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Mobile Retailing and Mobile Websites
Why You Should Consider A Mobile Enabled Website.
It is estimated that at least 25% of mobile phone owners worldwide have browsed the Internet via a mobile device. Internet marketing agencies are speculating that mobile web browsing is likely to become the next dominant Web platform. What this means, if a company is consumer-driven, is that having a mobile enabled website will be an absolute necessity rather than an optional extra.
Google, Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo (the latter two have now joined forces) have come to recognise the MASSIVE market potential and are making great strides to promote mobile content to advertisers and users alike. Many Famous brands such as CNN, MTV and Amazon to name just a few offer a .mobi enabled website featuring content specifically designed for handheld devices. Reduced tariffs and introduced flat-rate plans have made the mobile web much more accessible which means that an increasing number of potential customers are using their mobile devices to find local businesses, travelling instructions, news and much, much more.
Over 85% of adults and 70% of teens in the UK are mobile phone users, and at least 40% of these potential consumers have browsed the Internet on their phones. It is interesting to note that a disappointingly low number of consumer orientated websites actually work on WAP enabled phones.
In order for a website to work on a mobile phone, it has to follow W3C guidelines in order to allow mobile browsers to navigate the site efficiently. Mobile phones that use WAP technology to browse the Internet strip out CSS because of the limited screen size of the handset. Also, they tend to show text in a method similar to how a search engine spider renders a site.
Design Principles of Mobile Websites:
• Tables layouts will not render well on mobile handsets, necessitating the use of CSS.
• Either XHTML or XML should be used to code the mobile website.
• Character encoding should be UTF-8
• Mobile screen size needs to be taken into account. The largest screen size available seems to be 1024 x 480, though this is the exception rather than the rule. The average is closer to 120 pixels
• The top of the page is where the most important information of the website should be in order not to alienate the mobile consumer before they find what they are looking for.
• Mobile website users prefer to select values from a list of choices, such as radio buttons or lists, rather than enter text into a form.
• Images should be jpeg or gif only.
• Since many phones don’t include a back button, a ‘back’ button or link is a very user friendly option.
• The recommended maximum total page size is 20 kilobytes
• Users are paying good money to access the website, it should be worth their while!
A number of online resources provide mobile phone simulations, which enable you to view your website as it appears on standard mobile phone screens. Some of them are listed below:
• Google Mobile Proxy
• Palm OS Emulator
• Windows 2003 based Pocket PC Emulator
• Windows 2003 SE Smartphone Emulator
If your website does not display correctly on a mobile phone, you should seriously consider modifying your site to attract the growing population of mobile web users that search, browse, book and buy services and products from their mobile phones. Talk to South West Web Marketing about modifying or creating your site for mobile use.
Resources... 
10/11/11 - One Third Of Young Adults To Shop Via Their Mobile Phone This Christmas. One in three young adults will use their mobile phone to purchase Christmas gifts for friends and family this year.
E Commerce Consultancy...
Other Services from South West Web Marketing...
Our services include Search Engine Optimisation, Online Advertising, Resources, Twitter, Facebook, Tourism, Web Design, E Commerce, Email Marketing, Link Building, Content Marketing, Affiliates, Google and Adwords, Mobile Retailing, Social Listening, Marketing Strategies, Viral Marketing and pretty much anything "webby" you can think of.