As the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices continue their evolution forward we are now starting to what that means to a variety of folks. As we recently saw mobile traffic is taking off. This is no longer in question. More and more of our clients are reporting large spikes in iPad traffic to their web sites. While not enough yet to make everyone take action, the smart ones have moved past head scratching and onto planning. Why? Metrics. ABI Research has posted recently that an estimated $2.2 billion in hard goods will be purchased from a mobile device by year’s end. To compare, that is >$1 billion more than last year and a colossal leap of >5 times from 2008. If this isn’t enough to make you hear cash register sounds then perhaps it is time to consider a new career.
The simple fact of the matter is that nothing at the moment compares to the convenience of purchasing on a mobile device. Couple that with the “anywhere, anytime” factor and you have a slam dunk. In many cases simply having an option to buy on a mobile device almost guarantees its use. The question is how do you augment this? Simple, play into the convenience factor. For those paying attention, this means actually paying attention to the convenience factor. Simply re-skinning your website to fit a mobile device’s width won’t cut it.
All too often clients see the light at the end of the tunnel, know the path there, know the costs, know most of the variables, yet cannot help but to jump in their own way to do things part of the way. In a few cases with our clients we have seen instances where a sloppy, half hearted attempt to re-skin their current site to a mobile width was rolled out as a solution. The hope was that if it fit the width, they would come. Well it does not address the fact that the original site was poorly crafted and hard to use. Remember folks, we said play up the convenience factor, not slop out a solution.
In many cases a small investment overall will be required to get there. Looking at these figures though should validate the overwhelming reality that this is where people are purchasing now. Pay attention to convenience. Craft a unique experience. Build that, and they are likely to come.
