According to NRF, 25 million holiday shoppers said they would specifically use their mobile device to shop online on Cyber Monday this year. That is a big chunk of the expected $116 billion e-commerce will bring in this holiday season! Part of serving customers (that want to give you their money) is providing a happy, helpful online experience. Increasingly, online includes mobile devices. 

Is your website mobile ready? Can you handle the masses of holiday shoppers that are coming your way? Let’s take a look at some of the most important features you’ll need before the buying begins.

Quick Load Times 

Mobile devices users are a lot more forgiving with load times on phones and tablets than they are for desktops and laptops. Still, that doesn’t mean they’ll wait around all day for the site to load just so they can make a purchase. If they wanted to wait, they’d go stand in line in a store, right?

And speaking of stores, sometimes those shoppers are using their phones to compare prices between an item in a brick-and-mortar shop and the one on your e-commerce site. If they don’t get the info quick enough, they might just grab the one right in front of them. You know, for instant gratification. It really is all about speed, so make sure your mobile site is blazing fast.

Make Payments Easy

Even after upgrading your site for blazing fast speeds, you’ll still discover some buyers back out at the last minute. This is often due to the difficulty of paying for their purchases on mobile devices. Whether it’s the struggle of entering credit card information on a tiny screen or the lack of choices for payment options, the transaction comes to a screeching halt. 

How can you make sure these customers move easily through the checkout phase? First, make sure there are several different options for making payments. In addition to credit cards, consider other options that require a simple sign-in to pay, such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, PayPal, Google Wallet, and even Venmo.

Some customers may also prefer to save their credit card information so that purchases require only a single click. If you want to offer this service, make those buyers as comfy as possible with all the information about site security in a conspicuous location. When it comes time to finish their order, they’ll be more likely to follow through.

Check the Small Stuff

If you think “small stuff” means the unimportant stuff, think again. When navigating on a mobile device, users will have trouble with small text, small pictures, small links… There’s a lot of small stuff you need to check, see?

The mobile friendly version of your website should make the small things bigger and the big things smaller. There should be plenty of white space around links so no one fumble-fingers their way into an accidental purchase. The photos should be large enough to show detail so buyers know exactly what they’re getting. And text should be legible for almost any level of eyesight.

With these features all wrapped up tightly, you’ll be set to sell just in time for the holiday season. If you’re still lacking a little mobile friendliness, there’s still time to get in the spirit, but hurry. Some are already starting their shopping!

By: Emma Greenman