Online shopping is growing fast right now. In fact here in the UK nearly 60% of all consumers have already made at least one purchase on the Internet.
Now many of the industry insiders are closely watching the development of mobile shopping. As a growing number of people own smartphones and tablets through which they can browse the Internet on the move, it is expected that a lot of purchases in the near future will be made using such devices.
In fact according to recent research commissioned by Baynote some 60% of tablet users expect to research or purchase a product with the device over the next 12 months. The same answer was given by some 21% of smartphone owners.
This means that any online shop, which has not as yet optimised their website for mobile devices could find itself losing both customers and sales.
Most shoppers want to be able to easily browse through products, but because mobiles and tablets often display websites differently to browsers on PC’s, it is crucial that retailers accommodate this difference. It does not cost a bundle to have your shopping cart optimised for mobile devices and it is normally much cheaper than getting a mobile app.
Among all the things you can do to increase your sales and profits in the next 12 months, optimising your website for mobile should be a priority.
Unfortunately at the moment many businesses, even some of the biggest retailers and brands seem to have overlooked this side of the online market and their services for mobile users are well below what they should be.
Many have opted to build apps which often do not work properly, or only work on some smartphones, excluding many potential customers.
Many websites also do not allow customers to make purchases, because the way payments are configured is not supported by mobile devices.
Now is the time to take a holistic approach to the online presence of your business. It is no longer enough to have an excellent website. Optimising for mobiles is just as important.
