What are you reading this blog post on? Chances are it is some kind of smartphone. Smartphones are quickly becoming the main way most Americans access the internet. So if your website or e-commerce store isn’t optimized for mobile, how do you expect anyone to be able to engage with it?

Did you know that 55 percent of Americans access the internet entirely through their smartphones? Most of them don’t even own a laptop or desktop computer! And more, that number climbs every year with more and more people using their phones for everything.

What that statistic tells us is that if you aren’t using a computer for a job or school you are probably just going to use your phone to shop, communicate or browse through the internet. So why are we still making websites and sending emails assuming they will be viewed on laptop and desktop computers with wide screens?

If 55 percent of your website visitors (or more depending on your demographic) are on phones don’t you think spending more time to make their experience seamless would be worth it? Think about how much business you are losing because people cannot navigate through your website or your checkout process has too many tedious steps.

How can you start making your website or ecommerce store mobile-focused? Here are a few things to start with…

Simplify The User Experience

Building a mobile-optimized interface is all about user experience. Can a customer on even the smallest smartphone browse and purchase an item seamlessly on your website? Are the buttons easy to find and click? 

If you are starting from scratch or revamping your site or store be sure to use a design or layout that is already mobile-optimized so you know it is set up to look good on small screens.

If you want to make changes right now go to your website or store on a smartphone and take notes. What doesn’t look right? Are the buttons in the right places? If you can note a few small things you can change them quickly without having to completely rebuild your site.

When making any changes to your website or store make sure everything is tested on a smartphone before going live. 

Organize Your Navigation

Have you ever tried to browse through a website or online store on your phone only to get lost in a sea of pages? Navigation is a huge issue when it comes to creating a mobile-friendly website. Make sure that all of your pages have clear navigation and easy to click buttons in static locations.

If you have an ecommerce store make sure that your products are categorized so they can be easily browsed through and narrowed down. You don’t want to have someone try and load a page with 100 images on a phone just to find that what they are looking for is on another page - they will give up! Include a search bar and a way to narrow fields to make searching easier.

Streamline The Checkout Process

If you want people to shop your online store you have to make it as easy as possible. 

First go through and optimize your product listings by making them more efficient. Put the most important information at the top like the name, image, price and description. Don’t make people click to another page just to find that information -- that will disrupt the shopping journey.

Next go through the checkout process and remove any unnecessary steps. What information is critical and what isn’t? A long checkout process leads to lots of abandoned carts, especially on a smartphone. You want to hold people until the very end.

Finally offer as many payment options as you can. People tend to be logged into payment options like Apple Pay and PayPal on their phones already, which can make checkout a breeze if you offer those kinds of payment options.

Final Thoughts

Going forward it is important that you always have a mobile-first strategy when it comes to making updates or improvements to your website or online store. Mobile will only become more and more prominent as time moves forward. You don’t want to risk alienating a big chunk of potential customers just because your new website looks slick on a laptop.