Eurostop, a leading supplier of retail management solutions to the fashion, footwear and lifestyle sectors, has published a paper stating that when budgets are tight, retailers should always take a ‘mobile first’ approach to website design. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, retailers need to ensure that they provide an interface that encourages customers to remain loyal, by providing a content rich website that is mobile friendly.
Deborah Loh, Marketing Manager at Eurostop and author of the paper commented; “Industry pundits predict that by 2017 more than 90% of internet users will access online content through their phones. However, in some demographics we may already have reached that point of market saturation. If a retailer’s website doesn’t look good on mobile devices, they could be losing out already.’
The paper explains that when looking to make the most efficient use of available resources, taking a ‘mobile first’ approach will ensure that retailers focus on what is most important. A website that looks good and works well on a mobile device with limited screen size will scale up to a desktop, however, the reverse is not so true. Retailers with a good mobile site will not need to invest in developing an App, saving considerable support overhead as Apps need to be developed and tested for different operating systems.
Finally, Deborah makes the point that ensuring that your site is mobile friendly is important so that you are not penalised in Google’s mobile SEO rankings. With the increasing number of mobile internet users, you want to make sure that you are returned ahead of the competition.
There are so many benefits to taking the ‘Mobile First’ approach retailers should be asking themselves not; ‘Can I afford to develop a mobile website’ but ‘Can I afford not to?’
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