We all know the growth around people accessing the web via mobile. As far as your online store, you are not exempt from this trend. In fact, more people are shopping online with their smartphones and tablets than ever before.

In episode 29, I chat about the big picture and the importance of making sure your shop is ready for customers 24/7, so you can capture and convert your mobile customers.

In this show:

* Understanding the mobile user

* The importance of a mobile-friendly design

* Making the right information front and center

* Optimizing your product images

* Making the process quick by removing the barriers

To learn more about mobile apps using WordPress, check out this podcast episode: Is Your Online Store Ready for a Mobile App? A Chat with Brian Messenlehner.

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-september-21-2016

Hey, everyone, and welcome to episode 29. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. As we  take on new a chapter with the podcast today by talking all things WordPress and eCommerce, we have some great this will interviews lined up for you beginning next week, and a very cool series that I will talk more about at the end of the show. But for today I wanted to just chat a bit about mobile. And share with you a few thoughts. As we all know people are buying more and more online using their smartphones. It’s a given fact.

Having done a bit of research, I found that the numbers vary, but most say at this point between 45 and 50 percent of all eCommerce traffic is accounted for by mobile. And with these numbers,  it’s showing more people are using those devices, smartphones, pad, etc vs laptops and desktops.

Also it’s noted in several articles that yes, weekdays are where you typically see the largest peaks in computer-based traffic, but eCommerce sites are also visited more on the weekends.

Now with all these facts, it’s definitely good news for store owners. But the key here is are you prepared to take advantage of this growing market? From my experience, I still see a lot of online stores that just don’t work well on mobile. And in reality, that could be a killer for you. And with the extent of ease that online makes with the global market, you need to make sure those products and services are accessible and ready to buy 24/7.

With that said, refining your strategies and optimizing for mobile will allow to you to make sure that your customers’ needs are being met. Also, with these, you will improve your brand recognition and increase the loyalty of your customers. Even more importantly, we know Google tends to like mobile-friendly sites, which of course will help you get better search engine rankings compared to those who are not ready for all those shoppers searching via their smartphones.

Where do you start? First, by looking at the mobile shopper. Mobile customers are mindful. They are in the moment and want to buy quickly and be done with it. You need to keep their attention all the way till the end of order placement.

In the same note, they are pretty darn impatient. It’s all about finding exactly what they need now, with as few clicks as possible, or else buh bye to your site.

We also need to understand that they are distracted. When they are on mobile, often it involves multitasking. What you need to do is to remove any distractions on your site so they can focus on what they need and can buy. This includes completing the transaction easily. You see, 2 out of 3 users who add items to their shopping cart abandon it,