There is no longer a debate over whether online retailers need a mobile site, as consumer demand dictates that brands need to optimised for small screens.
However there are still several different options facing brands that want to create a mobile optimised site.
Responsive design is seen by many as being the future of web design, and we previously looked at 11 gorgeous examples of the technology and asked several experts whether site owners need to adopt it.
But the examples we’ve seen suggest that responsive design is currently more popular among design agencies and artists, while major ecommerce retailers have been slow on the uptake.
So to show how responsive design can be applied in retail, here are 10 examples of ecommerce sites built using responsive design...
Currys
Currys is quite unusual among the UK’s major retailers for having adopted responsive design.
As a result its site scales perfectly for either screen, without compromising on the user experience.
King of Nothing
Though this site took a while to load properly on my browser it’s a great example of a small retailer using responsive design for an online store.
It’s also quite fun to resize the browser and watch the products shift themselves around the screen on the shop homepage...
Burton
Snowboard retailer Burton has used responsive design for most of its site, however one aspect that isn’t yet available on mobile is its ‘Board Finder’ tool that asks the customer questions to help them find their perfect snowboard.
United Pixel Workers
This is one of the better examples of this list, as its simple design and use of large calls-to-action means it resizes perfectly on different screen sizes without becoming difficult to use.
One criticism is that hardly any of its products are in stock, but perhaps it's waiting for a delivery...
Tattly
Tattly sells temporary tattoos, which is certainly a niche market, yet it has taken the step of embracing responsive design.
It works extremely well in this case as the site uses a lot of white space and also benefits from the great tattoo designs.
Attika
Attika is a German homeware retailer, so I won’t pretend to know how good the copy is on its site.
However it is an excellent example of responsive design and doesn’t seem to suffer from the slow loading times of other sites on this list.
Nuts.com
Another rather niche retailer that is a step ahead of the big players.
Nuts.com isn’t one of the smoothest examples I’ve seen, but is still a good example of how small retailers can use responsive design.
Hiut Denim
Hiut Denim’s site is a really interesting example, as the desktop site includes attractive background images that disappear entirely on the mobile site.
Despite the imagery the product pages are relatively simple and use large CTAs that translate perfectly onto a mobile screen.
Skinny Ties
The name of this site gives a fairly good indication of what it sells, and it has created a simple yet attractive storefront that scales perfectly for all screen sizes.
Always Riding
Though there are aspects of this site that I don’t like – such as the fact that it displayed customer reviews in Japanese even though I’m in the UK – it’s another useful example of a small retailer using responsive design.
I’m not convinced that showing rider reviews at the top of the mobile screen is the best use of space, but it’s still easy to navigate regardless of the device you’re using.
Reader comments (29)
10:54AM on 10th January 2013
Great examples - we have also made our website fully responsive ar www.web-engineer.co.uk
Let me know your thoughts.
Leigh Mardon
Web Engineer
Product Marketing Manager, Personalisation Specialist at Emailvision
11:57AM on 10th January 2013
Smythson's site is responsive too, and very nice.
Here's a blog post from Session Digital that explains how they approached it: http://blog.sessiondigital.com/post/35565071402/building-a-responsive-ecommerce-store-for-smythson
12:46PM on 10th January 2013
cocosa.com is responsive as well.
5:20PM on 10th January 2013
Our e-commerce site is responsive too http://www.beadsdirect.co.uk/
3:55AM on 11th January 2013
www.greenboxpromo.com is very responsive
Co-Founder , Head Operations at Via Digital
6:04AM on 11th January 2013
You forget about http://www.snapdeal.com/ i think the design is cool here.....
Owner at The Website Review Company
8:40AM on 11th January 2013
Personally I prefer responsive designs, but is there a need for both a responsive website and a mobile website?
I believe there is. A responsive website can cater for any PC, table and mobile, but Google is pushing mobile specific sites in search on mobile devices, so does this mean we will have to have 2 sites, possibly 3 if you are looking at the app route.
E-Commerce Manager at Diamond Manufacturers
10:46AM on 11th January 2013
Last year we re-launched our site using responsive design. The process was very challenging and resulted in a large increase in wireframe and development time but our user base is heavily skewed towards mobile and tablet so it was time well spent.
www.diamondmanufacturers.co.uk
@Jack - surely one of the main advantages of creating a responsive site is to remove the need for a separate mobile site?
10:49AM on 11th January 2013
@jackjarvis my understanding is that Google prefer responsive as an approach...
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details
The EE site is another to add to the list: http://ee.co.uk/
Director at Great Northern Design Ltd
1:19PM on 11th January 2013
A correctly coded responsive website will be detected as a mobile-specific site by googlebot-mobile.
My understanding is that Google is pushing mobile-friendly rather than mobile-specific sites in the search results delivered to a mobile.
Plus responsive design is Google's recommended configuration for smart-phone friendly sites.
See https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details
Apps are a completely different marketing animal requiring their own business case.
5:42PM on 11th January 2013
Nice compilation. In the Currys example, only the mobile version is displayed. For the desktop version, see http://ow.ly/i/1mkBd
6:31PM on 11th January 2013
I have just started my first ever ecommerce store and I am uing a responsive template provided through Shopify. First responses from friends and family have been great.
Think the Tattly site you have highlighted is also built on the Shopify platfrom.
If you want to be in the playing field, you really need to consider responsive design
7:24PM on 11th January 2013
Interesting list. It would be handy to include QR codes for each of the sample sites to expedite their viewing on a mobile device. =)
Editor at Econsultancy
9:38AM on 12th January 2013
@aschottmuller thanks for the suggestion, though surely it's easier just to click the links?
9:01AM on 13th January 2013
This knife store, http://kershaw.kaiusaltd.com/, and skinny ties are the best I've seen.
6:32PM on 13th January 2013
@Claire: That's really a great job for beadsdirect.co.uk
Can you please tell us which technologies are you using to develop this site?
And are you using BoilerPlate for the responsive design?
Web Manager at Perricone MD
2:56PM on 14th January 2013
@Graham: That would mean picking up my phone, typing in the url of this site, searching the blog, opening this page, finding the link...
Surely much easier and faster to simply pick my phone up and hold it to the screen at my desk.
9:40AM on 15th January 2013
Hi,
I've posted a comment here and it was deleted is it the way you moderate?
can you please let me know what was wrong with it?
cheers
.r
Business Development Manager at Gibe Digital
11:14AM on 16th January 2013
I'm very wary about the use of templates for responsive design. Our experience is that in order to get the site to work well and not suffer from massive data issues (mobiles don't respond well to sites that are large and therefore take a long time to download)you really need to focus on good programming. What is a customer going to do when a site takes more than 3 seconds to load? Move on to another of course. If you have a responsive designed site and a mobile site to reduce download times you should have worked harder at the responsive site!
6:19PM on 17th January 2013
Great article. Can anyone point to any resources of brilliant responsive design of websites that specialise in content rather than retail? thanks
1:44AM on 19th January 2013
@Graham Since the comparison is for responsive design, its' helpful to do a side-by-side comparison of desktop/traditional screen sizes with tablet and smartphones. A QR code would nicely expedite the process versus attempting to manually type each example into a smartphone. (Delivr.com is a great free tool for QR code creation and tracking.)
Life Digital at LV=
5:01PM on 29th January 2013
We launched our new site LV.com which is responsive. Comments welcome!
11:10AM on 10th February 2013
Here is an eCommerce platform that makes it available for everyone to create a responsive ecommerce site!
it's a standard!!
(click on my name to see... :))
7:48AM on 12th February 2013
Re: snapdeal.com — sorry, but that is NOT a responsive design. The mobile site is a redirect, and you can choose between the mobile and desktop versions in the footer.
6:33PM on 16th February 2013
Love the skinny tie site! fyi, the tattly link doesn't work.
We've developed a responsive solution for restaurants flavorplate.com A must-have for the food space.
12:59AM on 19th February 2013
We are still working on making our website fully responsive. This has been a big challenge. We have over 14000 products so it is not easy. Younger people are using mobile devices more, so this is important.
5:06PM on 2nd March 2013
Great selection guys! RWD is a great mile stone in the web design area and all of the creators above deserve huge BRAVO for their efforts and inspiring work.
1:49AM on 14th March 2013
Wow. Awesome list. It is really a great source of inspiration. Thanks for sharing. Keep it up.
9:43AM on 25th March 2013
Responsive design is a great way to capture interest and improve those convesrion rates, I think a good designer is one who is able to make a website thats easy to navigate, but also has a stimulating design, and it's hard not to let the two elements cancell each other out. However from my own experience it's much easier not to do this with good shopping cart software.
Log in to post a comment