Written by Alex Thompson, The Stewart Company

Mobile optimised websites – are they worth it?

As part of the redesign, we chose to optimise our site so that it is mobile user friendly on both smartphones

and tablets to enhance the browsing experience of the visitor. 57% of mobile users will abandon a site if it

takes more than 3 seconds to load. A website that is not optimised for mobile usage will undoubtedly take

longer than this, meaning that not having this capability will result in an automatic loss of over half the visitors

who would want to browse on mobile devices.

Mobile users – are they different?

Mobile users undoubtedly expect a different browsing experience than desktop users. Equally, those who use

both desktop and mobile devices will have different objectives and expectations for each of them. While

desktop users will be happy to explore the website and take time to learn more about the brand and products

offered, mobile users are likely to just want to find the product they are looking for as quickly as possible.

Whether this is because they need to quickly research

something they have found in a shop, looking for an item they

saw in the street or simply want to quickly show a friend,

mobile users will be on the website for significantly less time.

The use of mobile devices to browse the internet has increased

dramatically in a very short period of time, shown in Figure 1.

Over a quarter of all global web searches are now conducted

on a mobile device by over a billion users worldwide, and by

not having a mobile optimised website, an organisation is

severely limiting the amount that they can engage with these

people. Also, people will trust and want to engage with your

brand more when you offer a satisfying mobile experience, and may even return to the website later either on

a desktop or mobile device in the day to explore further. Without this capability, it is highly possible that

potential or current consumers will be lost due to the frustrating experience through a lack of mobile

engagement.

Enhanced brand engagement

One third of all mobile browsers will leave a website if it is not fully optimised for mobile use. Content that

looks good and stands out on a desktop is likely to be lost in the smaller screen. Stewart has created a mobile

optimised site in the same style as the desktop version, but with a far simpler layout that is easy for the user to

understand, interpret and click. We want the user to feel satisfied when they arrived on our site and to explore

it further using the new iconography and menu bars, designed to limit the amount of words and clutter that

appears on the page.

This will give the visitor a positive feeling about our brand from the start of their engagement, throughout

their visit to the site and the various pages on it. We have also incorporated a new category tagging system

that allows visitors to narrow down their search with ease instead of scrolling through hundreds of items

looking for the one that they are looking for.

Summary

If your website is not mobile optimised, a large proportion of visitors will not even make it past the homepage

once they enter it on a mobile device. It is now essential for organisations to optimise their website for mobile

use if they want to be able to engage with all consumers.

Our new website, www.stewartcompany.co.uk, will be launching this Easter.

Morgan Stanley Research

Figure 1