Is a PWA right for my eCommerce business?
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are starting to make waves in the eCommerce community.
In fact, many web developers now agree that PWA is the future of the web and therefore, eCommerce as we know it. This begs the question that’s likely weighing on your mind; “Is a PWA right for my eCommerce business?”
And what should you be considering if you want to stay two steps ahead with this technology?
1. Is a PWA the right choice for my eCommerce business, right now?
If you are a merchant operating on the Magento Open Source platform, particularly Magento 1, it’s probably worth taking the leap to PWA. The end of life for Magento 1 happened in June 2020, and migration to Magento 2 takes about the same amount of time, effort and not much less budget than leapfrogging it to go directly onto a PWA – so why wait? The same applies to those merchants looking to re-platform from a legacy-based platform to Adobe Commerce; if you are coming into the Adobe Commerce or Magento game, do it right. Get ahead by jumping straight into PWA.
2. How do I select the right web development team for a PWA project?
Are you currently working with a team that have previously been successful in deploying a PWA transformation? PWA relies heavily on a top notch front-end development team and a back-end team that can support in making those solution integrations work correctly together. The relationship between them will determine how your project is delivered, and if they can make that final push to the delivery line.
The ‘proof is in the pudding’ when it comes to this, so you’ll need to ensure you’re working with an agency (or in-house team) that has experience of deploying successful Progressive Web Apps for eCommerce purposes.
As well as having in-house teams of front-end and back-end developers in our agency who work closely together, we were actually the first agency globally to successfully deploy a PWA on the Magento platform – and have since deployed multiple, very successful sites using this technology, so we know a thing or two about the common pitfalls and how to synchronize our team to meet unique businesses requirements.
3. Is PWA right for my eCommerce site and product catalogue?
✅ Content Heavy Websites
If you use CMS pages, CMS blocks, integrated blogs, etc – you are one of the businesses that can’t miss out on a PWA transformation. A PWA will vastly improve your site speed and provide a more engaging experience for customers browsing your site.
✅ Gigantic Catalogues
Do you possess an enormous amount of searchable products? If so, PWA is the perfect solution to solve this. Take a look at our PWA for Selco, a builders merchant with thousands of searchable products!
❓ Third Party Modules
If your site is full to the brim with third party modules, it might be the time to do a cleanup. Modules that affect the backend (email, shipping, etc.) are not a problem, however, those affecting the front-end could cause issues with a PWA, if your technology partners have not yet developed versions that integrate with this technology.
❓Hosting
If you are married to your current hosting solution, it might not have enough room for a PWA transformation; this is not a definitive no go, but is something you should consider.
So – is a PWA the right option for your eCommerce business?
Hopefully these 3 tips will give you a good idea on whether or not a PWA is right for your eCommerce business. If you do have any more questions, or would like to schedule a demo to learn more, you can do so here!