Time’s up, responsive shops
For many years, responsive CSS setups were heralded as the way to go for online shops. One codebase for all, instant feature parity, automatic adaptation to all devices and screen sizes. What could go wrong?
Many e-commerce shops today experience a conversion rate on mobile that is about half that of desktop conversion. Mostly this is explained as a “browse on mobile, buy on desktop” attitude by shoppers. But under increasing market pressure from Amazon, Zalando and others, many small and medium sized shops are taking a long hard look at their assumptions. They are looking for answers to the question: How can we make sure that we still exist in a few years? What can we do better than the tech giants?
The answer could be greater customer focus, but on mobile specifically it also means rethinking shop design. The reality is that responsive design was a movement driven by technology, not the user. Everyone knows that people use mobile devices differently than desktop devices, and in different situations. Phones are used to browse e.g. during the daily commute while desktop devices are being used during the quieter time, and with a longer attention span, after work or on weekends. Fundamentally, these differences are not addressed in a responsive world. All we do is match layouts to screen sized to make things readable.
In many ways, designing and optimizing an m-commerce website is much more difficult and often requires more “intelligent” website features than a traditional desktop e-commerce website.
Christian Holst, Co-founder of Baymard Institute
In addition, optimization to raise conversion rates on desktop does not take full advantage of the possibilities on mobile. With fewer products visible on screen, the attention of a user on a specific product can be quantified more easily and precisely, and product rankings and recommendations can be displayed in real time, rather than on page load. What this allows for is an unprecedented experience in terms of personalized content: Because when it comes to optimizing mobile experiences, content is king.
When optimizing mobile for conversion, forget the button color. It’s 1000x more important to display the right content.
Peter Riedel, Head Of Design at Personio GmbH
The need to adapt e-commerce to mobile beyond responsive templates, together with today’s AI technology, offers an exciting possibility for mobile commerce: To be the launch pad for truly AI-driven user interfaces. This means interfaces that are fast, friendly and adapt in real-time to the needs and wishes of each and every individual customer, just like the helpful, experienced staff at your favorite store. Because in the end, the goal of an online shop is always the same: To offer a fantastic shopping experience, tailored to each and every user.
If you want to know how to supercharge the mobile commerce on your store, get in touch.
References
- IntelliAd Ecommerce Market Index 2017
http://www.intelliad.de/ecommerce-branchenindex/ - Exploring 10 Fundamental Aspects Of M-Commerce Usability
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/recommendations-mobile-commerce-websites/ - Free Machines
http://www.free-machines.com/
