It’s Thanksgiving evening at the North Pole.
Santa and Mrs. Claus are relaxing in front of their large screen TV, waiting for the Seahawks to take on the 49ers. A commercial starts, featuring a family of four sitting in front of the Christmas Tree, each wearing the most adorable pair of reindeer slippers imaginable.
Mrs. Claus exclaims with delight, “Oh Santa! I would love a pair of those slippers! How adorable!”
A few minutes later, Mrs. Claus excuses herself to use the ladies’ room and brew another pot of apple cider. And Santa – the good husband and gift giver that he is, takes the opportunity to fulfil the wish list of one of his favorite recipients. And how he does this brings us to the point of today’s article:
Santa pulls out his smartphone and starts shopping for reindeer slippers online.
That’s right – Santa is shopping online this year. Just like your dad, Santa is among the mobile-savvy senior citizens who are spending more than $7 billion dollars online each year. And, following suit with the rest of his peers, Santa is in the fastest-growing demographic for smartphone users today: Baby Boomers and Senior Citizens.
Expect Mobile Shopping to Increase This Season
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Santa and his peers are shopping online with their smartphones. If you’ve followed our blog for a while, then you well know that the 2013 holiday shopping season brought the highest-ever peak mobile traffic has seen. With two in three Americans owning smartphones today, and 60% of all internet traffic coming from mobile devices already, it’s a safe bet that 2014 will meet and exceed the surge in mobile traffic that online retailers saw last year.
But it isn’t enough just to say that people will use their smartphones more this year. In fact, 70 percent of all mobile searches lead to action. So consumers won’t just be window shopping this holiday season – if they find what they are looking for on their smartphones, they are very likely to purchase.
Mobile Search is Booming
Consumers love having information available at the tips of their fingers, and smartphones are making information and purchase easier than ever. A study around this time last year proved this: nearly 1/3 of all of Google Searches are on mobile devices. I wonder where that number sits today?
Mobile search is becoming so important in today’s market that even Google has taken a position on mobile-friendly website development. Their mobile search now uses device compatibility as a ranking tool. In other words: if your website is not yet mobile friendly, you are going to start seeing a real decrease in your online rankings and SEO efforts.
Here’s what Google has to say about device compatibility, and their recommended configurations. It’s pretty clearly stated that Google prefers responsive design. Fortunately, we happen to know of a website development company that can help with that!
Is your website ready for Santa?
With 2 in 3 Americans using their smartphones every day to search for reindeer slippers, and 70% of them actually buying those slippers on their mobile devices, chances are pretty good that your website will welcome some mobile shoppers this holiday season. Perhaps you need to check your inventory on slippers so you don’t sell out.
Okay – so maybe they won’t all be shopping for reindeer slippers. But you get my point: if your business sells a product or service that may be giftable this holiday season, you need to make sure that your website is ready for your mobile shoppers. This is especially true for retail businesses – but what working mother wouldn’t love a gift certificate to a massage parlor for Christmas? Or a gift certificate for a day at the spa? And dads – wouldn’t you love credit towards your next golf game, or two hours of pre-paid plumbing service so the next time the toilet overflows you don’t have to deal with it?
Mobile web isn’t the future. It’s the present. And if your website is not ready for a huge surge of mobile traffic this holiday season, you are going to lose real business to the mobile-friendly competition. We can help bring your website up to speed. But hurry – the season is approaching quickly, and Santa is already working on his holiday shopping!
