Boost ecommerce conversion with responsive design

You will make more sales if your website has a responsive design. Two big things have happened and if your website isn’t responding to them you are potentially missing out on sales, higher Google rankings and new customers. The first is the rise of shopping on mobile devices allowing people to have access to the internet at all times. The second is a consequence of these new devices – responsive and adaptive web design. These make websites change to fit the device they are being viewed on, allowing a good user experience no matter how a website is visited. Websites ahead of the curve have already had their websites adjusted to make them responsive in a bid to increase conversions. But is it necessary?

About responsive web design

Responsive web design has been termed to be a kind of flexible, liquid layout which adapts towards fitting different devices, resolutions and screen sizes. It allows sites to change layouts automatically depending upon the screen resolution of the device used by the visitor, be it a tablet, smartphone or tablet, thereby creating user friendly interface. The content, image and the font are to adapt towards fitting the different devices, easily and effectively.

Growing importance of mobile based ecommerce

According to experts the global consumer devices market saw a milestone a couple of years back. It was for the very first time that sales of PC‘s were noticed to be much lesser than that of previous year, with sales of tablets exceeding laptop PCs. Moreover, the usage of smartphones has been growing at a tremendous pace, with people opting to have a smartphone, rather than go for the ordinary ones. Google has announced that they give more SEO clout to responsive websites, and mobile ecommerce had been dramatically rising each year. Designing a website for every device is not attainable and very expensive, so responsive design means a customer’s needs are met across platforms. The trend is to remove the barriers to sale, making it quicker, easier and more convenient.

Adapting experience

There are many websites and ecommerce shops that haven’t yet made the adaptation or redesign to become responsive. The experience that mobile customers have in these situations are dramatically different. Zooming and navigating the computer monitor sized site on the 3” screen is difficult when trying to read content, fill in forms and make purchases.  Furthermore, searching for the terms and conditions and other aspects related to the business and proceeding to the checkout, might be impossible for many prospective buyers, which means, they are sure to leave the site to search for competitor sites that are mobile friendly, to avoid those frustrating browsing experience.

Mobile visitors are made to feel comfortable towards taking action using their cell phones, at their own convenience. According to studies conducted, about 29% of smartphone users have used their device to shop online. With businesses trying to improve their site browsing experience, this percentage is expected to increase in the future. Organisations that have already acknowledged the potential of mobile experience are enjoying huge benefits of increased sales. These businesses have done one of three things to bring success:

• Redesigned their website to be responsive, or had their website adapted to be responsive.
• Had a mobile app developed to cater for their audience and create the best possible user experience.
• Created a dedicated mobile website that is used as an alternative to the desktop website.

Benefits of responsive websites

• Single site to create and manage: When it comes to website management having one single site to manage is more cost effective than running an app, a mobile site and a desktop website. Adaptive and responsive web design therefore helps to keep things simple.
• Future friendly: Manufacturers have been coming up with new devices to meet the growing demands of the consumers. Therefore, whatever the latest trend setting device in the market is, with responsive design it becomes much easier to have the content shrunk to the device’s specific resolution.
• SEO: All bookmarks and links point toward the same place and content is easily read an navigated. This is one of the main reasons why responsive design is being championed by Google.

Responsive websites are superior to non responsive websites and their very nature helps to convert visits into sales. The ethos is to create a website than can be used by anyone, anywhere on any device. Good user experience boosts sales so if your website is not responsive it should be.

Some websites have to be redeveloped to achieve responsiveness, but others just need some tweaking and changes to the main styles. In either case we can help you. Get in touch to see what we can do to help you achieve greater sales with responsive ecommerce solutions.