Why fully responsive design is critical for ecommerce success
Visits to retail websites via mobile devices reached 63% up from 60% in quarter two of 2015. These latest figures show how mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) have clearly become the preferred choice for the majority of online shoppers. They are even being used to make complex and large value purchases – 9% of all kitchens were purchased online last year.
While conversion rates are growing on smartphones and tablets, they also report the highest bounce rates and the highest checkout abandonment rates — a full 59% higher than that on desktop or laptops.
Why ecommerce websites lose sales & customers
There will be a number of reasons behind higher bounce rates and abandonment rates, but a large part of it is likely to be that websites simply aren’t mobile-friendly enough.
Adaptive design (web pages that automatically resize to suit the device) and responsive design (where the browser dictates what is displayed and how it is laid-out) have become commonplace, but this doesn’t always equal good design such as intuitive navigation, clear calls to actions, great product images that are easy to view, and large buttons and links that are easy to use. Getting this right, especially for the shopping cart / checkout areas, is crucial.
Retailers need to ensure their websites work just as effectively on touch-screen mobile devices as they do on a laptop. It’s also important to ensure that websites work consistently across all operating systems.
Given the importance of ensuring ecommerce websites are mobile-friendly, it is shrewd for retailers to invest more of their own time and take a more hands-on approach to testing, rather than leaving it all to their web development agencies.
Key areas to review and test:
- How easy is it to buy from your website on a phone or a tablet? In particular, how easy is it to navigate and can you easily click all the links and buttons?
- Your main website might be fully responsive, but is the integrated shopping cart / checkout system equally responsive?
- Ask your colleagues to try using your website and checkout on their phones and tablets:
- Does your website work equally well on Android and IOS (Apple) devices?
- Have you tested it in multiple web browsers, i.e. Chrome, Safari, etc.
- What’s the difference in appearance when the website is displayed on different screen sizes?
- Are there any differences in how information is displayed when viewing vertically and horizontally on a tablet?
- Would the mobile version benefit from less copy appearing on the page?
- If you have many calls to action on your web pages would it be better to prioritise which ones should be displayed, so the pages looks less cluttered on mobile devices?
- Does the website work in lower WiFi areas or are the pages too slow to load?
If you would like help with promoting finance within your ecommerce website, please contact Heather Carey on 0845 120 6666 or email heather@ccs2022.freshwebtest.co.uk