5 Tips to Thrive Post ‘Mobilegeddon’

Following Google's announcement last month, it appears that 60 percent to 70 percent of retailers will be penalized in search rankings after this week's deadline passed.

Google announced that nonresponsive sites would be affected in rankings as more and more people are now browsing from mobile and tablet devices. For some people, almost all of their internet browsing and buying is done from a mobile device. In the U.S. and Australia, for example, 15 minutes of every hour spent online is spent on a mobile device — with a substantial portion of that time spent shopping.

Simon Banks from PayPal recently stated that as a result of consumers increased online hours, our willingness to hit the "Buy Now" button has also increased, with around 30 percent of online sales now completed on a phone.

This makes it very clear that as consumers, we want a simple and effective user experience, and as business owners, we must ensure our websites deliver that experience by being responsive.

Are Brick-and-Mortar Stores Catching Up?
Brick-and-mortar retailers make up a smaller percentage of the total value of online transactions, but given a pre-existing relationship with in-store customers, their presence online should place them at a distinct advantage. On average, around 90 percent of small to midsized retailers have an online presence, which is positive news. However, just over half of those companies sell products online. This leaves many retailers without an online store and dependent entirely on in-store sales for profit.

In addition to this, of those that have an e-commerce site, around half aren't catering to their mobile users and still have nonresponsive sites.

According to Fair Trading NSW, almost 50 percent of those retailers with web stores don't actually have secure payment systems. This leaves very few retailers in the U.S., U.K. and Australia that are currently well established with a responsive website taking secure payments.