Page 14 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Brave new world of shopping:

Responsive Design boosts mobile eCommerce

According to Keynote Systems, 46% of all smartphone 3. Despite technical sophistication, a RWD page is nev-
owners have difficulties to operate websites optimally ertheless easier to maintain and support, since up-
on mobile devices. Annoying zooming and scrolling of- dates and upgrades take place on a single template.
ten stops buying processes at an early stage. The solu- Even content only needs to be entered once - an
tion is 'Responsive Web Design' (RWD), which auto- aspect that particularly stands out in terms of speed
matically adapts to any screen size. and marketability.

The international eCommerce specialist Venda advises 4. Outstanding online channels support offline
to create online stores with RWD and shows the ad- business
vantages this innovative technology has to offer. A consistent and thoughtful use of responsive web
design improves usability and leads to higher conver-
1. Large audience and more customers sion rates and a broader customer base – sales fig-
Whether smartphones, laptops, tablets, or even ures go up, not only in the online business.
watches, the possibilities of mobile devices seem to
be without limits. Today, there are already more than An appealing website, accessible for all devices, influ-
two hundred different screen resolutions - a great ences customers positively and sustainably, especially
challenge for online retailers. With RWD, the target since the demand to see the range of products live and
audience can be reached across channels and be in 3D is growing. Customers receive another added
expanded. Annoying zooming, re-seizing, or the value when retailers include a store finder in their mo-
search for certain buttons, are passé. The buying bile applications that shows the way to the shop.
experience will be smoother and the number of im-
pulse purchases and new customers will therefore We are all aware of the fact that the retail sector is
automatically increase. more than ever challenged to respond to a rapidly
changing buying behavior in an innovative way. In the
2. More agility and lower costs future, it is often not sufficient to operate an off-line
Design and planning of a RWD page tends to be shop without an accompanying multichannel strategy.
more complex than classical "pixel perfect" pages. Hence, Responsive Design is the key to link various
Responsive websites rely on a good layout design in online channels together and provide additional value.
order to create an adaptive and attractive concept. Scrolling, zooming to be able to read unrecognizable
This means that only key elements such as logos and product descriptions or complicated ordering processes
products, which means the most important infor- are all aspects that customers are not accepting any
mation, are integrated into fixed templates. More con- longer. Responsive Design helps to provide appealing
tent consists of variables, which is then automatically and innovative content and all that channel-
adjusted to the device and browser being used. independently. ◊

14 Asian eMarketing November 2014 - Cross-, Multi-, Omni-Channel & Everywhere Commerce By Daniela La Marca