“I prefer to book my hotel on a terribly slow website, with blurred images and putting my personal data at risk”. No one has ever said, or even thought of it, something like that.
By Tuhin Bhatt
When it comes to booking a hotel – or any other product – online, customer expectations are well defined. Every user hopes that his buying experience is simple, fast and safe.
Considering the business advantages and importance of customer retention, the mobile app development and ecommerce website optimization becomes key to success for ecommerce business. Given the tendency of users to increasingly use mobile devices, it is essential to offer a unique shopping experience even from mobile.
Fewer Products per Screen
Surely the extremely limited space of smartphone devices forces to rationalize and optimize it in the right way. It is useless to put too many products on a page, better one or two to avoid user distraction. By reducing the choice we often get rewarded and almost always the conversion rate rises.
By eliminating the banners and advertising content that lead the user elsewhere from the homepage you can immediately notice the reduction in the rebound rate. This means that visitors will have more time on the page, will visit the site and will be accompanied to the conversion.
Search Bar
Users who buy from mobile, in most cases have clear ideas and already know what product they want to buy. Using a navigation bar within the site greatly shortens the search time by the user, ensuring a better experience.
Therefore, to keep the search bar visible and clear it should be placed at the top which should be easily accessible even in small screen smartphones.
Do not ask non-relevant Information during Checkout
This is probably the most important tactic because it is precisely seen that many companies lose potential customers at this point of sale. Users have little patience when they look for information and the same can be said when they decided to buy the product.
Using login from social networks, for example the Facebook app that allows the extraction of data sufficient for registration is probably the best way to make a user complete the checkout with confidence.
In the registration process – complete or as a guest – you have to include only the necessary information to make the process as simple and engaging as possible.
Short and Effective Text and Images
The text on the landing page or on the booking engine must be limited to what is strictly necessary: any superfluous word risks removing the user from the booking. From the aforementioned study it has emerged that shorter and less text landing pages have a higher conversion rate than others.
Conversion rate by number of words in the travel sector: the decrease in the conversion rate coincides with the increase in the number of words.
The temptation to include more information and detailed descriptions makes the visitors interest strong. On the other hand, it is well known that users (especially mobile users) tend to avoid larger contents and text portions that could “distract” them during the search.
So remember to include only the really essential and most useful information. It focuses on images that can attract the interest of the beholder and that put the product on display. Add secondary information in pop-up windows, so the visitor does not have to leave the page to read them.
Points on Speed
Lesser the page load time, more likely user stays on the website and look for the product and takes action. Everyone expect everything in quickly, nobody likes to stay on the website that takes all the time in the word to load a page. A study showed that the average page load time for e-commerce sites is 6.5 seconds. The goal is to try not to exceed two seconds: from an Amazon research, in fact, it emerged that every second that passes can reduce the conversion rate by 7%.
And this has an even greater value for users who use mobile devices, whose connection speeds are not always optimal. Studies revealed that the page load time is the factor that most affects the conversion rate compared to other metrics.
Secure and Up to Date
Check that the contents on the site are always up to date. Check that the information on rates and availability are correct to generate quality traffic and make sure that the visitor does not have problems with the search of a product or booking of the stay.
If the rates, availability and content on the mobile site coincide with those of the marketing channel on which the offer had initially been found, the user feels safer and – consequently – increases the likelihood that the search will be converted into a reservation.
Likewise, it is important to guarantee the reliability of the payment and processing systems of the customer’s personal data.
E-mail Optimized For Mobile
If Ecommerce is the landing page on which to land potential leads, email marketing is one of the most powerful tools for acquiring customers
30% of mobile sales starts from email marketing activity; do not think therefore how to reach users on mobile devices is a mistake that precisely in view of the increase in the mobile conversion rate must be avoided in a reasoned way.
The basic elements to build a successful landing page for mobile devices are the following:
- A targeted title;
- No navigation bar;
- A clear and precise CTA above the fold;
- A magnificent photo of the product (and relevant with the Nl sent);
- Link to the phone number to gain credibility and allow a true relationship with the user;
- Turn off the zoom setting on the product;
- Compatibility with the “portrait” and “landscape” modes;
- A minimal and clean design to make the message of your page clear.
Modern evaluation and analysis systems allow you to easily identify areas for improvement to achieve better results in terms of sales and conversions.
For example, if you observe a peak of interest from desktop users to videos presenting the product, one possibility is to ensure that the same experience is also available from mobile.
Dynamic multimedia technology allows you to optimize and provide consistent visual experiences on any type of screen.
Tuhin Bhatt is a co-founder of Intelivita, one of the leading web and mobile app development company, having its offices in the UK and India, he expertise in iOS and Android, AR, VR app technology. With his flawless command over the technology, he loves to share the same with his clients and other enthusiasts. His write-ups are usually about Technology, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship. Follow him on twitter.com/bhattTuhin
Mobile stock photo by Mooshny/Shutterstock
