OPINION: Top tips for a better mobile retail site

So it’s surprising that only 14 per cent of high street retailers have a mobile optimised site. These laggards need to get a move on!

Happily, there's still time. So below are ten tip for good mobile sites to prevent retailers from missing the boat entirely this Christmas.

1. Simple and clear UI
Engage your customers immediately, and keep latency low, or you’ll risk losing them – potentially for good. Your user interface should be kept simple and invite exploration – don’t overwhelm visitors with options. Expose only the most important content and make sure functionality is useful for someone on the go. Aesthetically, make sure your environment is eye-catching, uncluttered, and intuitive.

2. Don’t reinvent what Apple and Android got right.
Take visual cues from the apps that millions of consumers have already adopted. Don’t try to reinvent what is already considered a best practice. Mimic simple, clean features like picker wheels, category navigation, sliders, and buttons. If your environment is familiar, users with engage right away.

3. Nobody likes change.
Make cross-channel activity seamless. Your mobile and web environment should share the same core structure. You cannot simply shrink your online storefront down to fit a mobile platform. People will leave.

4. It’s all about convenience.
The combination of a small screen size and expectation of instant information means you must create features to streamline the user experience. Add features like one-touch add-to-cart button or the ability to view search results effortlessly.

5. Keep it social.
Make it easy for users to evangelise your products for you by writing mobile reviews and posting them to sites like Facebook and Twitter.

6. Keep it relevant.
Smartphone owners are unforgiving if a site does not appear relevant to them.

7. Keep payment simple.

Long forms during checkout this will lead to cart abandonment. So populate the payment screen with as much information as possible from a customer’s existing e-commerce account.

8. Use incentives.
Create a way to entice users to come back to your mobile site/app with features such as a loyalty programme or exclusive offers.

9. Leverage the voice of the customer.
Take advantage of the mobile's tracking qualities. They're not shared devices, so the search history, behaviour, and even location details are fully accessible – and totally personal. Use this data to provide a more compelling mobile environment, and improve the customer experience.

10. Stay one step ahead of others.
As more users engage and more data is gathered, you can use that data to fine-tune the user experience. Make sure you do it faster than your rivals.

The bottom line is, order to stay competitive, your mobile environment has to be compelling enough that customers adopt it and come back on a regular basis.

Know your target audience and recognise how their needs, obstacles, and behaviours differ in the mobile from your web site. After all, the more useful your mobile environment is, the more your customers will return.

* Andrew Webb is eBusiness strategist at Endeca, a maker of information software solutions.