With the number of mobile phones expected to outpace desktop computers later this year, it’s no guess that mobile users will begin to point their fingers to your website. What will they find when they thumb through your site? Will it work or will they bounce?
If you’ve ever tried to shop from your smartphone, your tablet or your e-book reader, you know how the whole process can be terribly frustrating. Images won’t resize properly. Product descriptions fail to even show up. You can’t buy a thing without getting up, turning on your desktop, finding the ecommerce site and trying once more. I tried this once at my favourite camping gear site. Then I discovered EddieBauer.com.
The need for a mobile-first strategy is now stronger than ever. Consider these stats…
In a recent study, Google found that nearly half of smartphone users say that even if they like a business, they’ll use it less often if it doesn’t work on their mobile phones. 96% of surveyed smartphone users have visited websites that aren’t mobile-friendly, and nearly 41% say they won’t visit those sites again if they have a bad experience.
You don’t want to lose more than a third of your customers because you don’t have a mobile-friendly site. With the rapid rise in mobile browsing, I’m willing to bet that you can’t afford to lose more than a third of your customers. Still, some ask is it worth it?
Making your existing website responsive can be just as expensive as a shiny new website redesign. It takes time to respond well to the preferences of the multimedia seeking desktop user, the task-focused smartphone user and the tap-and-touch tablet user, and then deliver a conversion optimized site at every layout breakpoint.
Forget about the traffic grid-locking nature of a bad mobile website. Remember your customers? They’re looking for something that fits their screen and their expectations, and hopefully you’re right there with the one website that responds well to their needs.
Stop playing around with cheap web design and development solutions that ignore the potential of your business online and alienate the one thing you need to thrive: people.
Let’s explore how to build a faster, more responsive and wholly accessible website.
