3 reasons fashion brands should be selling on iPad

Mobile commerce is still new, so stats tend to lump together iPhones and iPads (and apologies for being so Apple-centric, but after seeing the analytics of dozens of fashion brands, fashion consumers are browsing on one of these two). But if you dig deeper you’ll find some startling differences. When it comes to mobile commerce, the iPad is king.

iPad customers browse longer, convert at a higher rate, and spend more money than desktop customers. A survey by RichRelevance in April (of US customers) found that two-thirds of all mobile shopping sessions, and an impressive 89% of all mobile shopping revenue, now comes from iPads. iPads connect you to an affluent demographic with money to spend.

Ebay has reported that iPad users spend 50% more than those on a PC. Design sales site Fab.com have similar results. An impressive 40% of their daily visits come via their mobile apps, but it’s the iPad that’s their real champion. 6 – 7% of iPad Fab.com app visits result in a purchase, with customers buying more items than average.

In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal conversion rates are at 3% for shoppers using a traditional PC, and 4% or 5% for shoppers using tablets, while retailers are reporting 10 – 20% bigger than average orders via tablet.

Too many stats? To make a long story short, investing in your iPad offering can pay big dividends.

3 reasons why you need to get an app to maximise your iPad sales

Okay, so iPads are the biggest drivers of retail sales. But does that mean you need to get a dedicated app? Won’t people just buy via your site? Of course you’ll get some sales that way, but it’s the dedicated apps that will really grow conversion rates. Here’s why:

Your website is built for a mouse, not fingers

Browsing the web on an iPad leads to that frustrating moment when you try and click on a tiny little link and can’t quite manage it (they call it the ‘fat finger’ effect). A native app can be built specifically for touchscreens, enabling swiping, zooming, and nice big links.

An iPad app focuses attention on your product

With a desktop web browser, the shopper could have 10 tabs open at once. On an iPad, they’re forced to be more focused. An app streamlines the browsing and buying process, allowing shoppers to examine one item at a time. It’s a more intimate experience, almost like holding the product in your hand.

Images look better on an iPad

The latest iPad has an crystal-clear display and more pixels than an HDTV. It can showcase beautifully large product images, uncluttered by all the information you have to display on your main site. That makes it perfect for fashion and beauty brands. At Poq we keep our app design simple and clean, so that everything focuses on the high-res, zoomable photos. After seeing the app we made for LUCZA, founder Karen Scofield was surprised at how great her brand’s images were on iPad, saying that they look even better than on their website.

So, should your fashion or design brand be doing something about all those potential iPad customers? At Poq we’d say yes – iPad is the right format for the right demographic. But it should be built on top of your mobile offering as a whole. Phones are still driving up to 5 times more traffic than iPads.

First check your analytics – are you seeing huge bounceback rates from mobile visitors? (anything over 30% is too big). If so, you need to act fast, and your priority should be sorting out a mobile website. The next step is an app that will work for both mobile phones and tablets, and will help you make more conversions and give your customers a more engaging shopping experience.

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