Mobile Web Or Mobile App For Magento. Which One Should We Invest In?

web app vs mobile app for magento

If you are concerned about this topic, I guess that you are considering developing a Mobile Web and Mobile App for Magento to satisfy a great number of your mobile users.

On the one hand, the Mobile Web is designed specifically for the smaller screens and touch-screen capabilities of smartphones and tablets and can be accessed using any mobile device’s web browser such as Chrome (on Android) and Safari (on iOS).

On the other hand, although the Mobile App also is designed to run on mobile devices, such as a smartphone or tablets, it is a type of application software that can be downloaded only from central download stores such as Google Store and App Store.

Well, I understand why making the decision is hard since both the Mobile Web and Mobile App for Magento have pros and cons.

And in today’s post, I’m going to analyze these options and finally help you to choose one to invest in.

But first, let’s see some facts.

1. The number of Mobile Web users outweigh the number of Mobile App for Magento users from 2014 to 2016

To begin with, it is true that the number of mobile users has seen a sharp rise in recent years, followed by a significant increase in the number of downloaded mobile apps.

In general, a smartphone (16GB) will contain 6GB of the system and ready-installed apps, 6GB for media.

Therefore, the users will have empty 4GB, which is enough to add more 10-20 apps.

mobile web vs mobile app for magento

From the bar graph, we can see that the number of app visitors grew by 45% from 2014 to 2016. It’s a good sign for mobile app developers.

Nevertheless, app growth was just trivial when being compared with the drastic growth of mobile webs (increased by 82% in the same period).

Moreover, the number of mobile web users even doubled that of app users.

compare mobile web and mobile app for magento

It eventually turns out to be the fact that regardless of shopping on mobile devices or desktops, most of the customers prefer using Mobile Web to using Mobile App for Magento.

What is the reason for that?

From my perspective, I guess that there are 3 major reasons:

The first one is that almost all buyers are “lazy”. They don’t want to spend time going to the app store, downloading, and installing an app. Instead, opening the browsers and accessing the web instantly is definitely faster.

The second reason is that they might think using the mobile app is unnecessary, especially when they just want to buy a few items and don’t buy stuff regularly at a certain shop.

The final reason is that the buyers might not know… the existence of the app. Since the app can be found only in app stores, it’s quite difficult for the store owners to promote it.

2. In terms of Customer Engagement, Mobile App for Magento wins the competition

It is obvious that the Mobile App for Magento beats the Mobile Web when it comes to the customer experience.

Compared to the Mobile Web, the Mobile App has an extremely faster page load, full-screen mode, and icon on the home screen to encourage revisits. Especially, it allows the admin to send push notifications that might be news or promotions to the users. In this way, it would be much easier to approach the customers than traditional email marketing.

On the contrary, though the developers try to create a responsive website to nicely present on mobile, the mobile web’s functions are still very limited.

develop mobile web or mobile app for magento


So, what is the solution when both mobile webs and mobile apps for Magento cannot fulfill our expectations?

One ideal solution is that we should apply modern web technologies to enhance the experience on mobile webs so that it can create the same engagement with the mobile apps.

But is it possible?

Fortunately, YES.

web and app for magento


If you have heard something called Progressive Web Application developed by Google, you might understand what I’m saying.

According to Google, the Progressive Web App is “a new way to deliver amazing user experiences on the web”.

More specifically, the Progressive Web Apps are regular websites or web pages but apply some modern web capabilities to deliver an app-like experience to users.

For example, by using the PWA technology, your customers can download can create a shortcut on their home screen, not from any app store but from the browsers. As soon as they access your store via the browsers, they will be invited to get push notifications and to install the PWA. Since then, they will enjoy great app-like experiences such as fast page load, full-screen mode, push notifications, and offline functionality – visiting the store even when the network is absent.

pwa google

Moreover, as each PWA will have a URL, we can easily share it everywhere to promote it, which we can do with mobile apps.

But here is the thing…

The PWA developed by Google is just a foundation. If you want to apply this technology to your Magento store, you have to develop it by yourself based on available materials.

Or:

You can choose a better way – applying a ready-made Magento PWA theme or using the custom Magento Progressive Web App development service, provided by Tigren.

magento progressive web app
Conclusion

While the Mobile Web overwhelms the Mobile App for Magento in terms of the number of users, it is not able to give the customers a great experience and engagement like the mobile app.

Therefore, we will need Magento Progressive Web App – a modern technology combining the best of mobile webs and mobile apps and covering the gap between them. It still approaches the buyers via browsers but delivers an interesting app-like experience.

Anyway, it’s up to you to go with Mobile Web, Mobile App, or Magento Progressive Web App. Have a wise choice!

Read More:

How To Build Magento 2 App When Having No Money?

How Much Does It Cost To Build Magento App?