If you’re an eCommerce business owner, it’s essential that your website is optimized for mobile use in order to stay competitive. Of course, making a move to mobile comes with many complications – the first of which is the question of where to start. 

In this blog post, we’ll deliver five actionable tips for creating a smooth and mobile-friendly website. Read on for key insights into the world of omnichannel retailing!

1. Keep It Simple

Whether you’re running a small online store or an international operation with a network of eCommerce fulfillment warehouses, it pays to keep your website design simple and minimalistic. Too much clutter can be overwhelming on a small screen, causing visitors to give up and leave your site. So stick with one or two columns of content and avoid crowding your site with large images or videos that will take too long to load. 

2. Choose The Right Layout

When designing a website for mobile users, there are two main options: responsive design or a separate mobile site. Responsive design means that the same code base is used across all platforms, while a separate mobile site requires additional coding work but provides more control over how content is displayed on different devices. 

As you’ve probably guessed, dedicated mobile sites tend to offer the best user experience (UX), since they’re custom-made for mobile users.

However, responsive design delivers its own set of benefits, including ranking well in search and adhering to tighter budgets. So, take the time to consider which option makes the most sense for your business before making a decision. 

3. Make Navigation Easy

Navigation should be clear and easy to follow on any device, but especially on mobile devices where space is limited and users have less patience. Use intuitive menus that make sense both visually and logically. That way, users can easily find what they’re looking for without getting lost in endless clicks or swipes. 

4. Optimize Loading Time

Loading times are even more important on mobile devices than they are on desktop browsers due to slower internet speeds and limited battery life on phones and tablets. Thankfully, there are a few tactics you can deploy to gain quick wins on the load speed front: 

• Compress images where possible;
• Reduce HTTP requests; 
• Use caching techniques such as browser caching; 
• Combine files into fewer requests; 
• Minify code (HTML/CSS/JS); 
• Defer loading of JavaScript files until necessary.

These steps will help you boost the performance of your website without negatively affecting UX quality. As a bonus, they will also improve the overall performance of your website, which can contribute favorably to your search engine rankings.  

5. Test Before Launch

Before launching your website, run some tests using tools like PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom’s Website Speed Test tool, Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, and any others your developer recommends.

These free resources are there to help you ensure everything works properly across different platforms. They will also help you identify any potential issues before they become problems. 

A well-designed eCommerce website that is optimized for mobile visitors can mean the difference between success and failure in today’s digital marketplace. By following the above tips, you can perfect the user experience while accounting for the technical limitations of smaller screens and slower internet connections on mobile devices. Doing so will help you create an enjoyable shopping experience for all customers, regardless of their preferred device.