Customers are doing their shopping on mobile devices more than ever before, so it’s smart to ensure that your e-commerce site caters to this trend. Designing for mobile users can increase both your traffic and sales.
In this post, we’ll explain why optimizing your online store for mobile devices is so important, and then offer five tips for doing so. Let’s jump right in!
Why It’s Vital to Optimize Your E-Commerce Site for Mobile Users
There are a few reasons it’s important to optimize your e-commerce site for mobile devices. First, more and more people are shopping on their phones and tablets. In fact, recent data shows that mobile commerce is growing at a rate of almost twice that of desktop commerce.
If your site is unfriendly to mobile users, you could be losing out on potential sales. It’s imperative to provide a smooth, intuitive experience, regardless of the device a prospective customer may be using.
Additionally, Google often penalizes sites that are not mobile-friendly. That means mobile optimization is essential if you want your pages to rank highly in search engine results, and bring in organic traffic.
5 Tips for Optimizing Your E-Commerce Site for Mobile Devices
Optimizing your e-commerce site for mobile devices can sound like a difficult process. It will take some time and effort, but fortunately there are clear and effective steps you can take. Let’s look at five of the top methods.
1. Create a Mobile-Friendly Web Design
When it comes to creating a mobile-friendly design for your e-commerce store, simplicity is key. Your customers should be able to easily navigate your site on their phones or tablets.
Some things to keep in mind when designing for mobile devices include:
- Stick to a simple layout with easy-to-read fonts
- Use buttons that are large and easy to tap
- Avoid using too much animation or Flash, which can be difficult to view on mobile devices
- Keep your page loading times fast
A responsive layout is another important factor to consider. If your site is ‘responsive,’ it will automatically adjust to the size of the screen it’s being viewed on. This ensures that no matter what device your customer is using, they’ll have a good shopping experience.
You can test to see if your site is responsive by viewing it on different devices. There are a number of online tools available that will help you do this, such as Responsive Design Checker and Screenfly:
While ads and popups may be useful for your marketing strategy, it’s important to reduce or eliminate them on your mobile site. They can be annoying and distracting to mobile shoppers, which can lead to a poor user experience. If you do use popups on your mobile site, make sure you’re using them effectively.
2. Make the Checkout Process Easy
One of the biggest challenges for e-commerce stores is getting customers through the checkout process. The obstacles are even greater when it comes to mobile devices, as customers are often on the go and may not have time to enter all of their information.
That’s why it’s important to make the checkout process as easy as possible. One way to do this is to incorporate popular payment processors such as PayPal, Venmo, and Apple Pay. This eliminates the need for customers to enter their payment information manually:
You can also make it easy for customers to purchase your products or services by using a one-page checkout process. This means that all of the necessary information is collected on a single page, reducing friction and keeping things speedy.
Another way to hasten the checkout process is by enabling autofill. This allows customers to pre-fill their information, such as their name and address, so they don’t have to enter it each time they make a purchase. This speeds up the checkout process and makes it easier for customers to complete.
3. Ensure an Omnichannel Shopping Experience
An omnichannel shopping experience means that customers can shop on your site using any device, whether it’s a computer, phone or tablet. This is important because it gives customers more flexibility over how they shop.
One way to ensure an omnichannel shopping experience is by syncing your shopping cart across all devices and access points. This means that if a customer adds an item to their cart on their computer, they can access it later on their phone or tablet.
To make this possible, you’ll need to use a cart synchronization tool. There are a number of these solutions available, such as CartSync:
Another way to provide an omnichannel shopping experience is by using customer profiles. This allows customers to save their information, such as their preferred shipping address and payment method, so they don’t have to enter it again later.
You can also make it easy for customers to continue shopping on another device by using a cross-device checkout process. With this feature, customers can start the checkout process on one device and finish it on another.
4. Think with Your Thumb
When it comes to mobile devices, “think with your thumb” is a good rule to live by. This means you should design your site so that the most important elements are within easy reach.
One way to do this is by using buttons and links that are easy to select with one hand. This makes it simpler for customers to navigate your site, even when they’re on the go. To do that, you’ll want to ensure that these elements appear large on the mobile version of your site, and have plenty of white space around them:
You can also enable customers to navigate your site by using swipe gestures. This allows customers to move between pages and sections of your site by swiping their finger across the screen.
To test for and improve swipe gestures, you can use a tool like Jest or Lighthouse. These solutions will help you identify areas of your site that could be improved to make it easier for customers to navigate.
5. Keep Your Content Short and Sweet
Most customers don’t have much time to waste, and have limited attention spans. That’s why it’s important to keep your content short and sweet.
One way to do this is by using headings and subheadings to break up any longer sections of text (such as detailed product descriptions). This makes it easier for customers to scan the page and find the information they’re looking for.
You can also keep your content digestible by using bullet points and lists. Plus, images and videos are a great way to communicate information quickly and effectively.
To create images and videos that are compatible with mobile devices, you can use a tool like Adobe Photoshop or After Effects. These platforms will help you create images and videos that are easy to read and understand on smaller screens.
Conclusion
By optimizing your e-commerce site for mobile devices, you can ensure that all of your customers can access your products anytime, anywhere. Offering a strong user experience regardless of device type and screen size can lead to increased traffic and sales in no time.
How do you plan to optimize your e-commerce store for mobile devices? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!