engagement in terms of site visits, session duration, and sales. PWA for retailers is like a win-win situation. Companies like Aliexpress, Alibaba, Flipkart, Nike, OLX, are some of the examples in this regard.

Enhanced customer engagement is a result of faster site loading speed. Faster page loading also resolves cart abandonment and takes an online store to a profitable position.

PWAs can increase the page loading speed by as much as 10 times. Be it a mobile user or a desktop user, a page that takes more than 3 seconds tends to have a higher bounce rate. Approximately 50% of the users leave these pages even before it loads.

Forbes, and Twitter lite are some of the websites that have remarkably improved their page loading speed. From 10-12 seconds these successfully reduced the speed to approximately 0.5-1 seconds by adopting a PWA. All these contribute towards a gain in the number of customers.

The example of George.com can be mentioned in this regard. George.com had a 3.8x faster page loading speed compared to their old site after switching to PWA. Isn’t it amazing?

3. Better Conversion Rate

Just like a mobile-friendly site, site loading speed is another checkpoint for search engines. With higher site loading speed, PWAs provide higher conversion rate, compared to native apps.

• Debenhams had a 20% increase in their conversion and a 40% increase in their mobile revenue
• George.com had 31% more conversion with 20% more page views
• Twitter had 60% higher sessions

With PWAs, it becomes not just easier to increase the conversion rate, but also, one can decrease the rate of redirection. So, it is an overall gain for the retailers. There are companies that had doubled their conversion rate and reduced redirection nearly to half by using PWA. Along with that, PWAs have contribution in resolving the mobile revenue gap.

A few years back, the majority of people used their mobiles just for browsing the products. But for payments, they preferred desktop as a better alternative for the transactions. It created a mobile revenue gap which PWA resolved. The main reasons behind the low mobile transactions were:

• Poor user experience
• Slow loading
• Security issues

PWA is a website with the appearance of an app, so it combines the best experience for desktop as well as mobile users. Therefore, PWA mobile applications have a revenue advantage over native apps. Also, more registrations, repeat visits, and higher session duration are some of the key results of PWA.

Read: PWA for eCommerce

4. Low Bounce Rate

A good website is not sufficient in today’s scenario, it should also have a low bounce rate. The average bounce rate of PWAs is around 40%. However, it may vary from industry to industry. For instance, Thomas Kent had a remarkably low bounce rate with PWA followed by better conversion.

Better conversion rates and low bounce rates all are the results of responsive apps. Unless the web pages load fast, users will neither visit the page again nor will they register for the store. It means that PWA resolves most of the problem from the grassroot levels and lead your business towards success.

Find out: Best PWA Examples that propelled business towards success

5. Remarketing

Apart from all these, a better user experience, along with push notifications, works well to retarget customers. Relevant notifications improve user interaction and users are more likely to revisit the site. Here are some examples in this regard:

• Treebo had multiplied conversion by 4x with a 3x increase in repeat customers
• Hulu had 27% more return visitors 27% more return visitors

Sideways, PWA gives a chance to increase the average order value as an outcome of its high-end experience.

Also read, EthnicSmart’s Headless Magento PWA

6. Performance optimization

When it comes to the benefits of PWA in retail business, performance optimization makes it a winner. Apart from being a responsive solution, progressive web applications consume fewer data. So, users will be charged fewer data to load a page. It reduces the overall server load and prevents sudden slowdown or crash.

It boosts the overall performance of websites. Even during high traffic, PWAs don’t slow down or hamper the user experience anyhow.

Looking for a PWA solution for the multi-vendor marketplace? Check our solution

7. SEO friendly

A website only appears in the search results with an effective SEO strategy. The success of a website lies in how well the search engines track the site and display it on SERPs. Pages that rank on SERP, get the maximum traffic.

By every means, PWA ensures that the site gets the maximum views and runs successfully. In a nutshell, PWA ensures the benefits of retail business in every possible way. 

8. Boosts Brand Awareness

Creating brand awareness with a native app is undoubtedly a good option, whereas, PWA makes it even easier. With the ‘add to home screen option, it offers higher visibility. This results in longer sessions, higher return views, and brand awareness. That’s why one of the biggest benefits of PWA in retail business is its brand awareness. 

9. Affordable

PWA costs approx. 3 to 4 times less than traditional apps. A retailer with a limited budget can effortlessly opt for it. Apart from development costs, the maintenance cost of PWAs is also 33% lower than that of native apps. In the Mobile app vs PWA comparison, the cost makes a big difference.

These features, altogether make PWAs and Ecommerce a strong pair. Powering your eCommerce store with PWA can fulfill all your needs.

Still confused about Why to use PWA for business? Well, check the benefits of PWA for retailers, along with the successful retailers using PWA below.

Successful Retail Brands that Use PWA

Starbucks, Debenhams, George.com, Lancome, Annie Selke, AliExpress, and Flipkart are a few brands that remarkably:

• Reduced their app size
• Increased organic traffic on their pages
• Improved their conversion rates
• Improved the page loading speed
• Increased session and viewability
• Reduced bounce rate
• Enhanced customers retention rate

In short, there are uncountable benefits of PWA in retail business. Now, you have an idea of PWA benefits for retailers, but it does not mean that PWA benefits only for retailers. Its features made it globally accepted irrespective of the industries, so let’s move on to its features now:

Read: Almutlaq Furniture’s Success story after switching to PWA for online retail

Why Do Users Like PWA so Much?

PWA is becoming the global choice for multiplying sales. But, have you ever wondered, What made PWA so popular over these years? Well, the answer is – features. Let’s move on to the features of PWA:

1. App-like Appearance

PWA is created by keeping in mind the users’ experience. Users nowadays prefer to access multiple websites through mobile apps. Therefore, it is essential to deliver an app-like appearance to the user.

PWA understands the need of the hour and that’s why PWA web stores appear exactly like the native apps. PWA sites can be added to the home screen. Also, it sends push notifications to customers just like traditional apps.

Check: Cenia Pro Magento 2 PWA theme 1.2.2 updates and fixes

2. Cross-browser Compatibility

How many times did the users have different browsing experiences on different browsers? Well! That’s truly troublesome. Progressive web apps can respond smoothly to it.

PWA caters to the need of cross-browser compatibility. So, no matter whichever browser you are using, you can get an indifferent experience. Be it Chrome, or Firefox, or Safari – PWA prevents the slowing of sites on each of these browsers. That’s why PWA is not just an opportunity for the retailers, also it benefits all merchants. 

3. Responsive

Static websites get less traffic. So, making pages super responsive is essential to offer an outstanding browsing experience to the users.

Progressive web apps empower website owners to obtain higher page loading speed. As a result, next time the page loads faster than before. Users don’t have to frown over slow page loading, no matter which device or browser they are using.

4. Easy Installation and Auto-updates

Many websites ask users to download and install their apps to access complete features. However, this is a challenging task since not all users prefer to install an additional app on their mobile. While comparing a Mobile app with PWA, installation and updates have a stark difference.

Unlike native mobile apps, Progressive web applications need no download or installation. Similarly, PWA goes through continuous updates. But, users don’t need to install updates manually. PWAs update automatically with new features. For a hassle-free install and updates, PWA is winning in the retail industry.  

5. Interactive Image and Video Content Support

To make the web store more appealing, PWA mobile applications support image and video content. They are also responsible for increasing retention by better engaging with the users.

6. Multi-language Support

With PWAs businesses can take a big leap- its multi-language support makes international business relationships easier and smoother.

7. Network Independent

PWA mobile web is least dependent on the network. Poor to no internet connection is also enough to operate it.

8. Small in Size

If your app is large in size, users will be less likely to download and install it. This is because users already have a specific set of apps on their smartphones. They don’t want other apps to occupy more space.

PWAs are mostly less than 1 MB and it readily solves this problem. Therefore, the retailers don’t need to ask their customers to install their apps, so PWA benefits the retailers to provide a better shopping experience to the customers. Starbucks, Pinterest, and Opensooq are some of the examples here.

9. Secure

PWA is packed with some very cool features; and also, offers total security to users.

In addition to these, PWAs come with tight security of HTTPS connection. Apart from protecting your personal information and device, it blocks snooping by providing the connection via TLS.

So, whenever you are wondering why use PWA, just have a look at its features.

Time to Switch to PWA

Being a retailer, if the traffic on your store is low and you need an affordable alternative to native apps, PWA can be a perfect choice. With PWA, you will not have to convince buyers to use your app yet, you can achieve customer loyalty. It’s Native app-like UX/UI, fast page loading, push notification is capable of holding the customers for longer. It collectively leads to the success of the eCommerce website itself. Looking for PWA for your brand? Get the experts to help from CedCommerce.

CedCommerce brings in customized eCommerce solutions to offer ultimate flexibility to your online store. Our team helps you with the solutions as per your business needs and problems. PWA comes as an all-rounder here as it includes power-packed features. You can get smoother performance by using the PWA Studio theme.

Our experts ensure that your store meets the demands of your customers to have a steady growth. Our team is just a call away – so, let’s know your business requirement.

Planning to Switch to PWA? Have words with our experts