Mobile Friendly or Mobile Foe? Top Obstacles to Mobile Shopping.

In Commentary by Dan Engel

Mobile commerce is unstoppable. Yes, like Napoleon’s armies sweeping across Europe in 1805, mobile is conquering all, threatening all rival commerce channels with its onslaught.

Despite mobile’s seemingly irresistible advance, however, there remain five key obstacles that may make your site distinctly not mobile friendly and could lead to tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales. With the latest in mobile web development tools, however, you can ensure your site is mobile friendly and triumphant in the battle for consumer dollars.

Mobile on the March

No wonder mobile commerce is booming. A Cisco survey reports a whopping 44% of youthful consumers say they’d rather give up their sense of smell than lose access to the Internet (and by Internet they mean their mobile device).

Mobile commerce itself is sweeping from victory to victory, pressing forward with a seemingly irresistible force.

And most likely, that big chunk of change is the mere tip of the warhead. While phones and tablets accounted for 62% of the time consumers spent shopping online, says comScore, they only amounted 13% of actual online purchases. That suggests much retail territory is ripe for the conquering.

Mobile is bound to capture more territory as consumers become secure with their mobile spending. So is your website seizing its fair share of this increasing demand? Is your website truly mobile friendly?

Top 5 Reasons mCommerce Hasn’t Achieved Total World Domination

Consumers repeatedly express their discontent with these 5 shortcomings of mobile shopping (according to comScore’s report based on its global panel of 2 million Internet users). Mobiquity argues these deficiencies in the mobile experience have “huge implications on conversion rates.”

1. Security worries. Approximately one fifth of mobile phone users expressed strong concerns over processing payment information on mobile devices, a concern sure to decline in the next years.

2. Can’t see product details. Similarly Mobiquity reports that 26% of consumers say the “most frustrating aspect of mobile shopping” was the limited info accessible.

3. Navigation between screens and sites too difficult and slow. Typically consumers were frustrated at their inability to comparison shop, find coupons or discounts or get to the next screen.

4. Too difficult to input name/address/payment info.

5. Slow load times and slow browsing and spotty connections. This complaint was echoed in research by Mobiquity where 42% of survey respondents decried slow load times.

A Superior Weapon for Digital Marketers

Beyond security, these five pain points reveal that consumers are most unhappy with the performance of sites for mobile devices and, in particular, dissatisfied with actually being able to see and find information.

In the translation to the mobile devices’ mini screen, websites suffer all kinds of unexpected collateral damage. Digital marketing professionals need a tool that can easily reveal the precise failings of their sites’ mobile adaptions. They need a weapon that supplies them with visibility and insight into how their site is being visually rendered and is performing.

That latest weapon in the digital marketing master’s arsenal is Mobilizer. With Mobilizer, you can visually scan your site’s rendering on up to 14 actual (not emulated) leading mobile devices in seconds. Spot check their displays side by side. Scroll down to catch all the myriad errors that can disrupt adaptions to the mobile platform, whether it’s misplaced text, distorted layout , cut-off text and images, misalignment, inconsistent fonts, incorrect colors, missing videos and images, weird blank spaces or some other nightmare.

Way back in 1832, General Karl von Clausewitz observed that in every war there is confusion, excess complexity and obscurity. The army that can gain clarity secures a crucial advantage. Mobilizer is the tool that provides marketing generals with the clarity to capitalize on the potentialities of mobile commerce, ensure their site is mobile friendly and seize victory from possible defeat.

Mobile1st is a leader in marketing technology and site optimization solutions. More than prioritizing and executing industry leading CRO practices, we do what makes the money; optimizing our Client’s digital commerce product toward consistent financial growth and ROI. All achieved through excellence in Lean UX, Analytics, Research, Experimentation and Development.
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