The most revolutionary device that exists today is mobiles. Mobile phones, aka smartphones, have the potential to transform any industry and their way of doing business. Today every app development company has to crack the code to make their applications more mobile-friendly.
However, with the advent of Progressive Web Applications (PWA), things have changed drastically. The complexities and the optimization of codes across all the channels are surpassed, and a highly personalized cross-channel experience is delivered. Now imagine this power-packed technology being combined with the Magento platform!!
We know that the news has already rolled out in the last year, but the craze doesn’t seem to subside anytime soon. Magento PWA Studio is the hottest trend that will be the game-changer of ecommerce shopping habits. Ever since its release on January 15th, 2019, there has been no looking back and a constant uprising in demand. It will be of no surprise that all the mobile ecommerce will be built on the Progressive web apps Magento 2 platform. It looks like much hype, isn’t it? But once you know the potential of PWA+ Magento, you would agree more to the thoughts.
So, before we deep dive into the applications of the platform, let us first understand the meaning of PWA.
PWA stands for Progressive Web applications that are reliable, fast, responsive, and compatible across various browsers. Such applications can be run offline, and the performance is similar to a native application.
Having said that, PWA has some standard features which every web app existing on the internet may not be able to suffice. Features like working offline, easy installation, easy sync, and many more need to be supported by a web application to be a PWA. Some of the standard principle that a web application should follow are:
- Easy discovery: Web application content should be such that it can be found easily over search engines.
- Installation: Users can easily install the application on the home devices or any other.
- No internet required: Irrespective of internet availability, the application should be able to function seamlessly.
- Easy share: By just using the application URL, users should be able to share it with others.
- Supports push notification: It should be able to notify and re-engage users by sending them notifications regarding an event or a new product.
To conclude, in simple words, PWA means:
Progressive: supports lazy loading;
Web: It can be developed using web languages like HTML, CSS, and Javascript;
App: It can install and run on cross-platforms.
Now let’s understand Magento PWA studio:
Magento became a PWA partner back in June 2017, which allowed developers to integrate all the features of PWA into Magento. This integration creates a first-class m-commerce store that results in exceptional user experience and thereby increases the conversion. Magento 2 PWA Studio thus became the first ecommerce platform to utilize PWA with full potential. All the essential tools that are required to keep the PWA storefront up on Magento to are provided by the PWA studio. Few packages that are accompanied with the Magento PWA studio are:
PWA-buildpack: It helps in the easy configuration of the local environment that is required for PWA development.
Venia storefront: It is a demo theme developed using Magento PWA studio that displays current features and workflow.
Peregrine: Routing, root components, layout handler, and product and prove displays are handled by peregrine
This being said, why should store owners use Magento PWA studio?
Here are some distinct advantages that we have listed down of using Magento PWA Studio. Keep reading…
Cost-effective:
Apps built using PWA studio are highly profitable because of the use of a web stack for development. You do not have to invest upon building a native app; instead, you can simply upgrade the existing Magento 2 website into PWA.
Extended reach to mobile users:
Ever since the users have shifted to mobile for online shopping, there is an increasing need for developers to develop apps that support mobile phones. Magento PWA studio allows the app to work offline, which means that a potential customer can browse through products and stores without having internet on the mobiles. They can have similar experiences to that of mobile browsing and can add the application to the home-screens even. Isn’t it amazing that just by clicking the Magento 2 PWA extension, the app gets added on the home screen and serves all the benefits of using mobile commerce applications?
Works offline:
Users don’t need the internet to surf through the website application. Some cache and content are saved, which are available offline.
Cross-platform Compatibility:
How interesting it is that a single code runs across multiple platforms. Thus a user can browse the application on any browser by just typing the URL in the engine. This further means that the user will not be required to update the application from the app store; instead, they will get an updated version in real-time every time they open the app through URLs.
Responsive application:
The greatest limitation of web apps is overcome by PWAs. Yes, you guessed it right, you open PWA over a mobile phone, tablet or a desktop, and you will get consistent screen and experience. Your Magento store gets a competitive edge over the market and has a greater chance of getting ranks on the top of SERPs.
Higher conversion rates:
Since Google highly recommends considering mobile-first indexing, PWAs are in the front runners. The reason being, these applications have faster loading time, low data usage, cross-platform compatibility, and many more. Since the Magento PWA Studio is designed to work flawlessly over the mobile phones, it boosts SEO to a greater extent. And as a result, your chances of traffic and conversion over the mobile screens increases in leaps and bounds.
Since the framework and the system completely supports the Magento extensibility principle, PWA studio saves a lot of time for the developers.
If you have made up your mind to integrate PWA in your Magento 2 store now, here is how you can do it.
1. Use Magento 2 PWA studio:
You can directly use Magento 2.3 PWA studio from the PWA storefront and manage your Magento 2 websites.
2. Use Magento 2 PWA extension:
This is by far the easiest and fastest way to integrate PWA studio. Look out for PWA Magento 2 extension in the Magento Marketplace, and directly bring that on to your store.
3. Use Magento 2 PWA Theme:
You can quickly shift your Magento 2 web store to PWA by using Magento 2 PWA theme. You can create it using Magento 2.3 PWA studio, ReactJS, and GraphQL.
We hope that this article gave you an overview of the Magento 2 PWA studio, however for detailed information, you can refer to the official documentation. PWA, combined with Magento, offers unprecedented opportunities to the store owner in terms of flexibility and functionality.
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