Recent studies indicate that in the near future, websites will experience a nearly equal distribution of mobile and PC users, marking a significant shift in the online market. For many years, PC users have dominated the market, but the growing number of mobile users is leveling the playing field.
Currently, nearly half of all internet users do their online shopping using their smartphones. Therefore, if you are planning to create a website, it is essential to cater to this group of users. Developing a mobile-friendly e-commerce website should be a top priority when designing your website or online store.
To increase revenue multi-fold, your digital marketing team must prioritize engaging mobile customers. The need for this is evident in the following statistics:
- 77% of the American population owns a smartphone.
- Over 100 million American consumers use tablets.
- About 230 million U.S. consumers carry a smartphone.
- During the 2022 holiday season, over 50% of online purchases are expected to be made on smartphones.
- In the last six months, 79% of smartphone owners made online purchases on their mobile devices.
- 80% of shoppers use their mobile devices inside physical stores to look up product reviews, compare prices, or find alternative store locations.
- E-commerce sales now represent 10% of all retail revenue.
- Over 10 billion smartphones are currently in use, according to a survey.
- Retail m-commerce sales are expected to increase from 41.8% in 2022 to 43.4% of all retail e-commerce sales in 2023.
- In March 2023, adults aged 18-24 comprised the largest percentage of e-commerce buyers in the U.S., while adults aged 25-34 accounted for nearly 32% of the country’s mobile audience for e-commerce shoppers.
Other statistics further emphasize the growing influence of mobile users. For example, during the 2019 holiday shopping season, one-third of online purchases were made on smartphones. On Black Friday that year, a record $6.2 billion in online revenue was generated.
The most striking fact is that 40% of all business transactions were conducted through mobile phones. On Cyber Monday, online revenue reached $9.2 billion, with a surprising 54% of the total trading being done by mobile users.
Top 8 Ideas to Design a Mobile-Friendly Ecommerce Website
Tip #1: Use a Responsive Design
A responsive design is essential to the success of your ecommerce website. It means that your content will appear the same regardless of the device, operating system, or browser used to view it. This is achieved by detecting the visitor’s screen size and orientation and adjusting the layout accordingly.
Responsive design eliminates the need to create a separate mobile-friendly website, reducing the workload for developers. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about being penalized by search engines like Google for having duplicate content on two different websites.
Tip #2: Provide an Omnichannel Shopping Experience
Omnichannel refers to a unified shopping experience, where customers can seamlessly transition from one device to another. For example, if a customer receives a promotional discount code on their work computer but cannot complete the checkout process due to time constraints, they should be able to complete the purchase on their mobile device at home.
Although many retailers have implemented omnichannel strategies, there is still a long way to go to provide a truly seamless experience for customers. However, it is a worthwhile goal to pursue, so make sure to gather all necessary information and work towards making it a reality for your ecommerce website.
Tip #3: Follow Latest UX/UI Standards for Your Mobile Ecommerce Website
In modern times, UX/UI standards have become crucial for the success of an ecommerce website. In fact, UX/UI is even more important than logo and banner design. If you can provide an attractive and user-friendly interface for your customers, you will attract even more visitors to your site.
To create a great UX/UI, it’s important to consider human factors such as palm size, color blindness, readability, fat fingers, background, friendliness, haptic feedback, and cross-cultural aspects. By taking all these factors into account, you can design an interface that provides a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience for your mobile users.
Tip #4: Prominent Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons
CTA buttons play a crucial role in driving user engagement and boosting revenue. The “Add-to-Cart” button should be prominently placed to capture users’ attention. Traditionally, CTAs are positioned above the fold, which is visible on the screen without scrolling. However, some studies have shown that placing CTAs below the right amount can lead to higher conversion rates. Therefore, it’s essential to experiment and find the optimal position for your CTAs.
Tip #5: Incorporate Audio Search for Custom Search on Smartphones
Users want the easiest way to search for what they’re looking for on your website. Websites that make the task effortless for visitors gain their trust and preference. To enhance the user experience, consider adding the option of an audio search to make navigating your content easier. While audio search is a rare feature among competitors, incorporating it can give you a competitive edge and improve your chances of success.
Tip #6: Thumb-friendly Navigation
In today’s world, customers want a hassle-free browsing experience, and they prefer using their thumbs to navigate through websites. To make it to the top of your customers’ list, it is essential to create content that is easily navigable using only the thumb or index finger. If your content is too small or not mobile-friendly, it can make navigation difficult, and customers may end up leaving your website.
Tip #7: Optimized Images
To enhance the performance of your mobile-friendly ecommerce website, optimizing your images is crucial. Older image formats such as JPEG and PNG can be quite heavy and slow to load. Instead, consider using newer formats such as JPEG XR, JPEG 2000, and WebP which offer high-quality compression and better characteristics. By encoding your images in these formats, you can ensure faster loading times and consume less of the user’s cellular data. Thus, optimizing images can have a significant impact on the overall performance of your website.
Tip #8: Implementing Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)
Progressive Web Applications are highly responsive web applications designed for mobile platforms, and they have the potential to be a great alternative to a large number of native applications. Some benefits of PWAs are:
- Faster release time
- The decreased communication gap between businesses and customers
- Enhanced visibility of your app.
Assessing Your Needs for a Mobile-friendly Ecommerce Website
As the owner of your online store, it’s up to you to determine what features and functions you want your ecommerce website to have. Take the time to consider your requirements carefully.
Setting a budget
Once you’ve identified your website’s requirements, it’s important to determine a realistic budget that aligns with your needs. It’s important to consider factors such as the complexity of the design, the number of features and functionalities, the level of customization required, and the ongoing maintenance and support costs.
Selecting a web design agency
Research and get quotes from top web design agencies that offer the services you need. Reach out to them and discuss your requirements and goals. Negotiate a fair price and begin working on your mobile-friendly e-commerce website as soon as possible.
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