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Akashdeep Sharma
Akashdeep Sharma

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PWA or Mobile Apps? Increasing Customer Loyalty for WordPress Site!

Be it WordPress or any other web development platform, building customer loyalty is vital to gain success in your business. Talking about Loyalty Program, it is a kind of marketing strategy designed to engage and encourage customers to continue shopping with you.

With every passing year, customers are expecting a lot from online vendors. A splurge in internet connection, technological advancements, and market competition are forcing them to ask more from you.

In the current digitally-driven world, one of the best ways to reach target audience is to take your business online. Simply, hire WordPress developer and get the job done in no time. Though you can create a WordPress website on your own, if you require it for eCommerce services, you need to give it a custom touch; that only technical expertise can bring.

Well, this writing is about increasing customer loyalty for your WordPress site with different means.

In some cases, you can easily gain customer loyalty by offering discounts or point redemption system for your consistent users. However, providing high-quality service and dedicated customer support is also important.

This article is intended to give you an overview of PWAs and Mobile App development; how can you gain from these two concepts. Let’s start!
PWA or Mobile Apps for Customer Loyalty?

In the present time, we are undergoing the extremum of digitalization where we need to shuffle the traditional approaches to make business. Shifting from physical storefronts to online store; from distributing pamphlets to sending promotional emails, etc. the retail industry is transforming.

Coming to Customer Loyalty concept, offering customers with convenient touch points is also important. Easy and flexible access to your services will help you to engage the customers in a better way.

One of the biggest ways to achieve this is building apps instead of traditional websites. Now this can be achieved in two ways:- Mobile Applications & PWAs

Mobile Apps

With over 2.7 billion smartphone users worldwide, mobile technology has overtaken today’s audience interest to a huge extent. And, easy access to 4G or 5G connections is making this trend even more.

Be it news reading or searching an apparel store nearby or even ordering the products, smartphones are quite useful. This burgeoning impact of mobile usage can be easily seen in different business verticles.

If we explore App Store or Google Play Store, we will find thousands of applications listed; that indicates an increasing trend of mobile apps. Some core advantages that you will get with Mobile app development:

  • Nurture customer loyalty;
  • Fast, constant & easy access to your business;
  • Use device’s in-built technologies like Maps, Camera, etc.;
  • An interactive and personalized UX;
  • and, more.

PWAs

On the other hand, PWA or Progressive Web Application is a form of mobile application delivered via web platforms, instead of smartphones. In the past several years, PWAs have also gained a huge appreciation amongst retailers to provide the consumers with an app like experience via web platforms.

However, users don’t need to download, install, or update a PWA like Mobile Apps for different platforms. A few successful examples of PWAs include Alibaba, Flipkart, Forbes, and AliExpress.

**AliExpress has claimed to improve conversions through PWA for new customers/users across all browsers by 104 percent and on iOS by 82 per cent.

So, what can you expect from PWAs?

  • App-like look and feel;
  • Works offline;
  • A uniform UX on various endpoints;
  • Independent of ADS (App Distribution Services like App Store etc.);
  • Push notifications;
  • and, more.

Though both PWA and Mobile application development holds their own set of benefits it will be unfair to compare them. Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages while working towards custom loyalty.

For instance, PWAs are not available on Google Store or App Store; that means you will lose an opportunity of marketing to a wider audience. Whereas mobile applications gain this edge over PWA.

In my opinion, PWA is an emerging concept that needs considerable time to gain popularity and users’ appreciation. So, if you are looking for increasing customer loyalty for your WordPress site, you need to focus more on mobile app development; instead for PWAs.

However, every business verticle is different so does the need of technology and marketing strategy. You need to analyze your requirements carefully so that you can end up with the best possible solution.

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