Mobile phone vs desktop. Which device customers use, and why is this important?

Customers of the 2020s:

Customer behaviour is always evolving. Smart phones, online shopping and instant information are just a few ways customers have evolved in the past years. Businesses are constantly trying to adapt their communication, marketing and product offers to meet the needs of the new generations entering the marketplace. Currently, Millennials (1981 to 1996)  and the younger part of Gen X (1965 to 1980) are beginning to purchase homes, start families and move abroad, and by doing so they are driving a gradual revolution that will change how we do business. Their expectations are different, they want things to be done fast, and preferably online, with little to no human interaction. A first indication of this change is the way smart phones are used. They are now replacing the computer in terms of usage. Hence, people are booking most services and requesting information from smartphones rather than desktops or laptops.

This trend is changing rapidly. Since 2017 we have been analyzing the behavior of hundreds of thousands of online users to figure out what was exactly changing. Only four years ago, in 2017, 35% of consumers accessed a website via a smartphone. This increased to 61% in 2019 (and only dipped slightly due to the pandemic and home working in 2020). This means that the majority of people requesting information online do so from their smartphone. So what does that mean for you? If your website isn’t optimised to work properly from a mobile phone, it is likely that you are losing business to someone whose website is optimized. Not only should all the links and webpages work flawlessly from a phone, the layout, design and usability also should be adapted to the size and shape of a (vertical) smartphone. This is easier said than done, but essential when doing business in the 2020s.   

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