More people are spending time on their smartphones than ever before. They are used for everything: banking, investing, and monitoring the weather. We also use them to listen to music, navigate, and shop.

Nearly 55% of website traffic is from mobile devices. 60% of online shoppers use their phones to search for products. You risk losing large amounts of potential customers if your store does not offer a seamless mobile user experience.

How can you optimize your online shop to increase mobile conversions

Get started with a responsive WordPress theme

A premium WordPress theme is the best starting point for an online store that’s responsive. Your theme is the basis of your website. Make sure it works well on all devices.

These are some tips to help you evaluate a theme.

• You can test the demo theme on both tablets and smartphones. To simulate the experience, you can use a website like Website Responsive Test Tool. All screen sizes should display the demo elements well. Nothing should be difficult to read or use.

• Resize your browser window while you are looking at the demo theme. You should adjust the content accordingly.

• The theme description should include responsive features. The theme description should mention responsive design or explain how the theme adapts to mobile devices.

• Use Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool to test the theme demo.

• See the reviews. Review ratings and comments from other theme users. Be aware of negative comments regarding responsive design.

The Storefront theme fulfills all these requirements and is flexible and simple to customize. It also offers a range of child themes that are tailored to specific industries, such as fashion, toys, digital goods, bookings, and so on.

Mobile usability is important

The ease with which shoppers interact with your site is called usability. Poor usability can negatively impact sales, conversions, and brand perception as well as SEO. Mobile experience should always be a top priority. Take into account the following:

• Use your thumb to interact with your website. Mobile users can only use their thumbs. Site visitors must be able to tap all clickable elements, including buttons, menu items, and images. They shouldn’t be too close together or too small that someone could accidentally click on the wrong thing.

• Avoid distractions such as pop-ups. Because mobile screens are so small it is important to prioritize the content you show your visitors. Pop-ups that take up the whole screen of a mobile device can disrupt users’ experience. This can even lead to poor search engine ranking. Ads and other notifications are also susceptible. This type of content should not take up too much screen space and be easy to remove.

• Implement product filters. Online shoppers might need to scroll for some time if they have many products. Mobile screens only show a few products at a given time, making this difficult. Customers might become frustrated and abandon the purchase decision. Filters allow them to narrow down their choices based on their needs. 

• Use sufficient large fonts. Mobile users can struggle to read text on your website if it is too small. They shouldn’t need to pinch and zoom to see information about your products. You may need to adjust the font size for mobile devices depending on the fonts you choose and your website.

• Separate text. Pages with a lot of information should be broken down into smaller sections that are easier to read on small screens. This can be done with toggles, accordions, or bullet points. Add links to subsections to allow readers to jump to relevant topics in long blog posts.

Make the checkout page simpler

Although mobile shopping has seen a significant increase in popularity over the years, it is still not converting as well. The average eCommerce conversion rate for mobile is 2.03%, as compared to desktop’s 3.83%.

The checkout process is crucial in generating sales. To increase conversion rates, make it as easy as possible for mobile devices. Customers will abandon your store if it takes too much time to purchase.

Unnecessary fields

Begin by looking at the information that you need for checkout. Are all the necessary information? You will likely find fields that you can eliminate.

• You can remove the Company Name field if you don’t want to sell to businesses.

• You can’t imagine a situation in which you would need to call customers.

• You can remove the Order Notes section if you do not accept notes.

Mobile users will appreciate fewer fields, so it is better to keep them as few as possible.

Guest checkout

Customer accounts are great because they speed up checkout for returning customers by automatically filling in their information and saving credit card data. What about new customers?

Many people don’t want to sign up for an account in your store. This is especially true for mobile customers who are looking to make purchases as quickly as possible. Requiring customer accounts is believed to be responsible for 35% of all abandoned carts.

Accept social login

Most likely, your customers have their social media accounts open on their mobile devices. To simplify checkout and save them the effort of creating a new account, enable social login on your website. Customers can log in with Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

Multiple payment options

Multiple payment options can speed up checkout. You might also accept credit card transactions. However, enabling options such as Amazon Pay and PayPal allow customers to pay with existing accounts instead of pulling out a card and entering all details.

Make sure checkout fields are tall enough

Customers should be able to fill out their checkout forms easily. You should ensure that the fields are large enough to allow customers to tap to fill out information without needing to zoom in. This can be done with simple CSS.

Use the browser inspector to begin your checkout page. This will allow you to identify the class for each field. Next, enter the code below for each class. In this example, the Email field is used.

/** Customize height of checkout fields **/ input[type='email'].input-text{ padding: 100px !important; }

You can adjust the padding according to your site and current settings. It may take some experimentation to get it to work. You can also modify the code to apply to specific devices by using a media query.

Notice: You may need assistance if you’re not familiar with code or resolving possible conflicts.

Edit product pages

Your product pages should be responsive, too. Customers should be able to read product information, view photos, and add items to their shopping cart.

Make Add to Cart button stick

As a shopper reads product information, a sticky Add to Cart button tracks them down the page. They don’t need to scroll back up if they are convinced to buy. A sticky Add to Cart button can increase orders by 7.9%. This CSS will make your button sticker on mobile devices.

/** Make the Add to Cart button sticky **/ @media only screen and (max-width: 900px) { .cart { position: fixed; bottom: 0; background: #ffffff; width: 100%; z-index: 3; } }

You might need to tweak the CSS slightly depending on your website design and theme. 

Make images intuitive

Shoppers expect to be able to swipe through the image gallery to see more photos or zoom in on a product when they land on a product page. These gestures on mobile phones are so natural that shoppers almost forget about them. Your site should support them.

To indicate multiple photos, add dots or arrows. Your mobile users may not be aware that they can swipe.

Prioritize vital information

Customers should be able to view important product information without scrolling too far. Prioritize prices, and variations (color, size, etc. Discounts, reviews, and any other details specific to your product: If you sell clothes, the material may be crucial. If you are an electronics retailer, you may want to emphasize the warranty included with every purchase.

Additional information such as full product descriptions and specifications (washing instructions. SKUs. Ingredients. etc.) can be found further down the page. You can find additional information further down the page. So, customers can find more information if they need it. However, if they are content with the basics they won’t be overwhelmed.

Simplify your mobile menu

Mobile devices should have a primary menu that is as simple as possible. Site visitors will be overwhelmed and confused if there are too many pages. Reduce it to the essentials and then prioritize the order in which they are listed, starting with the most important.

The Good Batch reduces the number of pages on their mobile menu by limiting it to five, with Login and Cart links. It’s easy and straight to the point.

Submenus with expandable toggles are a good option if you have to include many pages. When a user expands a primary menu item, it will only show submenu items. Use symbols such as arrows to indicate when a menu expands.

Nuria’s primary menu for mobile phones is next to its expanded submenu.

Nuria has five primary menu options on mobile. Arrows are placed next to each item to indicate that there are more choices. The primary menu slides to reveal submenus with clear buttons. This allows them to show all the options they need without overwhelming customers.

Mobile menus can be displayed in many ways. Choose the one that best suits your audience. These are:

• A hamburger menu. Three vertically stacked lines form the hamburger symbol. The menu will not be visible until the user clicks on it. This is a great choice for sites that have many pages, but it can be difficult for site visitors.

• Tab navigation. This is similar to desktop navigation and lists menu items horizontally across the top of the site. This should be used only for menus that have few links. Users shouldn’t need to scroll or zoom in to see all items.

• A floating button. A menu icon button floats on the page and follows the user as they scroll. It expands when clicked to display the menu. While this is a great way to keep your main menu visible, it can also be distracting and cover up content.

• A dropdown menu. Clicking on the menu bar at top of the page will open it to show page options. Although it takes up more space than the hamburger menu, site visitors may find it easier to see.

Your theme should include responsive menu styles. These plugins will help you if it doesn’t or if your theme isn’t.

• WP Mobile Menu
• shiftnav
• Responsive Menu

No matter which option you choose to offer, ensure that your customers find it easy to use and meet their needs. This could mean that you have to create a separate mobile menu.

Easy to locate important features

It’s easy to lose items due to the small screen size of mobile devices. You must ensure that visitors can quickly find the most important functionality.

Make the search bar visible

Although many websites have a search box located in the sidebar of their website, it is often pushed to the bottom on mobile devices. The search functionality you have in your desktop header may not be available on a smartphone. It’s vital functionality for online shoppers who may be able to search for the product they are looking for.

It’s a great idea to add the search bar to your mobile menu. This will make it easily accessible to shoppers. You can do the same with custom code if your theme doesn’t offer this option.

Add the following function to your header.php file. You can then style it to suit your needs with CSS.

A plugin such as Ivory Search can achieve the same functionality without having to touch any code.

Clear contact information

Mobile users won’t be able to see contact information if it is in the sidebar or footer. They will need to scroll down to the bottom of your page. You can counter this by displaying a link to your contact page within the menu.

It is possible to add a clickable number or email address to your primary menu, so users can contact you easily. This is how you do it:

1. Navigate to Appearance and Menu in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Select the menu you want to edit from the dropdown menu. Depending on how things are set up, this could be either your primary menu or mobile menu.
3. Expand Custom Link in the left column.
4. Add the link to the URL text box. To add a phone number, type tel:+18005553927 and replace the numbers with yours. Be sure to include no spaces or symbols. For an email address, add mailto:john@example.com.
5. Add the link text to your menu. You might use “Call Us” or “Call 800-555-39227”.
6. Drag the Add To Menu Button to your desired location.
7. In the lower right corner, click the blue Save button.

A user can click the number on their phone and it will call them. Clicking your email address will open a new mail to you in the default email app.

Make your cart accessible

It is important that customers can edit their cart later to continue shopping if they want to keep shopping.

The cart on the desktop displays the item names, prices, and photos. It also allows the shoppers to modify quantities without leaving the page. It also displays the total order and how many items are in the cart. Shoppers can also access the Cart page with just one click.

Website speed

Website speed is important for all devices, but it’s even more important for small devices. Mobile shoppers are more likely to use slower internet connections and cellular data to browse the web. Therefore, it is important to do all you can to ensure your website loads quickly. 53% abandon sites that take more than three seconds to load. Google’s new mobile-first indexing prioritizes your mobile version.

Begin by understanding your current site load time. GTMetrix or Pingdom WebsiteSpeed Test will help you to understand the speed of your site and make suggestions for improvements. Google PageSpeed insights offer a mobile-specific test.

You might also consider enabling Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which is a Google framework that allows you to create mobile experiences that are lightweight and streamlined. This is a great way for blog posts to be faster, especially for online shops. 

Check your online store from your mobile

Regular testing of your store is important to understand how it works on mobile devices. You can use both tools such as Google’s mobile-friendly tester and manual methods, like resizing the browser window.

You can test everything! You can click on each link, scroll through every page and test every function. Your site should be accessible on smartphones and tablets.

Making small adjustments on mobile can make all the difference in customer satisfaction, and even conversions.