Smartphones have changed a lot over the last five years. While people used to be thrilled with just being able to see basic text from the web on their phone, the iPhone and all of its resulting competitors have made normal web browsing the new standard for smartphones. Despite what some people may think, not every business needs its own app. However, what every business does need is a website that makes it easy for customers to make a purchase from their phone.
If making a purchase from your website is difficult or next to impossible, you’re probably missing out on the opportunity to acquire new customers. Even though that’s the last thing any business owner wants to hear, the good news is there are ways to make your site just as easy to use on a phone as it is on a desktop or laptop:
Simplified Fields
The most important part of ensuring that people are able to use their phones to buy through your site is to make it as simple as possible to enter their payment information. Since no one wants to type out unnecessary information on a phone keyboard, make sure that you only have fields that are absolutely necessary. If a field isn’t actually required for completing a credit card payment, get rid of it. The other part of optimizing your mobile payment process is making it easy to get from one field to the next. Since many smartphone keyboards have keys that allow you to jump from one field to the next, you’ll want to test your site to confirm that it works properly with those keys.
Make Navigation Easy
In order to complete your payment process, people first have to be able to find it. Because one of the big differences between a computer and phone is the size of the screen, you don’t want visitors to have to hunt for your navigation menu. Instead, you want to prominently display it for them. The same goes for your search box. Since typing in one search can be easier than navigating through multiple menus, having this element in a visible spot is especially important to smartphone visitors.
Don’t Force Anything
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is forcing visitors to only use a “mobile” version of their site. Since modern smartphones can fully render standard websites, this can be frustrating for advanced users who don’t need anything simplified for them. While it may make sense to adjust certain parts of your website for the majority of your mobile visitors, if you’re making any major changes from your standard site, be sure to provide a link that allows more advanced visitors to switch to your standard format and structure.
Jeff Adcock is the president of Veritrans LLC Which is an online credit card processing company company in Houston TX.