make eCommerce mobile responsive
Unless you’ve being on vacation in Bora Bora for the last 12 months with all electronic devices turned off, you probably heard “go mobile” suggestion before. When thinking about whether to make eCommerce mobile responsive, consider some stores get over 60% of traffic from mobile devices. Well, starting today, this is not suggestion any more, but a requirement to survive.
From Google:
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”
Simply put – if your store is not mobile friendly, it will be downgraded in Google search results. Before you freak out, test if you have a problem or not.
Make eCommerce Mobile Responsive: Test first
Go to Google Mobile-Friendly Test page: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/, enter URL of your store and see if Google considers you as mobile friendly or not. If you are, go back to your vacation, all is good. If you are not, read on. There are many ways to make your store mobile friendly. Below I collected options for Magento, X-cart, PrestaShop and Pinnacle Cart.
Make eCommerce Mobile Responsive: MagentoMake
1) Switch to Responsive Theme – responsive web design (is an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones)
Details: http://themeforest.net or
http://www.templatemonster.com
Price: $500-$15,000 depending on the amount of customizations required
Compatible: v1.7 and up
2) Silver Mobile Theme – it sets up over your main store, not overlapping anything for desktop users, autodetects the mobile device and changes standard store view to mobile. Theme can be customized to your requirements.
Details: http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/silver-mobile-theme.html
Demo: http://store.belvg.com/demo/mobile/?___store=silver/ (visit from your phone)
Price: $109 for license and we can install it for you for $75
Compatible: v1.4 to 1.7
Make eCommerce Mobile Responsive: X-Cart
1) X-Cart reBOOT Template – this is responsive, search engine optimized skin with huge number of options you can adjust in admin to make it look unique. Very well built skin with lots of add-on modules included with skin installation.
Details: http://www.xcartmods.co.uk/reboot/
Demo: https://www.xcartmods.co.uk/reboot/
Price: $199 for license and we can install it for you for $75
Compatible: v4.6 and 4.7
2) X–Cart Mobile Extension – this is an extension from developers of X–cart. Easy to setup and manage solution compatible with most mobile platforms.
Details: https://www.x-cart.com/extensions/modules/x-cart-4-mobile.html
Demo: http://mdemo.x-cart.com/home.php (visit from your phone)
Price: $249 for license and we can install it for you for $75
Compatible: v4.4 to 4.7
3) xMobile Smartphone mobile template for X–cart – less expensive alternative from thexcartstore.com which is easier to customize.
Details: http://www.thexcartstore.com/xmobile-smartphone-mobile-xcart-template.html
Demo: http://demo.thexcartstore.com/xmobile/home.php?txs_xmb_key=xmobile (visit from your phone)
Price: €99 for license and we can install it for you for $75
Compatible: v4.4 to 4.7
4) Mobile Mod for X–cart – this module from bcsengineering.com is the only cost effective option for older X-cart stores and supports versions starting from 3.5. It will autoswitch your store to a mobile version when a mobile device is detected. It includes a base mobile skin that you can customize to suit your needs. This skin can be customized to your requirements.
Details: http://www.bcsengineering.com/store/mobile-mod-for-x-cart.html
Demo: http://demo.bcsengineering.com/gold/ (visit from your phone)
Price: $149.95 for license and we can install it for you for $75
Compatible: v3.5, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6
5) Custom mobile skin – this option will give you the best looking custom designed mobile skin which will match your main store but it is the most expensive solution starting from $5,000 (design and integration).
Make eCommerce Mobile Responsive: PrestaShop
- version 1.5 and up has mobile theme included by default
- for version 1.4.0.1 – v1.4.9.0 – use this extension: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/mobile/6165-prestashop-mobile-template-14.html
- for older versions – upgrade to the latest version. Cost: $75+
Make eCommerce Mobile Responsive: Pinnacle Cart
- version 3.8 uses responsive theme by default which will adjust to device people are using
- if you are using v3.7, basic mobile theme is already included
- for older versions – upgrade to 3.8. Cost: $75+
I hope this information on your options to make eCommerce mobile responsive will help you to stay in good ranking with Google and, as always, we are here to help.
To your success!
Anton Pachkine – FinestShops offers premium managed e-commerce package for companies without a large IT department.
