What is a responsive website, and more importantly do you need one?

Many of us have mobile devices that we increasingly use to access the web; an iPad, an Android Tablet, a  Smartphone or maybe an iPhone. We are increasingly using mobile devices in our personal lives but do we really need to consider these from a business perspective?

On your Smartphone or Tablet open your browser and access your website, then search for a few things you would like your customers to be viewing. What is your browsing experience and how does it compare to accessing your site from your laptop/desktop? If your website is optimized for mobile the experience will be positive.  r website, your

customers and your future customers, using their PC or laptop? Research by Ofcom in December 2012 suggests not. Their research indicated that:

40% of the adult population have Smartphones.

68% use them to surf the web.

This means by not having a mobile website:

You could be losing 25% of visitors to your website and business.

Research by Telmetrics, referenced by EConsultancy in their April 2013 Blog, found that UK mobile searchers demonstrate strong purchase intent - 40% of UK mobile searchers claim that they intend to make a purchase within the day and an additional 35% take up to a month before making a purchase decision. Also

that Smartphone users demonstrate more immediate needs than tablets searchers with 22% looking to make a purchase within an hour of their search. 

Clearly your type of business, the products and services you offer and your target customer profile will shape

these statistics but what is undoubtedly clear is that the appetite to enquire and purchase online continues to rapidly grow in 2016 £223,503,800,000 of UK business will come from the internet. When you have your

next customer meeting why not consciously look at what phones and devices they are using and ask them how they are likely to access your website.  

Mobile devices are widely used to access websites and this is rapidly growing. Not to lose any visitors to their sites many customers are now looking to have a website that is optimized for any accessing device and looking for a responsive website.

Responsive Websites:

A responsive website will recognize what device your customer is using and respond appropriately presenting the information in a way that the viewer can easily access and navigate irrespective of the device they are using.

Written by ‘Shojib’.