Thursday, December 11, 2014
If you offer goods and service online, do you know how your customers complete transactions with you?
A lot of emphasis is placed on having websites that are mobile friendly. There is some justification for this, since tablets and smart phones have taken over many of the functions that used to be the sole province of laptops and desktops.
Of course, there is not, nor is there ever likely to be, a one-size-fits-all approach. Your business decision is how to decide where your business needs to be in terms of the trend from PCs to laptops to tablets to mobile.
A recent survey indicates that you should pause and take the time to deploy mobile capabilities. At the current time, over 70 percent of all online purchases are still made on PCs. This would include desktops and laptops. Tablet purchases are growing, accounting for 16 percent at the moment. Interestingly, the product being offered has a profound influence of which device is employed. The survey also found that the leap from browsing to buying, or conversion, was highest for tablets.
Another consideration for you and your business is the type of websites that are driving online purchases. Shopping and product comparison sites are the two that have the highest percentage of online conversions, followed by sites that offer deals and various other incentives.
Where your business fits into these survey results is the most important factor to consider when devising your online strategy.
A simple but effective approach is to base your decisions upon the dominant age of your prospective customers. If you cater to those under 30, it is highly likely that they will find you on a tablet or smart phone, so you would want to accommodate them sooner, rather than later with apps and mobile-friendly websites.
An older demographic prefers the detail and resolution of bigger screens, so if that is your primary market, you could delay rolling out mobile solutions, at least temporarily.