The importance of good mobile experiences
No doubt, issues with a website that doesn't offer users a good mobile experience can negatively impact your business.
No doubt, issues with a website that doesn't offer users a good mobile experience can negatively impact your business. In Latin America there's still a lot to be done, and numbers show many brands are still unprepared for a smartphone-dominated role.
Surely you've been frustrated sometime when the mobile page you're trying to visit takes a long time to load or doesn't load at all. Who hasn't given up on a form when there's still many fields to complete and the fill-in method isn't compatible with your device? Who hasn't been dissapointed by the content and the difficulty of completing an action in an advertiser's mobile page?
You're not alone. This are some of the many obstacles and frustrations facing users in Colombia, Chile, Argentina or Mexico, among other countries in the region. Let's look at some data:
- More than 30% of the region's big advertisers don't have a mobile website.
- It's even worse for small and medium sized advertisers, where this number is over 50%.
- The average load times for the main advertisers' mobile pages in Latin America is around 14 seconds, compared to 7 in the US, causing users frustration. (Source: Businessinsider.com).
- Several studies show that one extra second of loading time results in 11% drop in page views, a 16% drop in customer satisfaction and 7% drop in conversions. In a recent Google survey 46% answered their biggest problem with mobile usability is loading times.
- According to a Kissmetrics study, 40% of users say they'd abandon a mobile site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. There's plenty of reasons to allocate resources to reducing loading times, and most of all to usability and functions brands offer through mobile devices. Studies and everyday realities show the need of an immediate action plan and companies' need to prioritize being present where their users are - and that's their smartphone.
Today smartphones outsell PCs 4 to 1, and more than half of the Planet's adult population owns one - by 2020 this number will be 80% (Source: GSMA 2015). It's already the main screen for media consumption for most Latin Americans (IPSOS).
A recent survey in the United Kingdom asked british teenagers what type of device they'd miss the most if they didn't have it. Their answer? Their smartphones, over their TVS, PCs and videogame consoles (Times Magazine).
All of these are more than enough to understand what the focus most be and from where to approach consumers. At Google they constantly face the challenge that comes with low quality virtual assets that hinder the user experience, and therefore sales and mobile marketing campaign performance.
Users expect and deserve good mobile experiences, says Larry Page, Alphabet's CEO.
Nonetheless, as we mentioned earlier, numbers in Latin America show a very different reality.
Brands have slowly come to realize the true value and power that the mobile experience holds, and they start to identify this opportunity as a revolution they must be a part of if they don't want to be left behind in sales opportunities for their products or services. But undoubtedly, there's still a lot to be done.
Source: thinkwithgoogle.com
