Progressive Web App: A Gap Filler for Web and Native Mobile Experience

Modern age of mobility is defined by the value and convenience enterprises bring through their mobile strategy and initiatives. Users’ expectations from apps are changing, and most of the research brought this fact that adoption and download of mobile apps are decreasing month on month. Enterprises need to shift their mobile strategy and app investment for improving user engagement and getting the ROI.

Most of the companies prefer both Mobile Web and Mobile apps. In fact, this has been one of the crucial concerns for enterprises to decide whether to go for Mobile web or Mobile app. Developing anything is important for companies, however, this depends upon user personas and segments.

Alibaba, Flipkart, BookMyShow, Forbes, and Pinterest, these are not just company names but brands in the world market upgraded their websites to Progressive web apps (PWA). PWA is a new way of connecting and delivering products and services to the mobile user in an efficient way and most importantly: cost effective. Studies claimed that these brands have witnessed promising results in terms of improving visitors traffic and conversion, improvement in page load time, lower bounce rate, increase in ads click-throughs, and higher re-engagement.

App Download is One of the Major Concerns

What is a progressive web application - Consumers have started drawing a line against downloading apps on their devices majorly where mobile device usage is high. This is an alarming fact for companies to re-evaluate mobile development strategy. Progressive Web App technology in this scenario could be the most appropriate move for companies. PWA brings an app like features and functionalities to the website and that does not require a customer to download an app. This allows a user to pin it to mobile home screen and use it even in offline mode.

Think about the hospitality industry, why somebody will download the mobile app of a hotel, even if they go very often to dine out. Most of the time they do explore new places for soothing ambiance, delicious taste and excitements for an enriching experience. For this situation, a hotel owner could deliver mobile app experience to their frequent visitors, loyal customers using progressive web apps. PWA can add app features to hotel’s website with an object to convert target mobile user to loyal mobile app user.

Food for Thought

• Re-evaluate mobile strategy for getting most of the ROI from your mobile app development
• PWA can add app features and functionality to your website in real time rather than waiting for longer approval cycles of respective app stores.

Mobile App for Everything

Being an application leader, is it needed for my company to build web application for everything? In fact, it is not necessary that the application I am creating for a specific user, will download and use it. I should better think of the objective and reasons before creating any mobile app. This analysis will certainly help me to take the right decision and save platform specific maintenance cost that I may incur in the future required for native and hybrid app.

To make mobile app strategy meaningful move, I should take the overall inventory of all my existing applications up and running in the ecosystem. Examining and evaluating which application further be redeveloped and designed using Progressive Web App. This approach may have multiple implications, 1) Should I stop or continue with any specific app, 2) Easy decision for reproducing it in different platform, the overall cost to the company maintaining these apps, user engagement on these apps and many more.

Food for Thought

• “Why I create a mobile app”, I should better question this before taking any further action for mobile strategy
• Review existing apps and compare app maintenance cost vs progressive web app cost

Marketing Spend to Make Your App Stand Out

There are over 6 million mobile applications available on the Apple App store and Google play store. Making your app discoverable and noticed in your target universe require marketing promotional budget. Managing application development cost is not a challenge for companies, however, making them active right from its launch to the promotion and to keep reminding the user to use app needed a progressive marketing budget. If we talk about marketing budgets, this marketing budget is typically two and three times the cost of application development.

A progressive web app development can be a real relief to minimize your marketing spending and improve user engagement and footfall as you get on your website. PWA is like a website that works as mobile application only. Accessibility via URL making it visible on search engines. You don’t have to manage a separate budget for marketing of app and website. In fact, whatever your marketing team is doing to improve the online presence of the website, will have the impact on PWA simultaneously.

Food for Thought

• Find out marketing budget that you are spending to promote an app, that can be minimized using website marketing budget.
• PWA inherently comes with SEO benefits so what you do to improve your website digitally automatically reflects on progressive web apps.

Final Thoughts

When we talk about building progressive web apps, whether mobile web will dominate or mobile app will lead the market, is primarily dependent on the use case and user personas. Bridging the gap between web and native app users has become one of the primary responsibilities of application leaders. Perhaps PWAs could sound fantasy but going forward seeing the facts and user expectation, it can become a new standard. Progressive web app technologies are very quick and futuristic move to fill this gap and therefore application leaders should include PWA as a part of their overall mobile development strategy.

Also, read - 4 Ways to Make Your Website Look More Trustworthy.