The upcoming trend in eCommerce is the PWAs (Progressive Web Applications). “Conversations around Magento 2 frontend” and “Creation of the Baseless Idea” are the two things that have grabbed everyone’s attention.

Studying this latest frontend concept as a merchant, you might be asking why there is hype about the same thing? Does it makes sense to invest in PWAs, and how large do you expect to invest?

Here is a short summary of the essential questions and answers for those still on the edge concerning PWAs in Magento from a merchant’s point of view.

1. What is PWAs ‘key benefit over native apps, or a responsive website?

PWAs are native-like applications. They can’t imitate all the functionality of native apps. Still, they’re easier to launch. They don’t have to go through endless approval procedures, and you can make changes as per the situation.

Therefore, you don’t need to upgrade/repair an Android app, followed by the iOS app, and instead stress individually about the website itself. So, you can do everything in one place.

Still, the essential advantage from the perspective of your customer-there is no need to go to the App Store or Google Play to download the app. It can be relocated from the browser directly to the Home screen. And for a fraction of that cost of what it would take to develop stand-alone native apps, you get them all.

PWAs also function while the users/customers are offline, which is something websites that can not provide adaptive solutions.

2. Can PWAs offer value only for smartphone users? What’s the benefit of having desktop customers?

Currently, critical use cases are emerging around mobile PWA solutions, with a focus on the benefits to smartphone users. But, the mobile interfaces will benefit similarly from the improved performance that PWAs deliver, so your website visitors can see quality improvements irrespective of which device they access your website.

Also, desktop PWAs have become a thing, and a majority of browsers are now providing support for desktop PWAs, so this will be the next step in building complete PWA websites.

And if you implement PWA as a concept on time, as time passes by, you will have less trouble going full-PWA.

3. But the native apps, I don’t need them. I haven’t had all this before. Why get started now?

If you do not believe you want the apps, visitors to your website will access your website via their smartphones. And in general, such activities transform at a much-reduced rate than desktop activities; in other terms, users prefer a more enjoyable experience to purchase.

With PWAs, the mobile experience for smartphone devices can be much more tailored, and better conversion rates can be assured. And that’s something that can and should occur even though the customers rarely make use of the app’s native-like functionality.

The significant benefit for them is the loading times and the capability to access and operate the website even while offline or in low connectivity locations.

4. How are PWAs created? Are developers starting from using the theme of a current Magento site and then make some customizations to it?

You can utilize the core, backend functions of Magento 2 with PWA. You can’t alter them, so you will need to add some logic to apps that use APIs. As for those on the front end, PWAs don’t use the Magento theme style and structure.

You can achieve this by utilizing the Magento (PWA Studio) toolbox, or an established framework such as Deity or Vue Storefront. Whatever means, JavaScript uses extensively.

Basically, with PWAs, it is possible to fix the whole process on the front end.

5. Why Studio with Magento PWA? Why not Deity, ScandiPWA, or Vue Storefront?

ScandiPWA is already in existence, and PWA Studio is a series of tools that allow merchants and developers to create their custom interfaces. The current state of the solution, including the Venia showcase theme, is made to the point where companies can work on live merchant projects. However, you need to have additional customizations for each client.

You can get a quicker head start with Deity and Vue, but you do need support from developers who know their stuff around PWAs and Magento. Besides, you can’t say how these external strategies can grow or change.

6. What will be the cost to develop the whole PWA eCommerce website?

The overall cost relies on the needs and specifications of the project, also how much PWA-ready components you will be able to reuse, and how much of the new advanced processes and features will have to be added, similar to the “regular” eCommerce projects.

For this purpose, you need to contact the solution partners to analyze the project and prepare predictions of time and costs. Within the initial cost of the latest, PWA-driven eCommerce solution, however, you’ll also get native-like apps for Android and iOS users across all devices with no extra costs to build standalone apps.

The aim is to reduce the costs significantly, even in the context of possible updates, as the codebase would need to be changed in one place, rather than individually for each operating system.

7. I run a Magento 1 website, and I’m already on the Magento 2 fence. Can I use the PWA concept, or do I need to update it to Magento 2?

Magento 2 is designed architecturally for PWA, and it is more indigenous to how you utilize the platform. With the APIs enabled in M2 as compared to M1, the PWA solution can be produced much quicker with far fewer core modifications.

Although developing a PWA solution for a Magento 1 website is feasible, that is why it is not advisable. You will need more planning for this to work, or some additional 3rd party extension that requires PWA concepts in M1. In this situation, the M1 installation is probably less upgradable because it will be more costly for you to maintain over time.

8. Who should I contact to initiate a discussion?

You can contact us  or shoot a mail at “contact@magemonkeys.com“