What is a progressive web app?

These new generation web applications offer the best features of both the Native and web applications in terms of capabilities and reach. They not only load like normal websites but also leverage the features supported by modern browsers to offer greater functionality to the users.

Why Progressive Web App is suitable for Every Business?

According to Statista’s report, 2.5 billion people were owning a smartphone in 2016 and the number is expected to reach 3.8 billion in 2021.

This indicates that people prefer to carry out a wide number of tasks from their smartphones.

As Progressive Web Apps support the mobile-first approach, it has become a go-to choice of a wide number of businesses and brands across the globe. For example, Flipkart, Forbes, Uber, etc.

Considering the increasing demand for PWAs, various new-age entrepreneurs have started looking for the best web application ideas available on the internet to convert them into reality.

But, before you think about building PWA, you should be familiar with how it is going to benefit your business. Therefore, in this post, we are going to share some advantages of PWAs for business.

 

Let’s have a look at them one-by-one.

Major benefits of progressive web app

Lower development will cost

Compared to the native apps, the cost of designing and developing a progressive web app is much lower. You do not need different progressive web apps for different OS. A single PWA can work perfectly on Windows, Android or iOS. This makes it financially attractive for businesses.

Better user experience and great performance

PWAs allow the user to experience the look and feel of a native app. Even the overall performance of such an app is better than that of a website. Such an app gives you comparable responsiveness and speed to that of a website that has database access. This is a great feature because it allows the search engine to index them and your customers can find your app on the Google or Bing PWA page leading to a large number of page views.

Faster installation

Another great advantage of a PWA is that it does not require a long and complex installation process. All the users have to do is download an app directly to their device without going to the App Store. This helps in reducing the abandonment rate and improving the user’s experience. Some browsers allow you to place a call-to-action like teasers that induce the users to download the app when they visit the website. This improves the shareability of the app.

Improved performance

The progressive web app cache and render text and images in an efficient manner that allows such apps to function as a website with greater speed. As a retailer, you should invest in such an app as it improves user experience resulting in higher conversion rate, greater retention and improved customer loyalty.

It works everywhere

The PWAs also offer cross-device support for those users who regularly switch between their devices. Such users can access the app that has similar settings and data on another device. This also helps you to automate your business, as you will know that your employees can use this app on any operating system or devices.

Easy Updating

One of the advantages of investing in PWA is that it allows you to update your app without notifying or seeking permission from the users. The apps automatically update every time the users visit them. This gives you full control over the information and content that the users can access.

Offers off-line operation

PWAs can operate off-line, which makes it much more useful than the regular websites that require a continuous Internet connection. The off-line operation can be done as the web browsers, even when in offline mode can cache the PWA. It saves the information that the users have browsed previously and allows them to access it even when they are not connected to the Internet. Such a feature is very important for retailers as it helps them to prevent users from abandoning their catalogues thereby increasing their customer engagement resulting in higher revenue.

Independent of App Store

The progressive web application can be found through the search engine, different social media channels, and the homepage of your website or any other part of your ecosystem. This makes them independent of the App Store thereby giving you the flexibility of where and how to launch the app to attract your target audience.

Push notification feature

The PWA allows you to use device-specific functionality that includes push notification that is excellent for content advertising. Push notification allows you to better target your advertising campaign and have a better chance of audience response. Furthermore, the bouncing notifications along with the app icon can draw the attention of the user thus improving the brand recognition further.

Better security

The progressive web apps rely on HTTPS to offer data security and help reduce the risk of snooping and content tampering.

Require less disk space

The PWAs take much less disk space compared to the native apps as they use the internal storage of the browser on which they run.

Low on data

In emerging markets like India, mobile data is expensive and not very reliable. For such a market, PWAs are ideal as they are much smaller than the mobile app and require smaller bandwidth as they have the advantage of caching. This will allow your user to use the app even if the Internet connection is very slow and not very reliable.

Conclusion

If you look at the above points, you will realise that the progressive web apps offer your customers the best features of web and mobile apps. It helps to increase the session length and improve the conversion rate. All these advantages make this the perfect solution for any new businesses that want to engage their mobile users more effectively. For more articles related to this topic, you can go through Tech Geeks World.