Should I also get a mobile eCommerce site ?

[2012]

Im hoping to finally get my eCommerce site finished and I was wonder should I also get a mobile site ?
it will cost me about £50-£100 to get a mobile theme added the the site.

With 4g coming out and more getting invested into mobile browsing, could someone advise me.

 

[a.mart]

...it will cost me about £50-£100 to get a mobile theme added the the site.

I think thats your answer right there. If it wont cost you more than that, then definitely go for it. To be honest I dont think 4G is going to make a big difference in terms of ecommerce because the extra bandwidth and speed wont really make it any easier or convenient. However, people are using their mobile devices more and more and Amazon customers for example are spending more than a billion a year on their mobile site.

 

[aml4]

Hi
In terms of additional potential customers then yes.....however it depends on your web site and how it looks, many web designers should include a mobile version to allow you to see the effect and adjust accordingly. many sites are diffecult to navigate especially on drop downs and multi option pages. for £100 its well worth exploring, but you must have a link to the full site otherwise people will not transfer or bother to log on at a later date.

 

[nish]

Of course, go for it. It will help your SEO too run this small tool on your website to find out how you are doing with your new website.

 

[j600com]

In most cases I would say yes - but it depends on the sector you're in and also the quality/functionality of the mobile site of course (have you seen an example of what it will be like?).

We're seeing on average 1 in 5 visitors coming via mobile now (across our clients sites not our site) and have several clients who are much higher - i noticed one last week who's mobile traffic is already greater than desktop (they get a lot from social media campaigns, and often these are mobile users).

Have a read of this: http://multicommerceconnection.word...ill-mcommerce-overtake-ecommerce-infographic/

 

[fisicx]

You don't need a mobile site.

You need a site that works on all devices. Mobile can be anything from a tiny phone right up to a 17" laptop.

The theme you are using should be responsive to the device - which means it adjusts to the screen size. For example: hidden sidebar in portrait but visible in landscape. Small logo on an iphone, full logo on a galaxy, full logo and contact details on a tablet.

If they are creating a separate mobile theme then they have missed the point. It should be the same theme adapting to the device.

 

[cumpsty]

I agree with Fisicx, a responsive design is the best way to go. The point is that there is a huge amount of variety in different screen sizes and resolutions for mobiles alone never mind when we put tablets and desktops in the picture. A well designed responsive theme will adapt to the size of your screen as necessary.

With regards to whether you should have a mobile theme, your website should be accessible and user friendly from mobile devices (especially tablets) without a doubt. It is likely a significant number of your customers are using mobile devices to buy online. You need to be able to cater for them.

 

[webstore]

A "responsive" design is great if you can live with a clean simple layout but if your site layout is complex then you will need additional software that will auto detect iPhone, Andriod etc and only push a very simplified version of your site.

 

[jakew009]

If you do make a mobile site make sure it is indeed an improvement over your normal site when viewed on a mobile device.

It is so annoying when there is a poorly done mobile site that was thrown together and is less usable than the normal version. You can make the site mobile friendly without making a completely separate version.

 

[JElder]

I'd say if you can get a decent template that works for that price go for it. Our average e-commerce customer is seeing 20 to 25% traffic from mobile devices from smartphones to pads, so we are working on various ways to make the sites work on a range of resolutions.

Remember that as well as as the size/layout, you need to make sure it works for touch. Hover menus are the biggest area - they work on iOS but not Android - and you have to ensure all menu items and clickable calls to action are big enough for fat fingers.

We've just built a mobile version of our own site as a test (non e-commerce) and are working on turning two e-commerce sites into fully flexible layouts, including reduced resolution images to speed up download times.

 

[sarahjohs]

Yup. I think you should. Any E commerce business without a mobile version these days will be looked at as 'not' being up with the times. Plus it doesn't seem to cost much.

 

[Frog-Dude]

We are also looking at getting a mobile site, due to looking at what our visitors are coming in on. Nearly 25% of visits from mobiles. So if you think about it will be a good investment.

 

[fergusw]

I'd also add to the weight of opinion regarding "responsive" web design.

If properly thought out, a responsive design can deliver suitable content for the relevant device
e.g. large "finger friendly" buttons for mobile or text links for desktop

We have also seen an average of 25% of site visitors using mobile (including tablets!) across hundreds of our clients websites.

With tablet sales outstripping PC's, and 6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide it is a market that cannot be ignored.

I'd be careful of the claims of a £100 mobile "theme". What does it deliver for tablets (both portrait/landscape mode)? How will it cope with new devices and display dimensions (new iPad mini!)? Has it been designed to deliver the "most important content" to the user within a reduced screen retail browser?

 

[puresilva]

If you do make a mobile site make sure it is indeed an improvement over your normal site when viewed on a mobile device.

It is so annoying when there is a poorly done mobile site that was thrown together and is less usable than the normal version. You can make the site mobile friendly without making a completely separate version.

Absolutely. Some mobile versions of websites are so "dumbed down" it becomes frustrating - like stripping out most of the content and navigation and narrowing everything down to "simple choices" with big buttons - but it ends up being a labyrinth of "simple choices" to get to where I want to go, often with the details of the content I want missing. That's a lot more frustrating for me than a standard web page where I pinch/zoom to get to where I want to go (usually in a single click) and get full content. Often there's simply content missing on these mobile versions because it doesn't fit into their "big button" philosophy.

 

[fergusw]

I'd add weight to the argument of having a responsive web design created.
With the iPad mini launched and the future unknown for what devices may come out next a well thought out responsive design will allow your website to adapt in the best possible way to the device it is viewed upon.

Some things to think about with responsive design:

- bandwidth. The entire code is loaded so if your desktop/tablet/mobile versions are all very different and graphic/code heavy then mobile bandwidth issues may arise.
- finger friendly vs desktop navigation. Often the biggest complaint in mobile sites is the inability to find quickly what is immediately available on the desktop version. This is where a well thought out design and navigation structure is key
- The design layouts for mobile versus tablet versus desktop. Content is key, and how that content is displayed to the user on a particular device is vital. Is the content fit for purpose on the device it is intended for? e.g. Fancy JQuery effects on mobile.

We have designed responsive ecommerce websites which we find can be readily adapted to suit this framework as they are primarily about navigation to the product content.

 

[TradeboxMedia]

My experience is that a mobile presence is great but, as far as ecommerce goes, don't expect a lot of sales through your mobile site just yet.

At the moment, mobile purchases of physical products tend to go to the incumbent (Amazon, eBay etc) and us SMEs are struggling to eat at their market share.

Your mobile site (especially if it comes in at the figures you're taling about) will be great add-on to your current branding and marketing. But not much more for now.

It does, however, place you in a good position to take advantage of the inevitable shift to mobile purchasing in a year or two.

 

[JElder]

We are seeing quite a few conversions from mobile traffic on the e-commerce sites we manage - it's at a lower rate than desktops, but it is a significant amount of sales in a month.

It will be really interesting to see what the conversion rate does once we launch the mobile version in a few weeks for one specific site.

 

[BASD]

I think it definitely depends on what kind of eCommerce Business. Lots work really well on mobiles, and revenues generated by mobile sites are on the increase. We are seriously thinking of doing this ourselves, to try and up the conversion rate from mobile users.

 

[Wassells]

It's definitely a good idea to add a mobile version to your site. You can get more business coming your way from mobile phone visits too.