Consumers are mobile, and for many a smartphone or tablet is their primary means of internet access and engagement. Smartphone penetration in the UK and US is approaching record levels and over 30 per cent of all households in these regions now own a tablet. One out of every 10 dollars spent online comes from a smartphone. This means that having a mobile optimised website is now a basic customer expectation.
Mobile is also a highly personal platform and requires experiences that are relevant and deliver local, social and personalised context if it is to fulfil its potential for customer engagement. These experiences must be consistent and compelling regardless of which channel a customer chooses to connect with the brand.
Mobile optimised sites: How-to
To develop a mobile site that truly fulfils the needs of a business and its customers, it’s vital that a company agrees on a strategy before work begins. This will inevitably mean identifying the specific elements of a business that should be supported on mobile devices and how the experience should interact with – and differ from – the desktop site.
As with any other area of business development, it is crucial to understand the customer and their mind set. What are their needs? What tasks are they likely to want to accomplish using their mobile device? Today’s consumers are constantly on the move (particularly when on mobile) and want to be able complete tasks quickly, so mobile sites must be fast and intuitive to support this. To this end, companies should capitalise on APIs and web services as much as possible to power the experience and pull in content to create a compelling interaction for the user. Fashion retailer ASOS is a great example of this; the dynamic, colourful and streamlined site resonates with customers by making it easy to browse categories, build outfits through intelligent suggestions and purchase items quickly, in addition to providing editorial content for its fashion-conscious audience.
If the mobile site is commerce-enabled, businesses must ensure that the entire payment journey is considered. This involves streamlining the payment process and key functions of the basket, in addition to reducing the number of steps and volume of text that must be negotiated to get to the checkout stage. By streamlining payment and reducing the frustration that customers can often experience when attempting to purchase using a mobile, businesses can encourage strong conversion rates and cut basket abandonment.
Fast and not furious
Always remember: when it comes to mobile, speed matters. A typical mobile user will have little time and even less patience to invest in a site. Perception is paramount; if a mobile site makes it easy to do something, the business will be seen as speedy and efficient. The travel industry presents some useful examples of prioritising speed. Short break specialist SuperBreak investigated which offerings its customers were using most on mobile and optimised accordingly, ensuring that browsing for offers and making a reservation is as fast and intuitive as possible. As a rule, mobile journeys should be short and sweet here are a few tips to ensure it doesn’t leave a bitter taste for customers:
• Use finger-friendly, category navigation that does not require multiple refreshes and allows the customer to get to the “add-to-cart” button faster.
• Keep the site as light-weight as possible. For example, by reducing the number of IP requests and reducing image sizes you can ensure that your site is not a data hog.
• Finally, test, test, test. By testing you can continually improve performance, providing a better experience for the customer.
Drawing people to the site
Businesses often question how they might drive traffic to a mobile site once it is live. This is to look at the mobile site problem from the wrong angle; it is not so much a challenge of driving traffic, but ensuring that the user can achieve what they set out to do when they visit it.
It can be useful to think of mobile as a digital "storefront," designed to attract and pull in browsing visitors. If a site is engaging for current and prospective customers, it will be effective. That is, if it is well designed, has relevant content, and delivers a context-rich experience, there is a strong chance that users will return in the future.
Mobile apps are often less successful in attracting repeat visits compared with mobile sites. However, after the novelty factor of the initial download has worn off, those apps that not only simplify and enrich the customer experience but add real utility over and above the mobile stand the best chance of enticing return traffic.
To maximise the initial visitors to a mobile site, businesses should ensure that it is sufficiently integrated with desktop and email marketing campaigns and is part of a consistent multichannel strategy. Marks and Spencer, for example, deploy a mobile optimised site and native app that complement one another and fit into a wider range of digital and in-store offerings such as kiosks and the desktop experience. By executing integrated mobile campaigns frequently and finding the best tools with which to manage them, businesses can capitalise on traffic from any source.
By Carin van Vuuren, Chief Marketing Officer at Usablenet.
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