Mobile optimization was at 63.4% in 2019. That means almost two out of every three visitors to your e-commerce website are using a mobile device.
The interesting part here is the number of mobile users that are buying. Recent data shows that 97% of mobile users have made a purchase using their smartphones in the last six months. That can only mean that a great majority of your shop’s visitors are mobile users, with almost four out of five recently making a purchase. This only gives priority to mobile-friendly websites in the SERPs, and it’s clear that mobile optimization is of the greatest importance.
Online shoppers, particularly Gen Z, favour the convenience and the great discounts and offers associated more with online shopping than visiting a land-based store. It’s for these groups that increasingly more e-commerce retailers have become more strategic with their website design.
Having a nice-looking e-commerce website is not enough: your website has to be optimized for mobile shoppers. Even outside the winter season, when the sales are booming, a mobile-friendly website can help you reach the uppermost Google rank and capture more sales from always on the go shoppers.
With that said, here’s a list of the top mobile-friendly best practices that will give an amazing UX and increase conversions.
Use Mobile-Friendly Themes
A responsive website theme automatically adjusts itself to the user’s screen size. For a WordPress e-commerce shop, that means the website will look equally decent on smartphones, tablets, and desktop devices.
Nearly 51.5% of global internet traffic is on mobile devices, which means that half of your clients will be accessing your site using a mobile device.
If it doesn’t look inviting or doesn’t fit users’ mobile displays, then they will immediately leave. The chance is, they will never visit your site again.
For this exact reason, you should always use a responsive WordPress theme for your e-commerce platforms.
A responsive theme is a friendly theme. It improves the user experience while also increasing your SEO chances. Search engines like Google place mobile-optimized websites higher in mobile search, which can bring more traffic to your website.
Use Plugins
One interesting feature about WordPress is the accessibility of plugins that make the e-commerce owner’s job much bearable and more streamlined. WordPress plugins serve a wide range of purposes, including helping you make the website mobile optimized.
As an e-commerce representative, you’d rather spend your day and efforts focusing on the actual content on your platform than all the technical ins and outs that go behind to make your website function properly, right?
Plugins can help make the content on your platform more accessible without having to scroll in all directions or zoom in a million times when trying to read paragraphs on a mobile device.
WordPress plugins give you total control over your site’s mobile version. The domain mapping makes it simple to identify the most popular mobile devices, with a large variety of themes in all color palettes to give your users a pleasant experience without you having to spend hours figuring it all out by yourself.
Include AMP Supported Pages
According to data, nearly 50% of Google search queries worldwide are conducted through mobile devices. With that in mind, ensuring your WordPress platform loads quickly and looks welcoming at the same time, those types of searches should be of supreme importance. Luckily, the Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) initiative makes this task much bearable while improving the user experience.
According to a survey, a staggering 33% of all potential sales fail when the site isn’t mobile-optimized, while 57% of online users said they would not recommend an online retailer with a poorly designed mobile site. Google AMP makes it easy to build user-friendly mobile web pages to help you avoid these common drawbacks.
Streamline the Checkout Process
Online retailers lose 23% of shoppers by asking them to continue through additional steps during the checkout process. Asking customers to register for an account or enter additional personal data only makes it more difficult and can discourage potential buyers from completing their purchases.
The convenience of accepting any kind of payment method is also important. Website owners must ensure their customers can access PayPal, Apple Pay, Visa Checkout, and other types of mobile or digital wallets to complete their purchase.
Integrate Your WordPress With Social Media
Social media is all the buzz these days. And if you aren’t already boosting social sales, maybe it’s time to rethink your current strategy.
Of course, there’s a lot of hype when it comes to social media and its great selling power: however, it’s not 2011 anymore. It’s even more clear that if you’re not tapping into avenues like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, for a novice, you’re likely leaving cash on the table.
Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are currently the main leading forces in social selling. As an online retailer working to increase your audience, you can integrate your e-commerce platform with one of these channels and capture not only new leads but more sales from mobile app users as well.
For example, a wide range of retail businesses on Pinterest show visitors the price and availability of their products; buyers can complete their purchase immediately, rather than entering a different web page to check out.
Like it or not, we’ve long reached the tipping point where increasingly more online buyers are on mobile devices rather than desktops. So, it’s no wonder that this demographic deserves the most attention in 2021 and beyond.
Mobile optimization strategies listed in this post should ensure your buyers have a smooth, comfortable online experience without any drawbacks. As such, they will be more likely to explore your online store for longer and ultimately become loyal customers.