Magento Progressive Web Applications (PWA) Studio marches in

Magento Commerce has announced Magento Progressive Web Applications (PWA) Studio, a suite of tools for building online stores with app-like experiences. PWA Studio will allow Magento Commerce solution partners and UX developers to deliver fast and simple front-end experiences on mobile devices.

Mobile commerce continues to grow and will contribute to half of overall retail sales growth by 2022 according to Forrester. However, merchants struggle with low conversion rates and the complexity of building and managing multiple disconnected experiences. Studies also show that consumers only download and use mobile apps for their most frequent brand and social interactions, and most US smartphone owners download zero apps in a typical month. PWAs bring together the best of website and mobile app functionality to provide a reliable, fast and engaging experience that can increase conversion rates by upwards of 50 percent and drive strong revenue growth for brands.

“Our merchants want to deliver experiences on mobile that drive loyalty, and make it easy to move from search to purchase,” said Jason Woosley, SVP product and technology at Magento Commerce. “PWA Studio will provide developers and merchants with the tools they need to compete and deliver the convenience and utility of a mobile app combined with the searchability and buying experiences they get from their desktop experiences.”

Core features of Magento’s PWA Studio include:

• Tools to personalize content and add local preferences;
  
  
• Build and manage all channels and experiences via one code base, one deployment and app;
  
  
• Intuitive user experience with innovative commerce and CMS theming;
  
  
• Modularized component architecture to help drive opportunities for extension resellers;
  
  
• Purpose-built developer tools for fast prototyping, helpful debugging, rich feedback, and increased productivity

“Our business is focused on selling custom, hand-made smartphone accessories, so mobile is an extremely important channel accounting for over 70% of our overall traffic and 40%+ of our sales. It is essential that we provide our customers with a fast, seamless experience to reduce frustration at the point of sale,” said John Webber, Founder of Carved. “Our investment in PWAs has not only transformed the buying experience for our customers, but it’s made a tremendous impact on our bottom line allowing for a 33 percent reduction in bounce rates and 75 percent increase in our mobile conversions.”