Shopify is one of the world’s largest eCommerce platforms which boosts the launching & expansion of online stores. The eCommerce business has to evolve to deliver the best online buying experience constantly.
To ensure the best digital experience, the distinctive benefits are provided over traditional mobile apps and native websites with the combination of both functions with the PWA (Progressive Web Apps). When you hire a Shopify developer, you can easily add this feature to your Shopify online store. The PWA technology has led the massive growth in the mobile commerce business from the last few years.
What Is PWA/ Storefront in Shopify Store?
PWA is the acronym of the Progressive Web Application. It’s a type of web application technology that gets developed with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is designed to work on any platform which follows the standard-compliant browser, including the web & mobile devices. Progressive web apps are considered the milestone as they give the best digital experience on mobile devices with responsive layouts. It also provides crucial information for developing better design patterns.
eCommerce business is wholly handled over the internet. The storefronts are details of the images & products description of goods, pricing section, and contact information which are crucial for the customers to decide. The web-based Storefront delivers the extra services from the regular services; with this, the services can be accessed outside of business hours.
How PWA Works?
PWA is a web application that can be installed on the system and leverage the cache information to deliver quick information. It operates offline when you are not connected to the internet. PWA is not available on the play store or app store, which means it is not necessary to have the Apple or Google approvals on the user’s phones. It allows you to take the liberty to update as per the business needs.
Advantages of PWA/Storefront in Shopify Store
Instant Loading Time
In the digital age, no one likes to wait for more extended moments. If your website takes more than 5 sec to load, then there are high chances that online visitors will leave the website, increasing the bounce rate. Instead of fetching the whole HTML document from the server, PWA implements the methods known as Client-Side Rendering or CSR, where the content is rendered in the visitor’s browser using JavaScript.
Whenever clients or visitors send the request, the JavaScripts render the essential components of the web page in the visitor’s browsers, and it loads the website faster.
Empower the SEO Works
With the better PWA & Storefront, you can improve the user experience, and ultimately, you can win in SEO. PWA provides a rich experience in desktop & mobile. The fast loading speed in the mobile boosts the SEO parameter and increases the overall ranking of the search engine result page. When this feature integrates with the marketing strategies, it increases the conversion rate on the website with the potential business leads.
Offline Browsing
Offline browsing doesn’t mean a fully offline experience of the application. The caching management of the browser can be overridden with the customs rules & algorithms, and cache management is independent of the remote server location.
Suppose your loyal or new customer is browsing the products on your Shopify online products while traveling in the underground metros and connection drops, so in this case, the browsing will not be interrupted when the users click on the back button. The user will see the previous page instead of the 404 error. The cache page is retrieved and displayed on the screen. The order will be processed after the connection establishment.
Saves Development Cost & Time
Creating the app from scratch requires various resources to develop the app for both platforms like Androids & iOS, i.e., Java/Kotlin for Android, while Objective C/Swift for iOS. While in the PWA, the developer has to use HTML, CSS & JavaScript. If you plan to separate with the different operating systems, you have to spend the time, money & resources twice. So it is more economical to proceed with cross-platform app development to make the process simpler & smooth.
Push Notification
PWA supports push notification. Push notification provides the latest updates about the ongoing sale, addition of new products, order updates, and much more so that online visitors can engage with your Shopify store. It keeps the users engaged, re-engaging with the one who has visited the website once or abandoned the cart after adding the products.
The proper implementation of the PWA provides extra motivation to the online visitors to engage on the website. The users spend almost twice on the online store when PWA push notification is embedded in the website.
Final Thoughts
In today’s digital era, the eCommerce business is booming rapidly, and continuously modern technologies are being implemented to deliver the best user experience. The addition of PWA/Storefront in the Shopify online store helps generate more revenue with the extra benefits to the online shoppers.
