3 Ways to Ensure Mobile Browsers Become Mobile Customers
Myth or fact: Consumers prefer to browse on their mobile phones, but buy on another device or in-store. Recently, Instart Logic conducted a survey of roughly 2,000 respondents on their mobile shopping habits to put this belief to the test. The results: more than half of respondents said they used their mobile phones during the entire shopping journey, from discovery to research to purchasing an item. Seventy-three percent of respondents liked shopping via mobile because it’s more convenient. Moreover, when asked what types of purchases they would make on their mobile devices, surprisingly, half of consumers said it would be the same thing they would buy in a brick-and-mortar store.
Therefore, if the idea of physically seeing or touching an item is no longer a barrier to mobile shoppers, then what is? Almost half of consumers surveyed said they would purchase more if a mobile website or app performed better. Based on our survey, here are the top three things retailers should do to ensure that those browsing on their mobile site also make a purchase:
Make it speedy. Speed is of the essence when targeting consumers who are on the go. Mobile sites and apps need to load fast to ensure conversion of browsers into customers in one sitting. Of those surveyed, 61 percent would be deterred from purchasing on a mobile device if the site was slow to load. Moreover, more than half of respondents said that if their connection to a mobile website was slow, they would purchase on their desktop or laptop later — but are they really going to? Eliminate the need for consumers to switch devices by ensuring customers purchase at their peak point of interest.
Keep it simple. A clean, easy-to-navigate site ensures consumers find what they want quickly — i.e., quick enough to make a purchase when they search for it. Ninety-two percent of consumers said easy navigation was the most important aspect of a mobile site or app. When designing mobile sites, retailers should keep in mind consumers’ screen sizes and ensure content is proportionate with the size of the screen. That is, it should be simple and easy to navigate from browsing to purchasing. Keeping mobile sites and apps sleek and simple also ensures that consumers are able to execute purchases in one sitting. When it comes to the content on retailers’ mobile sites and apps, less really is more.
Keep it safe. With the massive influx of cyberattacks on e-commerce websites, it’s more essential than ever that retailers ensure their mobile apps and sites are safe and secure. Retailers can ease shoppers’ nerves and increase their revenue by safeguarding their mobile apps. Based on our survey, half of consumers are concerned about their privacy all the time when shopping online. Furthermore, 43 percent of consumers would shop more on their mobile device if they had more confidence in the security of their transactions. Eliminate any hesitation consumers may have by providing a mobile app or site that's protected against internet predators.
Money is being left on the table with missed opportunities for conversion of mobile browsers into customers. Retailers can mitigate this issue by creating a sleek, speedy and safe mobile app or site. Leveraging a service like a cloud application delivery platform that uses machine learning to optimize performance and security can help retailers deliver results to their customers fast, providing them what they want, when they want it.
Shailesh Shukla is the vice president of product and strategy at Instart Logic, a company that helps businesses speed up the delivery of cloud applications.
