PWA: the ultimate key to an optimal experience?
- 19 Apr 2022
PWA: the ultimate key to an optimal experience?
Mobile is the number 1 source of traffic. It allows you to be always connected and it is this ease of use that makes a presence on mobile essential. However, the same visitor will be twice as difficult to convert on mobile as on desktop. This means that many customers prefer to place their order on desktop instead of on their mobile. A probable part of the sales is therefore lost in this transition.
Improving traffic on the move: an update
One of the solutions to this problem is the native application on mobile. However, we realized that not only do we have to get past the installation barrier (an app is more intrusive than a website because it requires manipulation and stays on the device), but also the traffic remains less important.
The Progressive Web App, or PWA, has another approach. The web becomes an application platform. It is a site, referenced on Google, for which there is no need to install and whose user experience will be as close as possible to a native experience.
Benefits and prerequisites for a successful PWA
The main added values of a PWA are naturally the following:
- Better desktop and mobile performance
- More open architecture (e.g. Google Playstore is open for PWA)
- The design of the user experience is more flexible
To develop a PWA, some pre-requisites are necessary:
- A server side API (GraphQL...)
- A client-side javascript application (React, Vue.js, Angular...)
- An offline mode (Service worker)
- A server-side rendering solution (Server node.js + javascript bundle OR Headless browser OR Pre-rendering)
Is PWA SEO-friendly ?
The pages of a progressive web app are loaded using javascript. In fact, there is a problem of indexing in search engines. Ideally, you should have a server-side rendering for the first page of the site, so that the robots can receive the code of the page in classic html form.
This is our main recommendation to avoid any risk on the referencing of your PWA, and thus promote the traffic of your application.
In order to implement a response in line with the expectations of our customers, we recommend some market solutions that meet the needs and challenges of our customers. Among them you will find :
Magento PWA Studio is a set of tools that enables the development, deployment and maintenance of a PWA storefront on Magento 2.3 and above. It uses modern tools and libraries to create a build system and framework that adheres to the Magento principle of extensibility.
Front Commerce is a modular e-commerce platform to improve the performance and usability of visitors.
Vue Storefront, a headless PWA and a backend agnostic solution, designed to be connected to any e-commerce platform like Magento, HCL Commerce, etc.
ScandiPWA, the first PWA theme for Magento stores. It is an ultra-fast and offline-ready open source progressive web application solution.
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