After the implementation of data rates for mobile use with a large amount of MB to be able to navigate freely and without worry, Internet browsing has grown exponentially.
According to data published by Statista, in 2018 mobile internet traffic as part of global traffic was 48.2%.
Therefore, entrepreneurs who are thinking of creating an online business should change the way they think and make a chip change and leading to a mentality “Mobile First for ecommerce”.
That is to say, those online businesses are created thinking that surfing the Internet through mobile devices (smartphones or tablets) will increase in the coming years and purchases can arrive mostly through these means.
As a revealing fact, in 2017 mobile e-commerce represented 50% of total e-commerce revenue in the United States.
However, it is important that everything is well implemented because according to Google, it is very unlikely that if users encounter problems accessing the ecommerce will try again.
What’s more, this figure rises to 61% of users. In addition, to increase “fear”, 40% of these users will visit a competitor’s ecommerce for the same reason, according to McKinsey.
What is Mobile First and why is it important for your ecommerce?
The traditional approach when creating an ecommerce is to design a website with the desktop version in mind. However, this mentality must change.
Mobile First for ecommerce means that the web designer starts working directly for mobile devices.
From this mobile version, he creates or adapts existing codes and content to tablets and desktop devices. This will make ecommerce better adapted and prepared for omnichannel sales.
The term mobile first was coined by Luke Wroblewski in 2009, although who really made it famous a year later (2010) was the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt.
As already mentioned, the main objective of this practice is to design websites thought first in its mobile version and as the development progresses, create the desktop version – version for computer browsers.
Also, developers have more flexibility when working. Why? Because they can work with higher scales and not the other way around. In other words: it is very common to see how the desktop version has incredible designs with many features, something that will make the consumer/customer enjoy many advantages.
However, designers may encounter the following problem: it is not possible to transfer many of these improvements to mobile versions and therefore, users will find that the experience through these devices is poorer.
That’s why we’ll detail a list of best practices for Mobile First. What are you waiting for to discover them!
What are the best practices for Mobile First in ecommerce?
Make UX simple and intuitive
UX is the user’s experience: on mobile phones, it is not comfortable to navigate through pages that are too complicated, with too many buttons, etc.
Simplify the design, adapt images and texts, remove content, and so on. All in favor of offering a simple and intuitive UX.
As we have already mentioned, moving or adapting a desktop website to a mobile one is not an easy task. And the drawbacks can be several, even to scare away potential buyers.
Therefore, one of the best practices for First Mobile in ecommerce is to make the user interface (UX) simple and intuitive.
What does this mean? So that everything that is shown in the online rein is easy to manage, that there are not many options on screen with which the visitor is possibly lost and that the processes are simple and clear.
This will give a careful product image, easy to use and that will make customers want to re-enter in the future without having to look for other options in the competition.
Eliminate pop-ups and interstitial ads for mobile users
The loading time of a web page is indispensable. The less time it takes to load all the content on the screen, the better our ecommerce will be valued.
This aspect is one of the most penalized by Google and therefore completely eliminates the possibility of appearing at the top of searches.
And if we go deeper into this aspect, elements that penalize a lot in this sense are pop-up ads (elements that appear on screen, mainly using Adobe Flash technology).
And don’t forget the interstitial ads, all those advertising ads that tend to hog the entire screen of the device and can become very annoying and intrusive for the reader/user.
Therefore, for a correct practice of the term Mobile First, these two tendencies should be abandoned.
Accelerates loading speed
Google imposes the rules on the Internet and whether you like it or not, it is better to follow them if you want to have good web positioning.
As mentioned above, the loading speed of an ecommerce can be indispensable to not lose future customers. According to some experts, if a total load of a website takes more than 4 seconds, that potential buyer or visitor will abandon his search.
Also, not only will customers be penalized, but Google and its tracking robots will also do theirs and may prevent the search results do not appear in the first places.
This is why taking care of and speeding up the loading speed will be one of the best Mobile First practices for ecommerce.
Some of the aspects that must be taken into account are, for example, choosing the right web hosting. You should also take into account the “Topic” or template that is used in ecommerce.
There are many of these themes that often provide many elements that hinder the final load.
And finally, although images are essential to provide content in an online store, it is also true that the weight of them must be taken care of.
In other words, try to compress the images to the maximum before uploading them to the ecommerce server, always bearing in mind not to lose quality, as the effect may be the opposite.
Use rich snippets
Internet searches are very important. To remain of the first ones even more, but perhaps what makes the user click on one option or another is the content of the text that is shown under the link.
These small fragments are known as rich snippets.
Using them will make the SEO theme work better in the ecommerce you have running on the Internet as well as betting on giving information to future customers before entering the trade.
And above all: design starting from the mobile version, not from the desktop. And as has already been indicated throughout the text: the ecommerce must always be designed from its mobile version.
When the online shop has been adapted in its mobile version, it will be time to tackle the desktop version. With the help of the best practices for Mobile First, you will help your ecommerce work perfectly when users navigate through a smartphone or a tablet.
There are many aspects that influence optimal mobile navigation: reduce the loading speed, take care of the themes that are used avoiding those that contribute too many elements, use rich snippets, and so on.
According to recent studies, the growing demand for mobile browsers, it is very important to bet on mobile versions for businesses, easy to handle and with short steps to reach the end of the purchase.
