Top 10 engaging eCommerce PWA websites
and why they work.
As customers expect highly engaging, personalized, and fast customer experiences, eCommerce companies are feeling the pressure to do better.
With current eCommerce out-of-the-box solutions, there are simply too many limitations on customization and performance to keep up.
So what is the next move for top eCommerce companies?
Headless architecture + PWAs, Progressive Web Applications, or SPAs, Single Page Applications.
Not sure what these are beyond buzz words? We’ve got it handled:
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The purpose here is to show you a few examples of eCommerce companies who have adopted PWAs and are soaring above competition in terms of customer experience as a result.
1. Restoration Hardware:
The furniture industry in general struggles to keep up with eCommerce as the longer buying customer experience and process is hard to supplement online and technical elements needed to support large shipping and fulfillment is a tall dev order. BUT those that focus on providing the most complete product exploration process are ahead of the game. Restoration Hardware has been able to do so by switching to a PWA.
2. George:
George is a massive online retailer from the UK with a vast catalogue of products. They needed a PWA to do the job of categorizing and simplifying to filtering and search process for online shoppers. The experience is completely app like with full filter and categorization screens that look like a native app interface users would be comfortable using. They nail the PWA design concept perfectly for eCommerce.
3. West Elm:
Another furniture retailer facing the eCommerce wave is West Elm who also turned to a PWA to bring their in-store experience online. West Elm’s online shopping experience is app-like with intuitive filtering screens and social-media like product displays with videos included — all delivered much faster via PWA.
4. Tommy Bahama:
Sometimes the oldest players in the game see change coming the quickest! Tommy Bahama has built an exceptional mobile experience via PWA for their online shoppers that even covers their other ventures including restaurants. Their filtering and categorization is styled well for a branded experience throughout.
5. Starbucks:
Even brick and mortar stores are seeing the value in having a PWA. If you have any sort of rewards program or customer system, a PWA is ideal. Most companies like Starbucks ask users to download an app but we know apps go unused and deleted later on. Starbucks has skipped the app abandonment with a PWA focused on delivering stores, their menu, and their rewards program from a URL. It’s easy to navigate and looks/functions just like their app would.
6. Trivago:
More than 60% of travel searches happen on mobile devices. Trivago caters better than other sites to that 60% with a PWA search and filter experience for their aggregate marketplace. Their filtration and curation screen is intuitive and simple. PWAs are ideal for marketplace mobile experiences because they are able to provide the same functionality as an app but can be accessed via URL so users can be retargeted and can re-access the “platform” without a heavy native app.
7. AliExpress:
Another super-marketplace on the web, AliExpress supports their license program as well as an eCommerce-style shopping experience. With hundreds of thousands of items spanning hundreds of categories, AliExpress needed to provide a search and filter system comparable to Amazon’s and does so with a PWA. The search and filter is complimented with photos and full screens for filtering down like an app. Custom features like this make a huge difference in customer experience.
8. Forbes:
Staying relevant as a business publication in the age of social is difficult at best. Forbes delivers a flawless experience that looks and acts like a social app on both mobile and desktop. Their topics filtering screen is super intuitive and tailored to their brand and audience with a very fitting “Billionaires” tab at the top. Their articles are presented in a way that look like social posts but can be read clearly and completely with curated suggestions. It doesn’t come off as ‘clunky’ or awkward like a website shrunk down to mobile size.
9. Pinterest:
It’s interesting when an app essentially jumps to creating a PWA to compete with its own app. Pinterest has long had a highly used app but still chose to create a PWA for users who want to simply access through the web. It also plays to the connection between social platforms, other websites, and Pinterest. Instead of asking to “open the app”, whether they have it downloaded or not, users can simply continue the experience from another source to Pinterest.
10. Lancome:
Lancome is another age-old retailer staying ahead and capitalizing on the “social” wave of makeup. YouTube and Instagram have drastically changed the beauty industry and companies must act accordingly. Lancome provides a really flawless and intuitive shopping experience from homepage to product pages. If entered from a social video or story, shoppers would have no problem exploring products quickly and intuitively.
These are just handful of companies that have successfully made the switch to high-performing PWAs for their mobile experience. There are plenty more who have done so and are seeing greater results in terms of conversions, engagement, and SEO.
Or see it in action:
