I apologise to Kevin Bacon for stealing his catchphrase. Following on from my previous blog on Periscope, I saw an interesting statistic on the latest Adobe Digital Index (ADI) report that mobile friendly devices will soon overtake the desktop as the number one web browsing tool.
Although this sounds like a surprising statistic to some, it makes a lot of sense that more searches are carried out on web browsers on mobile devices than desktops. I think the initial explosion of mobile use highlighted the incredible potential of the mobile market. Since that point, many retailers have invented ways to make the mobile experience more fluid, creating a diverse range of apps designed with the mobile device and the customer experience in mind.
So what are people using mobile browsing for?
Without getting too bogged down in the detail, the most interesting statistic to come out of the report is how mobile devices are used. As we can see below, when browsing, you are often drawn towards using the standard web browser, for example loading Google on your phone.
But when it comes to buying that Ted Baker jacket that you “absolutely must have”, the report shows people are more likely to use an app to make the purchase. The ADI also suggest that rather than squandering mobile browsing, the growth of Apps is complementing it. Visits on a mobile device are up 16% and the total launch of applications are up 51%.
In the financial sector, mobile devices were predominantly used for customers making transactions and reviewing information related to their accounts. Within retail it was all about the promotions and special offers. The media and entertainment industry saw mobile used predominantly for social media and news. Lastly, within the travel sector, use of mobile flourishes when used for checking reviews and finding directions…I can’t remember the last time I used a paper map!
Still not impressed? Well, apparently in 2014 alone, 8% of people planned to use a mobile platform for Black Friday deals. Forbes estimates that this figure will rise to a staggering 30%, which will see us folks in the UK witness our very first £1bn spend over that weekend at the end of November.
In a nutshell, the report clearly demonstrated that mobile browsing is on the rise. What does this mean for businesses moving forward? Think innovatively, think ‘user experience’. Customers are constantly ‘on-the-go’, a culture of convenience, information needs to be delivered in a way that’s easy to access, simple to navigate and useful to digest.
Mobile Browsing “I have no idea if my website is Mobile Friendly”
Not sure if your website is mobile friendly? Don’t worry, Google has a nifty tool to check if your website will accommodate a mobile device.
- Firstly, go to google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
- Then insert the URL of your website into the search engine
- Click ‘Analyze’
- Then after a moment or two you will receive the result…
What does your customer user experience look like now and how will it look in the future? If you want to get mobile (sorry poor pun!) and pop into our office for a chat about how we can improve your website experience give us a call on 01992 582 824.
