Businesses today face a challenge when it comes to trying to reach their consumers, particularly when trying to choose between investing in developing native mobile apps and maintaining them or sticking with a mobile-friendly website. Enter the progressive web app or PWA. Before Progressive web apps were developed, a majority of businesses required a native iOS app, a native Android app, and a conventional website to gain optimal online reach.
A progressive web app is a consolidation of a mobile-friendly app and website. Gartner predicts that by 2019, 20% of brands will abandon their mobile apps for PWAs. PWA offers users the friendly interface of a mobile app at approximately half of what it would cost you to build a native iOS or Android app. They are responsive to every device and thy function and feel like any app you would get from the Apple store or Google Play Store. One of the primary features of a Progressive web app is that even though it feels like an app, there is no need to search and download it. Users can discover PWAs, link to them, or share them on the web and they can also install them on their devices to use as native apps. Dan Frommer, summarizing the Quartz report, said; “Only about one-third of smartphone owners download any apps in an average month, with the bulk of those downloading one to three apps.’
Users generally expect a site to load within 2 seconds and may abandon your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. With users abandoning mobile sites that take too long to load, PWAs are a worthy option for businesses.
Why Build a Progressive Web App Today?
#1 Less Friction for Users
This can be the main reason why you should have a progressive web app for your business. While using progressive web apps, the consumer will not experience any trouble looking for your business. However, when using native apps, the user downloads the app from the store and accepts the app permissions before using it. For progressive web apps, all the customer needs to do is find your website and get launched into the business without downloading anything.
Progressive web apps decrease friction because the users do not have to worry about using extra data to download your business app and delete it if they are short of memory.
#2 More Security
Modern web designs have forced web developers to shift to HTTPS websites if they are handling customer information. HTTP was replaced because it was not adequate in securing the necessary consumer information. More websites are programmed in HTTPS because it offers your customer a guarantee that you will keep their information safe. Web app developers are making use of Fetch APIs and Cache to load progressive web apps faster which means that it will take less time for the content to load. This feature also allows users to load progressive web apps offline without any internet connection from their home screen.
#3 More Flexibility
Building a progressive web app for your business offers your users a completely native app experience. The interface of a PWA looks like that of a native application and it can imitate any action you can find in the native app. PWA also provides push notifications. Progressive web apps range from online ordering to customer information management to other loyalty programs. Web users can also save the PWA shortcut to their home screen enabling instant access at any time.
#4 More App Speed
Progressive web apps are very reliable in terms of speed. JavaScript runs in PWAs from the main thread enabling users to load the app immediately even with a weak internet connection. Developing a progressive web app allows your business to establish a solution that caches information in both the app and the browser.
#5 More Offline Access
Since web app developers use Fetch and Cache APIs to help progressive web apps load, this means less time will be spent loading your content. After building native apps, the user will need to register an app store account and pay for in-app purchases and downloads. PWA apps give users freedom from registering with app stores like Google Play Store and the Apple Store.
#6 More Faster Adjustments
Building progressive web apps means that the business does not have to worry about sending new builds to app stores if there are new adjustments. For example, in case of a native app, if you find a bug then your developer will look for the problem, fix it, and send the build to Play store or App Store for review after which the updated version will be sent to customers. PWA development instantly allows you to launch any fixes without the need for even maintaining two individual base codes.
#7 More Reach
Progressive web apps are accessible across platforms. They have more reach than a native app. With more than 15.7 million monthly users, the reach of progressive web apps is 2.2 times more than the native apps. According to a report, each of these users spend an average of 10.9 minutes, a 93% increase as compared to native apps
#8 More Acquisition
The user acquisition cost of progressive web apps is 10 times cheaper than that of native apps. It is €0.35 as compared to €4.00 for a native app.
#9 More Conversion
Progressive web apps provides an app-like user experience which leads to more conversions. Companies have introduced progressive web apps to replace their traditional mobile app experience. Pinterest saw a 44% increase in user-generated ad revenue, a 50% increase in ad clickthroughs, and 40% increase in users spending. Twitter saw a 65% increase in pages per session and a 20% decrease in bounce rate as compared to the traditional mobile app. AliExpress also saw 2x more page views, 74% increase in time spent, and 82% more conversions as compared to native apps.
Get a Head Start and Build Your Progressive Web App Now!
With 20% reduction in bounce rate for Twitter, 53% rise in mobile sessions and 17% more conversions for Lancome, and 160% increase in the shopper sessions for MakeMyTrip, it is time to start building Progressive Web Apps now. Progressive web apps are on the way to become a significant technology trend. You need to stay updated with upcoming tech trends if you want your business to succeed.
