It’s becoming more and more apparent that mobile shopping for fashion is increasing over the use of desktop and tablet devices, and well-known and understandable reasons, such as in-app perks, are more convenient and easily accessible in the moment and through advertisements. This makes it extremely important to create a seamless mobile shopping experience, and while that might be obvious, it’s still apparent that some of the most successful brands struggle with this.
For example, websites such as SKIM’s have a very awkward, slow and enjoyable mobile experience. As someone who was on it as a user, this was extremely annoying, as it took me longer to shop than I have on other websites. This caused me to abandon my checkout, as I didn’t feel the trouble was worth spending money with them. There was such a delay that I convinced myself to save the money and spend it on something else.
This is just one example from personal experience that I have from a user perspective and seeing it first in businesses with millions of dollars, it just makes it even more important for small businesses to have a perfect seamless shopping experience, as large companies already have the reputation where some users will put up with the issues, but for smaller ones you need to build trust and have a great first impression.
Since we have given an example of a negative app, here are a few good examples to set the tone and to look to for inspiration.
Example Of a Successful Retail Mobile Shopping Experience
ASOS
One of the largest retail suppliers to date, with millions of products on their website so you would think at their capacity their mobile experience would be slack but on the contrary. ASOS is one of the best websites and apps to navigate, move between products, see the other products the model is wearing and refine your search while all being very fast, quick and streamlined to purchase.
The only problem would be the volume of products from wedding dresses to modest clothing, as there are so many. If you were just browsing, it’s likely you would get overwhelmed and click off, but it’s a perfect solution for a lot of people who aren’t sure what they are after, as ASOS has it all so it’s very much a haven for people.
IKEA
I mean, we all expect nothing less from this innovative and just all-around futuristic retailer. Their online store is so good on mobile and desktop that they have it widely available to use within the store. It’s fast, reliable, simple, well-organised and has a very simple structure that makes it so easy to find what you are after with ease and a store locator, which is an amazing feature.
I would strongly recommend basing your mobile design and features on those two apps, as they work so well and are a great example of a fashion/non-fashion style.
Key Elements To Consider
When creating a seamless mobile shopping experience, there are some key elements to consider that are beyond just copying and pasting one that you’ve seen and liked. It’s a lot more complicated than that, and with the help of exceptional web design and developers, it’s more than achievable. When giving the brief to your developer, think about these elements.
Voice Commerce
AI technologies like Gemini and Alexa are becoming more and more common and are being introduced as a new dimension as part of the shopping experience. While this is a feature that you see more across business services, it’s definitely something you have seen on the likes of Amazon. I think this is a better idea for larger companies with a range of products at a large scale.
Location-Based Services
Retail apps can tap into the user’s location data, if it’s been accepted by the user, of course. These features can help with things like ‘in-store availability’ if you have physical shops, of course. This is such a great feature that a lot of websites on a large scale don’t even have, which is a shame and a missed opportunity to get sales and in-store purchases, which are on the decline within the fashion industry. While it’s still good, it’s nothing like what it used to be.
Real Time Order Tracking
A good user experience that usually gets forgotten about as it’s beyond the pre-purchase. Consider that the integration of the real-time tracking encourages visitors to the website, but also fosters trust, authority and increases customer satisfaction.
Clicks
To encourage a seamless shopping experience, you need to seriously consider how many clicks it takes a user to complete a purchase; the fewer the better, as this prevents the user from getting frustrated and abandoning their cart. Features like ‘buy now’ as well as ‘add to cart’ and partnering with features like ‘shop pay’ allow users to streamline their purchase and avoid the boring task of filling out their details.
How It Looks
Desktop is one of the easiest ways to make sure your website is nice and has an intuitive interface, but you need to ensure it’s the same for your mobile. This could include changing images, removing links that are too close together and so forth to prevent user frustration. A skilled web developer makes sure to reiterate how important the mobile shopping experience is to be perfect.