Not so long ago, consumers used their laptops or PCs to browse for items, shop for bargains, and make their purchases. These days, those larger devices are quickly being replaced by the ubiquitous smartphone. If you run an ecommerce site, it is imperative that you optimize it in order to capitalize on this ever-growing trend.

What is a mobile-friendly website?

Think about an ecommerce space that can be totally navigated via a consumer’s smartphone. Using their Android or Apple device, they should be able to access all the parts of your site with ease and speed, purchasing the items of their choice without difficulty. A mobile-friendly site is one that is well-designed, responsive, and loads rapidly whenever a smartphone user clicks on it.

Enhance your design.

One of the crucial differences between a smartphone and a larger device is its size. Consequently, a mobile-friendly site must be designed to ensure that images show up properly on a cellphone’s tiny display and that the touchscreen can be used to click on images with ease. The design you implement should also take speed into consideration since users expect to be able to navigate quickly and accurately through multiple pages.

Incorporate responsive design into your site.

Although achieving the aforementioned goals may sound overwhelming, tech innovators have come up with an effective solution known as responsive design. In effect, the platform that you adopt can be designed for PCs and laptop browsers, with a mobile-friendly version automatically generated by the software. If you accept online payments in your internet store, you probably are already affiliated with a hosted ecommerce platform that includes this indispensable design feature for your blog and shopping cart.

Make mobile a priority.

Over the upcoming months and years, various elements of your website will evolve. However, you should never forget the importance of the mobile experience for a steadily increasing number of your loyal customers. Be sure that your checkout process remains fast and easy, while minimizing the use of clunky input forms.

Stick to the basic ecommerce principles.

Even before you designed your site for mobile phones, you likely worked hard to make navigation and checkout easy. Now that you are courting mobile customers, speed and ease of use are even more important. As you continue to update and evolve your website, never lose sight of these essential underlying priorities.

Capitalize on social media exposure.

Smartphones and social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, TikTo, and Instagram work seamlessly together. As a business owner, it makes perfect sense to leverage this perfect union to drive traffic to your website.

Once you connect these dots, you will discover a number of benefits. For one thing, happy customers often spontaneously take pictures of products and services they love, providing you with instant free advertisement of the highest order. In the same way, these satisfied buyers often write glowing reviews that are later read by potential future customers who are looking around to find the site from which they will make their next purchase.

Increase your site’s loading speed.

The truth is that people don’t have a lot of patience these days. If the site they are attempting to visit on their smartphone does not load within a few seconds, they may go elsewhere. Enhance your website’s speed by:

• Compressing your images.
• Improving the response time of your server.
• Loading primary content first.
• Optimizing CSS and JS files.
• Keeping 301 redirects to a minimum.

Provide the personal touch.

Mobile phones are nothing less than tiny computers that are jam-packed with vital customer information. With consumers’ permission, you can target the offers and incentives you send to potential purchasers based on this data. The result is that they only receive offers for things they want. That means higher sales conversion rates for you.

Call your customers to action.

It’s your job to let potential customers know what you would like them to do. Create optimal calls to action by making your request prominent and noticeable. Compel customers with clear and expressive images and clear verbiage. Be sure to place your call to action in a prominent place on your website to ensure that no one is in doubt as to what you want.

Offer an omnichannel experience.

If you are like a large number of business owners, you operate on several platforms, including social media, online, email, and in your physical store. Many consumers value approaching you on two or more of these platforms. For example, some may visit your physical retail space to see and touch your products. After that they may purchase them online using their smartphones so that the products can be delivered right to their doors. To maintain the best possible customer relationship, make it a point to interact effectively with customers no matter which ways they interact with you and your goods and services.

Tweak your navigation.

The best and most mobile-friendly sites are a joy to click through. Keep these principles in mind:

• Put the most important pages first.
• Allow users to peruse the site with a search box.
• Remove pop-ups.
• Use clear fonts that are not too complex.

Customize your site to appeal to local buyers.

The internet can seem like a pretty impersonal and intimidating place, even for users who are browsing it using their smartphones. Fly in the face of that impression by creating an ecommerce site that makes guests feel right at home. That means doing whatever it takes to reflect the local language, currency, colors, images, etc. Anything you can do to establish and cultivate a connection will increase your chances of making a sale today and a loyal customer for years to come.

Few would argue that mobile phones are just a fad whose time will soon come to an end. On the contrary, smartphones are becoming indispensable in the lives of consumers of all national and socioeconomic backgrounds the world over. At a time when fierce competition from global rivals is at an all-time high, you cannot afford to fall behind. Adopt these suggestions to make your site mobile-friendly today!