Why Mobile Optimisation is Crucial for eCommerce

In today’s mobile-first world, many people prefer to shop online for various reasons. Mobile optimisation plays a fundamental role in eCommerce business success. With the majority of online shopping now happening on mobile devices, ensuring a seamless mobile experience can make or break a business. According to Statista, up to 77% of eCommerce traffic now comes from mobile users. Here at Fluency, we understand the importance of optimising eCommerce stores for mobile, especially for brands trying to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment.

Let’s dive into the role of mobile optimisation for your business in enhancing the overall performance and success of your eCommerce ventures.

Importance of Mobile Optimisation

1. Improving User Experience:

When we talk about mobile optimisation, the primary focus is to improve the user experience. A well-optimised mobile site ensures people browsing on their phones expect a seamless experience on your website, encouraging longer visits, lower bounce rates, and higher customer engagement. If a site isn’t optimised for mobile, it leads to frustrating experiences like small text, and slow loading times. As a result, customers quickly lose interest, and bounces off from your website.

2. Increasing Conversion Rates:

A mobile-friendly eCommerce site is more likely to convert casual browsers into buyers. Research shows that mobile optimisation can also improve your store’s conversion rates by lowering cart abandonment and bounce rates. Implementing features like easy navigation, simplified checkout processes, and quick loading times contribute to a positive UX, ultimately driving higher conversion rates. We think this has everything to do with making it as easy as possible for shoppers to complete transactions on their phones, without obstacles like complex navigation or slow page loads.

3. Keeping Up with eCommerce Trends:

eCommerce trends are increasingly moving towards mobile-first designs, with features like one-click payments, fast checkout process and mobile-responsive layouts. As shoppers become more normal to mobile-first experiences, businesses that fail to adapt risk falling behind. We’ve studied the data, and it’s clear: businesses that invest in mobile optimisation see greater customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

Key Optimisation Tips for Mobile eCommerce

To effectively optimise your eCommerce site for mobile users, consider the following strategies:

1.  Optimise Page Speed:

When pages loads slowly, the bounce rate increases and you can lose out on potential customers. Google recommends that above-the-fold content ideally loads in less than one second to allow users to start interacting with your site as quickly as possible. Studies show that websites that load within a second are 2.5 times more likely to convert than those that load within five seconds. We recommend optmising images, reducing third-party scripts, minimising CSS and JavaScript, and utilising browser caching to keep your mobile pages fast.

2. Simplify Navigation:

Navigation is essential in the world of online mobile shopping. Mobile navigation shouldn’t be so hard, it should be easy for mobile users to locate what they're looking for. To make your mobile version easy to read and navigate, simplify mobile menus to include only the necessities and use a hamburger icon to reveal additional options.  Instead of cluttered menus, we always suggest adding drop-down menus, breadcrumb trails, and a search bar to make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.

3. Enable Easy Mobile-Friendly Checkout:

Mobile shoppers expect a mobile-friendly checkout process with minimal steps. Consider offering multiple payment methods, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, and streamline the procedures needed to finish a transaction. A frictionless checkout process significantly lower cart abandonment rates.

4. Prioritise Responsive Design:

Responsive design is an approach that allows your website to adapt to any screen size. This means, your website should look fantastic and work properly on all devices. If you're thinking of how to implement responsive design, we suggest using adaptable grid layouts for various screen sizes, and make sure you optimise photos for speedy loading without sacrificing quality.

5. Clean Visual Content for Mobile:

Optimise your visual content such as images and videos for mobile, with clean visuals, including plenty of white space around photos and text. Compress images to avoid slow loading times and use mobile-friendly formats.  At Fluency, we always recommend high-quality visuals that load quickly and display beautifully on all screen sizes.

6. Test and Refine Regularly:

Mobile optimisation is not jus a one time task, its a continuous process. We recommend regularly testing your site’s mobile experience to make sure it works with different devices and collecting feedback from customers. Small changes, like adjusting button sizes or rearranging content, can make a significant impact on usability and conversion rates.

Example of Effective Mobile Design

E-bike retailer Cowboy is an example of a brand with a well-constructed and mobile-friendly website. Here are some of the key elements that make it excellent for mobile users:

• The site loads quickly, efficiently handling many images, gifs, and interactive elements.
• The desktop version uses a dropdown menu with images, but on mobile, it’s simplified to a hamburger menu.
• The homepage showcases large, simplified text with a prominent shop CTA above the fold.
• A chat icon is located in the corner for easy customer support access.
• Product pages are designed with a vertical layout for mobile users.
• A bottom tab bar features an “Order now” CTA within thumb reach.

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Final Thoughts

Business that invest in a mobile-friendly site guarantees swift and convenient customer interactions, leading to increased traffic and sales. At Fluency, we’ve worked with numerous clients to optimise their mobile experience, and we’ve seen firsthand the positive impact it has on customer satisfaction and sales.

If you’re looking to improve your mobile optimisation and stay ahead in the evolving world of eCommerce trends, contact us now.

Let’s work together to make your online store the best it can be—on any device.