Why is PWA Venia the next big thing in eCommerce?

For almost a decade now, a major portion of users have been accessing the web using their smartphones or other types of mobile devices. Therefore, ensuring that users have an excellent mobile experience is a must today. While native apps have continued to be developed for many seasons, enabling users to have a positive experience when interacting with a brand, there is another solution that has been overshadowed by these apps for a long time. And we are talking about PWA (Progressive App Web), which guarantees a higher level of usability, combining the best of the web experience through the browser as well as the app. And taking Magento under the magnifying glass, it is its team that has created a unique PWA technology Venia Storefront, which clearly simplifies application development, reduces additional costs of both maintenance and development.

Not such a short history of the PWA

It would seem that PWA is a relatively new thing whose potential is only now being put to the test. While we can still agree with the latter statement, the topic of PWA is certainly not something entirely new. Already in 2007, Steve Jobs mentioned it when he presented the first model of iPhone. He noted that ideally, applications built by developers should be based on available and standard web technologies that would be used through the Safari browser. On such an observation by Jobs, the whole thing basically stopped for years, and developers devoted themselves to developing native applications altogether. Jobs did not introduce the term PWA, instead we can say that he described in a few words its essence, presented the idea. It was only in 2015 that the term Progressive App Web was introduced by Frances Berriman and Alex Russell. They used this term to describe web applications based on new features that are supported by browsers.

What is the meaning of PWA abbreviation?

The first word of the acronym means that PWA technology works independently of the browser used, it is available to any user. Web is to indicate that pages based on PWA technology are written in typical web languages, such as JavaScript, CSS, HTML. App, on the other hand, means that a PWA website functions as a mobile (but also desktop) native application, presents a consistent interface, UX and functionality.

PWA and Magento – Venia storefront in the service of e-commerce

Magento, as one of the most popular open source e-commerce platforms, has been very quick to adapt its tools to the mobile era. Magento PWA Studio has clearly translated into more efficient and faster development of PWA applications. The toolkit provided by Magento works well for building and maintaining the PWA front-end for e-shops that run on the platform. The tool additionally comes with its own progressive storefront, which has been named Venia. This is a significant improvement that makes it possible to avoid additional maintenance and development costs. What is more, the PWA is 100% supported by Adobe, which means that we have access to technical support provided by experts in their field.

What else is worth noting about the advantages the Venia storefront presents. It is equipped with such PWA amenities and enhancements as:

• Optimizing performance for mobile devices,
• mobile-first design – that is creating websites for mobile devices, this way the UX of the website will be the same as the mobile application,
• tools to make personalizing content and adding local preferences simpler, more intuitive,
• The ability to add an icon to the desktop screen or on a mobile device. The customizable icon, splash screen and service name thus allow you to run the site just like a native application,
• compatibility with different browsers and operating systems.

It is still worth noting the benefits of using PWA Studio. Betting on this set of tools provided by Magento eliminates the costs of producing and maintaining separate native applications. This will also be reflected in more favorable, optimized website administration. As an official solution, Adobe is built for the Magento platform. What does this mean? Nothing other than the fact that PWA Studio will certainly be consistently developed, supported and improved. You can also assume that using PWA Studio with its own progressive storefront Venia will not generate additional licensing costs.

It’s also worth noting that the open source solution PWA Studio consists of an extremely large community that supports and develops this technology. Magento can more easily adapt the platform to the specific needs of its users.