Increase Your ROI by Tapping Into Tablet Shoppers

With technology changing and updating faster than the blink of an eye, it's crucial that internet marketing companies know and understand where web traffic is coming from. According to Forrester Research, 21% of mobile sales today come from tablets ("The State of Retailing Online 2011). As people are spending more time online due to smartphones and tablets, it's time to consider optimizing your business's website to capture these consumers, keeping in mind online shoppers especially. By 2014, eMarketer projects 35.6% of internet users to use tablets.

Tablets are preferred over smartphones for web shopping, according to Bizrate Insights Tablet Commerce Flash Survey 2011. Tablets offer larger screens than smartphones and are therefore preferred by web shoppers. The larger screens make it easier to use and view items in a web browser.

Create An Ipad App

We're in an app world now. Tablets are used for much more than just web browsing devices. Also, apps aren't just web-browsing tools--they're an in store experience. Tablets allow you to bring the store and the experience to your home, inside your living room as you relax on the couch after work on a Tuesday evening. According to Geek.com, a record 1.2 billion apps were downloaded during the last week of 2011, and 509 million in the US alone. Of those surveyed, the number one online shopping app downloaded was a retailer specific app, according to Bizrate Insights Tablet Commerce Flash Survey 2011. What this means for B2B internet marketing companies is it's important that retailer clients have their websites configured so they display properly on tablets for ease of viewing.

Here are a few ways to optimize retailer sites for tablet shoppers:

Identify activity and volume of websites

You want to use and understand in-house metrics to identify the main platforms through which consumers visit your website, such as tablet, PC and mobile. Also, it is important to do an initial 'site check' of your website to see how it appears on different devices. Forget auditing your site on just tablet and mobile platforms. Further, internet marketing companies can no longer combine tablet users under mobile--they are 2 completely different platforms. There are various differences between different tablets as well. For example, your site may display differently on an iPad as opposed to a Kindle Fire simply because the iPad is about 9.5 x 7 inches and the Kindle Fire is about 4 x 6 inches.

Optimize based on consumers needs and wants

It's important to see why your consumers are visiting your site and what they are using it for in order to proceed with the best optimization strategy. Are they buying items and using a checkout system, are they browsing items, or just accessing account information? You want to optimize your site based on your consumers' needs to make your site easier to navigate and increase convenience. If your consumers are searching, insert and optimize a quick navigation bar throughout the site and highlight a search bar for ease. Lastly, create ease throughout the checkout process by offering alternative payments. The easier the checkout process, the higher the conversion. You can further optimize your retail site by removing any elements that just simply don't convert as well as others. This will create a cleaner pathway to checkout and make it easier and convenient. This will also maintain focus on what consumers are trying to do and minimize distractions.

The 'fat finger' effect

Tablets and smartphones are predominantly touch screen these days, so adjustments need to be made to the tap areas so consumers can easily navigate the site. Here we introduce the 'fat finger' effect--you're trying to tap on the 'Checkout' button but instead you end up tapping the button that says 'edit cart'. If only the buttons were larger to accommodate the size of your finger. Another option is to include predictive search capability throughout on-site search navigation which minimizes key strokes, like a short-cut.

Ultimately, you want to give consumers more ways to get on to your website. Internet marketing companies should focus on ensuring ease of experience for their clients' consumers. It's time to stay ahead of the game and optimize consumers' tablet-browsing experience while shopping online. Don't fall behind, and increase ROI for your retailer clients.

Increase Your ROI by Tapping Into Tablet Shoppers