In recent years, the number of online customers purchasing through mobile phones has increased dramatically thanks to the convenience of modern mobile browsing. As an expected trend, many technologies have been developed with the aim of providing superior customer satisfaction during their online shopping on smartphones.
In all these technologies, Magento PWA Studio seems to be the most needed feature in order to attract potential online buyers with the habit of shopping on mobile phones. To provide your Magento store with the most amazing features to boost up your store’s revenue, Magento PWA Studio is a must that you cannot miss.
Table of Contents
What is PWA?
PWA, or Progressive Web Apps, is a web application that makes a site closely resemble a native app on smartphones or tablets to bring out a reliable and engaging user experience. Introduced by Google in 2015, PWA is one of the most advanced technology innovations for mobile at this moment.
A website with Magento PWA feature offers not only the most similar factors of a native mobile application but also allows offline access without the internet connection.
What is Magento PWA Studio?
Magento PWA Studio is a set of required tools that help online merchants to develop their online stores with a native app-like experience. This set of tools allow Magento users to easily build and maintain a PWA storefront on top of Magento 2.
The Magento PWA Studio provides store owners with:
PWA-buildpack – A library for Magento PWA. Magento stores can use this to set up and configure a local environment for PWA development.
Peregrine – A set of react components. Peregrine is essential in managing magento-specific functionalities like routing, root-components, layout handler, product lists, price display, etc.
Venia storefront – A demo theme by Magento PWA studio showing current features and workflow.
PWA Or Native App?
- PWA works like a native app with home screen installation, offline availability, responsive design, fast load as well as timely relevant push notifications. However, Magento online stores can make better use of PWA in some points:
- A native app needs separate versions to fit with each operating system, such as IOS or android. PWA, however, is built on an intuitive framework that works on both IOS or Android mobiles.
- To use progressive web apps, users only need to enter the URL on their mobile web browsers. Meanwhile, a native app requires a few minutes to download from the appstore.
- Since PWAs cache resources and sync data remotely, they can run smoothly with low internet speed and take less time to load compared to a native app. However, a progressive web app consumes more phone battery because it runs on a mobile browser.
- In comparison with native apps, a PWA requires less money and effort to maintain and develop.
- Therefore, it is predicted that PWA will be a crucial trend for online sellers who want to engage more mobile users in their stores.
The most amazing features of Magento PWA Studio
1. Friendly with mobile users
As a matter of fact, the number of users purchasing products through mobile phones is increasing dramatically. A statistic shows that 70% of the traffic for Magento websites comes from smartphone users, which encourages online sellers to make the most out of this mobile commerce trend. Although native apps have been used for a long time, a progressive app is still more friendly to mobile users as they don’t have to download and install an app from app store to use.
Magento store owners now can provide a better experience to mobile users thanks to Magento PWA Studio. When online customers visit your PWA store on a browser, an “Add to home screen” button will pop up immediately. This popup button will add the PWA version of the store to their home screen and visit your store anytime they want without searching for it through the browser anymore. Thanks to PWA Studio, your Magento mobile web is turned into a mobile app without any interference.
2. Cost-effective
A native app costs a vast amount of time and money to build, remain, and update. Native apps need to be built separately for Android and IOS devices, then updated to Googe Play and App Store for users to download. A website with Magento PWA feature, however, doesn’t need to obey guidelines set by Google or Apple because it is a website, not an app. PWAs can be built easily by upgrading the store’s current existing website with the tools provided by Magento PWA Studio, which may help online stores save up to 75% of the costs of building native apps.
3. Better user experience
Progressive Web Apps run through browsers and use less mobile storage than native apps, so PWA is more preferred by mobile users. Moreover, by adding PWA to their home screen, a website with PWA feature is still accessible and easy to use since users do not have to open browsers every time they want to go to your online stores.
Even though PWA resembles the most essential features of a native application, it is almost 80-90% lighter in weight, so it gives mobile users more space in their phones compared to a native app. Magento PWA Studio brings out the best user experience in your eCommerce stores with app-like experiences.
4. SEO-friendly website
If native apps are mostly searched on Apple Store and Google Play, a PWA can appear in google search, which greatly improves the search engine ranking of your Magento store website. Also, as Magento PWA is easy to use and reliable, mobile users might stay on your page for a longer period of time. and thank to that Google will increase your store’s page ranking higher.
5. Push notifications
One of the most amazing features on native apps, push notification, will also be provided on Magento PWA. Once mobile users subscribe to notifications from your website, they will receive important messages regards the latest updates, deals, discounts, and special offers even after they exited the webpage. This is an amazing marketing opportunity that online sellers shouldn’t miss when they set up their store website.
6. Offline features
Another great feature offered by PWA is offline working. If customers have visited your online stores before, then they are able to access the PWA store, check products and order them to the shopping cart without an internet connection. Their offline order will be processed automatically right after their phones connect to the internet. The reason for this is because Magento PWAs cache some content to serve in case the internet is lost.
7. Cross-Platform Compatibility
PWA Studio allows your Magento store to run on multiple mobile browsers and platforms without updating on app stores like native apps. Like any other website, a progressive web app can be updated in real-time by store owners.
Conclusion
Progressive Web Application (PWA) in Magento 2 is regarded as a revolutionary to the e-commerce market since it provides e-commerce merchants a golden chance to boost their sales and revenue efficiently. Online Magento sellers should embrace the latest trend in the mobile-commerce market to vastly turn their shopping page into a popular online brand across the globe with amazing opportunities ahead.
