Published on January 6th, 2016 | by Guest

Mobile Sites and the Future of E-Commerce

Mobile sites that create an effortless user experiences offer substantial reward for any companies looking to boost their e-commerce. Ecommerce is growing at a rate of almost 20% each year, and mobile e-commerce is especially important to focus on as, not only for direct sales, but as a marketing tool. While the PC is still the king of online sales, mobile devices give people a platform to shop for what they want, and offer backup for in-store shoppers (even if not in your store).

Boosting e-commerce is vital in this holiday season, not only can it give you accurate marketing metrics that will assist future sales (zip-codes, email lists, or time spent on page). But these metrics can help you determine who your clients are, and when do things like pop up coupon codes. Cyber Monday ,and the holidays that lay ahead of it, offer an overabundance of opportunities and leaving your site as a mangled mess of clickable links, is like buying a new car and setting it on fire! Don’t set fire to your brand new car (or your site), here are a few easy tips and tricks to why mobile sites are so important, and how to “pimp” your mobile site for a much deserved holiday sales boost.

Why Are Mobile Sites Important

Literally everyone uses their phone all the time. We sleep with our phones, take them to work, and work out with them. If spend more time with our phones than our children (I don’t take mine to work). 4 out of 5 teens and adults studied even sleep with their phone! And with the myth that charging your phone overnight might cause a fire dispatched, increasing numbers of people are willing to jump into bed with their phone! This means that increasing numbers of people are carrying a platform to view your product with them and that number is only going up. Your store is in their pocket, they just have to reach out and pluck it.

Not only is everyone always with their phones, but even sites originally intended for desktop use are taking advantage of the mobile market. Even when shopping for financial services, which are considered one of the least mobile-friendly markets because of the potential tedium filling out forms, 29% of men and 42% of women use their mobile devices to shop! This means that even if your product or service is not traditionally bought online, there is still a growing market demanding to use mobile platforms.

Mobile sites are important, because they represent an ever growing platform for ecommerce, and an ample market that needs to be conformed to quickly and efficiently, not only in an effort to grow profits, but to maintain commercial business on the internet. Even if a majority of your sales do not come from ecommerce, maintaining a visually pleasing smartphone site will supplement your other platforms. Mobile shopping clicks exceeded those made on the desktop AND 71% of shoppers who utilize their smartphones for in-store research say it’s become an important part of the experience. This means that a poorly performing site can both turn-off an in store shopper, and turn them on to a store with a user-friendly format.

Ways to Resurrect Your Mobile Site Today

A prime mobile site offers functional, easy to click through links, and methods of cutting down the need for typing. There are a ton of ways you can make an awesome mobile site, but the most important way to succeed it is to not suck and deliver information in a timely manner. This means making sure your site is compatible with all platforms, double checking that links work, and keeping the speed of your site up.

Functionality

The bare necessity for revamping your mobile sites is to make sure your site is fully functional. There is nothing more frustrating to a user than trying to use a search bar that doesn’t initiate the keyboard or trying to get to a category that requires both hovering and scrolling down on a mobile device. You worked really hard on making your site, making sure everyone can use it is vital. If you are working at a larger company, writing a sparknotes version of your site that cuts down some of the features and content while enlarging the interface buttons (for the full fingered user) are traits you need to hit. For smaller firms, using a ready made tool that offers a quick transition between mobile and desktop sites will give you an immediate fix while your company grows.

Reduce User Typing

Reducing the amount of typing any browser has to do will keep the user clicking away in-site. This could mean a heavier focus on categories, or suggested options at the bottom of the page to entice your audience to look at the other on site options. This also could mean pop up options for multiple choice fields (like country selection at check-out). This is important to do because a majority of people who go to check-out will leave at the first step. One of the reason financial services are one of the markets that aren’t heavily utilized, is because of the heavy typing required for long forms. Taking a note from them, you see companies that use camera phones to capture data, or pre filled out forms to reduce the amount of typing a customer has to do. This means that customers will be more likely to make it past the first part of checking out, and will stay on site.

Be Fast

Speed is a vital component for a mobile site. Slow loading means people will bounce off and find what they are looking for elsewhere. 46% of shopper say that check-out speed determines if they will return to a site, and the #1 reason people will abandon a purchase is site slowness. Stepping up the speed of your site will lead to more onsite perusing by your users, and people who spend more time on your site are more likely to make a purchase. It also means that there will be less abandoned carts, and give a much needed sales boost anytime of the year.

Returns

There are a few things you can expect from giving your 4G facelift: an increase in onsite time, an increase in conversions, and an upswing in off-hour traffic.

Increase in Onsite Time

Increasing the amount of time your visitors spend on-site means you are actively engaging your audience. This is shown to increase both onsite and offsite revenue and is why most online retailers look to onsite traffic as a vital metric for determining the success of their website. Many of the methods that improve a desktop site, and increase onsite time, are things vital to creating a mobile site. From keeping clear and focused headlines, to insuring that videos can play, updating your site to be visible on both platforms, updating your mobile site will help you clear some of your cyberspace slip-ups for several platforms.

Increase Conversions

Of course, if you’re not making money, you’re probably not running a very successful campaign. Money matters. And not taking advantage of 60 percent of online traffic that comes from mobile devices would be ridiculous. Mobile sites that are easy to traverse are an integral part of increased conversions for companies that focus on either e-commerce or/and in-store revenue. Putting up an effective mobile site is vital for continued increases in revenue, the ever increasing platform dominance by mobile devices make mismatched desk-top mash-ups an unreasonable tactic to continue.

Up-Swing in Off-Hour Traffic

Everyone has their phones on all the time, some even fall asleep with it on their nightstand. The first thing you see in the morning, and the last thing at night is probably your phone (or your loving life partner I hope). Mobile sites see more traffic during these leisure hours, probably because of their ease of use. This translates to picking up lost consumers who might not use your site during work hours, or focusing your mobile site towards leisure shoppers.

Mobile sites are a rapidly growing medium that affects not only your e-commerce, but also your brick-and-mortar store locations. By offering an adequate platform for your clients to browse your information, you can boost sales for this holiday season (besides e-commerce can help carry you through the year better than brick-and-mortar sites).

About the author:

Renn Bain lives in the majestic Treasure Valley. He likes studying human interactions, cosplay, and everything new, shiny, and tech. If you have any questions or comments, you can always email him directly at rennbain @ gmail.com.

Tags: business, ecommerce, future, mobile, sites