Amazon Updates A+ Pages for Mobile

For many years it’s been the weakest aspect of Amazon UK’s A+ implementation, but recent updates to both the IOS/Android apps and browser interfaces have changed the way that enhanced content displays on smaller mobile devices. We’ve compared the new with the old and picked out the three features that we think will have the most impact on a customer’s browsing experience:

A+ content displays in full on the product page

It’s a universally accepted truth that keeping a customer on the page with the Price/Buy Button is a good thing, and finally Amazon have enabled shoppers to be able to view A+ content in full without having to click away. Obviously, this has benefits both ways – customers are now more likely to see the enhanced content you have created, and don’t have to spend an additional click/page load to get back to the position where they can make a purchase, thus increasing the likely conversion benefit of having A+. This change is probably the result of Amazon deciding that average 3G/4G data speeds in the UK are now sufficient to allow them to serve up image-rich content as standard.

A+ modules are displayed in full, without concertina interface

This isn’t a universal change (you’ll still see the “Read More” arrows on some tablet-sized displays), but for the most part it seems that the individual A+ modules are displaying in full without hidden sections that a customer has to click through to reveal. Obviously, layouts are still optimised for mobile screens, with many designs changing from a horizontal to a vertical orientation, and this may mean that certain text-heavy content reaches an undesirable page length.

Images no longer have the “View Larger” option as standard

This is unwelcome news for anyone with graphics that involve text, or fine detail such as diagrams. Mobile users no longer have a prompt to see the larger versions of these images as standard, but we can confirm that tapping on images that have had the “View Larger” option enabled during the creation process does load a separate view with the larger image size available. There are three drawbacks to this.

• Firstly, graphics that have no need for a larger version in desktop view (e.g. Banners) now need to have that enabled purely for mobile, as their width means that they are almost always too small to discern on a mobile display.
• Secondly, images will display at their original resolution when tapped in mobile display, with no option to zoom out/in. This means for some images, the choice will be between viewing a too-small version, or attempting to navigate an image which is 20x the size of a mobile screen.
• Thirdly, tapping on images to enlarge is something most users will do intuitively when faced with a graphic that is too small to view properly, but there is the possibility that any content in this format may be less effective given the inconsistent UX – some images will expand, others will not.

It’s not all good news, but overall it seems like a step in the right direction. Mobile has been massively important for Amazon for a very long time, and hopefully this means that we’re still making progress towards a place where A+ content implemented as effectively there as it is on desktop.