5 Reasons Startups Should Start Using Progressive Web Apps

Audience attention is important to a startup company if it is to thrive and survive. But as your business grows, you can’t just keep asking your clients to interact with the same old website or app. There is something to be had to kicking it up a notch, and jumping into the growing pool of Progressive Web Apps — you’re startup business’ new key to success.

Progressive web apps combine the best of both worlds, and gives your audience the experience of an app while they’re on the web.

What makes PWAs so special?

The need for various businesses to target customers on their smartphones is already a given. It’s well-established at this point. It’s no longer a question of ‘why’ they should do it, but ‘how.’

A startup business that’s looking to appeal to its mobile-based clientele has three choices: a responsive web design, a native application, or a progressive web app (PWA).

Each of the choices have their own set of pros and cons, some have more advantages in store than others…

For instance, a responsive mobile website can be easy to navigate, and it might satisfy customers to a certain degree. But in most cases, it’s not nearly enough.

On the other hand, native mobile applications provide a finer user experience, but the disadvantage lies in the fact that they are limited to certain devices…

Some are very functional on an iOS operating system and are very buggy on Android and vice versa. The biggest blockade, perhaps, is that an app requires a download. That presents considerable buy-ins from regular consumers, but you lose the benefit of an impulse buy.

And here comes the PWA — sitting in between these two options, providing desired solutions. As mentioned before, it combines the two and soothes the two previous options’ pain points.

PWAs function like a native app, and yet it runs — self-contained — in a web browser. Progressive Web Apps are capable of loading instantly, even in areas where connectivity is low. Pre-caching ensures that the PWA stays up to date, and displays the most recent version upon launching.

A. Garbarino, a South American retailer, increased their conversion rate by 27%, returning visitors by 13%, and pageviews by 35%. They also decreased bounce rate by 9% upon the PWA launch.

B. Washington Post’s average post takes 400 milliseconds to load — an 88% performance improvement over their mobile website.

Why should startups use PWAs?

Admit it or no, every startup business requires a website, a software, a compatible mobile app, etc. to fully support its seamless operation. Simply speaking, the hassle involved in getting everything in line is just exhausting.

Progressive web apps are helpful in this way. It takes less time to develop, less time to deploy, and not as costly — in terms of regular maintenance.

Besides this, what other advantages to Progressive Web Apps have to offer startup businesses?

#1 100% Mobile-first approach

Perhaps you already accomplished developing a responsive mobile web design, or a successful mobile app. Or maybe you haven’t yet. Regardless, there’s still a good advantage to be had of having a progressive web app in place.

For one, PWAs are entirely a mobile-first approach to connecting with all of your customers — especially the mobile-centered ones.

If you haven’t established a mobile presence, you easily skip those steps entirely and go directly for a PWA. In doing so, you build out an experience with mobile as a starting point.

#2 Reach a huge audience

a. 69% of users spend their media time on smartphones (Comscore).
b. 52.2% of worldwide online traffic was generated through mobile phones, up from last year — 50.3% (Statista, 2018).
c. 69% of smartphone users say they are more likely to buy from companies with mobile sites that easily address their concerns (BrightEdge).
d. 89% of mobile media time comes from app usage. 11% are on websites (SmartInsights).

As detailed in the amount of data, the importance of taking a mobile-first approach is more apparent than ever.

The great thing about progressive web apps is that they’re compatible across all platforms. Gone are the days where you have to constantly worry about whether your target audience is an iOS or Android user. You reach a larger audience this way. And the added bonus? Consumers are free to look at your products or services anywhere.

#3 Supports other marketing efforts

Progressive web apps open new doors for more alternative marketing efforts. Not only does it open a new door of opportunity for renewed marketing efforts, it also lets you be creative with customer approach.

The offline features, faster loading pages, push notifications, and a home screen icon has proven to be game-changing features.

There’s definitely an advantage to be had when you begin experimenting with PWA’s potentials. Integrating it with your other marketing efforts yielding nothing short of good for your startup businesses.

#4 PWAs aid in customer re-engagement

People’s ever shortening attention spans paired with a nearly innate desire to get everything within the first few seconds make for a headache for a lot of marketers.

How do you hold on to an elusive attention span?

There are many a method to solve this mundane conundrum, but progressive web apps is the solution everyone’s dreamed of.

Because of PWA’s very nature, it has become the answer to such a situation…

Today’s customers are interested in staying up to date with all the latest products, news, posts, etc., without too much hassle.

#5 Efficient and economical

Websites are beneficial in their own right, and so are web apps — providing solutions in the form of app marketing. But, as mentioned before, PWAs combine the two and create a formidable solution.

In choosing a progressive web app, your consumers use up less data. They don’t sacrifice the convenience of a native app either. Moreover, saving a progressive web app to their home screen is perfectly doable. No real downloads necessary.

Andrew Gazdecki, of Forbes Technology Council, has this to say about PWA’s efficiency.

“Users must make a conscious decision and even a commitment to download and keep a native app. Uninstalling that app is an equally final decision. In contrast, clicking a simple link is an easy task that requires very little consideration, little data storage on your device, no lengthy download period and no installation.”

And in addition, it’s economical in the fact that progressive web apps are unified to work on every browser on every device.

Progressive Web Apps: The Inevitable Future

Native apps and responsive web designs have their uses. But turning to more economical solutions like PWAs from time to time certainly can’t hurt.

As time flies, progressive web apps are continuously proving to provide the best of both worlds for startup businesses and ecommerce brands.

So, why not give it a try?