Science claims that smartphones are responsible for our rapidly deteriorating attention span, which at a mere 8 seconds is even lower than that of a goldfish (source: Time.com)!
Whether you’re selling a product, promoting an event, or delivering a service, if your customers are easily distracted, how can you make sure that they complete the actions you want them to take when visiting your mobile website?
45% of online sales are made through mobile devices (source: Gapgemini)
It’s clear that some mobile website owners are getting this right. The following three retailers have won awards for the quality of their mobile user experience:
Lush Cosmetics, ETQ and JOHO’s Bean
They’re very simple. There’s nothing to distract the browser from the single-minded activity of purchasing an item. There’s lots of calming white space, and the design is modern and inspires trust.
Smartphones have the highest checkout abandonment rates – 52% higher than desktops (source: Gapgemini)
Compare the above user experience with the following examples:
Majestic Wine, Rosewe and Ralphs
There’s a lot more going on, which means it’s harder to decide what you want to do, and *poof* – in the time that you were thinking about it, you got distracted.
Just moving your desktop website into a single column, without considering the journey your mobile users will make, is a common mistake. Here’s how to get it right.
1. Remove distractions
…First and foremost of which will be the layout and design of your mobile optimised website.
If the process of selecting, buying and checking out is more complicated than necessary, all those customers who are eager to get done with the process to avoid being late for an important meeting will probably leave their cart and say goodbye to your website.
The same applies if you’re trying to get people to book appointments, reserve tickets or simply contact you: focus on what you want them to do, and remove anything that doesn’t help them achieve that.
2. Cut down on form length
Asking your customers to fill out lengthy forms is tedious, time consuming and sometimes physically quite difficult to achieve.
Keep your forms minimal, and remember returning visitors’ details so that they can complete their journey in the shortest possible time.
3. Make the process as simple as possible
Look at the JOHO’s Bean example again: it really couldn’t be more simple. Here’s the product. Order it. Or if you must, share it on social media.
Compare this to the Ralphs website where you’re being asked to search, to order, to create a shopping list, to order refills, to review coupons, and see their weekly advert. Yes, they sell considerably more products than JOHO, but with no clear direction about what they want me to do, I’m lost.
4. Progress bars really help!
Progress bars make the flow of form completion on your website incredibly comprehensible. They allow the user to check progress, and indicate how long it’s going to take to complete their purchase / enquiry / booking.
5. Trust symbols overcome barriers
I ordered from a company I was unfamiliar with recently, and not without reservations. Their reviews, inclusion of internet and credit card security symbols, and strong and consistent branding were sufficient to quell my fears. Don’t miss these out when designing your perfect mobile experience.
6. Examine your progress
It’s essential that you check your reports in order to examine the success of all the measures you take for improvement.
When you examine your analytics data, you’ll be able to identify where people are leaving your mobile website: is it the home page? The point at which you ask them to complete a form?
Once these shortcomings are identified, you can research and come up with suitable solutions to fix them, and ultimately, get more conversions from your mobile website.
Need a streamlined, mobile optimised web experience for your brand? Try an Esendex Mobile Journey.
