It is no secret that consumers are reaching for their mobile more and more when it comes to browsing websites. However, many still browse on their mobile and buy on their desktop. Duncan Keene, UK Managing Director at ContentSquare explains how retailers can turn mobile browsers into buyers.
Mobile has long been a challenge for retailers worldwide. From developing a good responsive design, to slow page loads and clunky apps, honing the mobile experience has been on the to-do list of online businesses for many years.
But user behaviour has turned mobile from a nice-to-have to an essential component of any ecommerce proposition. With 60% of visitors now on mobile devices, the need for retailers to optimise their mobile experience is now greater than ever.
And whilst many retailers may think they are providing a great mobile experience with their responsive site, an analysis of 300 million mobile site sessions by ContentSquare revealed a conversion rate of just 1.5% in 2015.
Duncan Keene, UK Managing Director, ContentSquare explains how retailers can convert their browsers into buyers.
Missed opportunities for conversion
In 2015, 71% of retail customers’ journeys began from mobile. Whether that’s searching for a product, browsing a homepage or consuming a piece of content, mobile is an integral part of the retail customer journey.
Developing an app and making a website responsive are both great ways to provide an easy-access shopping experience to consumers, but brands too often miss important user journeys along the way. A mobile internet user, for example, is four times less likely to log into their customer account. This represent a huge opportunity for retailers – recent analysis by ContentSquare found that members that log into an account convert 10x more than average on ecommerce sites.
But in order to streamline the customer journey, it’s essential to understand how and why customers behave on your site. UX analytics tools can give you a window into the customer journey, and enable you to quickly identify and points of friction.
Utilise ‘Touch Commerce’
Retailers are losing customers on mobile. It takes just 39 seconds for a mobile user to decide to leave a page, which is 22% less time than on a desktop or tablet. Furthermore, 16% of mobile users will abandon account creation versus 10% on desktop . Why? Because they are getting frustrated by the mobile experience.
Retailers need to invest in ‘touch commerce’ – in other words, allowing customers to make secure first-time purchases without having to provide registration or log in details. Authorising the transaction should become as simple as a few taps or even a fingerprint. Providing an efficient, seamless experience is what really drives conversion.
The how and why of user behaviour
UX analytics are key if retailers want to solve customer frustrations. UX analytics software is capable of monitoring several useful metrics, such as hesitation time over certain elements, and tap recurrence – or the number of times users tap on the same button (which could indicate a slow website).
Mobile users wait 21% longer before interacting with the first page of a website – indicating why retailers need to capture and engage users fast if they are to improve conversion.
Retailers also need to remember that it’s not just about the numbers, it’s about the customers behind them. By considering the mindset, desires, and behaviour of mobile customers, retailers can begin pinpointing specific issues with engagement and conversion metrics – and begin testing to resolve them.
By Duncan Keene
UK Managing Director