PCs: Still The Device of Choice For Ecommerce

Yesterday, Mashable posted a chart that shows Americans still prefer to do their online shopping on a PC rather than on a mobile device.  In fact, a whopping 73% chose to shop on their PCs while only 14% did so on their tablets and just 12% used their smartphones.  This may come as a surprise to some given the recent ubiquity of mobile devices and ecommerce apps.

I think it has much to do with screen sizes. Online shopping is a very visual activity, and the larger the screen size, the better the visuals. Squinting into a small screen like on a phone to discern the texture of a certain shoe’s suede for example, just isn’t very appealing to most consumers. 

A Better Online Experience Begets A Better Offline Experience

Your savvy clients deserve a better online experience with your brand.   They’re becoming increasingly digital and they want to interact with your products virtually.  But never mind that.  The real reason for giving your clients a better online experience is that it begets them a better offline (in-shop) experience – even for the most traditional bespoke craftsmen.

To be clear, a rich, sophisticated, and immersive online experience doesn’t have to mean incorporating all of the necessary features for selling & accepting orders online such as a shopping cart, payments gateway, and coupon codes.  It simply means giving your clients a way to interact with your products online:  to explore your materials, visualize them as finished products, and then flip, rotate, zoom, and compare them to their heart’s content!