Is your website’s mobile layout causing you to lose sales? Are customers frustrated by the lack of smooth navigation, readable text, or intuitive design?
Something’s got to change—and fast. With 66% of Americans[1] expected to make at least one mobile purchase in 2024, you need to make sure your site is set up to cater to smartphone shoppers.
So, how can you improve your eCommerce site’s mobile experience? Here are 11 tips to help you do just that.
(cottonbro studio/pexels)
1. Use Visual Cues
Mobile screens need to catch the eye. Your customers are scanning quickly, often while distracted.
Create clear sections with consistent spacing. Use contrasting colors for important buttons. Keep your most critical info, like prices and key features, visually distinct.
When customers instantly and instinctively know where to look, they’re more likely to find what they need and buy.
2. Adapt Your Site’s Text
Do you know that moment when you’re trying to read product details on your phone, and the text is so tiny you have to keep zooming in? Your customers face that frustration every day.
Make your text instantly readable. Use larger fonts, shorter paragraphs, and clear headings that grab attention without straining eyes.
3. Optimize Image Loading
Remember the last time you waited for a slow website to load on your phone? Neither do your customers; they have already left.
Compress your images without losing quality. Remove unnecessary plugins. Use lazy loading for images below the fold.
When pages load instantly, customers stay long enough to buy.
4. Fix Your Checkout Flow
We’ve all abandoned purchases because of frustrating mobile checkouts. Auto-fill wherever possible. Remove unnecessary form fields. Break the process into clear, simple steps.
And please—make those payment buttons big enough to tap confidently. Nothing kills a sale faster than accidentally hitting “cancel” when you meant to hit “buy.”
5. Use Fewer Forms
Long checkout forms lose mobile sales. Each extra field customers need to fill increases their frustration.
Keep only essential fields. Use shortcuts like address lookup. Break complex forms into simple steps with progress indicators.
The fewer fields you have between deciding to buy and completing checkout, the more sales you’ll capture.
6. Make Your Search Mobile-Friendly
Notice how Amazon’s mobile site instantly suggests products as you type? That’s crucial when typing on small screens.
Add clear filters that are easy to tap. Show search history for quick reuse. Make your search bar prominent and always accessible.
Good mobile search helps customers find products faster than menu diving.
7. Improve Your Page Speed
Mobile users won’t stick around for a slow page. Every extra second of loading time increases the chance they’ll bounce.
Compress your images and clear out heavy plugins to keep pages running fast. Use a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute content worldwide, cutting download times.
When pages load quickly, customers are more likely to stay, explore, and shop.
8. Strategize Your Popups
Pop-ups are great for grabbing attention, but they don’t always work well on mobile.
If they cover too much screen or are hard to close, they’re more likely to frustrate than convert visitors.
Try slide-in banners or bottom pop-ups that only cover a small part of the screen. This keeps your message visible without interrupting the shopping experience.
9. Increase White Space
White space is the empty area around text, images, and buttons on your page.
Mobile screens tend to reduce white space in order to fit all elements into a smaller viewing area.
Space your elements to maintain readability and prevent accidental taps, even on the smallest of screens.
10. Scale Your Elements
Mobile screens vary wildly in size. Your buttons can’t be tiny on small phones or huge on tablets. They need to scale perfectly across devices.
Set your elements with relative sizing. Keep touch targets at least 44 pixels tall. Maintain consistent proportions across your layout.
When elements scale naturally, your site looks polished on every device.
11. Use Phone Features
Notice how natural it feels to pinch-zoom on photos or swipe through Instagram? Your store’s interactions should feel just as intuitive.
Let customers preview products in their space through AR. Turn complex size charts into visual guides. Make searching as easy as snapping a photo of what they like.
When you empower mobile shoppers with phone features, they feel inclined to browse and interact with your site.
Final Verdict
These mobile design improvements can boost your store’s performance. Each fix—from better spacing to faster loading—creates a smoother shopping experience.
You don’t need to do a complete overhaul all at once. First, focus on what needs the most attention. Make one change, track it, and see how it affects engagement.
Short on time or resources? Partnering with an experienced eCommerce web design agency can help. They’ll optimize your site for mobile and refine key elements so your customers enjoy a seamless shopping journey from start to finish.