You can call it MobileGeddon, choose to give it a more euphemistic name, or christen it “The Mobile Dominion,” but what you’re not about to do is deny the sweeping dominance of mobile commerce that has engulfed WooCommerce development and, of course, eCommerce in general. People are nowadays shopping on the go, right in the palm of their hands. So the shopping experience, all the way to the WooCommerce checkout for WordPress users, must be mobile friendly.
Worldwide Figures on Mobile Device Usage
Globally now, statistics indicate that over 2.5 billion people own a smartphone. The figures aren’t spread evenly across the countries though. In the top 18 economies, for example, an amazing 75% of the population owns a smartphone. That percentage drops to a low of about 50% in the emerging economies.
The year 2016 marked the first time that web traffic from mobile devices surpassed that of desktops, posting 51.3% against desktop’s 48.7%. During the same year, more shopping was done from mobile devices, triggering developers to recognize the urgent need to create WooCommerce mobile checkout designs that adapt beautifully. Clearly, mobile eCommerce is the future of shopping worldwide and no serious store owner can trivialize it.
Projections from 2017 state that the total web traffic from mobile devices is likely to hit 79% in 2019, which basically means the desktop version would only receive 20% of all visits.
WooCommerce Checkout and the Dominance of M-Commerce Shopping
Mobile ready is so widely implemented that it’s fast becoming universal in all new websites. In WordPress themes, including WooCommerce, mobile ready is no longer a question many theme buyers bother to ask about, believing that it should be a default theme feature.
Some commercial WordPress theme developers who refused to follow the cue had to learn the hard way. Their non-responsive themes that also lacked WooCommerce responsive checkout couldn’t sell in this day and age of smartphones.
Importance of a Mobile Commerce Store with WooCommerce Checkout
If you already own a store with a WooCommerce checkout that you believe is performing well despite not being mobile ready, your first question would be why you even need to bother yourself making the store M-Commerce ready. Of course, this question is likely to pop up because optimizing a store for mobile requires money among other resources. It’s even costlier if you have to outsource for developer services.
Is it worth the while after all? The answer is an emphatic YES!
Below are some of the benefits you’ll reap from an M-Commerce ready WooCommerce store.
- User Experience – The most important characteristic of a mobile-ready eCommerce website with a WooCommerce responsive checkout is coherent and enjoyable user experience. How neat is the product display on mobile? How simple is the navigation from one category to another? How easy is it to access my shopping basket? You can be sure that if you make things as simple as possible and the user experience smooth, you’ll realize more traffic that would result in higher conversion.
- Increased Sales – Having a mobile-friendly store that also has a well-executed mobile ready WooCommerce checkout means more customers shopping on the platform on the go, assuming you have the products they’re looking for. That would be in addition to the customers shopping on your store using desktop computers.
- Search Engine Benefits – Search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing have their set of standards for what they call authority websites. For your store to rank high on these search engines, therefore, it must adhere to some basic requirements, and mobile readiness is one of them. An M-Commerce store would result in a better ranking, which translates to improved traffic and subsequently higher conversion.
- Better Engagement and Feedback – A customer who’s happy with their experience on your store right from shopping to WooCommerce checkout is likely to stay longer and offer valuable information. Such a customer would be willing to take a survey, share ideas about what he’d like you to improve and go as far as suggesting products he’d like you to stock. This is not possible where the user’s experience is a nightmare.
- Return Shoppers and Referrals – According to Google, a whopping 61% of users wouldn’t consider coming back to your website if it’s not mobile friendly, while 40% are likely to visit your competitor’s website. The reverse, therefore, means your website would have higher return shoppers and visitors who’d be confident enough to refer others to your store.
- Lower Marketing Costs – Most people pump so much money into advertising and marketing in general when they’re experiencing low sales and poor customer feedback. If this is happening yet your store is properly structured and you have quality products, optimize your website as well as the WooCommerce checkout for mobile if you haven’t done so. An M-Commerce ready store would bring you more traffic, more sales, and quality customer feedback thus allowing you to focus on improving value instead of focusing all energy on increasing sales.
Why You Need a WooCommerce Responsive Checkout
Even though the benefits of a mobile-friendly store have been outlined above, the value of a responsive WooCommerce checkout deserves a distinguished mention. We cannot run away from it. That’s exactly where the rubber meets the road. Yes, this is where the shopper has made a decision to place an order and is now advancing to payment. Everyone has some level of hesitation at this point when buying a product online. If you’re going to make it even slightly sketchy or jerky, a customer is likely to halt the process and consider an alternative.
Besides ensuring that your WooCommerce mobile checkout is straightforward, let it also have as few steps as possible. Most users grow cold feet as soon as they realize that too many steps are involved. Where would the convenience be if the process is like filling some health insurance form, really?
Making Your Store and WooCommerce Checkout M-Commerce Ready
Website Layout
Once you’ve made up your mind to optimize your store for mobile, reach out to your developer for implementation purposes. Even as you do this, have in mind that the process could be as simple as installing a new WooCommerce theme or as complex as using custom codes to modify the existing theme. Your store developer may also be forced to use mobile ready WordPress plugins as well as a WooCommerce responsive checkout if everything is to function seamlessly.
Website Content
The text, images, videos and all other media used on the store must also be optimized for mobile viewing.
Website Speed
Even as you optimize the website for mobile, ensure it’s also fast on mobile. Search engines favor websites that have the lowest load times, provided they perform well on other metrics. Research has shown that 40% of website visitors are likely to switch to another website if the current one fails to load within 3 seconds.
Website User Experience
When developing a responsive website, the user experience cannot be wished away. To take care of this, the web developer must make the navigation as simple as possible, provide users with the smoothest WooCommerce checkout procedure, implement a simple product search, avail different and reliable payment options, and take advantage of common smartphone gestures such as zooming and navigation swipes to spice up the experience.
Before you take the store live, ensure you test it exhaustively to confirm that all features are functioning swimmingly.
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