When building a website, a common misconception by many business owners is that their customers are mainly going to access their website using a desktop or traditional laptop. Naturally, the full size website looks “better” and is easiest to read and navigate. In an ideal world, your customers would always get to see your website at its very best, on the biggest screen. But the world is changing. Now, technology is constantly at our fingertips, and mobile devices are massively on the rise. Take a look at these striking statistics:
- 91% of adults in the USA have a mobile phone, and 61% of these are smartphones.
- For the younger generations, the numbers are even higher: 76% claim to own a smartphone.
- In Australia, 65% of the population uses a smartphone.
- More than 5 million Australians now own tablets, with projections suggesting that 70% of the population will own them by 2017.
The numbers don’t lie. More people than ever before are using mobile devices to access the Internet. What does this mean for online sales and businesses? How is the ecommerce landscaping shifting as a result?
More Time Spent Online
The marked growth in mobile users is significant in many ways. One of the most interesting consequences of our expanded mobile use as a society is the increased amount of time we are now spending online. With the vast world wide web in the palm of our hand, we have instant access to email, entertainment, news, and shopping. The portability and ‘fun’ value of mobile devices means most of us have our phone on our person nearly constantly.
Shockingly, 25% of smartphone users between the ages of 18 to 44 claim they “can’t recall the last time their smartphone wasn’t next to them.”
Studies show that the amount of time the average user spends online has swelled upwards of 4 hours per day. From 2010 to 2013, when mobile devices were rapidly gaining traction, time spent online soared by 93%.
What We’re Doing Online
But what are people doing with all those online hours? With an endless variety of apps, websites, and social media platforms to choose from, Internet users are utilising their time online to do everything under the sun. One of the major upturns in use, however, is pointing to online shopping. Ecommerce has grown steadily over the years, showing massive growth following the increased popularity of mobile devices.
The user-friendly interfaces of smartphones and tablets tends to streamline online processes. With the right mobile-optimised website or smartphone app, shopping online can now be as simple as the click of a button. Related advances like saved credit card information or PayPal payment options can make shopping online via mobile even easier.
With these advantages, it’s not surprising that mobile users now make up more than 50% of ecommerce traffic. And according to Australian Digital Statistics of 2014, even those that aren’t following through with ecommerce purchases (41% of Australian mobile users), are still heavily using their smartphones and tablets to research and compare products online.
Capitalising on Mobile Ecommerce
So what does the changing landscape of ecommerce mean for your business? Essentially, if your business sells goods online, having a mobile-optimised website is an absolute must. Even better, develop a specialised app for your business, to make mobile sales even easier. Having a basic website that doesn’t support viewing on mobile devices is a surefire way to discourage customers from buying from your business via a smartphone or tablet. Such websites are clunky and frustrating to attempt to use on a mobile device, so the majority of customers are likely to move on to other businesses whose sites will function flawlessly on their mobiles.
As a business, it’s vital that you capitalise on the upward trend of online shopping via mobile and now is the best possible time to build your mobile-friendly web design. Ecommerce via smartphones and tablets provides a real convenience for your shoppers, and the one-click nature of buying through a mobile device is attractive and fun and just may inspire more than a few impulse buys as users browse your products.
The Need for a Mobile Responsive Website
With the increased use of mobile devices, this creates a serious question for business owners wishing to market their business online – How do I accommodate for the massive rise in mobile traffic? The best answer is making sure that your website displays correctly on mobile devices. Here at Webics, all of our website packages include mobile responsiveness, which means that you don’t have to worry about your website not displaying correctly on these devices.
If you are unsure if your current website is mobile friendly, or if you would like to find out how becoming mobile friendly could help your business in the mobile world, get in touch with us today.
