Points to consider for Amazing Mobile experience

The “first time internet users” are getting a wider exposure across the internet with the help of mobile. For many content sites over 30-40% of their users are accessing using mobile. Key factors that are driving this change are growth of high end smartphone users, penetration of mobile internet, availability of smartphones in under 10,000/- price point and availability of rich content in a mobile ready format.

In the coming years, mobile is expected to evolve as the primary channel for accessing websites. Considering this, online players are investing in people and technology to deliver a superior experience to mobile users. The first-time-internet users, need more intuitive and easy designs so that they are able to relate, understand and engage with the content. To deep dive into this emerging trend, Makaan.com recently conducted an experiment to determine solutions tailored made for the mobile users. Some of the interesting facts:

80% of Mobile Users have bandwidth >100kbps

In a study conducted among a sample size of 50,000 hits on Makaan.com revealed that the mobile users were using Wi-Fi networks both from home & office. Over 80% of them have 100kbps or higher bandwidth. Based on this analysis, Makaan.com implemented immersive property search experience with multiple rich elements like “photo view”- 1st time in the Indian real estate space, map views with all features, nearby facilities, instant callback with sellers etc. Typically mobile site have less features as compared to desktop version, but not incase of Makaan.

The “Photo view” helps to have a feel of the prospective property, along with all the important details highlighted on the property. This provides a quick and easy view of the property helping buyers to decide. The quick actions of short listing and instant callback with sellers are very helpful.

% Conversion on mobile is 93% of desktop:

Mobile traffic can have similar conversion rates when compared to desktop. Makaan.com in their study found that the user behavior is more focused on mobile and users take relevant actions. Working on tabs and inputting text is still a tedious on mobile devices so that has been avoided in the new mobile site. Using the new Makaan.com mobile site, users are able to do all the necessary actions on the search results page (SERP). Makaan.com improved their time spend by the mobile users by 12% along with 30% rise in conversion. So go ahead and experience a refreshing way to “live your dream” on www.makaan.com

Amazon.in- Opportunity to improve user engagement and experience, 52% faster load possible

India is “Mobile First" Internet market. Mobile is the next wave of growth and companies providing the best user experience and engagement on mobile would win.

13% of the Indian Mobile market is penetrated by smartphone, rapidly growing with launch of 4G, low cost smartphones from brands like Xiaomi and push by Google on Android One (this has not impacted much, but Google would not leave anything behind)

For any e-commerce player to succeed on mobile some of the most important parameters that need to understood are:

1. Multiple Browser support: Unlike desktop, Handheld devices have minimum 6-7 browsers where 95% of traffic is concentrated. All the browsers behave very differently to process a page 
2. Bandwidth Available: India is still a 2G market with 3G trying to make inroads. Also, bandwidth available is unreliable and fluctuates a lot. Hence, adapting the site to user bandwidth is very important. Optimizing the site for performance becomes key to success.
3. Tab based navigation is difficult: Unlike desktop, opening and browsing in multiple tabs within a browser is difficult. Also the time it takes to open a new page (4-5 sec) is a dampener.
4. Typing is tedious: Users find it difficult to find the search box and type. Icons and visual navigation is preferred
5. High pixel density: The pixel density on mobile makes the content sharper and better to understand. The touch gives added advantage in creating highly interactive and immersive content.

Amazon.in review for mobile friendly user experience:

Mobile site

Amazon is the largest online etailer and is the source of inspiration for other e-commerce and product companies. They have been known for innovation and strategically changing the business model to suit market requirements. 

In India, they entered late but in a few years they have been able to make a mark because of deep pockets. Indian ecommerce industry is growing at frantic pace, which is aiding overall growth.

Is Amazon.in optimized? No

Google Page speed score: Amazon.in score on Google page speed score is 39, which is very low. Amazon.in is the least optimized in the industry, Flipkart is at 73 and Snapdeal is at 60 score.

Google Page speed score for amazon.in 

Basic things that can done to improve performance are:

1. Content size is too large: As the page is not optimized, the size of the home page is 2.5 MB from 119 requests and it takes more than 15 secs to load on EDGE network (throttle of 250 kbps). This would put off any user (6-7 sec wait time is the maximum people expect on mobile)

2. Scale images: Images are usually double the size compared to what is required as per the resolution of a device. Improving this alone can make the rendering faster by ~52%

3. First fold load: If above-the-fold content is prioritized it can enable users to start their journey, while the rest of the content keeps on loading.

Snapdeal.com search bar sticks at the top 

Amazon.in User Engagement and experience? Failed

Optimized Navigation paths are very critical to ensure that users reach their destination faster and are able to transact with the site. Some of the important things which can improve the user flow are:

1. Navigation drawer: Google recommends navigation drawer for mobile browsing and helps the user to reach their destination in fewer clicks. All the major players have a navigation drawer but the same is missing from Amazon.in site.

2. Sticking search bar: Typically pages on mobile are long, but having top header with search box stick enables the user to easily search the site. Snapdeal.com does the same very well. This is missing on Amazon.in

3. Basic hygiene: On Amazon.in if you click the department button on top of the page, it opens a new page showcasing the departments and it take 8 secs to load. The same information is available at the bottom of home page and only thing which is required was an anchor tag to scroll the page to that section, this will save 8 secs of user's time.

4. Unacceptable Mistakes: When the user is on the detail page of the product, Amazon.in tries to fetch location to showcase the delivery timelines. I was surfing from Gurgaon, Amazon.com correctly identified the same. On the other hand, Amazon.in always displays a default pin code “400001” of Maharashtra. It shows that they neither care about the user nor they would like to personalize the content. 

Incorrect location fetched by Amazon.in failing to personalize the content  

Indian site is a replica of the Amazon.com site but some of the best practices have not been adopted, hence the above issues. The changes quoted above are simple to implement and would benefit amazon.in to improve their performance helping users to transact more.