10 Mistakes Mcommerce Marketers Make (But You Don’t Have To)

Here is a list of mistakes most marketers make while developing a marketing strategy for mobile customers.

Mistake #1 A dumb checkout process on a smart phone

There are a lot of things that can go wrong in a mobile checkout, such as a wrong keyboard popping up, malfunctioning search, long checkout process and like. The solution is – Build it right!

1. Optimize your mobile site/app in a way that it take the user no more than two steps to reach anywhere on the e-store.

2. Make the checkout process on mobile as easy as possible. Display multiple payment options, even PayPal, if your user base is US population.

3. Try to keep form fields and type of keyboard popping up in sync with each other. For instance, in the form field for contact number, the default keyboard that comes up should be that of numbers, and not alphabets.

Mistake #2 A Mobile site that hates desktop site, or one that loves it too much

This is a common foul-up: Sometimes, the mobile site wouldn’t allow the user to view its desktop version, OR there are cases I have seen where the site switches back to the desktop version suddenly for certain pages. This is really annoying for the user. He was not accustomed or not ready to visit your desktop site with tiny fonts and use his fingers, not thumb, to zoom into it.

Mistake #3 Mistimed Popups, that too eclipsing everything on a small screen

Pop-ups, what should I say about them, are mostly ‘not’ welcomed. But when they appear on the 5″ small screen of a smartphone, they are a nightmare. Plus, they have the ‘X’ to close button so tiny and obscure, that it often leads to site abandonment.

Such pop-ups do not help in increasing sales or retain customers, but serve more as a hurdle to complete the purchase process.

Mistake #4 Ask to enter credit/debit card details manually

Believe it or not, this is can be tiresome, even on a well optimized site.

What should actually be done is to make use of saved payment and contact details from past purchases and checkout, and only the option to choose between them should be presented. So, what happens is that the only thing user needs to do in order to complete his purchase is “log in” (Of course, that calls for cookies that stay in the system for a little longer than usual).

Do you know that this intuitive UI is one of the contributor’s of Amazon’s success on mobile?

Say it with me, long live the cookies!

Mistake #5 Tiny links and indiscernible CTAs

CTA, Calls-to-Action, are the links that ultimately guide the user which action to take next or what will happen if you click this link. So, having links in tiny and indiscernible fonts, text size or color is a gaffe many marketers make. They do not do it intentionally, but they just do not realize the importance of these links.

Links, ideally, should be clear, easily visible, clickable and, if possible, in a different (contrasting) color.

Another thing to keep in mind is to keep sufficient space between the targeted CTAs and ‘less significant’ links to avoid accidental clicks.

Mistake #6 Slow loading pages, even on a light-weight mobile app

Isn’t page load speed a crucial element in ecommerce, be it a web-site or a mobile-site? With no time on watch to spare for shopping, people shop on-the-go. Top that with an environment that distracts the visitor easily, what do you get? A slow loading website and a prospective shopper that just abandoned you.

Optimize your mobile app or website to load fast. Instead of large images, use the zoom-in feature. Keep the written content to the minimum. Block ads and pop-ups and keep only those elements that will ‘most and directly’ influence the purchase.

Mistake #7 Assuming ‘local’ isn’t important for something present online

Seven out of ten mobile consumers prefer to deal with businesses located within 5 miles of their radius, a Google-Nielsen research revealed.

This research stat gains further significance if your ecommerce business allows offline shipment through brick-and-mortar stores directly to the customer.

It should not be forgotten that technically mobile searches are local searches. Capitalizing on this preference can boost mobile conversions without any additional effort. All you gotta do is work on some local SEO.

Mistake #8 Imperfect store finders

Taking the last blooper forward, I’m going to tell how those who have store-finders and local SEO working for them commit a snafu of designing an imperfect store finder. It is there, but it doesn’t help you boost any sales. Then how worthy is your effort from those having a mobile site/app that is devoid of such functionality?

So, when you go about developing a store finder, pin the stores on the map precisely. Also, do not forget to provide the details of that store (opening hours, open/close on that day, time to reach, phone numbers, distance in miles, and if, possible, reviews and product availability too).

Mistake #9 Too many errors

“Unfortunately *your app’s name* has stopped working.

Wait, Report, OKAY — Seriously?!”

This has happened to the many shopping apps I have used, and I wonder, who is the unfortunate one here – me, who can just uninstall this faulty app and hop on to another one, or the business, who just lost me to a black dialog box?

The problem is that, at least 25% of the time you experience errors which prevent you from using the app. Sometimes you can’t login at all, sometimes the connection vanishes even when you’re on wi-fi, and other times the schedule information is blank.

Mistake #10 Menus craving for more “me-time”

This points to those menus that won’t close easily. While I found a scrollable menu fascinating and easy to use, I realized it was not easy to close it once it has served my purpose. Looking all over the screen to find a way to close it, the hitting “X” and finally finding my shopping-time is over was definitely counter-intuitive for that business.

In my opinion, a CTA that says “Done” that eats up a bit of screen space, works much better for the user. A lot of time is saved that can further be utilized to complete the purchase.

Conclusively, there is a lot of scope in the mobile world for ecommerce. But there are a lot of things that can go awry too. Only if the marketers and designers work in-tandem and in-sync can this murkiness be alleviated and conversions increased.

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