9 Mistakes to Avoid When Designing a Mobile Version of Your Website

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Numbers don’t lie: 1.79 billion people shop online worldwide, and this number will increase. More than 50% of these sessions took place via the mobile version of an eCommerce website.

Precisely for this reason, it is essential to use a cross-channel strategy and improve the user experience of the mobile version of your eCommerce site.

In this article, you will find a list of 9 points that you cannot overlook if you want to increase the sales on your eCommerce platform.

Table of Contents

9 Tips That Will Help You to Become More Mobile-Friendly

Here are some things that every professional UX/UI design agency needs to consider to make sure users come back to your website again and again.

Zoom on Images

Ever heard of a “gesture”?

It is a set of interactions (touches) that allow you to explore a site or an app. Double-tap, zoom-in with two fingers, or sideswipe are all examples of gestures.

In the mobile version of your eCommerce, users expect to be able to interact through these “gestures” that they use daily in all other apps.

While using your site, statistics confirm that it is natural to discover products by enlarging the images to observe the details through these gestures. Remember that those who cannot get more visual information are also those who will then be more hesitant to purchase.

But giving the ability to zoom in on images alone is not enough. There is a need also to have high-resolution pictures because a low-quality image says nothing and produces the same type of dissatisfaction in users.

“Save for Later” Function in the Cart

In the mobile version of eCommerce (and also the desktop), the cart should allow for a “mobile version of your eCommerce” along with the added items.

Why is this function important?

61% of users who add products to their mobile cart complete their purchases on a desktop. Therefore, a UX/UI designer needs to include the function to resume the purchase right where it left off from any device.

A cart that remembers items the user has added and shows them regardless of the user’s device is a determining aspect of your turnover. The user does not have to search for the items and add them again. A shopping cart will do it for them, and you will see that your chances of bringing the sale home will increase significantly.

Use Descriptive Forms

Given that the number of forms must be the minimum union, it is essential that you also know how to make them less traumatic for those who then have to fill them out.

Whenever the user has to enter data, this action requires time and energy, things that are on average irregular while normally navigating a website. So if you give your user the chance to speed up this effort, it will surely make your user happy.

Reassure the user and allow them to reduce their feeling of anxiety that occurs during the interview by indicating why you want to know specific data.

“Enter the address where you want the goods to be sent.”

Or “enter your email to receive the update on the shipment.”

Other aspects to consider:

Avoid drop-down menus. Instead, use steppers and switches.
Automatically advance to the next field when the user completes the entry.
If the field requires text input, it shows the keyboard, while if it requires numeric information, such as a phone number, it shows the numeric keypad.

Suggestions, Corrections, and Errors

Helping the user during the search for a product by suggesting the most used search queries based on the characters already typed is a winning strategy.

It helps to speed up the search process by directing users towards the most requested products.
Another essential piece of feedback you need to give is to indicate where the user made a mistake if any.
Avoid saying “there is an error” in such a generic way. It is not sufficiently clear what mistake appeared nor where it is. Your feedback should highlight the fields that contain errors and, above all, indicate why the area is wrong. The frustration that occurs when you know you’ve made a mistake, but you don’t know what to correct, is devastating for the user and your sales.
To make life easier for your users, you may also want to add the auto-complete feature. For example, when it comes to entering the place of residence or delivery. If the user chooses Italy as a country, it is useless to show all the cities in the world. Show him only the Italian ones. Or ask for the city and automatically update the province. Simple precautions, but they can make all the difference.

Micro Interactions to Boost the User Experience

What a world it would be without micro-interactions!

These are animations that help to follow the navigation process and achieve a specific goal.
Think about when you like a post on Facebook, and you hold the “like” button, various emojis appear. By sliding your finger over each of them, they become animated.
We can find them in image sliders, in the selection of the color of a product or even in its evaluation, or more naturally, when we interact with a button.

They are so important (and invisible) precisely because they allow you to give continuity to the action the user is carrying out.

Also, since it interacts with the fingers, these micro-interactions are very pleasant even on an interactive level, they give a playful feeling and remind us of our childhood. Why not make your user experience fun?

Thumb-Zone to Improve Interaction

Do you know where your users are using the mobile version of your eCommerce? Vertical or horizontal?

You can understand if navigation is smooth or if it is too difficult to interact by evaluating whether the position of the elements falls within the thumb-zone.

The ideal would be to arrange essential elements such as buttons and menus in areas where it is easier to get there with your thumb.

It allows ideal comfort during the entire experience of using your eCommerce.

Feeling Safe

Imagine having to make a payment and having to use your credit card.

You are shopping on a new site for yourself. You have never made any purchase, and obviously, your doubts start to show themselves: will it be safe to make a purchase here? What if it doesn’t go well? What if everything crashes and I don’t know if I paid or not?

When it comes to paying online, the fear of making mistakes occurs almost always and doubles if the operation takes place on mobile.

So do not spare yourself in indicating how the payments take place, suggest that the operation takes place in a protected and safe environment, that your tools allow you to be protected if unexpected events occur.

It may seem trivial, but it can make the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.

The Search Field and the Filters

You have an excellent navigation menu, well-designed, and neat and easily recognizable categories. But you need to realize that users have different needs.

Some are happy to explore the various categories, browsing through your products, browsing multiple product sheets, and those who prefer a more immediate solution.

From the desktop, you have a monitor usually large enough to be able to give maybe all the items on your menu together and scroll with your eye on the most interesting ones.
From mobile, instead, most of the time, the menu is condensed to occupy the least possible space, and for this reason, the discovery phase is more problematic.

For this reason, the search bar plays a fundamental role in your mobile version, eCommerce.

A user who knows what product he wants, but does not know what category he is in will undoubtedly take advantage of this feature.

So it will have to be a fast and straightforward task.

You must locate it in such a way as to be clearly visible and possibly have the possibility of suggesting the searched word, perhaps even showing the products that strictly relate to the search.

Furthermore, if we are in the presence of long lists of products, it is good to provide for the possibility of filtering this list based on specific characteristics, and you will have to make sure that the interaction on mobile devices is fluid and optimal.

Speed up and Leverage the Check-Out Phase

Ok, your user has filled the cart and is now ready for purchase.

Why don’t you make it an operation so trivial and straightforward that you won’t even have noticed that you have already paid?

In this delicate phase, 35% of users abandon because it is too complicated to complete the purchase.

What to consider then EGR improves the user experience of your eCommerce?

First of all, the steps. Divide your check-out to phases to facilitate the execution of individual tasks one at a time instead of seeing them all together on a single page.

If your check-out involves three steps, then indicate where you are in the process and how much left at the end.

Not everyone is already registered with your eCommerce, and not everyone will want to. You, therefore, foresee the possibility to complete the process even without having to register. Delivery address and billing will be the only necessary data.

Instead, it invites the user to register only after completing the check-out. You are more likely to do this after completing your purchase.

Conclusion

Although designing the user experience of your eCommerce and optimizing it for mobile requires a lot of work, these nine aspects are a perfect starting point to increase the sales of your eCommerce.

Let us remember them once again: