Multi-Screen Ecommerce Strategy: Beyond the Single Shopping Screen

With the emerging growth of technology, we all are becoming screen jugglers. Our preference changes within a wink of an eye. There is a growing need for different means to connect consumers across all types of devices. This is simply because online shoppers prefer to use a variety of devices ranging from smartphones, televisions, laptops, tablets and personal computers to shop online.

So, what is your strategic plan for screen jugglers?

How about integrating a multi-screen strategy for marketing and simultaneously ensuring shoppers with an improved browsing and purchasing experience?

It has been found that the majority of online shoppers search for products and product information on one device and then switch to another device to continue their purchase process.

Here lies the importance of multi-screen shopping.

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Develop a Multi-Screen Ecommerce Strategy

I am sure you simply hate to leave your shopping experience incomplete. For example, an evening gown on mobile that can only be acquired once you complete the purchase process on a desktop. This can be really annoying.

To prevent this, online merchants should consider a multi-screen strategy to make their shopper’s experience enjoyable. The following diagram from Marketing Land shows that 90% of consumers use multi-screens during their day:

Clearly, some consistency is necessary to make the shopping experience and enjoyable one for your customers. So how can you begin to do that? Below are some suggestions.

Design a Responsive Site

Taking a closer look at how consumers react to the multi-screen world will help you design a responsive site. But why a responsive site?

Every online retailer wants to organize the content so that it can be easily read, seen and used, regardless of the types of device and the size of the screen. A responsive site puts emphasis on providing the shoppers with the same useful content whether they see it through their tablet, PC or smartphone. Buying decisions can change if your customer finds it difficult to access a product through their device.

An online store without responsive Web design can suffer severely.

Make Your eCommerce World App-Friendly

According to Google, smartphones are now the backbone of daily media interaction. Mobile phones are a common starting point for the highest number of user interactions. As people are interested in learning about new apps, help them also get familiar with any new apps to find your products. Your app should provide value and they should find the app interesting enough to visit your online store again and again.

Increase Multi-Screen Content Consumption

Offer visitors useful, valuable content. To encourage repeat purchases, your content should win attention. Content plays a major role in presenting the product description and images successfully on your site. In a nutshell, your site content should aim at helping the customers. They should find the content easy to view and understand. Most importantly, keep the same content for a desktop computer that is available on a tablet or smartphone.  Your customers will be more than pleased to see that your site has been optimized for swiping and touch.

Don’t disappoint with different versions of a same content across different devices. For instance, a shopper that sees one of his favorite sought after items suddenly available on his desktop enthusiastically informs one of his friends the item is now available.  The friend is excited, only to find that his current device for purchase, a smartphone, does not have the same item available.

This becomes a truly disappointing shopping experience.

Follow Up with the Message and Shut Off Pop Ups

You need to have a consistent message throughout all your channels. At the same time, you need to be faster and more concise in your message, having several people accessing your site’s content via different screens simultaneously. Do not make them wade through a lot of messages to get to what they’re after. Hit them with an offer right away.

But when it comes to pop up ads, they can be disastrous for many devices. The best way is to use responsive design that can convert any pop-up into a banner or any other form on various devices such as tablets, PC’s and smartphones.

Using a Mobile Domain Usually Does Not Help

Using separate domains for different versions of your website is not recommended. It usually has a negative impact on your store’s search engine ranking and more importantly on branding. Incorporating various domains can be quite confusing to shoppers.

Are you giving your customers a fluid, enjoyable shopping experience across multiple devices?

Responsive Design Photo via Shutterstock

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