Design Tips for a Mobile-Friendly E-commerce Website

To have a mobile-ready website is critical in today’s highly mobile world. For a website to be a cut above the rest, it will have to be mobile-enabled. This article focuses on developing e-commerce websites.

The following tips will help you design an e-commerce website that is easy to use and adaptable to mobile platforms as well. If you don’t have a website yet, and considering which platform is right for you, websites like bestwebsitebuilder.com are a great place to start.

Minimalist websites

Websites with too much clutter overwhelm web visitors with multiple banners, internal links, and advertisements. This is further compounded by the small screen sizes of most mobile devices. It is therefore vital to avoid distracting users with too many offerings and design elements that take their attention away from the actions you want them to take. For instance, if your goal is to sell products and services on your website, your design should aid rather than distract from that goal.

Consider people with large fingers

Unlike desktop computers, mobile devices often require the use of fingers to swipe or type on touch-screens and touchpads. The problem is that some people have huge fingertips. You should be aware of this fact when designing a mobile-ready website to cater for people with thick and thin fingertips. Also, remember that an increasing number of people use their thumbs to navigate mobile platforms.

No matter how a web visitor uses their mobile phones, you should design a website that factors in their different navigation habits to help them browse your website with as much ease as possible. Besides, your call-to-action links and buttons should be visible and large enough. They should be placed in the sidebars and at the bottom of your website. This will make it easy for users to browse your through your site and click on your call-to-action buttons and anchor links without clicking on unintended content by mistake.

As a general rule, a mobile web visitor should be able to scroll through your website without having to zoom. You can read more about it.

Create a client-focused design

Whether you decide to use responsive design or a separate version of your eCommerce website for mobile users; or perhaps a web application, you should always remember to highlight your most important content.

The mobile website should be primed for small-sized displays such that the user can easily access the most important content. Content such as the ‘search’ box, product or service categories, sign up links or forms, shopping cart and contact information should be prominently displayed for easy navigation. What is essential is that vital content should be prominently displayed on every page to help users take the desired actions, e.g., sign up, search, contact you, or even purchase a product or service.

Highlight the checkout button

People dislike the tedious process of having to fill too many forms. Making it mandatory to log in may dissuade potential buyers. To avoid losing a customer, don’t compel your first-time customers to sign up first. Instead, allow them to purchase as guest customers without having to sign up for an account. In any case, why even have a guest checkout button if you don’t want it to be used? It should actually be the most prominently displayed link on every page.

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You should also provide a secure checkout experience to remove any concerns that a first-time client may have about using their credit card on your site. Make sure that you have a valid SSL Certificate. You can buy an SSL certificate from CA or authorized SSL resellers CheapSSLShop.com

Does the url of your website starts with “https://”? The ‘s’ in https stands for ‘secure’. Read more about SSL certificates and secure websites here.

Test and re-test until you get the best

Although recommendations from other people are helpful, go beyond these and perform an A/B test to find out which mobile e-commerce website design or application is most effective for you. This kind of testing gives you feedback as to which design will work best for your users.

Always tinker with the design until you arrive at a version that gives you the highest conversion rate.