Why eCommerce Needs PWA Development?

Ever since the popularization of PWA development in 2015, the cross-platform software has changed. The new technology allows you to create applications that are consistent across all platforms. You don’t even need to install them. The one business sphere that benefits the most from it is eCommerce. Let’s look at the reasons why this is the case.

What Is a Progressive Web Application?

This is still a question for a large number of companies. What is PWA technology? In essence, a progressive web app is a web application that has the full functionality of a native app. Rather than a specific technology, it is more of a set of guidelines and principles. In fact, Google has published a checklist of standards as to what is considered a PWA.

The functionality available in modern browsers allows you to create pages with features similar to fully fledged applications. The most defining one is the offline mode. However, the range of their capabilities also includes push notifications, home screen installation, background processing and more.

According to these standards, there are three key benefits you get from adopting PWA:

• Reliability – an app works even when offline with the help of background caching.
• Performance – it can perform multiple functions of a native application at the same time.
• Engagement – it’s easier to drive users to a website than getting them to download something.

The relevance is best illustrated by showing who has benefited from adopting this technology for their eCommerce business. Among these companies are leaders of their respective fields. For example:

• AliExpress – one of the largest international online stores for all kinds of goods boasting an impressive (and quite honestly cool) 666+ million visitors a month.
• Walmart and Target – two of the largest American mass retail enterprises.
• Starbucks – the largest coffee chain in the world that allows you to place orders online.
• Dodo Pizza – pizza delivery service that is the largest in Russia and one of the fastest-growing in Europe.
• Macy’s – leading apparel and accessories chain with 60+ million online visitors a month.
• and much more.

Why Your Business Needs PWA Development

First of all, to be successful, you need to establish yourself on the mobile market. It accounts for 60% of all traffic and that percentage continues to grow. However, the conversion rates are low (only 16%). There are many reasons for this. For example, people don’t want to download separate apps for each online shop. In fact, analyzing monthly download statistics, more than half of all users don’t install any new apps at all on any given month. So how can a PWA eCommerce help overcome that?

Low Barrier of Entry

You can get it set up comparatively quickly. The eCommerce app development times are quicker than they’d be for a dedicated app for both iOS and Android. The costs are lower because of that as well. The basic formula for a progressive web app is a single page application (SPA) that can be added to the home screen, go fullscreen and send push notifications.

Maintenance

Instead of keeping up with the different issues on separate platforms and updating them separately you have only one cross-platform version to worry about. It is a lot easier since it doesn’t even require knowledge of mobile platforms. You can also save on the maintenance cost. Speaking of saving money, you also won’t have to pay a percentage to app stores if you don’t want to.

Seamless Performance on Unstable Networks

Since this type of app stores its content in the cache it works smoothly regardless of the internet connection, which can periodically slow down or even disconnect completely and the PWA will still work perfectly. This way your clients can browse your online store whenever they want.

SEO and Discoverability

Progressive web applications are websites by design. This means they can be found through search engines. In fact, 93% of all online experiences start there, says the SEJ research. You can take advantage of that by optimizing the content and increasing the number of visitors as a result.

Better User Experience

As mentioned before, people don’t like downloading new apps when it can be avoided. The storage space of their devices is limited and there has been a noticeable “app fatigue” among mobile users. The eCommerce software of that nature solves both of those problems – the size is substantially smaller and it can operate without any installation at all.

The Best of Both Worlds

Since a PWA is largely a combination of a website and a native application, it combines in itself the benefits of both technologies. For example, it is both linkable through a URL and is safe and installable at the same time.

We know how to develop custom progressive web apps. You can see it for yourself by checking out our portfolio!

Contact us if you want to get one of your own!

ERP Integration of Progressive Web Apps

The benefits of PWA don’t stop at online shops, however. They work well with other enterprise software, – in particular, with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These services can encompass all branches of eCommerce from financial data analysis to logistics, manufacturing operations management, and business intelligence. 

When comparing PWA to native apps there is another point that makes the former more appealing: the integration of progressive web applications with ERP systems is easier to do. This is a big deal for multiple reasons. By integrating them together you get benefits such as:

• A dedicated customer relations management (CRM) system. This will make tasks such as collecting data about clients automated. This enables more advanced personalization methods in your marketing, closing more deals, and never losing the contact information. Every interaction with the PWA is trackable, so you can follow the customer’s journey and make the shopping experience enjoyable and lucrative.
• You get a dashboard with all the information about corporate resources right in front of your eyes. You can lower your expenses by planning accordingly. This includes warehouse and inventory management and collects data such as energy usage, number of employees, and so on.
• Comprehensive and detailed data analytics. This data can be easily scraped from the web application. This allows you to make more informed business decisions with the help of predictive analysis. You see what pages are visited more often and what products sell more. Such data is updated in real-time.
• Automatic order processing with all information automatically logged in the system and quickly updated the moment sale is made. All databases always have relevant information that you won’t have to double-check.
• If your business also works in physical space, ERP systems help synchronize the data between different outlets and franchisees. In addition, these separate branches of your company can have their own services to manage their point of sale more effectively. For example, there is an online shop that has two physical outlets and a shared warehouse – stock data will be consistent across the board, while the customer journey analysis will be individual.

Rounding Things Up

As you can see, eCommerce software developers can create a fruitful PWA for your business, especially when used alongside ERP systems. Taking the best features of both web and mobile applications allows you to tailor this technology to your specific field. The ability to work offline, and drive engagement via push notifications without any need for installation makes this set of standards the perfect solutions for eCommerce. Check out our case study to see how we have developed a web application for a pizza chain for even more details.