According to Psychology Today, nomophobia is the fear of being without a mobile device, or beyond mobile phone contact. The extent to which we have become attached to our mobile phones is more than unsettling.
We have become addicted to this ‘extension of ourselves’ as Andrew Hinton puts it in his book Understanding Context: Environment, Language, and Information Architecture. Hinton identifies many reasons which make smartphones the most appealing of all tech devices in the modern age. Here is a list of contributing reasons:
- It’s small in size and quite portable
- It is the playground of plenty of personal content (texts, phone calls, images)
- It’s has a multitude of uses (browsers, applications, photography, messaging, etc…)
- It’s always owned privately, rarely ever shared.
- It asks for our attention by vibrating, emitting sound (ringtones), and lighting up…
All of this allows it to become indispensable to our everyday life. Some statistics claim that on average people check their phones around 80 times a day, others claim that many people do so more than 150 times.
This number is on the rise especially when it comes to e-commerce or what is now referred to as m-commerce (mobile commerce). It is for this reason, and many others, that online stores should make sure that their websites are responsive and mobile friendly.
According to Payfort’s State of Payments:
- 71% of airlines consider mobile is the future of online payments.
- “Smartphone penetration in the Arab World is one of the highest globally with the UAE and KSA as the number one and three smartphone penetration nations in the world.”
- “People in the Arab World transact on mobiles more than the global average. 41% of smartphone users in the Arab World transact online, while only 21.3% of global smartphone users transact online.”
After reading these impressive statistics, it becomes clear that investing in a mobile version of your website is, without a doubt, the wisest decision any e-commerce retailer can make in today’s competitive world.
Here are a few ways in which any online store can improve their website’s mobile experience:
- Getting hosted by a responsive website builder:
This is definitely the shortcut to creating a responsive website. Not all e-commerce website builders consider mobile responsiveness as one of their priorities so choose your platform wisely.
- Optimize your image size:
One of the most common frustrations that mobile shoppers face is related to image size. Sometimes the image can be too small, too large or too rigid. Allow your customers to zoom in on their images by tapping on it. Since mobile screens tend to be significantly smaller in size than desktops, they desperately need to be more interactive. So make sure your user can view your product images without getting fed up with the static interface.
- Offer a guest checkout option:
Many users find it quite annoying to sign in through mobiles since the username and password fields tend to become microscopic. Allow your customers to check out as guests on mobile phones by providing a ‘guest checkout’ option either when they add items to cart or make it part of your header.
- Pay close attention to your CTAs:
Most mobile users complain that they are unable to click or rather 'touch' a button. Make sure your buttons are all functional and practical for your customers to tap on. After all, this might just be the proceed to checkout button.
- Remember that load time matters:
Users expect mobile web pages to load faster because they actually do! Other studies suggest that a user will not tolerate a slow page load on mobile compared to more tolerance when operating on a desktop. Optimize your load time to reduce your bounce rate and keep your customers interested.
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