A PWA (Progressive Web App) can be a website or an application. Actually, it can do the work of either. Since 2015, PWAs have been helping retailers democratize shopping experiences for customers, irrespective of how they reach your store online. They constantly reimagine how native apps and mobile web pages can be combined to deliver personalized shopping experiences.

Customers can expect app-like seamless and unified experiences from the get-go – without any need to install an app that occupies extra space on your device, go through a cumbersome sign-in process, or feel hesitant about sharing contact details.

As for developers, they get the firepower to build future-proofed web apps that can seamlessly function across different devices, operating systems, and platforms. Thus, it accelerates a retailer’s journey into the world of e-commerce and helps them engage and do business with customers – anywhere, anytime.

 Progressive Web Apps vs. Native Apps 

In case you’re wondering, “What’s exactly so progressive about that?” – here are a few reasons why Progressive Web Apps score over native apps.

  • Simple, affordable, and reusable: Unlike native apps, developing a PWA doesn’t require complicated and tiresome coding. The developer only needs a single code base, with minimal time-to-production, to quickly create a web app.
  • Accelerated loading time: Native apps are ecosystems unto themselves – which means downloading and installing them will take up time, effort, and space. In comparison, PWAs are much smaller that ensures fast loading time – with the latest caching technology to make text, visuals, and other content appear much faster.
  • Higher conversion rate: While native apps can drive meaningful sales conversations, it can be expensive and challenging to build an exceptional feature list. With Progressive Web Apps, you can simply add them to your homepage to help your customers shop around and place orders more conveniently.

Progressive Web Apps vs. Responsive Web Apps

For all practical purposes, PWAs are the next step in the evolution of Responsive Web Apps. Here are a few factors that separate the two.

  • Offline availability: In the offline mode, PWAs still help retailers stay connected with customers. Whatever information was saved the last time the customer was online can be easily reaccessed – even without an Internet connection.
  • Dynamic personalization: PWAs cater to the user’s needs through features like push notifications, location enablement, camera availability, and home-screen mobile experiences.
  • More responsive (no, seriously): Ironically, PWAs tend to be more responsive across Android, iOS, or the Web since they only need a single code base for cross-platform development

 Magneto 2 – the ‘now’ big thing in PWA integration 

Magento PWA redefines online experiences with more speed, flexibility, and ‘out of the box functionalities. Firstly, a storefront on the Magento 2 platform simplifies developers’ lives by enabling them to work with Google-friendly tools to code and implement PWAs. Then, e-commerce business owners enjoy lowered development costs and accelerated time-to-market.

Finally, it makes sure that customers can smoothly embark upon online shopping journeys that are consistent, personalized, and unified.

Magento PWA Studio is truly at the forefront of creating a brand-new front-end architecture – supported by a thorough back-end technology suite. It is an integrated solution for e-commerce business owners to build their PWA storefronts without worrying about incurring separate cloud hosting expenses – front-end or back-end.

With the recent releases of Magento 2.3 and 2.4, modern retailers are increasingly reliant on Magento to maximize the potential of their PWAs.

What you get with Magento 2

  • PWA Studio developer tooling and Venia reference storefront – synchronized to the Magento Commerce
  • Headless architecture and robust GraphQL API layer to leverage existing front-end tools like Adobe Experience Manager or customize new touchpoints
  • Drag-and-drop page builder tool to build unique retail-friendly content structures
  • High-performance PWAs that enable smart mobile interactions
  • Quick toolification – customer service tools, analytics tools, and other CX tools
  • Access and OOB integration with Adobe’s UX product suite
  • Prebuilt to stay on top of the retail ecosystem – instant unified commerce experiences
  • Magento also comes with the Magestore – a PWA POS app for digital store owners.

Build your next-gen PWA retail store with Aspire Systems

With Magento Commerce Cloud’s cutting-edge features, you need a strategic partner to ensure that you nail the right customizations and enable best-fit third-party integrations. Aspire Systems has tons of experience in helping e-commerce retailers raise the bar on delivering memorable shopping experiences through Progressive Web Apps. The width and depth of our digital retail offerings have helped create an end-to-end technology framework to understand the digital transformation from a 360° view.

Aspire’s Magento-certified experts, along with our proven experience in implementation and support, gives modern retailers the advantage of world-class integration, testing and quality assurance, and proactive bug fixing.

 

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