Smartphones are great for web surfing on a daily basis. Increasingly, these same smartphone users also evolved into shoppers. Visitors are looking for an easy and convenient solution to purchase products and services with minimal effort and fast loading page times. The latter being a key feature in successful mobile commerce solutions. Slow page loading times can deter an impatient (and even patient) visitor into a paying customer.
Speed is important
An interesting infographic from Kissmetrics shows how page load times can have a substantial impact on company revenue. A delay of one second can equal a loss of 7% in conversions. This equals to $2.5 million lost per year from a company making $100,000 per day. 73% of mobile internet users have said that a website was too slow to load. 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. In addition, those mobile browsers who are unhappy with website speeds are less likely to buy from that site again.* A fast mobile loading site and seamless e-commerce integration is essential for sales and return shoppers.
Two designs
There are many solutions available to convert or redirect websites to much more mobile friendly loading pages. Which either solution is implemented, staying up to speed with mobile commerce solutions is playing a larger and more important role in an online business’s profits. This will only increase in the near future. It is important to note, however, that mobile-friendly sites can be looked at as a separate channel to the company’s main website. Depending on each individual business, a one-design-fits-all approach may not work. A separate design for a mobile device and a desktop screen may need to be implemented. Each business will need to make that determination themselves. A good example would be amazon.com where they have a mobile version of their website and a desktop version.
Rising mobile commerce
A few reasons as to why mobile commerce has gained in popularity is due to the fact that smartphones have been dropping in price due to fierce competitiveness. This also results in improving technology such as faster processors, larger screens, and faster mobile Internet speeds. In many cases, free public wifi connections are available so data charges are kept to a minimum by using public wifi. Even if no purchase is made, the mobile visitor can become a customer at a later date. If the website is bookmarked or retargeting ads show the site again. The mobile visitor could also be waiting for a reply after filling out a contact form for more details. Apple, for example, stores bookmarks in the cloud that was made on an iPhone that can be looked up later on a Mac.
It’s still better to have at least some form of a fast loading mobile-friendly version of a website than nothing at all. Once set up, take a closer look at what needs improvement. New responsive options even allow what and what not to load during site design. In many instances, improving on mobile-friendly design can overlap and improve on the main website design. This includes the layout, speed, and user-friendliness.