5 Tips for Creating Shopper-Friendly Mobile Commerce Sites

1. Build in relevancy.

Relevant site search results are always important, but mobile shoppers rely on them even more heavily. If they don't see a result that matches up with their search terms, they're not inclined to re-start the search. When mobile searches are relevant and accurate, they're a boon to mobile customers and can encourage conversions.

2. Put best-selling products at top of the list.

No doubt your customers are often seeking best-selling products and similar information when they begin their searches; smart online retailers will extract this information from site search data on a regular basis. To help your mobile shoppers cut the time it takes to find desired products, place your most-wanted products at the top of mobile search results so that shoppers don't need to spend time scrolling or clicking through to a new page of results.

3. Make the search box more obvious.

Mobile shoppers usually want to search instead of browse, so increase the size of the search box to make it easy to find when they get to your mobile homepage. It's also a good idea to place the search box at the top of the web page so that users don't have to scroll. A good example of this comes from apparel retailer GotApparel.com, which makes the search box one of the most prominent elements on its homepage.

4. Use autocomplete for fewer keystrokes.

Autocomplete is a big help for all of your visitors, as it provides suggestions and spelling alternatives after just a few letters or words are entered into the search box, but it's a particularly handy time-saving tool for busy mobile shoppers. This is how www.keurig.com, a retailer of single-cup coffee brewers, helps its mobile shoppers quickly find what they're looking for. As you can see below, search suggestions have some space between them so that when mobile shoppers click on their choice, they won't mistakenly tap the wrong product.

5. Increase size for links and buttons.

No doubt when you've browsed a website or app on your smartphone or tablet you've inadvertently clicked on a link that you didn't want to. You can help visitors steer clear of this common problem by boosting the size of buttons so they're big enough to be clicked on properly.

Incorporating these ideas into your m-commerce site will give you a head start on making the mobile shopping experience as customer friendly as possible, while helping you capture more sales from this ever-growing channel.

Like what you've read? Comment and let me know what else your interested in reading. I take comments VERY seriously and want to write about, well, what people want to read about in the digital space.