8 Reasons Why Mobile Doesn’t Convert, and How to Fix Them

If there's a consensus about anything in the fast-changing mobile market, it's the idea that e-commerce conversion — i.e., the ability to move a customer from interest to purchase — is lower on mobile devices than it is on personal computers. A recent report by Monetate found that conversion on personal computer websites is three times the rate on smartphones. While it's clear that smartphones have the lowest conversion, the conversion rate on tablets is also lower than that of computers. For instance, Crate and Barrel reported a tablet conversion rate of 2.35 percent, but a smartphone conversion rate of only 0.92 percent.

Although we can agree conversion rate is usually lower on mobile, there's no consensus on why. After conducting thousands of mobile user tests on e-commerce sites, UserTesting suggests that low mobile conversion isn't usually caused by smartphones themselves, but by the designs of mobile shopping sites and apps. Here are the top eight reasons why mobile doesn't convert and how to fix them:

1. Taking the fun out of shopping: The first, and biggest, mistake that we see companies make when designing for mobile commerce is that they try to force customers from shopping to buying. Shopping on a personal computer is a seductive process. There are usually an enormous number of products to choose from, it's easy to browse, and years of design work have gone into creating a seamless shopping experience.

In an effort to respond to smaller screens and slower connections, retailers often try to strip down their mobile shopping experience to the basics. A particular focus is on enabling a purchase with a minimum number of taps. The result is a mobile app or website that forces the user to make a quick purchase decision rather than providing a great shopping experience.