New feature - All You Want for Christmas is… a Mobile Shop
Tablets and mobiles are set to be among the hottest items this Christmas —and not just as gifts. Aside from making popular presents, mobile devices are quickly becoming people’s preferred way to do their shopping. With that in mind, we’ve cooked up an early Christmas present for our Rocketspark customers: a mobile optimised shop.
The Trend: Shopping From Your Mobile
But firstly, let’s take a look at the facts. For the first time ever, mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) have eclipsed desktop computers as the go-to platform for buying online. Recent research found 51% of U.S. consumers are opting to use mobile devices for their online shopping versus 49% choosing to use desktop computers. Sure, it’s only a slight majority, but it points to a trend that’s bound to continue. And lest we write it off as an American thing, Kiwis and Brits are not lagging far behind. Colmar Brunton found that 49% of Kiwi tablet users and 26% of Kiwi smartphone users make purchases from them. In the U.K. too, mobile shopping is taking off, with IBM reporting that 31.4% of all online sales are made from mobile devices.
The upshot of the mobile retail craze is that it’s critical that your online store is mobile-friendly. Traditional online shops are notoriously difficult to use on a phone. Innovation and development director at Colmar Brunton, Vanessa Clark, says, "If you want to get mobile shoppers to respond to an app and come back to it, it's all about making it easy to use. This is particularly important for smartphones where screen space can be limited." What’s true for retail apps is true for online shops: it has to work on a mobile.
The Product: Mobile Shop
That’s why we’re so excited about our brand new mobile store. If your Rocketspark website has an online store, then it’s now good to go for mobile! Now when your customers use their smartphone or tablet to do their shopping, they’ll be treated to a trouble-free purchasing experience—no miniscule buttons, no unwieldy zooms, no unreadable forms. Just painless mobile shopping. Here are the key features:
Easy browsing. Your products are displayed in an uncluttered grid of images, easily viewable even on a smartphone. Each product image is big and clear enough to be clicked with your thumb.
Fits to screen. The shop’s layout is automatically rearranged to fit your customer’s screen. That’s right—no pinch-and-zoom, which can be clunky and disorienting.
Efficient checkout. The checkout process has been made-to-measure for mobile. None of those tiny forms that require you to zoom, so picking and purchasing products is no sweat.
No extra setup. The mobile shop is created to display the products already in your shop. All you need to do is ensure that your Rocketspark mobile website is turned on.
Your shop still looks like your shop, perfectly integrated with the look and feel of your site. Like all Rocketspark mobile optimisation, your mobile store will look clean, clear and gorgeous.
Oh, and did we mention there’s no extra charge? That’s right—if you’re a Rocketspark client, the new mobile shop is already yours, simple as that. Merry Christmas.
