SessionCam, a leading provider of session replay, heat-mapping and conversion funnel technology to some of the world’s top brands, has published a white paper to help guide more retailers through the mobile web conversion funnel more successfully.
The white paper, entitled Removing the friction from m-commerce: Finding, analyzing and removing problems in the mobile shopping conversion funnel, asks and answers a series of questions which will help retailers to engage more successfully with customers who browse their websites using smartphones and tablets.
SessionCam begins by exploring why mobiles are so significant for retailers. For example, 37% of UK online sales are now made on a mobile device — representing 8.9% of all retail sales, a figure expected to rise to 27% by 2018. Mobiles offer significant benefits for both the user and the retailer, and these are worth exploiting.
Mobiles have on-board capabilities that desktops don’t have, or that aren’t as easy, such as biometric security, the camera, payment apps and mobile location-based services. Retailers can also take advantage of the different psychology in how mobiles are used; for example, people use their mobiles with greater intimacy, and at particular times and places; mobile couponing is increasingly effective; and more people are willing to watch video or enjoy fun activities (such as downloading a game) on their smartphones and tablets.
Unfortunately, however, mobile users are intolerant of poor experiences. 27% will simply navigate away from an unoptimized site. 47% of shoppers abandon purchases on mobile devices due to difficulties with payment, and 57% of them won’t try again later on a desktop. SessionCam’s white paper helps retailers to capture the user’s propensity to take action on mobile devices while also minimizing their abandonment of the experience.
According to Phil Reay, Head of Insights at SessionCam: “Abandonment can be the result of ‘friction’ due to technical issues with the website’s own code or just the way it displays in a browser. There are so many permutations of devices, operating systems and browsers that a calendar, form or checkout process may unexpectedly fail to work on a user’s device. This sort of thing is difficult enough for retailers to know, but they also have to grapple with more human issues around perception and idiosyncrasy — which are notoriously difficult to predict or identify! Mobile users become frustrated more quickly on a mobile, too; they may not understand what is being asked of them, or have fears which they’re unable to resolve.”
Various forms of analytics and user-testing have been used to help measure user behaviour online. However, these can be limited and problematic; as Phil points out, “They can be open to user bias and poor sampling, and they can be expensive and extremely time-consuming. Or they may only deliver answers to ‘what’ is happening, at page level, rather than insights into ‘why’, within each page, for each individual user.” SessionCam’s white paper compares these options and explains how session observation and replay through technology can deliver a fast, cost-effective way to understand what every user does, where they get stuck, and how to remove those sources of friction.
Removing the friction from m-commerce also considers the many different types of conversion goal, where reducing pain for the user can offer retailers:
- Increased revenue – when sales make it successfully out of the shopping cart and through checkout.
- Reduced costs – thanks to fewer product returns, fewer complaints to handle, less compensation to be paid, and fewer calls to helplines.
- Completed calls to action – including getting users to request a quote, sign up for a mailing list, recommend a friend, use a coupon, provide information, or complete a survey.
- Enhanced brand experiences – because mobile users demand fast, clear, functional, enjoyable and beneficial mobile experiences which are integrated seamlessly with other brand touchpoints.
Retailers can download Removing the friction from m-commerce for free from SessionCam’s website, at https://sessioncam.com/whitepaper
About SessionCam
SessionCam is the most advanced session-replay technology for recording website visits on desktops and mobile devices. Delivered as a powerful SaaS solution that complements existing analytics packages, using SessionCam to test website design and usability will help to optimize conversion, improve customer support, and evidence legal, compliance and regulatory controls. Its video-like recording of customer activity shows mouse movements, scrolling, form-based data entry and mobile gestures in the context of the real page design and content for that session. It can also aggregate recorded data to generate heatmaps and analyze conversion funnels. https://sessioncam.com.
Images attached
1 Whitepaper cover – Cover of the white paper entitled Removing the Friction from m-commerce: Finding, analysing and removing problems in the mobile shopping conversion funnel.
Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2015/11/19/11G072838/Images/Whitepaper_cover-660e628970c7bf02a8ad185d3bcad21d.jpg