A key element of the website design process, is that of broadly assuming various ways, contexts and settings in which someone might use the site in question. But have you given enough thought to how these scenarios may vary when it comes to visitors to your mobile site?
Generally speaking, any given time someone visits your mobile ecommerce site, one of three scenarios is likely to be the case: they’re probably waiting for something to happen, on a break at work, or relaxing at home.
These different situations have varying implications for users’ experience of the site, why they are visiting in the first place, what problems they are looking to solve, and how you can capture them.
What do we mean by ‘waiting for something to happen’?
You’ve probably found yourself in this situation plenty of times yourself, when you’ve suddenly come up with an idea for something, and performed a Google search for a related term.
In this scenario, the user is only typically focusing for about five to 10 minutes, and isn’t interested in actually buying a product – or at least, not right now. Instead, they’re simply putting together a mental list of ideas, perhaps including potential stores and products for their given problem.
To appeal to these visitors, then, you’ll need to provide them with obvious opportunities to connect with you – via social media or email, for instance – in ways that don’t involve actually purchasing a product.
Then, once they have connected with you in one or more of these ways, you will be able to more easily reconnect them on future occasions when they are considering buying.
Then, there are those work break-time situations…
Many of us are familiar with those potentially dull break or lunch-times in the office. We want a bit of inspiration or escapism – something to lift the boredom after a tough work shift or conversation with a colleague. A person in this scenario is looking for something to excite them, and that they can follow up on later.
This type of visitor to your mobile site probably won’t have a specific goal in mind. So, you might engage these potential customers with something like a ‘new ideas’ or ‘discovery’ section of your site, regularly updated with new products or suggestions.
…and those idle moments at home
Finally, there’s the kind of visitor who ends up on your site during what may be the quietest time of their day. Think of those people who may be sat in front on their sofa at home with a football match in the background, but who’re also idly browsing ecommerce stores on their smartphone, looking for that product they may have been recently thinking about.
Now, this is the type of customer who is likely to be interested in actually buying in the moment. So for you, this situation may well be about completing the sale, instead of merely relieving their boredom or giving them some inspiration.
Such customers are likelier to ‘go in for the kill’ with a purchase if your site is quick-loading, responsive, informative and convenient to use. So, don’t just focus on optimising loading times – also make sure you have a facility for capturing and updating reviews, of both your products and your site in general, that will help to move the relaxed visitor closer to that ‘buy’ button.
When such reviews are further complemented by an easy-to-refer-to list of accepted payment methods for a purchase and the ability to ‘save’ a shopping cart, you’ll be maximising the probability of the chilled-out shopper at home actually buying.
Remember that if you have any other questions or concerns about how your brand can get the most out of its own mobile e-tail presence in 2020, the Piranha Designs team is always ready and waiting to provide advice from our offices in Gibraltar, London or Edinburgh. Or why not request a competitive quote for our complete ground-up mobile website design service?
