Disclaimer: Magenticians does not necessarily agree with the views expressed in this guest post. They are presented to bring to light all diverse views in the Magento and general ecommerce community.
Traffic from mobile devices has eclipsed all other sources of traffic, particularly for the ecommerce industry. For users, it is very convenient to whip out the phone from the pocket (or the bag), search for the product and then tap the buy button.
Since mobile devices dominate the traffic for ecommerce stores, it goes without saying that these devices have a serious impact on the design of the ecommerce stores. This suggestion is supported by Google and other industry leaders who aggressively support responsive web design, especially for ecommerce stores.
What is Responsive Design?
Responsive design is a web design methodology that ensures that ecommerce stores look and feel great on all devices. The size of the screen (a real challenge in designing ecommerce stores) is not an issue anymore. The idea is to use HTML and CSS to fit the content to the screen size. This eliminates the old development process of creating desktop and mobile versions of the store separately.
The responsive website design methodology ensures a uniform (and great) user experience for all users regardless of the device and screen sizes restrictions. This reduces the entry barrier in the ecommerce industry and allows all users to enjoy a streamlined shopping experience.
Plan for a Responsive Store
Given the fierce competition in the ecommerce industry, it is essential that the stores that are not already using responsive design should immediately plan for one. This requires careful planning so that the process goes smoothly.
Setting a deadline is a key decision that has a serious impact on the overall process. The deadline should be realistic and must cover all foreseeable eventualities. Make sure that all stakeholders agree on the deadline for all the milestones and the final delivery of the responsive design of the store.
Five Benefits of Responsive Website Design for Ecommerce Stores
Responsive design has come to dominate ecommerce store design because of the following benefits:
1. Great User Experience
A study by Morgan Stanley shows that, 91% of all smartphone users have their phones within arm’s reach, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Responsive design ensures that whenever a user visits your store on their phone, they have a great user experience on your store.
2. Flexible Store Management
If your store has two versions – one for the desktop, another for the mobile visitors, you need to invest twice the efforts in managing your store. The responsive design saves time and ensures that you have to manage just one version of the store.
3. Improved Brand Reputation
Your brand automatically gets a leg up when you offer a store with responsive design. This greatly helps you in word of mouth brand development. In many cases, this improves the brand reach and thus the circle of potential customers for the store.
4. Save on Development Costs
You could easily imagine the cost savings in store development and maintenance when you only have to create a single version of the website. In many cases, the developers just create the frontend and the backend of the store and the store managers/owners upload the product data.
5. Higher Conversion Rates
The responsive design ensures that impulse buyers on your store convert into first-time and repeat customers. Since you are not forcing the visitors to switch to another device for completing the transaction or simply viewing the product description properly, there is a high chance that the visitor will convert into a buyer.
Author Bio
Hermit Chawla is a Marketing Manager at Sprak Design. He would love to share thoughts on office interior design, Lifestyle Design, Branding Firm, Exhibition design etc.
