Consumer Survey: If Your Website Looks Bad on My Phone, I Ain’t Buyin’
Our economy is recovering…slowly. Painfully slowly. Despite the fact that Wall Street seems to have recovered nicely, many people on Main Street are still worrying about losing their jobs to cutbacks and their houses to foreclosure. In addition, many Americans remain burdened by consumer credit card debt. Simply speaking, these are still difficult times for consumers. Here’s what that means to you as a small business owner: You simply can’t afford to make it more difficult for visitors to buy your products or services. Unfortunately, many local businesses aren’t making things easy when it comes to their websites. As more consumers are trying to find nearby businesses with their mobile devices (according to Google, 1 in 3 searches are for local information) businesses are still running antiquated sites that look like crap (let’s be honest) on smartphones and tablets.
Losing customers one click at a time
At first blush, this may seem like a small problem. It’s not, unfortunately. As the folks at MarketingVOX recently pointed out, there are very real financial penalties for having a mobile-unfriendly website. And as increasingly more consumers use mobile devices to access the web, the penalties are becoming stiffer. In a recent post, MarketingVOX outlined research from Google showing that:
- A majority—61 percent—of consumers say that they’ll leave a website if it’s not optimized for small touch screens.
- A whopping 96 percent of consumers say they’ve had bad experiences on websites that were not designed for non-desktop screens.
- 50 percent of respondents said that even if they liked a business, they’d be less inclined to buy in the future if the business’s website isn’t mobile friendly.
The Google survey also found that 96 percent of consumers say they’ve stumbled upon websites that were not designed for mobile devices. And fifty percent of consumers said that even if they like a business, they’ll buy from it less often if the business’s website isn’t mobile-friendly. And on the plus side? A full 74 percent claim that they’re apt to come back to a mobile-friendly website.
Your challenge
What type of mobile experience have you been offering for your prospects and customers? If it’s bad, the research from Google is unequivocal: you’re losing customers. If it’s a good experience, you’re probably taking them from your competitors. It’s easy to see why mobile website optimization is so important. Look around you. Chances are good you’ll see someone hunched over a mobile device, tapping away at their iPhone, Android tablet or Kindle e-reader. This isn’t a passing fad. The truth is, a recent report from Morgan Stanley projects that web surfing on mobile devices will outpace web surfing on personal computers within the next year. And according to a joint Google/Ipsos study, after consumers search for a business via mobile, 61% say they make a phone call and 59% say they will go to the business! Can you guess which businesses are going to hear the phone ring? Yes, the ones with mobile-ready websites. For those who have a smartphone, here’s your homework: pull up your site using your mobile web browser. If your site looks cramped or unreadable, you know what you have to do: fix it. Get help if you need it! Otherwise, you’re at risk of losing what every business depends on. Paying customers.