A responsive design fluidly adjusts the size and placement of elements with the relative change in dimensions of the browser window. Thus, it is optimized to fit all screen sizes. The design is developed on CSS3 and HTML5. If you opt for a responsive design, you do not need to make additional investment for maintaining a different website for mobile devices.

Adaptive design

Responsive website is designed to match the screen size of the device on which it is accessed. It does not take into account the features of the device being used. Adaptive websites are developed to meet the needs of mobile phones with varied size and features. It requires a designer to create different versions of every web page. Developers create the functionality that identifies the device, available features and displays the appropriate version.

Some ecommerce website owners are torn between the debate that whether they should have a mobile optimized website or a mobile app. The answer is very simple;

Mobile optimized website is a must.

Whether to opt for a mobile app or not depends on your target audience, amount of investment you can put in, the products you sell, features you want to offer, amount of competition, etc.

Benefits of mobile apps can be broadly listed as follows:

• People tend to spend more time on the app than on the web browser.
• People are more comfortable making more expensive purchases through mobile apps compared to the mobile website.
• It also gives the retailers an option to show products based on the location of the customer.
• It is always running in the background and can furnish notifications anytime. A mobile website on the other hand can work only when it’s open on the browser.
• You can offer enhanced features.
• Management of shopping cart and making online payments is easier

By focusing on following points, you can create a user-experience focused mobile website that will be widely preferred as well as recommended by target audience;

• Low Loading Time: The bounce rate of a website on a mobile device is very high if it is unable to load quickly. With faster internet services, people are losing their patience to wait for a web page to load. They would rather choose the website of your competitor that loads faster. Try to get rid of the frills and focus on the basics.
• Easy Navigation: The navigation of a mobile website should be very user friendly. The website should be optimized for both portrait and landscape mode. Try to avoid any kind of side scrolling. Having drop down menus should be avoided as new users might not know how to locate such dropdown menus
• Site Search Option: The site search option should be at the top of your every mobile web page. People find it very handy to search through a lot of content which is not so easily accessible.Searching through categories on a mobile device can be a challenging task.
• Embed the categories within the main body: Try to have broad categories for the products that you offer. Embed them within the main body so that the visitor does not have to search for them. He should directly find what he came looking for.

• Avoid animations: Using any kind of animation like a fast changing slider on your home page can be very distracting on a mobile device. Try to keep the design very simple.
• Page footer: The footer of a long page should have the main tabs listed again in the form of buttons and not text links. Buttons are easy to click on and not cramped together like text links.
• Design should not perfectly fit the folds: If your design perfectly fits the first fold, a visitor might think that there is nothing below the first fold and won’t scroll anymore. Try to keep a design that looks like it continues below the fold.
• Clear Call to Action: The main call to action of your web page should stand out. Mobile websites are no more used to just seek information. People are using them all the more just like they use a regular website. Your call to action should guide the visitor to the next step of the conversion funnel.
• Adaptive Content Management: It is important to understand that responsive design is not the solution to every problem. Though responsive design seems to be the buzz word for the past few years, it does not necessarily mean mobile optimized. Your visitors might still face difficulty in using your websites because of poor execution in terms of navigation, content placement, filtering options and page loading. An ideal website should exhibit content under broad categories so that a visitor finds it easy to navigate through the website and move from one category to the next.
• Make payment Process Secure & quick: The payment process should be made quicker. This will benefit you from impulse purchases. Mobile apps help you provide multiple payment options very easily. Its good for to use ‘Customer Information Management’ facility if available with your payment gateway. This allows you to create Customer Profile and Credit Card profile on the payment gateway server, eliminating the need of asking credit card and billing info again and again (until credit card on file expires or blocked).
• Focus on product details: A mobile website is supposed to be simple and easy to use without much of content. This does not mean you will compromise on the product details. Flipkart, a leading ecommerce website, offers a lot of product information, making the buying decision quicker. There are enough clear product images with detailed description about product, price, special discounts, reviews and ratings from other buyers.The length of the page becomes long because of detailed description. This problem has been solved by providing the option of “Go to Top” after regular intervals on the page.
• Easy sign in: Do no ask the visitor to sign in at the first step. Always give them the first option of Guest Checkout, followed by Sign in and Create New Account. Allow sign in through Social Media Accounts
• Include special features: When booking a hotel through your mobile phone and choosing the pay option, MakeMyTrip’s mobile website allows you to confirm your hotel booking by just giving a missed call. They also offer special discounts to promote their mobile app and mobile website.

At Peregrine InfoWorld, our team of mobile and web app engineers is capable of working on any Mobile friendly – mCommerce website or native mobile development project you may have, no matter the scope or complexity. To find out more about how we can help with your project, let’s discuss further.

Disclaimer: Source of the information/images may be ownership or copyright of others. Here main intention is just to share information about the concept to the people. The 3rd party trademarks, logos and screenshots of the websites and mobile applications are property of their respective owners, we are not directly associated with most of them.