Many of our clients have continually seen a rise in customers browsing from mobile. If you look at the statistics, you'll find that something like 60% of consumers shop on mobile devices these days. Myself included! However, it's important not to generalize. Statistics and anecdotes don't account for the unique behaviors of every brand's customer base.
A good example is a brand we work with in the supplement space. Their demographic skews older, and they're happy with that, but that also means that desktop and table-sized devices are all the rage. Our deep dive into their analytics told the same story. It wasn't that the mobile experience should be ignored; however, it wasn't core for their audience.
While the foundational elements of e-commerce best practices—engaging content, effective conversion tactics, strategic cross-selling/upselling, and brand storytelling—were still important, there were other aspects of the website we had to tailor to this audience's needs.
Our design team typically takes a mobile-first approach, but instead, they began with tablet sizing, ensuring special attention to all aspects of the website at this screen size before designing the rest of the experience. Other considerations included avoiding common UX iconography for key actions, increasing font and button sizes, and fine-tuning copy to leave nothing to interpretation.
The primary lesson from this experience? It's critical to understand the habits and preferences of your audience and be open to how these insights might impact your approach. Success in e-commerce comes from meeting your customers exactly where they are, ensuring their online shopping experience is comfortable and satisfying.
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This post originally appeared in #71 of The E-Commerce Corner. Subscribe here.
Friday, March 15, 2024
