More than half of the web traffic comes from mobile devices.
54.4% of global website traffic was generated by mobile devices in the last quarter of 2021. Mobile device usage has consistently been on the rise since the early 2000s and is at the peak phase today.
For all businesses, these statistics are a loud clue about the need to design responsive websites. The importance is even more for eCommerce websites as the sales are directly dependent on the websites in the case of eCommerce platforms. A few years ago, the trend was to build websites for both desktop and mobile devices separately. But now, things have progressed and responsive websites are the way to go forward.
Responsive design is a design approach in which the design dynamically responds to users’ environments to provide them with an optimum user experience on all devices of varying screen sizes. This article will discuss why eCommerce websites should consider responsive design and what are its benefits. So, without any further ado, let's begin.
Attract mobile traffic
The most obvious benefit of responsive design is that your e-commerce website will attract more mobile traffic. Looking at the statistics we discussed at the beginning of this article, you can guess how much sales this can bring in for an eCommerce site. Smartphones and tablets have become handy devices in today’s time and the majority of your target audience will reach out to those when they need to shop online.
Imagine if your website is not optimized for mobile devices, people would have to zoom and pan to browse the website. It won't take more than a few minutes for visitors to get tired of this and abandon the website. You must give your users an effortless shopping experience and for that, it's imperative that your website is mobile-friendly.
Enhanced business reputation
In most cases, people form the first impression of a business from its website. Today, all businesses take great care in creating standard websites that are appealing to the eyes by hiring UI UX design agencies. People are used to interacting with clean and efficient websites that anything less fails to satisfy them. That is why it's important to make your website responsive.
Even if you have designed an exceptional website, if it's not responsive, mobile users will find that it looks unaligned and cluttered. And considering how the majority of your potential customers may be checking out your site on mobile devices, it's a risk you shouldn't take. When the first impression is spoiled, it's hard to build a good reputation.
Easy website maintenance
Earlier, websites used to have a separate mobile version that would load when a smaller screen was detected. Website maintenance was a challenge in this scenario because both versions of the website had to be managed. It required more time and effort on maintenance tasks and also on website analytics. Keeping track of two sets of conversion points, funnels, page clicks, etc. and taking the necessary steps to improve the performance was ineffective.
In eCommerce sites, maintenance and analysis are key activities which need to be done almost on a daily basis. Hence, responsive design is a must-have. With responsive sites, the website maintenance and analysis are much simplified as only one site is needed for all screen types. Just a single set of content and data has to be handled and monitored. Hence, updates and tracking can be done efficiently and effectively.
Improved SEO performance
Search engine optimization or SEO is a crucial marketing strategy today that helps businesses improve their reach. Since Google is the most popular search engine today, optimizing websites for Google’s algorithm is on every business’s marketing checklist. Google takes into account more than 200 factors to determine the ranking of websites. And responsiveness is a key one in the list that helps in better ranking on search engine results pages.
A single responsive website also eliminates the content duplication issue that arises when there are separate websites for desktop and mobile screens. According to Google’s algorithm, duplicate content adversely impacts the ranking. By implementing responsive designs, you avoid such possibilities and improve the SEO performance of your e-commerce website.
Seamless shopping experience
A seamless shopping experience helps customers build trust in your eCommerce platform. Many factors contribute to a seamless experience among which responsive design is a key one. Not only does it increase conversion rates but also improves user retention. Reports show that people who are satisfied with the mobile shopping experience of an eCommerce platform are more likely to make purchases through mobile channels in future too.
Conclusion
The benefits of having a responsive website for your eCommerce platform are tremendous. From attracting mobile traffic to improving business reputation, enhancing eCommerce user experience, boosting SEO performance and simplifying website maintenance and analytics, responsive websites can bring more sales to your eCommerce business. To stay competitive in the thriving eCommerce market, it is necessary to go above and beyond the expectations of users to attract them to your site. If you aren’t using a responsive website, start building one right away.
