The Myth of PWA in eCommerce

I recently read an article from eSpirit that struck a chord with me.

What is a PWA and how can it give you a competitive advantage?

As a mobile app delivery manager, I naturally take issue with this, but you might be surprised that I love PWA. Every eCommerce web site should have service workers and the fastest possible mobile web for their customers. You absolutely must deliver the fastest and best experience available on the medium that the user chooses, if not you leave your customers feeling empty just like the hero image avove.

However, there's a funny little myth going around that PWA is somehow better than mobile app. Let me dispel that myth with vengeance. Mobile app, when properly built, blows PWA, when properly built, out of the water.

In the context of the article above, I will address a few misunderstood concepts:

Truly “mobile”, with or without Internet access: A reliable e-commerce app that loads instantly regardless as to whether you’re connected to the Internet. The PWA can be used off-line; for example, if a user is unable to access the Internet, or if the host is offline. This capability is especially important for an ecommerce company wishing to provide an uninterrupted buying experience.

Yay! PWA can work offline. Of course, mobile app has always had this ability and it loads much faster and more reliably since a well built app usually has an offline database (a full featured NoSQL database) and offline caching. Also, the point of downloading an app is so that you have the meat and potatoes of the app already on your phone. The notion that PWA somehow has this but mobile app does not is a misunderstanding of the offline concept. Both PWA and mobile apps should utilize offline functionality if possible, although many instances of each do not.

Speed for the end user: A PWA responds quickly to the needs of buyers and other end users. They will get the same experience as with a native app, and they don’t even need to download the app from a store resulting in potentially less usage of a device’s memory.

Yes, users have to download a mobile app, although with iOS 14 and Android, a new feature App Clips is coming which will combine Universal Links and App Links with the ability to stream an app to the user directly via web link. App Clips, will circumvent the need for PWA and give direct access to apps to the user from the web. Also, mobile apps only have to be downloaded once, and if users are downloading your app they are unlikely to be deterred once they have it (assuming you do not make them login to use it, which is a mistake).

The problem with app has always been the lack of marketing, since emails, Facebook, Google all naturally link to web and it's a bit harder to link to app. But once you implement Universal Links and App Links the customer will have direct access to the BEST experience possible.

Higher conversion rates: Conversion rates may be higher with a PWA since end users do not need to download the app.

How does not downloading an app lead to higher conversion? Once a user has the app you create a permanent connection to them. Yes, the very first time the user has to download the app, and some users do delete apps to save space. But it's 2020 and phone sizes are getting bigger. Can I ask you a question? Does SnapChat have a web site? Nope, but if they do I don't know about it. When is the last time you used Facebook web on your phone? You didn't. Because you have the app. Instagram? During COVID, when is the last time you used Curbside pickup with web? It's possible, but the experience is much better on app: see Chick Fil A.

If you are a medium-large size retailer and you do not have an app, you are not providing your customers the best experience, even with PWA. Here's why: mobile apps are sandboxed, which means the development team can persist the user's login. I never login to apps, because I don't have to.

Have you noticed you don't have to worry about cookies and pop ups and trackers on apps? Because apps don't use cookies (generally speaking), or crappy javascript pop ups that interrupt your experience. PWA does not suddenly change that. PWA just makes your web site faster (and that's if you built it correctly, which is hard to do).

Ability to leverage mobile device features: Similar to the native app, a PWA can tap into the full power of a mobile device; for example, installs on a mobile home screen, can utilize a device’s motion detection capabilities and can send push notifications to users.

PWAs do not leverage the full power of the mobile device because they are not sandboxed. PWAs themselves do not enable all of the features needed to make it even moderately comparable to an app. To get the full advantage of PWA you need service workers, webpack splitting of various bundles, an efficient page load process, non-blocking UI elements, removal of AJAX loading elements, removal of marketing pixels that take a long time to load from third party vendors, and a full SPA.

SPAs take a very sophisticated team to build as they cache screens and the stack of screens in the background. This is why there are entire platforms built for PWA/SPA.

Developer simplicity = Faster, lower cost deployment: Developers are able to create PWAs (mobile-like app experiences) without learning new languages, frameworks, etc. They are able to use regular web technology such as HTML, CSS and Javascript to create a PWA. This translates into the ability to deploy an app faster and at a lower cost.

This is actually true. Mobile app teams are required to build a great mobile app. This is the primary drawback in the current state of affairs, but the technologies are changing.

Goes beyond “mobile”: PWAs can be used on any device that has a supporting browser.

Ah, a key here, don't lose the "supporting browser" piece of this. Users must download the PWA to their device and accept all the proper permissions and support varies between mobile Safari (the largest penetration browser out of ALL browsers including desktop), Chrome, and others. Apple didn't even support Service Workers (a building block of PWA) until recently and caching of the PWA varies in the way it functions between all browsers. Not going to lie, not even 100% sure how well it works on Edge/IE... maybe some of my smart friends can tell me how wonderful it is making PWA work on IE 6. Haha.. that's a joke, sorry.

Lastly, there are some nuances missed between PWA and app which are important:

App stores are a marketing channel. When people look for you there, and you have nothing, it's embarrassing. It's a ding against your brand.
Push notifications NEVER get turned on with browsers. Customers are too worried about popups, malware, and other junk to accept push notifications on their browser. Whereas, users trust apps and about 40% of users accept push notifications because they have control and see some value in them on mobile app.
PWA does not improve gesture support for mobile web. Users love swiping, and they love smooth scrolling and non-transformeresque page loading of mobile app. I love swiping from the left to go back, and I love how reliably apps "go back" whereas on web I get "confirm re-submission" dialog which is very jarring.
Apple and Google have provided excellent resources for human interface design for apps (https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/). Google's is called Material Design (https://material.io/design/guidelines-overview). These companies have invested tons of resources into making beautiful and easy to use experiences for their customers and developers. Customers notice the difference.

I can tell you from experience, most mobile apps out there are not as good as they should be. But mostly because web oriented teams need to do a better job of understanding the nuances of mobile app vs. web. Mobile app will convert better and delight your most savvy and loyal customers. I know this 100% for a fact and have plenty of great data to back it up.

Lastly, I will leave you with this. If you have a mobile experience, that is not good enough to find an item and place an order while holding a crying baby while I'm in a rocker, half asleep, waiting for my child to fall asleep.. THEN IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

You need to make your customers life easier in every way possible, especially during a pandemic where we're all teaching kindergarten and working like crazy. That is my passion, giving my customers a minor win in their life and making it easier when they are under stress to get a little bit of happiness in their life.

P.S. Some great tools for PWA include Google Workbox and Mobify.