Progressive Web Apps is a concept in web development that focuses on making web apps fast, reliable, and engaging for all users, regardless of what device they own and how well their internet connection works. But can all businesses benefit from PWAs? What criteria should you meet before investing in this technology?

Find out what 4 types of apps can benefit the most from being built as Progressive Web Apps.

PWAs? What Are They?

PWAs respond quickly to user gestures and behaviours. They are reliable regardless of broadband speed, e.g. in developing countries broadband with 2G. They engage users through state-of-the-art native-like experiences on mobile devices. This is what Progressive Web Apps are all about.

The technology you choose can have a significant impact on your business. Case studies by large companies (e.g. Flipkart and Twitter) show large upticks in user retention, user acquisition, and conversion rates for PWAs.

4 Types of Apps that Should Be Progressive Web Apps.

1. E-commerce

E-commerce is an industry where profit margins are low, and every increase in the sales pipeline has a substantial impact on revenue. After implementing a Progressive Web App, Alibaba noted 76-percent higher conversion rates across different browsers, a 14-percent increase in the number of monthly active users on iOS, and a 30-percent increase on Android. These are millions of dollars gained as a result of a fairly small investment.

2. Marketplaces

Marketplace apps have one major problem: who is more important? You need to focus on both sellers and buyers. And that’s why it’s crucial to increase metrics that have an impact on both of them. Housing.com introduced their site as a PWA and reported a 40-percent lower bounce rate, 38 percent more conversions and a 10-percent longer average session. Now, Housing.com is one of the leading online real estate platforms in India.

3. Apps targeted to developing countries

Africa is growing pretty fast in the fields of technology and entrepreneurship. Jumia, an e-commerce platform, is one of the big players aimed at the African market. After they had incorporated the Progressive Web App approach, they saw a 33-percent increase in conversion rates, a 50-percent lower bounce rate and over 1200 percent more users on their mobile web app than on both the iOS and Android platforms!

4. More rarely used mobile apps

There are some apps that you use quite often but not every day – Uber is a good example. You might use it a few times a week, but definitely not as much as you check your Facebook feed. Uber’s competitor, Ola (a cab aggregator), built a Progressive Web App for its users and noted a 68-percent increase in mobile traffic. It also reported that the data usage for the Progressive Web App is over 300 times lower than for their native application (including the downloading step for the native app). By the way, Uber is also into PWA – you can read about how they approached it in this blog post. Uber has not shared the metrics as of now.

The Take-Home Message

Progressive Web Apps are spreading like wildfire and gaining traction around the world. You’ve seen a few real-world examples of PWAs significantly improving key business metrics and the revenue of various businesses. This is not a fad to scoff at.

I believe PWAs will eventually make the mobile web world fresh. It will feel native and be comparable to native platform experiences.

Don’t waste money on building native apps for small groups of users. Build an exceptional web app that will feel native on mobile and work great on a desktop. It’s much cheaper and will boost your key metrics, just like it did for the early adopters mentioned above.