2012: The Year of the Tablet (and Continuation of Social)
While 2011 could be called the year of mobile, 2012 will likely be the year of the tablet. As retailers begin to understand how people search, shop, and consume content on mobile devices, the soaring popularity of the iPad (one of the must-have items on people’s holiday wish lists this year), presents new challenges for retailers, as well as for those of us who provide products and services to them, in delivering a compelling shopping experience on the new “fourth screen.” This is driven not only by the number of iPads but also by the higher conversion rates of people that use iPads; iPad users buy more. Improving the experience for this growing and desirable demographic is an opportunity worth focusing on next year.
For tablets like the iPad and its Andriod Counterparts, the requirements for creating user-friendly search and navigation experiences are different than those for the mobile screen. There is more screen real estate to work with when it comes to tablets, which means a better display of product images and an easier-to-use touchscreen. On the other hand, “t-commerce” or “couch-commerce” will require a different experience than what is displayed on a personal computer or mobile screen. Site owners (and companies like ours) need to brainstorm ways to take advantage of the benefits of tablets (like brilliant displays of photos and videos), while keeping navigation streamlined.
For instance, tapping the screen is the standard method of navigation for tablets. Your fingers are relatively large and imprecise when compared to the control you have with a mouse. For example small text menus, which you might find in lists of refinements – are hard to tap on without hitting another menu item by mistake. The same goes for buttons that are too close together, or pagination numbers: easy to click on with a mouse, tough to click on with a finger. In addition, as GetElastic reports, tablets are making it possible for website visitors to interact with content in new ways: people can “touch” content, swiping and zooming to choose how they view text and images. This tactile interaction may cause us to discover new ways to present information, new ways to display navigation, and new possibilities for innovative merchandising and SEO.
As many tablet (and mobile device) users spend lots of time on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and now Google +, we can expect that the merging of e-commerce and social media will gain even more prominence in the months ahead. It’s recently been reported that half of all visitors to ecommerce sites are logged on to Facebook. As we’ve discussed before in this blog (or the SLI Blog), site owners have realized that if people are spending more and more time with their friends on social networks, the website search and shopping experience needs to come to the social setting. It’s a constantly evolving situation and the best practices for optimizing social media and retailing are still being tuned. In 2012 we’ll see more retailers experimenting with social media and further refining these best practices.
