It can be seen that Magento 2 Progressive Web App is helpful for Magento e-commerce stores to target prospective customers who buy on both desktop and mobile devices in order to be competitive in today’s business environment.
While there are a variety of ways to cater to smartphone users, including creating a responsive website, developing a native or hybrid app, developing the Magento 2 Progressive Web App appears to be the most popular choice.
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What Is PWA?
A Progressive Web Application (PWA) is a web application that makes use of current web technology to provide a dependable, quick, and engaging user interface.
Websites built with PWA are fast, stable, sensitive, and cross-browser compatible. PWAs look like a native app on mobile devices with icons on the home screen.
Why Magento 2 Progressive Web App?
Magento users have been very interested in Progressive Web App integration, particularly after the release of Magento PWA Studio (a set of tools for integrating PWA in Magento websites). The main reasons for store owners to convert their website to a Magento PWA are:
Enhanced Mobile User Experience
Installing the PWA on a user’s mobile device is simple. It is much faster and easier than downloading a native app on app stores.
Also, it’s just the first step toward awesome features including offline mode (accessing the PWA app even though the Internet link is lost), background sync, and other app-like features.
A Better Choice than Native App Development
When compared to mobile native apps, Magento PWA asks for a lower cost of development and maintenance.
As you might know, native apps require the development of two different apps (one for iOS and another for Android), resulting in double time and effort for software production and update.
On the other hand, the single codebase of PWA can run on any operating system.
Things To Ponder When Developing Magento 2 PWA
Building Time
Choosing an appropriate time to convert the website to PWA is such a vital consideration. There are two kinds of sale seasons which are the low-sale and high-sale season.
During the high sales season, the workload will sometimes be overwhelmed, so it might be difficult for merchants to strictly follow the project implementation process. Therefore, they had better avoid the peak of the sale season. In other words, the low-sale period is the ideal time to start the Magento 2 PWA development project.
Apart from it, when the e-commerce industry is thriving at the moment, innovation is indispensable. Merchants should start planning to develop PWA on their website as soon as possible to outweigh their competitors!
Development Cost
Merchants should consider a reasonable budget to invest in integrating PWA in Magento websites.
In general, the price range of Magento 2 Progressive Web App building is from $1,000 to $50,000 depending on the selected solution (for example extension/ theme/ custom development), the complexity of the customization requests, and rates of developers.
Website Design
After deciding to convert the websites to Magento 2 Progressive Web App, website owners now need to think of the web design.
Merchants have to decide whether they want to change or retain the original store design after converting to PWA.
If the web design has been attached to the company’s name for a long time, the merchants should keep it the same since a new one may do more harm than good.
However, old designs in some cases can make the buyers bored and less excited when visiting the site, so switching to a more attractive and eye-catching one is highly recommended. As a result, the conversion rate can go up significantly.
Store Function
Now with a good starting time, defined development budget, and website design, it’s time to consider the store functions.
Merchants will be confronting such questions: ”Which PWA functions do they want to have?”, ”Which custom functions or extensions in the Magento 2 website do they want to keep after upgrading to PWA?”
Solutions for Merchants
After making the decision on which functions the store will have, merchants need to consider between PWA development solutions.
They should compare all the PWA solutions with the targeted budget and the desired results in terms of the design and function, to choose the optimal solution.
For instance, if merchants plan to invest $1,000-5,000 (a moderate budget) and want a fast solution (achieving the PWA in less than 1 month), using a ready-to-use Magento Progressive Web App theme is undoubtedly the best option.
Among available PWA themes for Magento 2, TigrenPWA is the most voted one since it provides multiple PWA storefront designs and intrinsic features. Also, its installation is free.
PWA Development Agency
In this phase, merchants have to look for a Magento PWA development company. They should consider the firms’ experience, reputation, and implemented projects before making a choice.
The ideal Magento agency should have a minimum of two-year experience in PWA development. If the company doesn’t have too much experience, it’s possible that it hasn’t delivered the service for a long time.
Another criterion that the store owners should pay attention to when choosing a partner is the company’s reputation. By collecting reviews from social media channels and company reviews websites, merchants can partly evaluate the real capability and service quality of the agencies.
Checking the agency’s past projects to see how they performed after applying PWA is another pivotal thing. Then compare those projects to the expected results that merchants desire to see whether they go on the same page or not.
Post-Development Support
Last but not least, while choosing a suitable agency for Magento PWA development, merchants need to know its post-development support policies. Is it free or payment required? If free, how long is it possible? What is the scope of support?
Final Words
Unquestionably, converting to Magento 2 Progressive Web App is a great way to improve the online shopping experience for customers. It is critical for any company that wants to stay competitive.
This method, however, can be fruitful only if knowledge and considerations regarding PWA incorporated with Magento 2 are well prepared.
