How Schuh uses mobile to increase sales

Mobile is everywhere in our lives and as mobile consumers increase, ecommerce sites need to be prepared.

Stuart McMillan, Deputy Head of Ecommerce of Schuh, delivered an interesting talk during Internet Retailing Expo in Birmingham on how the mobile success can lead to a significant increase in sales.

42% of transactions come from mobile for Schuh and it has been observed that 89% of their mobile consumers have only shopped through their mobile devices.

These impressive statistics prove Stuart McMillan’s point that “mobile is not just for browsing”, which creates the need to offer the best possible mobile experience.

How can you create a great mobile experience? Stuart McMillan suggests you get the basics right, as

Good mobile = good website

Here are the four points that every great mobile site should cover:

1.A complete mobile experience

A complete mobile experience allows customers to stay longer at the site and possibly to complete the purchasing process, provided that the complete mobile experience is supported by the points below.

2. Usability

Every mobile site needs to be functional and fast, and user experience is a vital consideration.

What’s more, the site needs to cater for touch-screen devices, while it’s also important to optimise the forms accordingly for maximum efficiency.

3. Compelling

An appealing mobile site should offer app-like interaction, seamless device integration, offering a great user experience, always adjusting to the dimensions of a mobile screen.

4. Mobile-first

Your mobile site should be an extension of your site, which means that you can only scale it up, not down, by optimising it accordingly, from SEO to speed test and user experience.

It’s crucial to hear what users think of your site and A/B testing should be continuous to find ways to improve your presence.

A look at Schuh’s mobile site

All the above points can be found at Schuh’s mobile site and a glance is enough to understand what led to this number of mobile consumers.

The most important factors are:

Visual appeal

The main page of the mobile site is split in three main areas in order to promote several products at once, always keeping the mobile experience in mind, reminding of an application.

The first impression is important, as this will help a consumer decide whether the site matches his browsing habits to further explore it.

Functional search

Mobile site search should be as functional as possible, in order to help users find what they’re looking for with relevant suggestions, and shortcuts like auto-complete.

Search suggestions

Suggestions help a user find a product while avoiding the rest of the typing and this is crucial for a mobile website, as users are seeking for the results as fast as possible.

Fit for screen

This point could be the main one when creating a mobile website, as it is very important design it in the mobile dimensions of each screen, which means that it requires further analysis on what the main screen should display, whether the content is hidden and of course, whether there’s any difference from one screen to another.

Easy purchasing process

The purchasing process significantly affects the conversion rate and that’s why every site should have a quick and functional checkout page.

Functional drop-down menu

Menus can be complicated in a mobile site, affecting the impatient users who simply want to complete the purchase.

Schuh seems to notice every detail on its site that could keep the customers away and the drop-down menu on the checkout process is among them.

Always thinking like a user

User experience is very important in a mobile site, as users are more impatient and want to browse or shop at the most convenient way. Thus, an effective mobile site thinks like a user and keeps testing what works better, which ultimately leads to an increase in sales.

Schuh’s mobile site is indeed similar to its actual site, but it’s properly optimised to the mobile standards and the habits of the mobile shoppers, which is the key to success for every ecommerce site.

In summary

Ecommerce sites should embrace the rise of mobile shopping by optimising their mobile site as much as possible, in order to attract more consumers to shop “on the go” with a fast and appealing site that will make them stand out from their competitors.

Learn more about your audience and analyse the habits of the mobile consumers, in order to create a mobile site that will boost your sales and increase the happy customers.