With more and more consumers using their mobile devices to shop online, it’s more important than ever to improve your mobile conversion rate. After all, it’s much more cost-effective to make the most of existing customers rather than spending big money attracting new ones. The question is: how do you do it? That’s where the Mobile Conversion Initiative comes in. In this post, we take a closer look at the new initiative and why it’s so important for your ecommerce business.
A Magento Community initiative
The Magento community is a vast network of developers, partners and enthusiasts aiming to innovate, improve and provide support. It’s one of the many reasons Magento is one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms. The Mobile Optimization Initiative is one of the latest projects from the Magento Community, in collaboration with PayPal and HiConversion.
Essentially, it’s about helping merchants experiment with mobile optimisation and eventually bridge the gap between mobile and desktop conversion. For example, only 2.52% of UK smartphone shoppers convert into sales, compared to a 5.15% conversion rate on desktop. Customers are much more likely to abandon purchases in a mobile basket if the payment process is confusing, slow or overwhelming. The Mobile Optimization Initiative looks at why this is the case, and how to put it right.
How it works
With 15 industry professionals offering their cooperation and services, the new initiative tests a number of areas on your mobile site, ultimately boosting your conversion rates and increasing sales across all platforms. Over 60 ecommerce businesses have already signed up to the initiative and will benefit from the following:
- A series of A/B tests to determine the best process for your mobile checkout
- HiConversion analytics to detect ‘friction points’ in your checkout funnel
- A single optimisation campaign using adaptive algorithms
- A final report including results, insights and actions to take going forward
So far, participating businesses have benefited from an average revenue increase of 7.5% per visit and have discovered that a better mobile checkout experience results in a better desktop buying experience overall.
Key findings so far
Already, the initiative discovered some interesting trends in participants’ tests, which can help businesses optimise their mobile ecommerce sites…
Simplifying the cart page header
The initiative has seen a 6.07% revenue per visit (RPV) increase by reducing distractions during the checkout process. By eliminating all items not directly relating to checkout from the shopping bag header, customers are more focused on the task at hand and are less likely to abandon the cart in search of other items, for instance.
Hiding the discount code field
Discount codes are a hugely popular sales tactic for ecommerce businesses, creating FOMO for customers. But displaying the discount code field at checkout can actually distract customers and direct them off the site in search of a code. Hiding the discount code field saw an 8.04% RPV increase.
Automating shopping bag updates
A frictionless shopping experience automatically boosts sales as there are less hurdles between the customer and the checkout. The initiative found that, by automating shopping bag updates, desktop conversions saw a whopping 32.33% RPV increase, with a 3.36% increase on mobile platforms.
Adding a floating checkout button
The more nudges you can give shoppers towards the checkout page, the better, right? Wrong, in fact. Testing found that adding a floating checkout button to the cart page actually saw a decrease of 0.55% RPV on some mobile sites. However, it’s important to note that the tests are all unique to each site. The best way to fully optimise your site is to tailor tests to suit your business and your goals.
Keep up-to-date
At Fluid Digital, we specialise in usability testing and conversion optimisation. Our team can transform your site and boost your conversions, providing a clear overview of why your site might not be performing optimally.
Don’t let a slow website, poorly designed checkout or second-rate mobile site hold you back – contact our team today to talk about optimising your ecommerce site.
