Headless i PWA

Today’s e-commerce would be nothing without m-commerce.

Today’s e-commerce would be nothing without m-commerce. Online businesses searching for improvements, tools, and sales support, cannot omit this area, all the more reason that it is growing exceptionally fast and dynamically, therefore the mobile-first approach must be employed. The pace of trends in m-commerce is unprecedented, social shopping, shopping in virtual reality, voice shopping, mobile payments’ development, or the option “click and collect” are discussed more often than not every day. To have all of the above operating in an online shop, however, requires a mobile application, which is often time-consuming and pricey.

Headless & PWA

There is an alternative - new modern technologies of Headless type.

PWA Studio from Adobe provides everything e-commerce need to have an online shop in the Headless model, enhanced with usage of progressive web applications (PWA) based on Adobe Commerce or Magento Open Source.Fast White Cat is in the top of companies in Poland which develop Magento on the Headless model.

The Headless concept consists in separation of the presentation layout of a web application (front-end) generated in a user’s internet browser from the layer responsible for collection, processing, and providing data (back-end).

In this case, the back-end layer is Magento 2 platform, and the front-end layer is build based on the above-mentioned PWA Studio solution created by Adobe as a dedicated technological stack of the front-end layer for Magento 2. Communication between these layers happens by means of a modern GraphQL API. The result is faster and more efficient operation of the whole system thanks to separated backend and frontend, possible defects in one layer don’t influence the other.

Building a platform based on the Headless concept perfectly implements challenges set by the mobile first approach. Development with the technological stack with PWA Studio tools allows for building the e-commerce platform in the form of the so-called Single Page Application (SPA). SPA is a type of e-commerce platform in the form of a website which doesn’t reload during its use, which in turn jest convenient, user-friendly, and works similarly to native mobile applications. Additionally, an appropriate system configuration and usage of Trusted Web Activities (TWA) technology, allow food publishing such a website in the form of a mobile application in Google Play (Android) and App Store (iOS).

This technology advantages have convinced more than e-commerce manager. PWA has a possibility to gain the look and feel of a mobile application, which is fully coherent with the e-shop layout, without developing a mobile application in the traditional sense of this term. PWA allows for much cheaper and efficient mobile application development. What is more, this technology, even today, can boast about a strong community all over the world, which cares for its continued growth – comments Elżbieta Pawełek-Lubera, Head of PM w Fast White Cat.

Elżbieta Pawełek-Lubera
Head of PM w Fast White Cat

USER EXPERIENCE

Headless and PWA implementations have been successfully completed

PWA is a web application, which uses modern technologies and design patterns, while it is fast, secure, responsive, and complaint with all browsers. The platform built in PWA provides a better user experience, i.e. the website works faster, offline mode can be switched on, or PUSH notifications can be sent, and automatic upgrades without the necessity to publish the application new versions in App Store or Google Play. What is more, PWA application is subject to indexing by various search engines as a standard website, but its usage consumes far less mobile device resources.

Conclusion?

The conclusion is that, when interest in shopping significantly decreases, customers should be even more appreciated and strengthen their loyalty, modern e-commerce tools such as AI or Headless, shall aid businesses not only to stay afloat but also allow customers to make reasonable purchasing decisions..

The pace which the market development puts on our business, led to the decision to move forward the new application implementation. The business goal was to increase the conversion rate by facilitating shopping for our Customers and increasing their loyalty. PWA solution was selected because we can see an incredible potential for sales growth and communication with Customers in this technology, while taking into account the project timeline, features, and cost optimization of the development and further maintenance. I think PWA is a perfect solution for businesses, which are not giants in the market, but they aim high.

Patrycja Jaworska, Menadżer ds. eCommerce, Kontigo