Mobile is now an integral part of the shopping journey, accounting for almost a third of traffic to retail websites, according to RetailMeNot. For many, that figure is higher.
Forecasts from the Centre for Retail Research suggest that Brits will spend £7.9bn on mobile devices this year, however the true extent to which mobile impacts retail is far greater. As reported by Google, around 46% of shoppers use smartphones, tablets and phablets (phone/tablet hybrids) to research potential purchases before making a purchase elsewhere. As desktop traffic starts to fall or flat line, reacting to this shift in consumer behaviour is now a priority for retailers. With so much resting on mobile, getting the experience right is vital, but where should you start?
Get buy-in from the boss
Mobile is now an incredibly important channel for retailers to engage with and sell to shoppers, but that hasn’t always been the case. When we decided to re-platform ghdhair.com, mobile visitors made up around 6% of traffic, so it was difficult to get buy-in on the importance of what was then a relatively small part of the business. We needed to convince stakeholders within the business that developing a mobile website would be a solid investment.
To achieve internal buy-in, it was crucial to have robust analytics in place, enabling us to monitor month-on-month increases in mobile website traffic and the impact on potential revenue. By monitoring trends both internally and externally, we were able to make a compelling business case for implementing a mobile site. To bring this to life, we worked with digital agency R/GA and systems integrator Tacit Knowledge to achieve the right balance of on-site user experience, as well as technical integration and ongoing business user maintenance.
In the first year after launching GHD’s mobile website, net revenues from mobile grew twice as quickly as mobile traffic, with our mobile conversion rate growing by 41%. Two years later, half of our website traffic is now mobile, and mobile shoppers make up a third of all net revenue on ghdhair.com.
Decide on the type of website
It’s important to invest in a website that suits your business and your budget, so consideration should be given to the usability of the mobile site and how it will be managed and scaled internally. Responsive websites are arguably the most future-proof; they can respond to the exact dimensions of the device being used, ensuring that every visitor receives an optimal experience. However, a responsive website can be a long, expensive process, often requiring a complete rebuild of the existing site’s content management system (CMS) and a new approach to asset creation and campaign execution.
An adaptive website is a good option for retailers to deliver an optimised experience across a set group of devices, such as a smartphone, phablet or tablet. However, with so many variables in the size of device displays, webpages may look better on some devices than on others. We chose this route, as it offered the most optimal balance between cost, development time and optimisation.
Building a separate “m-dot” (m.) site is the least optimal approach; it requires significant maintenance, time and budget due to content on the m-dot site being unique to that site. This means you have to double the amount of site assets and implement a network of redirects to ensure that shoppers reach their intended page and Google can successfully rank your m-dot and desktop URLs.
Get noticed on mobile
Many shoppers enter retail websites through Google, so it’s important to make your site easy to find. This is especially important on mobile as the viewable screen area is much smaller. If you’re not positioned prominently in the paid and natural listings, it will hinder your ability to acquire search traffic.
To dominate the visible search area in searches for GHD or any of our products, we worked with Greenlight Digital on paid search and with Sticky Eyes on search engine optimisation (SEO) to devise a strategy that would ensure we appear in first position for product listing ads, paid ads and natural search. As a result, around 15% of our paid search traffic now comes from product listing ads, rising to 20% of mobile paid search traffic, and 10% of desktop and tablet paid search traffic. Throughout this year, we’ve experienced spikes in product listing ad traffic of up to 65%, solely coming through mobile.
Measure and refine
To deliver a top mobile experience, retailers should continuously develop their understanding of shopper behaviour and optimise the website. One way we do this is A/B testing. We regularly conduct variation tests of new features and design changes to see how they impact conversions. For example, we experimented with the quantity of on-site copy, imagery and calls to action displayed across mobile, tablet and desktop, to ensure each platform is tailored to the key user behaviours exhibited on each particular platform. Similarly, we A/B test our paid search campaigns, which allows us to focus our investment on ads, which generate the greatest return on investment.
Finally, the payment process plays a big role in mobile, with 38% of GHD mobile site purchases made via PayPal. To make mobile purchasing more convenient, we are working with a new mobile payments provider, PowaTag to allow mobile users to make their purchases through a simple one-touch payment. By allowing consumers to pay more quickly and securely on mobile, or to save their basket for later, we aim to deliver the best mobile user experience for all ghdhair.com visitors.
Rob Pye is e-commerce general manager at GHD
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