Today, mobile has penetrated every industry and become an essential part of users’ lives worldwide. Mobile is influencing everything from entertainment to research and shopping, making it a key touchpoint for brands across industries. Smartphone usage in particular is expected to soar above 2 billion users in 2015, while the average smartphone user checks their phone up to 221 times per day. Thus, reaching users on mobile creates the opportunity for brands to engage with their customer base hundreds of times a day.
Brands who are not offering wide-reaching or consistent enough experiences will not be able to improve the overall customer experience. According to a recent study, inconsistent user experiences make up 37% of consumers’ frustrations on mobile, while slow performance makes up another 42% (via Retail Touchpoints). Without improvements on these shortcomings, brands will miss out on the potential to engage with customers and strengthen mobile as a sales channel.Tips for improvement include:
Be consistent: Offers and features that are not offered across screens confuse and frustrate customers across industries. As more customers complete purchases and tasks across a range of devices, they expect an experience that is easy and intuitive. Ensuring your brand experiences across screens are all user-centric and tailored to the device use case will allow you to meet customer needs most effectively and at all times.
Streamline the journey: Consumers’ reluctance to purchase is most prominent on smartphones, evident through consistently high cart and site abandonment rates. In the U.K. in particular, 40% of shoppers have no plan to make a purchase on mobile this year due to difficulty shopping on mobile screens and poor mobile experiences. Changes such as faster and easier checkout and improved navigation during browsing can ensure effortless task completion for shoppers: seamlessly guiding them from browse to buy.
Commit to user-centricity: Consumer demands will change as mobile continues to grow. Brands will need to listen to their users, and continually invest in changes that will meet their needs over time. Naturally, customer-centered strategies will need refreshing as the customers themselves change, making an investment in mobile key to achieving multi-screen success.
Brands must step up and take initiative across all screens to offer customers positive experiences, or risk success for their business. More on why current multi-screen efforts are falling flat for consumers, and what brands can do to improve.