Let’s start with a confession.
I don’t know how people shop on their smart phones.
How can they see anything on those little screens? I have a big screen and I still have trouble. However, my 24 year old daughter shops on her phone all the time as a major source of entertainment.
And obviously so does the rest of the country.
I just read this: “Compared to 2015, total e-commerce holiday sales increased by 10.43%. Meanwhile, purchases on mobile devices, or m-commerce, surpassed 30% in 2016.” According to Chain Store Age.
So what does that mean to us old timers who thought having a great website was good enough?
Well, it’s time to join the new reality and make sure your website is mobile ready. I understand that keeping up with technology is hard since the rate of change is accelerating.
But as we used to say “Be there or be square”.
So here are 6 useful tips that can help you meet the bar:
- Make sure your website converts to a smartphone or tablet so that it is easy to see and nothing’s cut off.
- Simplify the site so that it is easy to shop. Simplify the navigation and eliminate links that can distract the shopper. At the very least move them further away from the call to action.
- Be careful that you don’t strip down your pages so much that you loose your brands personality.
- Make the shopping process on mobile a smooth experience. Make it as easy for the shopper to complete the order as as possible on a small screen using the phone’s keyboard.
- Provide full product details. Users favor retailers who show all available product information: stock availability, sizes, color choices, descriptions, photos, videos, etc. . Design your site so product detail features are clear and easy to understand.
- Customers want to be able to zoom in on details, but they must be able to zoom where they want and control the size. This is especially important considering how small the screen is.
Most important of all – test, test and test some more!
Every day new phones, operating systems and updates go out, and sometimes they break things that used to work perfectly. Be sure to visit your website on your phone regularly, and if you see something that needs fixing, call in the calvary!
In today’s market, where 65% of the traffic is mobile, you just can’t afford to neglect your m-commerce strategy.
