Brands looking to make the most out of their online presence with regards to sales this year could really benefit from discussing mobile optimisation and app creation with their local Buckinghamshire creative agency.
Why so? Because according to a PayPal white paper, nearly half of all online sales here in the UK are made using mobile devices, so if you’ve not yet prioritised this as an area of focus for your company, you could really be missing out on a lot of extra revenue.
Rapid growth in mobile commerce among consumers who are now increasingly using their smartphones and tablets to buy on the internet means that many retailers out there are now actually thinking about mobile first before anything else when it comes to online activity.
In 2015, online retail sales reached £114 billion, representing an incredible opportunity for companies that are already mobile ready, while posing something of a risk for brands that aren’t.
It’s worth remembering, however, that it’s not just about splashing the cash when it comes to using smartphones and other devices to browse the internet. People also use their gadgets to research products, read reviews, compare prices and check specifications, so you’d also be wise to have all this information readily available on your site somewhere so all their questions can be answered with ease.
When it comes to designing an effective mobile site, PayPal advises businesses to treat these sites as projects in themselves, steering clear of just trying to translate desktop sites to mobile. Navigation should be made as simple as possible, using a fixed navigation bar, larger fonts and big buttons.
Once it’s completed, it’s always wise to test it out on a variety of devices so you can make sure that it works and adapts to any and all gadgets, whether that’s a smartphone or the biggest tablet on the market.
Before the design process can even begin, however, you’d be wise to do as much research as you can, as this will help you really understand just who your users are and what they actually need. See what the competition is up to (as well as other brands not in your industry) and have a look at apps that could be similar to yours, finding out which aspects you like and which you don’t.
You should always have the user experience at the forefront of your mind and while it might be tempting to include all sorts of features to help attract people to your app and mobile site, having too much going on can be confusing. Work out what’s most important and remove any features that while potentially nice to have are limited in terms of their usefulness.
Want any more help and advice relating to mobile web design? Give us a call today to see what we can do for you.