Shopify mobile optimization is crucial for your online store’s success. In today’s world, customers expect a smooth mobile user experience whether they’re on a phone, tablet, or desktop. If your Shopify store doesn’t offer this, shoppers will likely bounce.
So, where do you start with Shopify mobile optimization? This article will give you some actionable strategies to implement so you can see results.
Did you know that a whopping 81% of traffic on Shopify stores comes from mobile devices? Think about how many potential customers you might miss if your Shopify site isn’t optimized for their phones.
Why Shopify Mobile Optimization Matters?
Shopify mobile optimization impacts both your website’s search ranking and revenue. Why? Because Google is mobile-first. This means the Google algorithm checks how well your site renders on a mobile device to determine its position in search.
If you’re aiming for a high ranking on Google search and don’t want to leave potential organic traffic on the table, it’s essential to tailor your Shopify store to mobile users. Google themselves even reported that they tend to prioritize mobile-friendly sites in their search results.
Boosting Mobile Conversions Through Optimization
More shoppers than ever are buying on their mobile phones. This doesn’t come as a surprise when studies show more than 50% of website traffic coming from these devices. You’ll want to pay close attention to conversion optimization tactics to meet that demand.
You should know though that while 76% of shoppers like to use mobile devices for their online purchases because they feel it’s faster, just 12% say that the mobile buying experience is convenient. As an ecommerce store owner, imagine the potential boost in revenue you could experience if your store offers a convenient and positive mobile shopping experience to customers.
Mobile-First Indexing
But there’s one more piece of the puzzle that many ecommerce owners seem to overlook when talking about Shopify mobile optimization: Mobile-first indexing. Back in July of 2019, Google introduced this significant algorithm shift, which effectively changed the game.
The content on websites optimized for mobile is now ranked higher than other sites when a user searches for something on their phone. Think of mobile-first indexing this way: the mobile version of your website now becomes the baseline, even when users search on a desktop. Pretty interesting, huh?
11 Tips for Shopify Mobile Optimization
With this in mind, let’s check out some actionable ways you can optimize your Shopify store for mobile.
1. Site Navigation
Make sure your mobile site is easy to navigate. Mobile users tend to quickly scroll through product pages, making a convenient and intuitive menu crucial. Think about it: wouldn’t it be frustrating if, as a shopper, you scrolled down a page full of product pictures but couldn’t get back to the menu without laboriously clicking back several times?
One of the most convenient things you can implement as an ecommerce owner is a fixed or sticky navigation bar that hovers either on the top or the bottom of the mobile page. It helps the buyer seamlessly go through the purchase process.
Include all essential navigation options in that menu, such as product categories, cart, contact information, and user account details. A well-placed, obvious “Add to Cart” call-to-action button shouldn’t be overlooked here either.
2. Text Visibility
Small fonts are one of the most overlooked components of a poor mobile experience. Reading tiny, microscopic text on a phone screen just makes shopping a chore for the buyer, especially when many of us spend way too much time on our phones already, straining our eyes as it is.
Aim to have a font size somewhere between 14-16px. Using 14px on the Love Hair nourishing hair oil product page is a good benchmark. It’ll make a world of a difference for those shoppers on their phones.
As an added bonus, using a readable font will make your store accessible to more people, including those who might be visually impaired or browsing with a weaker mobile internet connection. Remember, about 16% of the world’s population has some type of significant disability. Offering an easily accessible, inclusive store will boost your brand image and make your store a pleasant experience for all visitors.
3. Use a Minimal Design
Avoid cramming your pages with lots of text or graphics. Mobile screens are smaller and can get crowded fast, so a minimal layout works best.
Stick to the absolute essentials, making sure to put product photos at the forefront. This will not just improve the visual appeal but make it easier to shop.
You can have expandable drop-down menus for additional details such as product descriptions or shipping terms and conditions. Many users will skip this text anyway since online users generally just scan through online content. So, why complicate your mobile layout when it can be much simpler and lead to faster conversions?
4. Don’t Overdo Pop-Ups
No one really likes intrusive popups, especially when browsing on a mobile device. While you may need to have certain notifications popping up at different points in the buying journey (such as cookies and privacy policy acceptance) keep these notices minimal. And try to make them as subtle as possible.
For example, consider showing a banner at the top or bottom of the page that’s integrated within the layout, instead of interrupting a customer’s browse experience with a popup.
5. Optimize Visuals
Ensure your visuals look good and load quickly on smaller screens. Here are a few things you should know:
- Resize your images to match the mobile screen size so that they aren’t cut off.
- Compress your image files without making them grainy. A slow loading site can drive customers away. Consider the Google statistic showing 53% of mobile visitors leave a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Even a seemingly tiny difference in loading times, such as going from 1 second to 3 seconds, can negatively affect your conversion rates.
- Have a good visual hierarchy where the key product image takes center stage and any extra details, like photos of alternative angles or zoomed-in product texture images, are positioned so they don’t detract from the main photo.
6. Make Buttons Clear
Remember, customers browsing on mobile devices will be tapping the button on their phone screens. Having larger CTA buttons is absolutely key. For your calls-to-action, you’ll want to consider colors that pop against your brand’s visual design so your CTAs are more appealing to customers.
Larger tap targets will be prominent and won’t cause frustration or require additional scrolling or tapping. If shoppers aren’t sure where to click or keep clicking on the wrong link or button, this might create a negative shopping experience and increase cart abandonment rates. You’ve put too much effort into growing your business, don’t let a poorly designed call-to-action undo it all.
7. Layout Shifts
This often-ignored issue happens when the website’s layout unexpectedly moves as a user is browsing. This could be especially annoying on a phone, as it would force users to keep readjusting where they are on the screen to continue reading or find a desired link or button. It can be distracting to constantly search for where you were before the site shifted mid-scroll.
To reduce the risk of frustrating mobile users, make sure to specify image height and width dimensions when uploading your images to the site. You can also reduce image file sizes. Compressing and sizing images properly, using an appropriate Shopify theme that’s optimized for speed and generally staying away from too many javascript elements and unnecessary popups can help minimize cumulative layout shifts.
8. Think Through Your Forms
Imagine yourself checking out an item on a Shopify store and having to scroll through an endless contact information form with a billion different mandatory form fields. Frustrating, isn’t it?
To make mobile forms easier to use, split up contact forms onto separate pages and only ask shoppers for the details that are essential. Also, make good use of different types of form field coding (such as dropdown menus or radio buttons) to streamline the shopping experience and reduce the need for typing on a phone’s screen.
Who wants to painstakingly type in their details on a miniature screen anyway? Make the experience easy. Happy customers come back.
9. Checkout Page Optimization
Having an efficient, well-designed checkout process on mobile can drastically increase your conversion rates and lead to more sales. After all, once a shopper clicks to add an item to the cart and goes to checkout, you’ll want to make this process easy to finalize their order.
Keep in mind that this customer has already mentally committed to the purchase, but any glitch in your checkout experience could make them second guess themselves or abandon the cart altogether. Don’t you just hate it when you finally find a perfect item, put in your order details, click on ‘Proceed to checkout’ just to get stuck on a page that just keeps spinning, endlessly waiting for it to load? It’s such a bad buying experience.
10. Offer Various Payment Options
Don’t assume all mobile shoppers use the same online payment platforms or even credit cards. A customer who wants to make a quick and seamless purchase could suddenly abandon their cart if your store only offers a couple of payment gateways that don’t work for them.
Integrating various payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, as well as standard options like debit and credit cards and PayPal can take your Shopify store’s performance up a notch and bring you more conversions. Just look at the mobile ecommerce stats: the mobile shopping market is estimated to exceed $621 billion by 2024. To get in on those growing revenue figures, you want your mobile experience to be the best it can be.
11. The Shopify API: Backend Optimization
Although not apparent to customers browsing your Shopify store on mobile, backend optimizations through API access and its many functions can have a significant effect on your mobile site speed. The Shopify API offers a wide range of possibilities.
For instance, the GraphQL Cart and Checkout validation API helps to check various validation logic at checkout points and can enhance the way discounts and order customizations are implemented. Other functions include Cart Transform API (read about it here), Order Discount API and even Pickup Point delivery options, all aimed to make your store’s overall user experience seamless.
Voice Search and The Mobile Experience
You might be surprised to learn that many shoppers use their phone’s voice function when looking for things on the internet. A recent study from 2022 revealed that 50% of users said that they’ve tried searching online with their voice.
Optimizing your content for voice searches will help it stand out from the competition, improving the user experience and boosting sales. This approach may also benefit shoppers who can’t easily type. But just how can this be done, you ask? I have you covered.
Tips For Optimizing Voice Search
- Add conversational, longer tail keywords as part of your product description, since most mobile users will use a complete sentence or phrase instead of short keyword strings.
- Offer location details such as city and state. Your mobile customers may not bother to state their current location when conducting their search, instead, assuming that the platform can already track this. In fact, location optimization will greatly benefit local SEO results. Customers searching for items close by will be more likely to see your product.
- Focus on your site’s mobile load time. Mobile internet speed, especially in a rural area with spotty coverage, may not be as good as when browsing from home, with stable wifi access.
- Structure content by using FAQs. Search engines can then more readily pinpoint a page’s context. This ties back to our statistic that half of users are trying voice search at some point or another.
Dario`s Conclusion
Shopify mobile optimization should be one of the primary steps in setting up a business for ecommerce. Today’s online shopping landscape is heavily skewed toward mobile browsing.
Those owners who pay close attention to their shoppers’ browsing experience will likely get more leads and generate greater conversions, growing their brands into lasting businesses that people trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
