If you don't already provide a mobile friendly version of your website then you should. It's as simple as that. But if you don't believe me, then here are five excellent facts to sway your opinion and why your website should be accessible to all devices.
By mid 2013 mobile traffic accounted for over 15% of global internet traffic
This is truly quite a staggering figure. What's more, it's only going to rise. Figures estimate that by the same time this year, that this will rise to nearly 25%. Similarly, recent statistics out of China show even more astonishing figures. The report, published by China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) showed 618 million internet users of which 500 million were mobile users, a truly remarkable 81%.
By 2014 the number of mobile users internet will overtake desktop users
According to a Microsoft more people will be able to access the internet via mobile devices than by desktop machines by 2014. With the massive rise in smartphones and cheap data plans it's far easier and cheaper to connect to the internet on your mobile than it is on a home computer. This illustrates just how important it is to serve your website properly to all devices. What's more, Microsoft also state that half of all local searches online are from mobile devices.
Tablet users spend 50% more per purchase than mobile users and 20% more than desktops
An Adobe study released figures showing purchasing habits of the varying types of online users. The stats showed that tablet conversion rates (2.3%) were nearly as high as that of traditional desktops 2.5%, with smarthphones bringing in a far lower 0.6% rate of conversion. However, the same research shows that tablet users spend on average 20% more than their desktop counterparts and remarkable 50% more than smartphone users. Just in case you still weren't convinced, IDC predicted tablet shipments will surpass desktop and laptop PCs by the fourth quarter of 2013!
60% of shoppers use their smartphones whilst in store
Figures released from a Deloitte study show that 60% of shoppers browse eCommerce online whilst in store and are 14% more likely to convert into an in store sale than traditional shoppers. The same study showed that 50% of shoppers also browsed online on the way to the store and a further 45% viewed the on the day of or the night before.
No one screen size makes up 20% of the global market
Mobify released a study of over 200 million shoppers that visited their websites returning results that of all the different screen resolutions not a single one had a 20% share of the market or more. To give an idea of how diverse the spread of resolutions is the 10th most popular has a 4% share. 1280x1024 (Common in laptops and PCs) resolution lead the way with 19.5% of the market. 11.4% of the market was made up by screens of 320x480 (Smartphones), 7.8% were 1024x768 (used by older laptops/desktops but mostly by vertical tablets) and 7.3% were found to be 768x1024 (some horizontal tablets). Mobify estimated from the patterns over the course of their study that by 2014 mobile screen sizes would over take desktop resolutions to lead the market share.
As you can see the evidence for why you should offer versions of your website for all users is overwhelming. The usage figures alone make it incredibly likely that people are accessing your website all the time from a mobile device, whether it be tablet or smartphone. Not to mention that some users are more likely to spend more than they would otherwise! The incentives are there for you to take control and improve your users experience. Don't forget if you use Google Analytics on your website you can see the statistics for yourself, and the best thing is that they're tailored to your site!
To finalise we carried out an audit across a number of our own clients sites through Google Analytics and found the average visitor percentage viewing on a mobile device was actually far higher at 38%! So is it time your site had a responsive design?
