Putting small business on the small screen
Total UK retail sales for mobile commerce are estimated to reach nearly £43 billion in 2018.
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UK shoppers love small and independent businesses – for their levels of service and range of unique products – but they often find frustration with the online experience.
Among the most common complaints were:
- The screen is too small
- Small business websites are not mobile-friendly
- Remembering login details and passwords
- Having to enter in long card or payment details
- Having to enter too many personal/contact details
- Complicated checkout process
The problem may be that only 1 in 6 UK small businesses has a website that is optimised for users with a mobile device – i.e. that adapts in size, shape and style to accommodate the small touch-screen of a mobile device.
That figure has been flat for the 3 years of our research.
Shoppers have a growing appetite for the speed and convenience of mobile shopping, but small businesses don’t seem to be meeting this demand.
And yet, it needn’t take much to meet customers’ expectations, as Lauren Hampshire, founder of
The Milky Tee Company found:
“When we first started out I was looking at the website from a computer and assumed our customers were doing the same. It was only after seeing our first month’s website analytics we realised that 85% of our website traffic was coming via mobiles, but we weren’t converting these visitors into sales because our website didn’t work as well on a smaller screen.
“It only took a few small changes to make our website more user-friendly for busy new mums who are often doing everything with one hand, including shopping on a smartphone! Based on the 28% increase we saw in sales, we decided to go straight to our customers and make our marketing mobile too, by focusing on Instagram rather traditional advertising. Now, any changes we make to the website are done with a mobile-first mindset: at the end of the day, it’s important to put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and as a mum of two myself I know exactly what works!”
In our 2018 research report, How to fix the growing gap in shopper expectations, we offer tips on the changes to consider for your small business site. You’ll also find it packed with useful data and insights to help you meet the market’s changing expectations.
PayPal Stories Staff