iPad users use their tablets to shop, and not having an optimized website can hurt you. Image: Flickr / greatnet / CC-BY-SA
Having a mobile-optimized website is incredibly important. The mobile market is continually expanding, and the impact of the iPad and tablets simply cannot be ignored.
Tablets are shopping machines
Individuals using a tablet, especially an iPad, to browse the web are much more likely to spend cash on purchases. Time and time again, research has shown that tablet shoppers using a mobile software application are more affluent, more ready to buy and more active on social networks than other shoppers. According to one research firm, iPhones accounted for more than 2 million views on Black Friday, while iPads accounted for 6.5 million views on just 70 U.S. retailers’ websites.
How load time affects shoppers
The longer a website takes to load, the less likely a shopper is to stay on the website; 16 percent of mobile web users abandon a website if it takes between 1 and 5 seconds to load, another 30 percent for load times between 6 and 10 seconds. A single extra second of load time can reduce conversions by 7 percent.
The difference in tablet optimziation
Mobile optimization and tablet optimization are similar. Most tablets run on a mobile OS and render webpages similarly. Tablets, however, have more screen real estate and some varying functionality. Sites should be optimzied for both, and most major WordPress plugins offer some kind of mobile-detection option that would allow for this. Tablet users are also much more likely than mobile users to interact with multimedia, so including it on the iPad website is allowable.
Doing the math of optimization
It takes time, money and effort to optimize your website for tablets and iPads that can be difficult to commit. However, if your website brings in just $3 in sales or income each day, one extra second of load time could lose you almost $100 in a year.
