You watch a bunch of kids sitting together and not talking but on their smart phones, and you know that Internet and even social behavior is changing. According to Google Insight Research conducted by Neilsen in November 2013:
- 15 hours/week on mobile: Consumers spend over 2 hours a day researching online on smartphones.Before making a purchase they visit the website 6 times!
- 74% start with search on mobile: 74% people start with search on asearch engine and then move to particular websites or apps.
- 69% expect the store to be within five miles: And 10% searchers expect that the store is within one mile.
- 55% want to purchase in next hour and 83% within the day: Of those who researched your business on mobile- the majority want to buy through the phone.
- 54% of restaurant searchers made a purchase, i.e. of the 70% who searched for a restaurant on their mobile phones- a majority actually went to have a meal at the restaurant. The numbers are lower presently for apparel and electronics but stunningly 93% of those who searched on mobile went on to buy either from the store or online.
That was how consumers are changing their behavior on mobile phones but how exactly are they doing on your website? Well, its rather easy to find out. Logon to your Google Analytics account for your website and on the left panel there is a tab called "Mobile" that gives you data of mobile visitors. You also can see the new visitors who came in the previous month via mobile. By changing the date range you can examine the trend in mobile visitors- on your website. Just below the mobile tab, you can see the devices people use like Apple iPhone, iPad,Samsung etc. In other words, you know exactly what is happening with mobile visitors on your website.
Invariably, people would be spending more time on your website if they came to your website via desktop. This is understandable, because on mobile your attention span is shorter due to the smaller screen even if your website is mobile optimized.
Given that your visitors are likely to visit your website via mobile , it is highly desirable to have a mobile optimized website i.e. a website that is fairly easy to read on mobile screens.
The important thing to remember is that your consumer journey may take upto 9 touch points. These touchpoints could be online from different devices like mobile,desktop,tablets through search. Also online through social media and also offline through visits to your physical store.
In this mix of approaches that folks are using today, it is important to mobile optimize your website and also focus your online advertising efforts to the mobile visitor segment of your visitors. For example, Google AdWords gives you an option to show how the ad will look on mobile. Also the settings allow you to frame separate campaigns for mobile. Contact StratoServe.