With over 12.07 million Australians owning a smartphone today, having a kick-arse mobile website is critical in reaching – and converting – today’s target buyers.
But in the rush to get your mobile platform to market, could you have made these dire mistakes – and sacrificed your sales in the process?
With the advent of smaller devices, responsive web design has become one of the most essential features for every E-Commerce site.
While responsive designs are considered essential, they shouldn’t be treated as the ultimate driver behind your site performance.
Why? Because responsive designs – even though they reposition everything – don’t take user intent or behaviour into account.
What to do: Use responsive design, but don’t get lazy. Don’t expect your responsive site to do all the work for you. Instead, figure out which elements are most vital to your mobile users, and ensure these are being displayed properly. This will ensure that your website performs best for both mobile and desktop users alike.
Devices can determine user behaviour. Customers can change what they are doing depending on whether they are using a smartphone, tablet or a desktop device.
Also each of these devices comes with various operating systems like iOS, Android or Windows, which can additionally affect the way users behave.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming all small devices are the same.
What to do: Segment your mobile website by both device type (tablet, phone, desktop) and operating system (iOS, Android, Windows). Test extensively, and check that your site is working effectively for all mixes of manufacturer, OS and device.
Users aren’t always browsing your website to ‘buy now.’ They often use mobiles or tablets to browse, research and fulfill other stages of the shopping cycle – with the final conversion or purchase taking place elsewhere (e.g. on a desktop).
What to do: Don’t ignore specific devices simply because they’re not bringing in the cash. Every device should be considered a crucial part of the buying journey. Take this into account when managing your tracking and deciding what to optimise.
Remember, if customers aren’t engaged at every step of the experience, they likely won’t convert at all.
Users today own a multitude of devices. As mentioned above, this means they can use more than one to go through the buying cycle.
This makes all devices equally important – not just the ones that customers use to make their purchase.
If you’re tracking conversions for only one type of device, you’re probably failing to optimise other important areas of the cycle and therefore missing out on critical opportunities for engagement and sales.
It also means you’re not getting an accurate ‘bigger picture’ of your customer journeys and intent.
What to do: Employ multi-device tracking, and track clicks and other crucial customer behaviour on a range of devices, not just one.
Doing so will allow you to work out what steps the customer is taking before they buy – and it can show you where your gaps are and what you need to do to improve your conversion rates.
Input mechanisms on mobiles – like entering text, choosing from dropdowns and even clicking/tapping – can be markedly more difficult than if you were sitting at a computer.
If customers find your funnel too hard to navigate, it can destroy the experience – or worse yet, your reputation. And you could quickly find customers dropping out of the cycle – and heading to a competitor.
What to do: Design a sales funnel that is specifically suited to mobile users. And make it stupidly easy to use. Utilise simple forms, test them on different devices and ensure they quickly take the buyer through to the next step.
Don’t let these mistakes destroy your sales!
Getting on top of your mobile web sales isn’t always easy – but focusing on user intent and behaviour, and optimising your pages for a variety of devices, is critical if you want to maximise or grow your conversions.