Add to Cart: 5 Ways to Improve Shopping on the Mobile Web

2. Make the shopping cart visible and accessible wherever users are on a mobile site.

When users are browsing and shopping on a mobile ecommerce site using a smartphone, it’s essential to keep them updated on how many items are in their shopping cart and what those items are. Because of the limited viewing space on a mobile phone, it’s much harder to always keep the shopping cart visible on a mobile Web page. Users may sometimes have to scroll up or down to find it.

However, we can at least place the shopping cart in a consistent location on every page on a mobile site, as on Dell’s mobile site, shown in Figure 6. Though always placing the shopping cart icon at the top of each page would dramatically increase its visibility, as on BestBuy’s site, shown in Figure 7. Users would be able to easily see and get access to their shopping cart when browsing different pages on the site.

But just making the shopping cart visible is not enough. A site should keep the number of items in its shopping cart updated, as BestBuy does, shown in Figure 7. Amazon’s mobile site, shown in Figure 8, makes its shopping cart prominent enough, displaying it in the upper-right corner of the page, but it doesn’t update the shopping cart immediately once a user adds an item to the cart. Even if there are several items in the cart, it still appears empty.

3. Make it easy to check out by tapping a prominent button.

On a mobile phone’s small screen, users might easily miss a Check Out button, especially when there are many other buttons on the same page that compete for their attention. On Dell’s mobile site, shown in Figure 9, there are multiple buttons, including Update Total, Remove Item, Apply Coupon, and Checkout, which all look very similar. Amazon makes its Proceed to Checkout button bigger than the Update button, as shown in Figure 10. They also repeat the button at the top and bottom of the page to make it easy for users to access it when they are viewing either part of the page. MAC uses a very different design for its Checkout Now button, shown in Figure 11, to make it stand out on the page, so users won’t miss it.

4. Provide options for ordering by phone and picking up products at a store.

Taking advantage of smartphones’ personal communications capabilities can make the mobile shopping experience more flexible and serve the needs of users on the go. In case anything unexpected happens—for example, losing connectivity—you can give users alternative ways of completing purchases. Phone numbers should be readily accessible and let users initiate a call with a minimum of effort. BestBuy’s mobile site, shown in Figure 12, provides a good example of making use of the phone function during the mobile shopping process. An Order By Phone link is available on every page on their site. Users can use the link to make a call.

5. Make mobile shopping social.

Mobile users often connect to social networks like Facebook, communicate with close friends through constant text messaging, and use their phones to call family members and coworkers. One reason Groupon has gained so much momentum is its smart use of social shopping. Your friends buy something and recommend it to you. Then, you buy it and want to recommend it to your other friends as well. For example, a circle of friends can share a deal for a cooking lesson, then have fun taking the lesson together. Making the shopping experience social not only facilitates lead generation, but also enhances the relationships of friends in real life. Mobile ecommerce sites can and should push this one step further. For example, eBay’s fashion app lets users take pictures of newly purchased outfits and share them instantly with their friends or family. Plus, shoppers might seek opinions about a potential purchase from their peers or ask for their parents’ approval to make a purchase.

Another good way of making mobile shopping social is bringing the virtual and physical worlds together by facilitating product reviews and sharing of feedback on mobile ecommerce sites. When customers are shopping in bricks-and-mortar stores, they should be able to read product reviews and user comments on their smartphone. Users could then shop with much more confidence than if they could read just an official product description in the store or on the store’s Web site. Even when customers complete purchases on their phone, positive user-generated comments on a mobile ecommerce site may prompt those purchases.

In Conclusion

There are many variables to consider when optimizing a shopping experience for a mobile platform. Plus, with new technologies and mobile devices such as the iPad coming to the market, consumers now have more opportunities to shop on the go. For this reason, creating intuitive mobile shopping experiences is becoming increasingly important to driving an ecommerce store’s revenue and improving its bottom line.