According to Pew Research Center, as of January this year 55% of American adults owned smartphones, while 42% owned tablets. Internet usage on these devices has skyrocketed. There are more users than ever, as well as better 4G coverage and other user experience improvements. In the United States, Internet usage from mobile devices and tablets recently surpassed usage from PCs, according to Enders Analysis research firm. The time for responsive design is now!
Why You Need Responsive Design
According to Smart Insights, there are 4 billion mobile phones in the world. 3.05 billion enable SMS and 1.08 billion of them are smartphones. If your company doesn’t take user experience and responsive design into account while creating content, you risk losing access to this customer population. Such a loss would be devastating to the company’s marketing efforts no matter how well you promoted in other ways.
Customer Satisfaction
Responsive and user-friendly web design are key to a company’s marketing and promotional strategy. Customers are accessing information as part of their daily activities, whether online shopping, checking email, or searching for the best take-out restaurant nearby. Therefore, the customer must have easy access to this information on any type of device that they use to access it. Without a superior experience, customers will switch almost immediately to another site or company that provides more mobile-friendly design.
Consumers spent six times as much time in retailers’ apps in December of 2012 compared to 2011 according to Flurry Analytics. Whether searching prices, using purchasing assistants, or browsing marketplace apps such as Groupon or Ebay, more and more customers are shopping from their mobile devices and tablets than ever before. The numbers are growing year by year.
Searchability
Not only should the customers wants and needs drive the decisions that your company makes, but Google recommends responsive web design. With 67% of search market share in the world companies should heed their advice. Make sure your site is “Google friendly.” The Goolge bot can index and organize a responsive site more efficiently. In addition, by keeping all the sites on one URL you make for the best user experience.
Time to Redesign
Merely taking the PC platform web page and shrinking the content to fit on a mobile screen does not do the job. The need for responsive web design is more important than ever.
Customers want to avoid barriers to their search or shopping. They recognize the ease of access via mobile device over an in-store experience. So, they need to be able to make a purchase just as easily as walking into a store, with the same level of care and customer service. If they are unable to do so, they will take their business elsewhere. These missed opportunities can pose a potentially devastating sales decrease for any business.
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