and the recommended experience you want
your customers to have when trying to
find your site. Working with your website
provider, you can quickly make adjustments
to your current website to meet the
minimum requirements of mobile users.
To make your site mobile-friendly, talk
to your website provider to understand the
mobile capabilities you have available. Some
providers incorporate the feature into their
base product, while others offer the feature at
an additional cost.
If your website incorporates e-commerce,
you'll also need to make sure the purchasing
experience continues to be available when
using a mobile device. According to a
Google study, 81 percent of smartphone
shopping is done spur-of-the-moment. The
website software you use should help your
customers find parts and accessories, and
once they find them, they need a seamless
buying experience.
Making information relevant
and easy to find
Another thing you need to consider is the
type of content you want to present on your
mobile site.
• Hours of operation, contact
information, and product information are
the top three pieces of information mobile
users expect to find.Your current website
may have this information on the bottomright corner of your website. But, for mobile
users, you'll want to make this information
prominent and easy to access.
• Mobile users expect you to deliver the
proper information on demand, and in a
user-friendly, intuitive way. Place a search
bar at the top of the screen, so customers
can easily type what they're looking for with
minimum clicks.
• A mobile device is interactive, so include
an expandable and collapsible hierarchy to
drill down for more information or easily
return to different areas of the site.
• Make sure your mobile site loads fast
— in five seconds or less — on any device.
If they don't find what they want in seconds,
they will move on, and there's a good chance
they won't come back.
Today's business world is changing, and
yours needs to change along with it.Your
website needs to accommodate the multidevice, on-the-go world.Your customers
expect a fast, easy and intuitive experience on
any device they use. And as you continue to
grow and change your business, make sure you
are incorporating the mobile market. OPE
Catherine Lukas-Ter
Horst has more than
15 years experience
delivering innovative
solutions in product
development and
management; online
marketing and
distribution; training and development;
and Web-based technology. As Product
Manager at ARI, Catherine works closely
with the company's management, sales
and development teams to launch and
enhance products designed to help dealers
sell and service equipment more efficiently.
She can be reached at (414) 973-4548 or
Terhorst@arinet.com.
OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT
FEBRUARY 2013
27
