How PWAs Have Helped Big Brands Enhance Their Business?

In a world dominated by native apps, progressive web apps have incredibly marked their significance in the mobile app industry. Not only they are tagged as a great alternative to native apps, but PWAs have also been embraced by big brands and proved to be a game-changer in their business. Popular names like Twitter, Ola, and Starbucks have reported remarkable growth post the launch of their PWAs.

What makes the progressive web app technology so special? How are brands leveraging the complete advantage of its capabilities? How have they been benefited from it? Why more and more businesses are coming forward to invest in this technology? We will find out everything in this blog post.

Let’s first understand what a progressive web app is.

What are Progressive Web Apps?

Progressive Web Apps or PWAs are web apps that leverage the modern web browser APIs and features to deliver a native app-like experience to cross-platform applications. Because they utilize the modern web browser capabilities is the reason why they are termed “progressive”. Built using common web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, PWAs are designed for platforms that use a standards-compliant browser, including both desktop and mobile devices. 

To put it in layman’s language, a PWA is just a website packed in the form of a mobile app. It may look and feel like a native app, but the functionalities are that of a website. And since it is actually a type of website, it doesn’t require to be bundled or distributed separately. App developers publish it online and users can install it by visiting the related website and add it to their home screen. Whether you want to push that to app stores like Google Play Store or Apple App Store is completely optional (Twitter has their PWA published on the app store).

How PWAs are benefitting Brands?

The internet has reached places around the world but not every place seems to have a stable internet connection. Poor network or internet connectivity is still an obstacle in many places which spoils the user experience. In such situations, the users cannot do anything except waiting for the network to arrive and hoping that the device or app they are using could work in low connectivity. Native apps aren’t meant for such instances. Yes, they are fast and deliver great performance but not good enough to handle network issues. This is where progressive web apps or PWAs come into play. They are designed to work in areas with low network or poor connectivity issues. This is one of the major advantages brands have received by building a PWA so that they don’t lose out on the prospects who frequently face network problems, and this is what makes PWAs reliable. The service worker intercepts network requests and instantly switches to offline mode as soon as there is a connection slowdown or no connection, thereby allowing it to operate regardless of the connection status.

Progressive web apps are capable of rendering pages faster than native apps. Alongside faster loading, the ease of access and cross-platform compatibility makes them a good choice for businesses to prefer over native apps. Furthermore, PWAs are economical to build as compared to native apps; one code can be used across multiple browser platforms. The different browsers supported by PWAs as of now are Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Firefox (for Android, not for desktop), and Microsoft Edge.

What makes a PWA look like a Native App?

The PWA technology is steadily catching up with native apps. Although the latter comes with more features and functionalities, PWAs are no behind in delivering a native app-like experience. Some of the native app-like features they possess are-

1. Push Notifications

Push Notifications allow brands to communicate and engage with their users and persuade them to return to the app. Every native app leverages this feature. Well, not only native but you will be able to avail the benefits of this feature even if you have a PWA, thanks to the service workers.

2. Can be added to the home screen

A progressive web app can be installed on a user’s device just like a native app. It doesn’t need to be downloaded from the app store(s), has a relatively small file size, and thus occupies less space on your device. It’s the one-stop solution for those users who avoid installing and keeping heavy-sized apps on their smartphones. And it’s a win-win situation for brands as well as they can target their users who have storage-related issues.

To download a PWA, go to your browser. Open the website for which you want to download its PWA. Either you will receive a popup to add it to the home screen or you can click on the three dots (on the top right in Google Chrome) and add it from there.

Brands using PWAs

Here’s a list of the popular brands that witnessed a steep rise in their metrics post their PWA launch.

1. Forbes

Forbes turned to PWAs to accelerate the page load speed for their readers. Previously, their website used to take around 3-12 seconds to load, but after they build their PWA, the page load time reduced significantly. The PWA brought down the loading time to less than 1 second, as a result of which, they saw a 43% boost in sessions and a whopping 100% increase in engagement.

2. Flipkart

Flipkart, one of the top eCommerce giants in India, made their mobile website back in 2015 but later shut it and put their complete focus on their native app. This step, however, didn’t bring them satisfactory results. They decided to build a PWA to allow their website users to have a similar app-like experience.

To their surprise, Flipkart almost tripled their average site time. What was earlier reported to be 70 seconds reached approximately 3.5 minutes on their PWA ‘Flipkart Lite’. Additionally, Flipkart witnessed a 40% higher re-engagement rate among new users and a massive 70% increase in their conversions because of the “Add to home screen” icon which allowed instant access to the users to Flipkart store.

3. Twitter

The Twitter team was looking for a way to make their mobile web experience faster, more reliable, and more engaging. Cometh the first quarter of 2017, they launched their PWA ‘Twitter Lite’ that not only reduced data consumption but also increased user engagement. Twitter reported a 65% increase in pages per session, a 75% increase in tweets sent, and a 20% decrease in bounce rate after they developed their PWA.

4. Starbucks

Starbucks, a multi-national chain of coffee houses built their PWA primarily considering the offline-first functionality so even the rural communities, where the Internet connection is less reliable could be benefited. By creating the PWA, they received an amazing response from their users as they could create orders and add them to the cart even in the absence of an internet connection. The tiny app was extremely fast and responsive and took their web app performance to new heights.

5. MakeMyTrip

One of the leading travel companies of India, MakeMyTrip reported a 3x conversion rate alongside a 38% increase in their page load speed and 160% increase in sessions, after building their progressive web app.

6. AliExpress

AliExpress is amongst the top eCommerce marketplaces offering products to online international buyers. They combined the best of their web and native app to build a PWA and generated 2x more page visits per session, 104% more new users, and a 74% increase in time spent per session across all browsers. The conversion rate on the iOS devices also scaled up by 82%.

The Bottom Line

Many other brands and businesses have been benefitted by building a PWA. Pinterest, Alibaba, OLA, OLX, all have shown incredible growth in their metrics after they developed their PWA.

Progressive Web App is an ultimate choice for businesses that want to provide an app-like experience to their users on a limited budget. A multitude of brands has already received the perks by creating their PWA, and it’s time that you build one as well for your business.
PWA development company Dew can help you develop a top-notch PWA. Our PWA developers have got more than 10 years of experience in the same and are well-versed with its technical know-how. Reach out to us with your requirements here.