What does a mobile-first Southeast Asia mean for businesses?

Mobile devices have become the main points of access to the Internet across Southeast Asia. According to a Google-Temasek report, this holds true for more than 90 percent of digital users in the region.

To cater to this shift in digital habits, companies now need to prioritize consumers’ mobile experience by adopting a mobile-first design. This approach involves them optimizing for the mobile version of a webpage before scaling up to larger screens.

For many years, however, this process of web design happened in reverse. Optimizing for mobile used to be optional. What has made this step non-negotiable for companies?

What a mobile-first design brings to the table

Having a webpage with a mobile-first design can substantially increase one’s online visibility and reach, as consumers switch out their desktops for mobile devices. In Asia, mobile traffic accounts for almost two-thirds of all web traffic.

A comScore report reveals Indonesia’s mobile audience is almost 2.5 times the size of its desktop counterparts, and spends more than double the time online. Similarly, in Thailand, a staggering 90.4 percent of internet users go online via their smartphone.

Consumers are also increasingly turning to their smartphones for ecommerce transactions. The use of mobile shopping apps more than tripled in Southeast Asia, jumping by 240 percent between 2017 and 2018. In Singapore alone, Worldpay forecasts that mobile commerce will constitute 52 percent of all online sales this year.

This means that your mobile website may be the first contact consumers have with your company. They will be quick to move on if their attention is not captured quickly and immediately.

Further, being mobile-friendly can also help webpages perform better on search engines, improving organic traffic. In the past, Google indexed websites based purely on the online content and overall desktop experience.

In 2015, Google launched an index which ranks websites by how their content renders on a mobile device. This means the absence of a mobile-friendly experience could weigh you down on a search list, and limit online visits.

ShopBack is an example of one company that leveraged on and benefited from adopting a mobile-first design. Two years after launching, they expanded their initial desktop-only strategy to include a mobile app.

Being mobile-first paid off for the ecommerce company. Within 24 hours, the app soared in popularity and topped Singapore’s list of free apps under the shopping category on the iOS App Store.

ShopBack revealed that in 2018, the volume of mobile app traffic was five times that of desktop traffic. The app also made up three-quarters of online orders. App purchases also continued to surpass that of desktop on a consistent quarterly growth basis.

What can companies do?

To create a seamless mobile experience for your consumers, companies should keep the following in mind before diving straight into a total overhaul.

Navigation should be straightforward and content should be streamlined. It should be intuitive for visitors looking to locate key information on your products.

With 53 percent of mobile users abandoning web pages that take longer than three seconds to load, businesses will be wise to steer clear of slow load speeds. Instead of plastering your website with images or videos, consider replacing these motion graphics with engaging typography that will take less time to load.

If you are doubtful whether your mobile site is ticking all the boxes, there are tests you can perform to measure its readiness. Google’s Test My Site is one example, scanning factors such as text readability and sizing objects and reveal how you stack up against other industry competitors.

What’s holding some businesses back?

For one, consumers may expect a level of technical functionality they have become used to experiencing on desktops. Plugin support, for instance, is comparatively weaker on mobile devices.

Desktop also seems to still remain as the key channel for larger purchases. ShopBack noted that in Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, desktop orders were higher than that of mobile in terms of average dollar value spent per order.

60 percent of users indicated they would begin browsing on mobile but end up completing the transaction on desktop due to a difference in perception of safety. Strengthening your site’s cybersecurity, through two-step verification or two-factor authentication, could help allay their fears.

In addition, there is still a significant portion of users who surf the internet via their desktops, even if it is not their primary device. About 30 percent of the region’s web traffic still originate from desktops. For instance, office workers who are browsing during work hours, are likely to do so on their desktops rather than on smartphones.

Given this, investing in mobile strategies will be a smart move as consumers will be able to switch seamlessly between multiple devices. Furthermore, 90 percent of consumers in Asia Pacific engage in and continue to expect an omnichannel shopping experience.

All in all

The mobile trend is clearly not showing signs of slowing down in the near future, and companies should optimize their mobile webpages, or risk losing out.

Strategizing a mobile-first web design does not need to be complicated. In fact, simplicity is key here – keeping navigation straightforward and content concise will be crucial in capturing the large mobile consumer market.

Source: TechInAsia