Lancôme boosts mobile speed, sales with Google's progressive web app

Dive Brief:

Lancôme’s mobile site experienced a significant boost in traffic and conversions following the October 2016 launch of its progressive web app (PWA), according to a case study showcased on Google's developers blog. Traffic rose by over 50% and conversions by 17%. Page load times dropped by 84%, and the redesigned interface simplified mobile purchasing.
The beauty giant began using push notifications to reengage consumers, which has driven an 8% rise in conversion rates on recovered carts. As of last week, more than 18,000 people had signed up for the alerts.
PWA is a fast, app-like platform that works across all devices without needing to download an app, according to Business Insider. Lancôme said its new technology gave users a better mobile experience, which led to a 15% drop in bounce rate.

Dive Insight:

The main driver of Lancôme’s move was data that showed mobile traffic eclipsing that of desktop for the first time in 2016, yet the number of purchases made on smartphones didn’t quite match that surge. While 38% of shopping carts led to orders on desktop, that number was just 15% for mobile, the case study said. This disparity told the company that its customers browsed products just fine on a smartphone, but faced obstacles when they tried to make a purchase.

A natural inclination would be to then develop an app specifically to streamline mobile purchasing and solve this problem. But in Lancôme’s case, ditching the app was a smart move. Because apps require users to download and keep the app on their phone for regular use, it didn’t make sense for a beauty product company whose customers likely won’t visit every day or week.

Lancôme eliminated that barrier of entry and opted for a PWA, a sort of silver bullet solution that uses a single version of a site that works like an app seamlessly across all devices but without the hassle of needing to download via an app store. In the same vein as accelerated mobile pages (AMP), a PWA lets digital marketers rethink the way they can deliver their site in a mobile-first world. Though the adoption of PWA is still in its infancy, companies like Lyft, The Washington Post and several travel sites have already launched beta sites.

In this effort, Lancôme is taking advantage of reengagement technology like opt-in push notifications to promote discounts and product releases and encourage customers to return to the site. Early results suggest the strategy is working. More than 18,000 customers get alerts, which have driven an 8% rise in mobile conversion rates on previously abandoned carts, a higher rate than for the desktop site, the case study said.