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Your website is your most important tool to reach and sell to customers online.
In today’s growing mobile world, your website must not only look good, but also work well across all devices: desktop, tablet and smartphone. You don’t want to lose potential customers to the competition because your site isn’t usable from a mobile device.
In the article Best Mobile Website Practices: Let’s Talk Responsive Design, I outlined the benefits of responsive design as a way to optimize a website for mobile. In this article I point out the benefits specific to responsive eCommerce websites.
- Streamline Content and Offers – Content on a responsive design website will likely be the same across all devices. You will only have to make changes once to implement across all devices simultaneously. Responsive design assures pricing, messaging and specials are the same on all devices.
- Provide Great User Experience – Consumers are 67% more likely to purchase if they can easily find what they’re looking for on mobile. In contrast, 61% are less likely to purchase when they are annoyed with their website experience, according to a study by Google. This could be due to difficult navigation, missing functionality or a problem in the website’s appearance. Having a responsive website will help you streamline your website’s design and navigation on all devices.
- Cater to Multi-Channel Shoppers – 67% of people shop with multiple devices sequentially and about 81% of all mobile purchases are spontaneous (Google). Having said that, a mobile (smartphone/tablet) accessible and easy to use website is a must. Mobile features to consider adding are “save to cart” or “add to wish list” buttons. This way your customers won’t forget the items they put in their cart before switching devices.
- Stay Ahead of the Curve – Of the Internet Retailer Top 500 only 2% have a responsive retail site as of May 2013 (Get Elastic). This means there is potential opportunity to stay ahead of your competition.
Looking for a great example of a responsive eCommerce website? Take a look at one of our clients with a responsive eCommerce website: Proclip USA.