“Ecommerce sites — especially on mobile — need to offer the best user experience (UX) possible, and a major part of that is making sure customers aren’t clicking too much.”
By Peter Szalontay, CEO at DataMilk
In recent years, companies have spent a lot of time and effort adopting technology that meets customer needs and expectations. Roughly 92% of consumers expect a fast, frictionless online experience. Therefore, it’s critically important for eCommerce sites to offer the best UX possible — especially mobile eCommerce (m-commerce) sites.
A major part of that is limiting the number of extraneous clicks required. If consumers today have to click through multiple pages or work to decipher the next steps to find what they want, they often decide it’s not worth their time or effort. Investing in UX helps. You want to make it as easy and pain-free as possible for consumers to make a purchase.
The Problem With Too Many Clicks in M-Commerce
The problem with your site requiring too many clicks is even worse when it comes to mobile shopping.
According to a 2021 report, the average American spent one-third of their waking hours on mobile devices. One survey broke down the numbers even further, finding that 46% of people spend as much as five to six hours on their phones each day. But they’re not just using phones for scrolling — they’re spending on them, too. Over the past six months, 79% of smartphone users made purchases via their mobile devices. In fact, m-commerce has a nearly 73% market share of total eCommerce sales as of 2022.
While this might sound great for online stores, it comes with some challenges. Mobile can be, in many ways, a hostile environment. People use their mobile devices in short spurts with short attention spans. It’s easy to see why clunky eCommerce sites lose business — fast.
Add that the m-commerce UX rarely compares to the experience offered on computers, laptops, or even a trip to a brick-and-mortar store, and the risk for dropoff is huge. Frustrated consumers are more likely to give up and look elsewhere.
Put simply: Complicated mobile site navigation and extra required clicks hurt sales. Ideally, customers should only have to make two clicks, one on an ad and the other on the add-to-cart button. This two-step sales process can increase conversion by as much as 178.9%.
How to Streamline Your UX and Keep Customers Engaged
Failing to minimize the number of clicks needed to make a purchase on your mobile site does more than increasing the cart abandonment rate. It makes you lose customers to more established platforms and can lower your marketing efforts’ return on investment (ROI). Catchy banners, clever ads, and great messaging spark interest and bring consumers to your site. But when they’re met with a bad mobile UX and frustrating experience, they do nothing to improve conversion rates and can alienate customers. So what’s the solution? How can you eliminate extraneous clicks to benefit your business and customers? Artificial intelligence (AI).
When your UX is powered by AI, it can adapt in real-time and in a completely personalized way. AI can serve more relevant content higher in users’ feeds, help users find their desired product category more quickly by placing it higher in the burger menu, and direct users from a banner ad directly to a category with the most relevant products — all of which increases the odds that every click a user makes feels purposeful, engaging, and exciting.
Essentially, AI allows you to create a UX that leads to fewer clicks and optimal outcomes. Not only will their experience be seamless and relevant, but AI can help them make product discoveries along the way, prompting them to engage with your site longer and potentially make an even bigger purchase.
Sometimes, even a few extra clicks are the things standing in the way of improved m-commerce sales and ROI. Ecommerce and m-commerce are about more than just having a site; that site has to be easy and efficient to navigate. The key to success is a seamless UX — make sure that’s your priority.
Peter Szalontay is the DataGoat at DataMilk, which empowers eCommerce sites to build AI-powered UX.
