How do Orchid owners of jewelry websites see their traffic originating? From phones or computers? What percentages of each?
How do Orchid members in general access the internet for shopping? By phone? Computer?
I’m asking because a family member & I are coding a website. There’s a lot of talk about younger users predominantly using their phone. But phones are in portrait orientation and have small screens, where computers have landscape displays which are much larger, allowing for more content to be displayed neatly. Getting one website design to work similarly on both platforms is difficult and tedious, and the results are not optimal on either. I’m wondering if it is really worth the bother.
And no, using two separate designs is not on the table. That would require twice the work and twice the maintenance.
My free Wix website seems to work OK on both platforms. I am notified of orders by email that also can be viewed on either platforms. I use my website to post pictures of both my standard work, which can be purchased through the website, and custom work for conversation only. I don’t know if this helps answer your questions…Rob
There are numerous website builders out there now that will do it for you. It usually cheaper to use one their packages than having someone build a site from scratch. Like Rob mentioned, Wix is one. You have Shopify, Squarespace, Big Cartel, Weebly, even WordPress (with all their templates) for example.
As a younger user, it is imperative to have an optimal mobile website. For my website (I use squarespace) my stats show 80% of my traffic is from mobile users (I heavily market via social media so that’s my biggest traffic generator). My clients website stats show about 60% are from mobile (they are less active on social media). But the majority of traffic is from someone on a mobile device.
A lot of people don’t have desktop/laptop computers and rely heavily on phones and tablets. My mother (late 60s) uses her phone and tablet to shop 100% of the time. There are a lot of studies out there that you can google if you want stats on retail purchases via the internet and which devices are being used.
A majority of my traffic, too, is via mobile — about 60%. I personally prefer shopping on computers (so much more screen to see all those details!), but when I do shop on my phone I’m reminded how annoying a not-mobile-friendly experience is. Everything is tiny and hard to navigate with just my finger. It’s usually annoying enough for me that I’ll close the window and move on to something else.
I also use Squarespace and love that they offer templates that include their mobile versions — you won’t have to do any of that work. Shopify offers the same. And when picking a new site design, I highly recommend “Does this work well with mobile?” as a litmus test for your final pick.
As an older (71) on line shopper, I do all of my shopping on my computer, actually chrome desktop computer. I make my website available in both a computer and phone format as I know that many of my younger customers do a lot of shopping, or at least browsing, on their phones. It also helps when I am out and about and the conversation turns to my jewelry. I can quickly show someone what I make or discuss a particular piece…Rob
My jewelry site is also on Wix. As I built it I was careful to save it after each installation of photos or text in both the computer format as well as the Mobile format. It still took some fudging about but the end result is OK. I did notice Wix had a tendency to lay text over the photos from time to time so I had to be attentive of that. But generally speaking it was trouble free.
I’ve had a Six site for maybe 4 years. I pay a minimum fee to have it add free. I really like having the site. It’s easy to update and tweak. The mobile optimization is less than perfect and you have to keep an eye on it. Note: I don’t sell off the site……
Andy
Could Orchidians who have websites for both PC and mobile give us links to their sites with any info you care to share about the site-building experience so we can compare? That would be great!
My daughter brought website response testing tools to my attention.
Do a web search and you will find a number of different choices that will show what your website looks like on a vast number of devices. Some let you tweak your code and see the results immediately.
A free Wix website with the for pay ecommerce module activated for on line orders. I built this website using one of their simpler templates. Originally I just wanted a place to post pictures that I could point people to who wanted to see various options. I have since added a bit of history, the ecommerce page, a FAQ page and a lot more pictures. It works for me. I have received a dozen orders since adding the ecommerce page last Christmas, so it has paid for itself for a couple years. Once you commit to a website, you will spend a lot of time maintaining it regardless of what kind and who does the upkeep. I always say that it takes me longer to document, photograph, post, process and ship an order than it does to make the piece of jewelry that I am selling. I sure am glad that I don’t make my living at this…Rob
I use both to shop/browse. I use Shopify for my website and use a square photo shape so that it looks good on phones or laptops and fits social media and other applications.
We use Shopify to power our website. We have had success for both mobile and desktop performance. The site building experience definitely had some complications, but we are very happy with the way our redesign has turned out.
One more vote for Shopify. Relatively easy to make edits and see how they’ll appear on Phone/Computer/Tablet. FWIW- my 2020 ratio for “sessions” is about 55%/43%/2%. There are MANY add-ons to customize if desired.
Jeff
I always use my phone for browsing, buying and selling. The only time I use a PC for ordering is when I put in large orders and I need multiple screens open.
I’ve made all websites I’ve built for mobile and desktop, it really pays off to do so. If you think coding it yourself is too much trouble, hire someone or use things like WordPress/square space. It’s not worth doing yourself if you’re not dedicated to making it perfect, you’ll lose a lot of traffic if a button isn’t working or the site isn’t intuitive enough.
The majority of my traffic appears to be from mobile devices, and my own browsing habits tend to be on my phone and iPad too- though I will say that on the iPad I often will choose “desktop view” over mobile as they generally seem to be less annoying to navigate and have more information on screen at once.
As others have said, there are programs that will generate the dual (or fluid) layout for you. There’s no reason anymore to put in all the work of building two completely separate sites from scratch. And I say that as someone who for many years insisted on creating all of my sites in Notepad, writing markup from scratch without any help but a real paper book as reference! Seriously. The programs are magic, and while they can be both a financial and temporal investment at the start, they’ll more than pay for themselves once you’re up and running. Additions and edits become a breeze and a lot of it just takes care of itself.
