You’ve probably made the effort to make your website mobile-friendly, but is it ready for mobile commerce? Mobile commerce optimization isn’t the same as mobile website optimization. For example, your shopping cart might be fully functional on mobile devices, but it also might be inconvenient. Optimizing for mobile commerce focuses on increasing user convenience.
According to data gathered by Dynamic Yield, only 9% of consumers say shopping in person provides the most convenient experience. That leaves 91% of consumers who prefer shopping online. However, only 12% of consumers find shopping on a mobile device convenient. Considering the majority of web traffic comes from mobile devices, mobile commerce has some catching up to do.
If your website isn’t optimized for mobile commerce, you’re already losing sales. Here’s what you can do about it:
Embrace trending changes in mobile user experience
Don’t be the last blogger on the block to adapt to changing trends. Don’t be tempted to believe your brand is too big to fail. Former retail giant Sears made that mistake when the world was transitioning to ecommerce.
Since the 1960’s, Sears offered high-quality clothing and merchandise. The majority of their customers were older, and since older people tend to be less receptive to new technology, Sears failed to adapt their brand to the ecommerce world. Active Web Group describes the crippling impact of this mistake, “Failing to update their brand’s image plagued Sears’ ability to expand to new demographics, making eCommerce a missed opportunity. Ironically, the fear of losing existing customers prevented Sears from attracting the new audience needed for survival.”
The lessons here are don’t be slow to embrace mobile commerce trends that make it easier for your customers to shop and make a purchase.
Follow trends that support user experience
Some trends aren’t smart to follow because they turn out to be short-lived fads. You can safely bet that trends that make mobile commerce more convenient aren’t fads – they’re the future.
In 2017, 34.5% of 2017 ecommerce sales were processed on a mobile device, despite the fact that many online stores aren’t yet mobile-friendly. Big Commerce reports that by 2021, mobile ecommerce sales are expected to account for 54% of all ecommerce sales. That means you’ve got to stay up-to-date with how mobile commerce user experience evolves.
For example, with the right app, a mobile money transfer is much simpler than using a desktop computer. Whether you’re in someone’s presence or not, you can transfer money easily by using one of these popular apps. Mobile apps are built for convenience. Even Paypal’s mobile app is easier to use than the desktop version.
Don’t ignore popular payment solutions
Make sure you accept payments from popular payment solutions like Apple Pay, PayPal One-Touch, Visa Checkout, and Amazon Pay. These solutions save a person’s payment details so they don’t have to manually enter their credit card information, even if they’ve never purchased from you before. This is the definition of convenience, especially since a complicated checkout process is a primary reason for abandoned shopping carts.
Place significant focus on optimizing your mobile content
As Search Engine Land reports, Google has a mobile-first index that generates search results based on the mobile version of content. The clincher is that this index isn’t just shown to mobile users. Google is now using mobile content as their primary source for search results provided to all users, including desktop users.
If you have a mobile version of your website, but it’s got less content than your desktop version, you need to change that. Your mobile website should have as much (or more) content than your desktop version, or Google might not rank your site very well.
You might be aware that expandable content on a desktop website doesn’t carry much weight with Google. According to Google’s Gary Illyes, expandable content makes sense on mobile, so it will be given full weight if done correctly. Of course, that’s determined by a robot, and there’s no definition or guidebook to use as a template.
Google says this change won’t significantly impact overall rankings, but don’t wait to maximize your mobile content and layout.
There’s only one way to avoid mobile commerce optimization
The final thing to consider if you don’t have the funds or time to optimize your mobile commerce shop is selling merch through a third party like Big Cartel. If you’re able to create exclusive content, get your fans to subscribe to you on Patreon.
Whether you run your own ecommerce site or generate revenue through merch, make sure the companies you choose are optimized for mobile commerce. You’ll generate more sales if they are.