mobile-device-frustration-300x152.pngVia Digital Book World, online strategies developer Biztegra has shared a detailed report on the importance of mobile-friendly storefronts to book publishers. It also ranks several (mostly independent) publishers on their mobile-friendliness, and provides tips on how to cater to the mobile user.

The report’s author, Murray Izenwasser, Marketing Practice Lead and Co-founder of Biztegra, states that, “as of April 2015 … Google’s algorithm has added ‘mobile-friendly’ as a factor in ranking your website on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). So what does this mean to the book publishing industry? It means that in order to stay competitive with your peers and the major retailers, you’ll need to bring your website to your customers wherever they are on whatever device they are on (including the full e-commerce transactional experience).”

This chimes in with Amazon’s recent emphasis on mobile access for its Prime service, and on mobile as a key channel for Prime service delivery. Of course, publishers and especially independents may have a hard time going head to head with Prime, but that’s not to discount the value of mobile-friendliness to their own business. Other sources put mobile e-commerce as accounting for 30 percent of all e-commerce in the U.S. alone, and it obviously makes good sense to help out 30 percent of your potential customers.

Of course, Biztegra has its own offering to push, and isn’t slow to showcase the benefits it can deliver. And almost the same report could be served up to other industries, with a different sample set of profiled businesses. But that said, the list of tips in the article, and the links to helpful resources such as the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool, make it well worth a publisher’s while to read in full. And Chris Meadows has argued persuasively elsewhere that publishers shouldn’t be intimidated by Amazon’s pervasive online presence – mobile or otherwise. They have their own distinct business to pursue, which requires commensurate web presences.

“A website that is not optimized for users to visit with their phones or tablets can mean that your visits will not convert into actual purchases, as a customer may not want to wait until they have access to their desktop later to make their book purchase on your site,” cautions Izenwasser. And you don’t have to sign up to Biztegra itself to heed that warning.

 

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