India’s competitive IT landscape is welcoming new technologies at a rapid pace. Progressive web apps are one of these fastest-growing new technologies. This blog throws light on the triggers causing the rise of PWAs in the market.
India is expected to cross a network of over one billion smartphone users by the end of 2023. The population and the strength of smartphone consumers in the country have made it one of the most competitive markets for any developer. So, new technologies are coming into existence to help developers to stay afloat while tackling the competition.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) stand tall among such technologies. These apps are trying to infiltrate and dominate the Indian market and have already demonstrated a rise in their popularity. Several leading brands including Pinterest, Starbucks, Twitter, and Flipkart use PWAs to upscale their conversion strategies.
The popularity of PWAs has also triggered a rise in the number of service providers in the country. More and more app development companies in India are adopting the technology to expand their service catalogs and target a larger customer base.
What are Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)?
PWAs can perfectly blend the characteristics of mobile apps and web apps. A progressive web app is built using popular technologies like HTML, CSS, Web Assembly, and JavaScript. Building these apps aims to run them on any smart device that can run a web browser. PWAs can run on Chromium-based web browsers, Firefox, and even Safari.
Some critical benefits of progressive web apps are:
- Opening the associated file type can automatically launch PWAs
- PWAs also come with their icons to add to home screens
- App stores like Google Play Store, Apple App Store, Meta Quest Store, and Microsoft Store support publishing PWAs
- PWAs can run even when there is no internet connection
- For performance and visuals, PWAs can support hardware features
- PWAs offer the best quality of cross-device compatibility and data synchronization
- Techniques, like data preloading help progressive web apps, maintain their loading speed
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) vs Native Mobile Apps: Why PWAs are Better?
The progressive web app development process has several benefits over its traditional counterparts. PWAs are existing to make apps more comfortable and accessible to use irrespective of the internet speed, device configuration, and other such limitations. Let’s dive deeper into factors that make PWAs better than native apps!
Reduced costs- Reduced costs to develop and maintain PWAs are some of the progressive web app benefits over native apps. Developers can build these apps and deploy them on multiple devices. This benefit helps even tiny businesses planning to target larger markets.
Faster development and deployment- Using a single codebase, PWAs can be built and deployed across multiple devices. This helps developers speed up the app development and deployment process.
Uninterrupted updates- Post the progressive web app development process, once the app is launched in the real market, and it is easy to deploy updates without having to interrupt the user session. Even users do not have to update the app manually. Instead, it can be updated when the app is not in use, and when the user restarts the session, the new experience is deployed.
SEO support- Search engines like Google are crucial for the digital growth of any brand. PWAs, using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies can be made visible on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. For Native apps, however, the App Store Optimization (ASO) technique has to be used individually for each operating system.
Impact of PWAs on the Indian Market
India has several progressive web app examples that tell the tale of growth driven by PWAs to popular brands in the country. Some case studies can help us understand the impact of PWAs on the market better!
- Flipkart
One of the significant e-commerce brands in the Indian market, Flipkart displayed impressive growth after adopting the PWA development strategy. The brand used progressive web apps’ benefits to increase the average user time spent on the site.
“Flipkart Lite” helped the app touch 3.5 minutes as the average user session time compared to the previous one which was 70 seconds. The e-commerce platform witnessed a 40% increase in the re-engagement rate, a 70% increase in the conversion rate, and 3x lower data usage for the app.
2. Twitter
The social media giant, Twitter picked the idea of leveraging the benefits of progressive web apps. Twitter launched its PWA in 2017 and called it Twitter Lite. The app resulted in reduced data consumption. Additionally, using Twitter Lite, the brand reported a 65% increase in pages per session, 75% in sent tweets, and a 20% decrease in the bounce rate.
3. Starbucks
The coffee giant launched a PWA to make it convenient for customers to place orders. The app was 99.84% smaller compared to the already existing Starbucks iOS app. This new app even worked without the internet.
Users could customize orders, browse the menu, and add items to the cart. The best thing is that the orders can be customized and added to the cart even if the internet is unstable. Once online, users get access to location-specific prices and the ability to process transactions.
4. MakeMyTrip
The leading travel company based in India picked the PWA marketing strategy to improve its conversion rates. After adopting PWA for its app, MakeMyTrip (MMT) witnessed a 3x improvement in conversion rate, a 38% decrease in page loading time, a 20% decrease in the bounce rate, and a 160% increase in shopper sessions among other benefits.
5. Uber Lite
Uber’s PWA app, Uber Lite was released to make it usable even on slow networks like 2G. The ability of PWAs to load even on slower networks was one of the many advantages of progressive web apps that grabbed Uber’s attention. Uber’s PWA app offered all critical features starting from registration to ride booking.
Wrapping up
The Indian market is one of the fastest-growing tech markets in the world with over a billion consumers using the internet every day. For any business, to scale through this competition, it becomes a necessity to be creative while planning business operations. Thus, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are one of these creative ways.
To summarize its benefits for smaller businesses before we wind up the blog, the apps’ ability to reduce the development cost, deploy updates without interruptions, and support SEO for increased visibility should be prioritized.
In the Indian market, there are plenty of top web development companies that can deliver high-quality PWAs. Additionally, the competitive landscape between organizations also makes it easier to find options at competitive prices as well.
