Today consumers spend more time on their mobile devices than on desktop computers. In fact, 30% of all ecommerce sales today already occur through the use of smartphones and tablets. If you have any doubt in your mind, the niche will continue to grow rapidly and hit $293 billion by 2018, according to Forrester estimates.
If your startup has not embraced a mobile-first strategy yet, here are some key strategies worth trying.
Always Think About The User Intent
Why do people check your website from mobile? Well, when it comes to ecommerce websites, users tap into the mobile version for a number of reasons:
- To track order status (72%)
- To compare prices (69%)
- To hunt for coupons (67%)
- To research the inventory prior to visiting the store (64%)
- To research and compare products while in store (60%)
- To check in using social media (53%)
By understanding the common user behavior patterns, you’ll be able to organize your website information and architecture in the first place. A lot of people search for directions/contact information from mobile, so make sure these are displayed prominently. Logging into the account should be also made simple, so consider suggesting autocomplete/autofill details, as typing from mobile isn’t always convenient.
If you lack the information, try installing a few advanced mobile analytics apps or a quick on-site survey asking the users directly about their reasoning.
Less is More on Mobile
Every page of your mobile website should have a singular focus, which will offer the consumer a digestible amount of information. The essential best practices in this case including reducing the main navigation links to the bare minimum and refraining from using too many images as those make the page load slower and scatter the user’s attention.
It’s also important to update your copy. Make those shorter, snappier and straight to the point. Eliminate the weak words and the creative flair you have on your desktop copy. Don’t forget to keep the most important information above the fold. Your key CTAs should be given the top central location, and avoid going to “iconic” and simplifying all the texts to icons. These may confuse some users and result into lower conversions. Sure, everyone can guess that a cart icon stands for checkout, but a smiley face isn’t the most intuitive guess for coupons section, for instance.
Improve Cross-Channel Tracking
The common approach to calculating the ROI of a mobile website is to base them on the leads or sales generated directly from it. However, a large number of users will actually convert later through a direct email/phone inquiry or an order placed from another device.
You can track offline conversions with special coupons issued for mobile users; asking the customers how they heard about you in a post-purchase survey or use a Google forwarding number to track those calls.
Optimize Your Mobile Checkout
Cart abandonment rates are already high for desktop purchases and the numbers skyrocket on mobile. The global conversion rate is just 3.75% for tablets and 1.53% for smartphones.
First of all, take a look at your checkout process – do you request too much data? A lot of mobile shoppers will feel reluctant to type it all in before making a purchase. For starters, reduce the number of requested fields and break the checkout process into multiple steps. Then you can create larger forms, which are easier to fill in on a small screen.
Next, consider allowing guest checkout. Registering an account can be another barrier to finalizing the order. Within this option, you can also offer users to send an email summary of their order to their email to let them finalized the purchase from another device.
Lastly, think about integrating mobile payment options like Apple Pay/Google Pay at the checkout. In this case, you’ll eliminate the need to type 16-digit credit card numbers and appeal more to the online security concerned buyers.