Why Having a Responsive eCommerce Website is Essential

The experience of browsing an eCommerce website varies significantly depending on whether you are using a desktop or mobile device. A site that is attractive and user-friendly on a desktop could be borderline unusable when accessed from a smartphone. Mobile devices accounted for over 50% of worldwide website traffic in 2020, making this market too large to ignore.

At one time, there was no way to accommodate both sets of users on a single website. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. Responsive eCommerce website design allows you to automatically present users with an optimized version of your website no matter which device they use to view it. This eliminates the problem of website optimization and offers a multitude of additional benefits too.

How Responsive eCommerce Website Design Helps Your Business

Better SEO

Since Google’s algorithms highly favour mobile-friendly websites, simply implementing responsive design in your Toronto eCommerce store could automatically improve its SEO.

Further SEO gains are also possible if the time and resources saved are reinvested into the website. Using a single design for all devices makes it easier to ensure that your eCommerce website is attractive, user-friendly, and filled with detailed and compelling product descriptions. These are all factors that improve your chances of ranking highly on SERPs. Design will also have a huge impact when Google’s Core Web Vitals algorithm update kicks in this year.

Improved Browsing Experience

Between poor loading speeds, too-small text, images that load slowly or never appear, and many other annoyances, browsing a desktop website on a smartphone or tablet is often a very unpleasant experience. Many users will quickly give up on a poorly optimized website. Quite often, the only difference between a user dropping-off and a making a purchase is the browsing experience, regardless of how compelling your product offering is.

Worse still, the frustration these users feel toward your website may tarnish their feelings toward your brand as well. Even if you improve your website’s mobile browsing capabilities in the future, they may remember the sub-standard experience they had and refuse to give your business a second chance. This can add up to significant lost sales over time.

Reduced Bounce Rate

A better browsing experience means that fewer users will abandon your website immediately after finding it. In marketing terms, this is called the ‘bounce rate.’ The longer you can keep users on your website, the more opportunities you will have to convert them into paying customers. This makes each user more valuable and can provide significant increases in revenue.

Reducing your bounce rate also has SEO benefits. A low bounce rate is a signal of high engagement, which is an important factor in Google’s search ranking algorithms. With these two effects combined, your website could see a significant ranking boost from implementing responsive design.

Time and Money Savings

Responsive design allows you to use a single eCommerce website style for both desktop and mobile users. This effectively halves the amount of work you have to do to set up and maintain your website, freeing up money and employee time which can be redirected to other tasks in your organization.

More Traffic

Mobile devices account for around half of all internet traffic, and more people are browsing this way every year. With advancements in mobile technology, users can access the web from a variety of devices with screens of various sizes. Responsive design is a cost-effective way to ensure that these users receive an optimal experience when visiting your website. If you continue to prioritize designs with a single screen in mind, such as a desktop, you risk losing an increasingly large share of your prospective market as time goes on, limiting your potential growth.

A Competitive Edge

Responsive design is quickly becoming the new standard for eCommerce shops, but not every storefront has implemented it just yet. This means that it is currently something you can use to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Customers who browse primarily on their mobile devices will almost always choose to shop at an eCommerce website with a responsive design over one that does not accommodate them in this way. Even seemingly small considerations like this can provide measurable improvements in your conversion rates and your company’s revenue and growth.

Upgrade Your eCommerce Website with Responsive Design

The increasing popularity of responsive eCommerce website design speaks to its versatility and value. It also suggests that responsive design is an excellent investment for eCommerce business owners. With the help of a top digital marketing agency, your eCommerce shop can become a revenue generator.

WSI Comandix will create a responsive eCommerce website design that showcases your products and encourages user conversions across all platforms. Contact us today for more information on our services or to book a free consultation with our team of Shopify experts.