Fun fact: The number of hours spent on mobile devices around the world last year was 3.8 trillion hours. Trillion, with a “T!”
A good chunk of those hours were spent shopping making mobile commerce arguably the most powerful revenue driver in today’s digital landscape.
The data confirms this:
- 57% of consumers prefer researching and buying products online
- 28% of consumers prefer researching online and buying in store
- 3 out of 4 Gen Z and Millennial consumers use smartphones for most of their online shopping (74% and 73%, respectively)
These survey findings underscore the importance of delivering personalized visual experiences across all channels.
There’s no reason to believe that the domination of mobile commerce is coming to an end. Meaning, players in the space need to be delivering stunning images and videos, personalize at every touchpoint and optimizing product imagery and videos for mobile devices. After all, what’s there not to love about capturing the attention of the world’s 2.64 billion mobile-first shoppers?
Mobile commerce is all about personalization
Today, there are still companies that insist on designing and developing desktop first, then migrating to mobile. That’s not the way to go in a mobile-first world.
To cater to mobile shoppers effectively, retailers should tailor their product visuals to mobile devices by creating a mobile-first design that’s optimized for small screens, touch interactions and limited bandwidth..
The end goal of good mobile-first design is that your customers can do what they want quickly and easily, like view your products from a variety of angles or colors, share their purchase and shopping experiences on social networks and deliver an online experience that rivals the in-store shopping experience.
Delivering compelling mobile visuals, that’s the name of the game
While compelling visuals are essential, retailers face the challenge of balancing visual appeal with fast-loading and optimized mobile experiences. Slow page load times can frustrate mobile shoppers and lead to abandoned carts or high return rates. To address these challenges, retailers should implement responsive design practices that automatically adapt visuals to different screen sizes, ensuring a consistent and user-friendly experience across devices.
Think with Google /Giga Spaces
Optimizing image and video file sizes is critical to delivering fast-loading mobile experiences
By minimizing load times and improving overall performance on mobile devices, retailers can deliver visual content that enhances the shopping experience. Detailed, realistic product images and videos protect brand reputation and drastically reduce returns
- The average retailer cost of returns per dollar sold is 21 cents.
- 30% of goods are returned because the products did not match what the person saw on the website
Product galleries that include a variety of high-quality images, and rely on advanced technologies give consumers the confidence they need to make an informed purchase decision.
Word of Mouth is the best advertising
There’s no method better for instilling trust than user-generated content (UGC). As a bonus, user-generated video is an exceptional opportunity for retailers to attract website traffic without their marketing team having to create from scratch. Best of all, UGC drives conversions and brand loyalty as a direct result of authentic interaction.
Without the right tools, it can be frustrating to add user-generated videos to an e-commerce site. Biggest roadblock is reviewing every video to ensure that the content is safe and brand-friendly.
With Cloudinary, brands can automatically upload and moderate user-generated content and create shoppable videos that make it easy to purchase through the Cloudinary embedded video player.
Personalization and relevance
To further enhance engagement and drive conversions, e-commerce retailers can leverage customer data and behavioral insights to deliver tailored product imagery and videos that resonate with individual shoppers. AI-powered recommendations and targeted content allow retailers to present mobile shoppers with visuals aligned with their preferences, increasing engagement and driving conversions.
By prioritizing a mobile-first approach, optimizing visual content for mobile and robust personalization strategies, retailers can create dynamic and engaging experiences that drive customer engagement and reduce returns.
About Cloudinary
Cloudinary is the image and video technology platform that enables the world’s most engaging brands to deliver transformative visual experiences at global scale. More than 1.5 million users and 10,000 customers, including Apartment Therapy, Bleacher Report, Bombas, Grubhub, Hinge, NBC, Mediavine, Minted, Paul Smith and Peloton, rely on Cloudinary to bring their campaigns, apps and sites to life. With the world’s most powerful image and video APIs backed by industry-leading artificial intelligence and patented technology. As a result, the most engaging brands across all industries are seeing up to a 203% ROI using Cloudinary with benefits including faster time to market, higher user satisfaction and increased engagement and conversions. Visit www.cloudinary.com.