We all are aware that e-commerce sales have risen rapidly over the past decade. While initially many of these transactions took place on desktop, there has been a steady rise in mobile shopping over the past five years. According to the Kleiner Perkins 2018 Internet Trends report, mobile shopping app sessions are growing fast, up 54% year-over-year from 2016 to 2017.

As this trend continues to develop, it becomes even more important for businesses to focus on their customers’ mobile shopping experience. Customers who shop on mobile want to “buy now”, so it should be painless for them to convert into buyers.

At Liftopia, we’ve seen the percentage of mobile pageviews that occur on Cloud Store, our full-service e-commerce platform, increase from 40.7% in 2014-15 to 57.2% in 2018-19.

When you look at revenue, the percentage of revenue booked on mobile vs. desktop has also risen steadily, although the percentages are smaller. That being said, the percentage of revenue booked on a mobile device has risen to just under 50% this past season.

Many of you reading this article probably run a business that sells products (likely tickets) online. In order to drive the most efficient return on marketing spend, and maximize revenue, customers need to convert quickly and efficiently in your e-commerce environment, whether they are on desktop or mobile.

Let’s run through a short exercise together. Take your phone out of your pocket/purse/backpack/desk drawer and navigate to your business’s e-commerce platform. Pretend that you are a customer, looking to buy a ticket or a season pass, and go through the purchase process. Don’t skip any steps! 🙂 Once you’ve completed a purchase, ask yourself the following questions:

1. On a scale of 1-5, how “easy” was it for you to complete your purchase? I would give “Amazon.com” a “5” for ease of use.
2. Was the font size readable on your smartphone?
3. Was it difficult to click buttons like “Continue” or “Purchase” because they were too small? Did you have to zoom-in to access that content?
4. Did you have to look up a guest record? This can be particularly challenging on a mobile device.
5. Through how many screens did you navigate?
6. On each screen, did you have to scroll down the page significantly to find what you were looking for or to get to the next step?
7. Does the quality of your mobile experience match the quality of your brand?

The mobile shopping experience on Liftopia’s Cloud Store is designed to be as simple for customers as possible, while collecting the necessary information to complete a purchase. Take a look at the video below to see what it’s like to make a mobile purchase on our platform.