How to get more conversions on mobile
How often have you gone to your phone instead of your laptop to purchase something online? Or to even just look something up? Our smart phones are our pocket laptops and our speed dial to everything and anything.
Which is why it’s important to recognise the conversions happening on those little screens. Mobile e-commerce may not have beaten the PC yet, but the ‘yet’ is exactly what you should be concentrating on. The use of mobile sites has risen to around 40% and soon could outpace the traditional way of internet sales.
To generate more mobile conversions there are some important changes, ideas and analysis that may have to be made to the original mobile site.
Format
You may have a snazzy website all set up and awaiting online customers, but the customer using a smart phone wants something different. Someone who has taken the time to sit down with a laptop will have the time and patience to scroll through much more than a mobile user. They will be looking for something specific, but will be more willing to deal with limited filters, more options and endless results. A mobile user has a smaller screen, more pages and potentially, less time. A mobile searcher wants what they searched for straight away.
A way to make this happen is to give a mobile user multiple filters as soon as they enter the site. So if a customer is looking for a knee length, long sleeved, high collar black dress in a size 12, let them be able to tell the website exactly that. Another important change from desktop to mobile is to have less products shown per page. Again, a desktop user has the luxury of being able to view many products at once but the small screen of a smart phone would require the hassle of zooming in or endless scrolling. However, if the filter feature has been improved for mobile usage, the page problem could resolve itself.
Another formatting issue that a lot of mobile sites seem to forget is the CTA. The call-to-action function is often considered a completely separate part of online purchasing or signing up and this is where companies are fallings short on sales and data. Keep a consistency within the site and don’t have the end stage be desktop style landing page that needs a mobile user to zoom in and swipe to type.
Advertisements
Shoppers will put up with ads, for a limited time. Especially on a mobile site, all it takes is an ill times pop up to make them close down the tab and look for another site. We all have websites we know to avoid after one too many 30 second, non-closable ads have ruined our browsing.
It can be tempting to sell out to ads but remembering that you’d gain more from less ads is a good change to invest in.
Contact
Something that will drive away a mobile user faster than you can say ‘pop up’ is a form. Mobile users wants what they searched for asap so taking the time to fill out a form will only slow them down and have them hitting the close icon almost immediately. However, sometimes a small form is needed. A sign up or a deal offer. These are things a user expects but doesn’t expect to be there all day. A simple form could be a way around the problem but keeping it to half a mobile screen and avoiding the dreaded confirmation emails.
A customer will want to be able to contact you though. If they’re already on a mobile, a phone number they can call from just pressing it on their touchscreen is a great way to get a shopper to communicate with you. Once the call ends they are straight back to your mobile site and can carry on with whatever it was they were doing.
Mobile conversions are quickly on their way to being the top way a customer shops. Neglecting these changes could damage a business and keep revenue and conversion rates low.