Bruce Ernst

About Bruce Ernst

Boost relevance through powerful online merchandising

Whether selling products in a department store or digital downloads online, the principles of merchandising are the same: Companies must make it easy for customers to discover, consider, and ultimately purchase their products and services.

When it comes to online merchandising, however, marketers have traditionally lagged behind their brick-and-mortar counterparts, the latter having the advantage of real-time interaction with a customer in order to best guide their purchasing decisions.

The challenge for online marketers is to figure out how to seamlessly deliver the same personal experiences to online customers.

How to create mobile friendly landing pages: part two

In part one of this series, we examined ways for marketers to deliver a relevant browsing experience to users visiting their websites from mobile devices. With recent data indicating that 20% of all mobile phone owners made a purchase using their phone in 2011, there’s an obvious need to effectively reach consumers on mobile devices.

And with mobile web usage expected to surpass desktop web by 2015, delivering a seamless and relevant mobile experience will only grow in importance.

Unlike traditional desktop web browsing, where online brands have the full attention of their customers, mobile users are often distracted while engaging with you on their smartphone. But they also may be looking for that perfect pair of shoes.

How to create mobile friendly landing pages: part one

Over the last year, much attention has been paid to, and in fact a cottage industry has grown up around, optimizing landing pages for mobile devices. But too often landing pages are not optimized for mobile users, generating frustration and anger rather than conversions.

According to Walker Sands, 12.6% of total website traffic was driven via mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 102% from the year before. As consumers increasingly turn to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets for product research, web browsing, and on-the-go shopping, it’s key for online brands to rely on landing pages that are not only optimized for mobile devices, but demonstrate relevance to the user as well.