Do You Need a Mobile Website?
Technology has pervaded society in this day and age. Everywhere you look, you will find someone sending a text message. Another might be talking to someone on their Bluetooth headset. On the other hand, you might see a child playing a virtual game on his gadget. When you get home, someone is sitting in front of a laptop conducting a video conference. People have become hooked in the virtual environment and it has changed how shoppers think and act. Technology continues to expand its reach and change consumers in general.
IPads are a hit everywhere. BGR shares findings in the study by iSuppli that sales are up 44% from first to second quarter in 2012. Using the same iPad, ten percent of online shopping showed consumers used their iPad in 2012. IPhone came in at a close second 8.7 percent of this traffic. This was two years ago and you know that Samsung has been dishing out their own set of tablets in the market today. They may not be as popular as Apple products but they also get their share of the market, even on a global scale. Companies like Shopify have also capitalized on iPads to work with point of sale systems.
Mobile and Full Sites
With the rise in use of websites for shopping needs, the burning question has been the need to come up with a mobile website. Compare going to Yahoo! mail on your desktop or laptop then shift to your Yahoo mobile site. Both looks almost the same but you will notice that the latter may have less details on it than the former. The idea was to de-clutter full websites. This way, they can squeeze in the necessary functionalities in one page on your phone or tablet screen.
Websites with too many links can frustrate customers. And with such a small screen, it is easy to click on the wrong button each time if they are on the full site. Some of your customers may still have trouble with mobile sites. Because it is not the same as the full site, buttons where they used to be may be missing. It might take a few wrong clicks before they can get to the right link or get directed to the correct page.
Cross-linking sites
One idea is to make sure to cross-link the mobile site with the full site. Smashing Magazine also supports cross-linking these two sites. It will definitely cost a little more money than you may have anticipated. But it can make your customers want to come back to your website more. Not all online shoppers think the same way. Your customers will have different levels of technical knowledge. The younger generation who used this technology in their early years are likely going to find it easy to toggle between these two. Although they may gravitate more towards full sites as it got all the menus they need. Besides, this kind of customers can find their way around the page and figure things out faster. For the less tech-savvy customers, they will find mobile sites to be easier to manage. The page will look more organized and streamlined. Your customers won’t have to struggle scrolling up and down, left or right.
You will also need to take into consideration that some shoppers will use tablets. And another group might use smartphones. Then, not all these devices have the same exact settings. What this means is that some of the graphics or animations may not work on the device. Tablet screens are larger than that of the smartphones in general. This means these devices can handle the full site or the mobile site. This may not be the case for smartphone users with more limited screen size.
User-Friendly Site
No matter if your customer would go for the full site or the mobile site, it all boils down to one question. Is your business website user-friendly? This is why it is important to get the best web developers during the early stages of creating your website. These sites are able to effectively help businesses increase their brand recognition and maximize exposure for marketing purposes. This tool will make it much easier for you to increase sales and generate more profit. Customers can buy from this website and no need to travel, if they prefer not to.
You will definitely have to think through how you plan to go about it. Do you have the budget to have both types of websites created for your business? If not, see which one you can get the most value for your money. When sales have picked up, plan on the other site. By then, the scenario might have changed again. Just be on the lookout for developments so that you don’t get left behind.