Things come along in life, it takes a while sometimes for it to be obvious.
The move from vinyl to tape then CD to streaming is a good example.
Who would have thought that the most used word in the world in 2022 would be Alexa!
But here we are at a crossroads, one that’s mis understood but happens to be a very safe bridge to cross.
This statement is an obvious thing to say: “Every Smartphone is connected to one human being”
The phone is the number one trusted device, it’s NEVER out of earshot and phone users now expect to conduct their LIFE on that device.
Big business knows that, their colossal budgets have allowed them to leap frog small business with downloadable APP’s.
But along came another one of those changes:
Google invented the Progressive Web APP (PWA)
A PWA is a hosted product, this APP doesn’t have to be built.
It appears as a website on a PC and an APP on a phone, very duplicitous!
As we nudge towards 70% of commerce being conducted on the phone, the statistics should be enough to make any small business jump into an APP and desert their beloved website.
But thats not the case because the APP builders of old used NATIVE APP technology.
Associated with APP creation are sky high production and hosting prices, eye watering in fact.
You are also told that you need APP stores to distribute the APP alongside similarly eye watering “charges”
How can I visualise a PWA?
Think of a PWA as a can of coke, in fact it could be any product, what it looks like, your brand, thats integral to the hosted product, you choose.
Now imagine a ton of ‘throw switches’ on the outside of the coke can, think of a telephone exchange from an old film, all those ladies on a switchboard.
Those PWA switches are governed by your hosting package.
The throw switches enabled on your PWA gives the phone user the opportunity to decide which ‘throw switches’ to allow onto THEIR phone.
You might want to read that again!
Unlike a website that pushes all information and you have to search for it, a PWA volunteers future information that the phone user requests.
That’s revolutionary.
Examples:
A Café owner or a Hairdresser use their PWA to fill quieter times: The APP gives the options of deal times via free notifications and the phone user asks for those notifications because they like coupon deals.
A publican wants to sell beer on offer to get better wholesale rates, the PWA volunteers free notifications for early bird beer deals and the phone user selects and accepts those notifications. They can choose their favourite beer thats on offer using redeemable phone vouchers.
Need I say more?
A line in the sand, all change and perfect for small business.
Some startling facts:
GET your head around this!
The PWA costs as little as £200 to launch:
Depending on the “throw switches” required in your business, hosting can be as little as £40 per month.
No APP store required to distribute.
The PWA distributes on it’s own merits via a short URL directly and on social media.
NO download required. Touch it and you’ve got it technology.
No Webmaster required.
Ongoing hosting and marketing advice built into hosting.
Up and running within 24 hours!
