Let’s face it, every business that you know of is going digital with their offerings. Doesn’t matter you’re a non-profit organization or eCommerce project, you must have an online presence. It’s the rules of the market. Creating websites and social media profiles have become a given. There is absolutely no business that isn’t making use of the same.
Over the last few years, there is a trend picking up across various business industries. It includes businesses developing applications that serve the same or a similar purpose as their websites do. Be it a blogging site that lets subscribers read their posts via a mobile app, or an eCommerce business that lets them shop during sales on-the-go using their app, you see businesses trying to figure out the best way possible to remain connected with their target market.
Now that just about every business you turn to has a website, mobile site, social profiles and some even have an app to cater to their audience, how do you stand out?
While some might answer, create a mobile app of course; we beg to differ.
We don’t say that your mobile audience isn’t important, but what if your mobile site could serve the functionalities of an app?
You won’t just be saving up on your resources that would be required to create an app, but also helping your audience save up their mobile device space. They don’t need to download another app that they might not open more than once. (Yes, 25% of users don’t use an app more than once!)
A few might turn this discussion towards how having responsive websites does the trick. But let’s first understand the difference between a responsive website and a progressive web app.
Understanding the difference between responsive sites and progressive web apps
Responsive websites are designed to cater to audiences coming from different devices – the conventional desktop or any other type of mobile devices. The responsive sites are designed to fit into the screen that they are being accessed on, without compromising on the functionalities that the website might have to offer to a desktop user.
Getting all the website elements to fit into a mobile display, requires businesses to sometimes strip a little functionality from the main site. This means you’re not truly offering a mobile first approach to your target market. While the responsive mobile site might serve the purpose up to 80%, a truly mobile centric approach is to add 100% of the functionalities progressively on the mobile site.
This is where progressive web apps (PWAs) come in.
Progressive web apps are mobile sites that offer functionalities of a native app. A user can access this site through any browser like a conventional website, but this site will store all the important information (interaction data) of the user like apps, helping you create a better experience for him the next time he returns to it.
A progressive web app makes mobile sites better in four ways:
- It boosts the speed of the site to adjust to a mobile user’s screen allowing content to load faster and offer functionalities quicker.
- It helps keep users and visitors actively engaged, thereby boosting the re-engagement using push notifications.
- It doesn’t require a user to download any app, making the interaction a one-step process.
- It keeps all of the users information securely backed up for future user by the business and safe from phishing.
How effective are progressive web apps?
According to a case study published by Google Developers, Flipkart nearly tripled its on-site time using a PWA. This resulted in a 70% increase in the conversions that the eCommerce business got from its online store.
Some of the other results highlighted in the case study include:
Users spending 3.5 minutes on site vs the 70 seconds they spend earlier
Increase in time spent on website by 3 times
40% increase in the re-engagement rate
70% increase in conversion rate
Lower data usage
Create your very own PWA with Wigzo today!
How to get started with a Progressive Web App?
While it might sound all too complicated to hop onto the bandwagon, it is literally as simple as taking a few steps to your fridge!
In our previous post, we discussed PWAs in-depth and how Wigzo push notifications form a core part of their functionality.
The technology then makes use of machine learning to understand how your website visitors are interacting with your website and what you offer. It then uses smart segmentation to create 360 profiles of your users. This further enables you to create progressive marketing campaigns that are personalized to the t and are designed to bring you more conversions.
Wigzo enables businesses to turn their mobile sites into progressive web apps in just a few steps. All you need to do is sign up, add your business logo, add the unique code generated to your website and you’re done!
1. Sign up on Wigzo
To get started with creating your very own PWA, you need to first sign up on Wigzo. If you are not sure about how it works, you could ask for a personalized demo or experiment during the free trial you get.
Once you have created an account, don’t forget to add your domain and your website type before getting started.
2. Add your logo
The very next step is to add an identity to your mobile site and ensure you don’t look like just another bookmark. This is the icon that will appear on the user’s mobile device and will take him to your mobile site’s home page every time.
3. Add code to your website
The one and only technical aspect of using Wigzo to create your own PWA is as simple as copy-pasting. All you need to do is copy the code generated by the tool, access the code to your website and paste it there.
4. Create your notification campaigns
The idea of creating a PWA is to be able to engage your users actively. So the very next step is to understand how they interact with your business, what they are looking for and how you can offer the same to them. Create push notification campaigns based on the smart segments made by the technology. Remember to personalize your messages for greater conversions!
And voila you’re done!
5. Get ready for conversions!
Once your campaign is ready and the Wigzo code is properly inserted on the website, you will start seeing a ‘add to home screen’ on your mobile site when you view it as a visitor. (See example on the right)
Although, since a progressive web app is all about user experience, your now ‘mobile site turned PWA’ will ask for permissions to send notifications to the visitor – just like in apps!
The person who has added your PWA on his home screen now has the choice to receive notifications from you or not. You can make use of these notifications to promote your sales, offer relevant content or simply engage with your visitors from time to time.
We wrote a quick guide on how to make use of notifications to boost your sales and you can access it right here.
Well, this step is a sign for you to sit back and enjoy the conversions your business will now be getting because you’re all set!
Yes, all it takes for your business to leverage from Progressive Web Apps, is a smart tool like Wigzo.
Ready to create your own PWA?
Sign up for your FREE trial today!
