Planning a Responsive Ecommerce Website

Many e-retailers are considering responsive ecommerce web design for new build ecommerce websites or existing site renovations. An effective set of tools and techniques used to consolidate a multi-device strategy, responsive design makes a lot of sense for ecommerce businesses.

Why Do I Need Responsive Ecommerce?

According to a recent poll on traffic share, mobile devices (including tablets and smartphones) saw an increase in traffic from 22.8% to 37% in 2013. Conversely, “desktop's share of the traffic decreased from 77.3% to 62.9% in 2013", according to analytics data from Intelligent Positioning [i].

Data suggests that whilst desktop still has the largest traffic share, mobile is gaining in popularity and growing rapidly. If rates continue as stated above, smartphone and tablet traffic is set to overtake desktop by summer 2014. Are you ready?

If you are looking to build a successful and profitable ecommerce website, responsive design is now a must. Without a responsive ecommerce solution, your site will lose out on traffic, and therefore sales, from mobile and tablet users.

How Can Responsive Ecommerce Websites Increase Revenue?

Whilst some ecommerce companies remain sceptical about responsive ecommerce, many are primarily concerned with how a responsive design will affect the customer experience and website metrics.

The great thing about responsive design is that it dynamically adapts to different screen sizes using one set of code. This means that your website's core content, features and logic remains the same, no matter which device it is being viewed on. The presentation of the site may vary depending on the screen size; increasing text size and making buttons bigger, but a responsive ecommerce solution ensures a consistent customer experience.

There is more great news for online retailers. In a recent survey, it was found that more traffic is coming from mobiles devices during retail seasons. Smartphone traffic was found to increase during the summer holiday period in August, whilst tablet usage spiked during December when people are spending more time a home. Overall, mobile traffic increased by 140% whilst desktop declined by -2%. [intelligentpositioning.com, April 2014]

How Should I Plan My Responsive Ecommerce Website?

• Who Is It For? – Using Google Analytics track mobile, tablet and desktop traffic to your site. If mobile and tablet traffic has a high bounce rate it is likely that visitors cannot use your site on their device and have moved to a competitor. Responsive ecommerce will ensure that all consumers find your site easy to use and access, whatever device they are using.
• How Can I Measure Conversion Success? – Set yourself goals to achieve by the end of six months and keep your sights on them. If you raise your mobile traffic by a percentage, aim for your conversion rate to also improve by that percentage.
• What Design Decisions Effect Conversion? - You have to remember that space is at a premium for mobile users, so ensure that any content you wish to show is concise and useful. Consider navigation and menus for mobile and tablet users – how will they interact with your site? Make sure that if your website follows CRO best practices for desktop that it is optimised for conversions on mobile as well.

How Can Advansys Help You?

At Advansys we have developed our own responsive ecommerce solution using Bootstrap technology created by Twitter. Designed from mobile up instead of desktop down, our responsive solution ensures that your website is optimised for the smallest screen first.

For more information about responsive ecommerce and how it can work for you, call our specialists on 0845 838 2700 or email us at sales@advansys.com.

[i] http://www.intelligentpositioning.com/blog/2014/01/mobile-and-tablet-traffic-set-to-overtake-desktop-by-mid-2014/

http://www.mobify.com/insights/responsive-design-for-e-commerce-retailers/