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The mobile version of a store

| Article: 4 min read | Store pages

The mobile version of an online store (mobile UX, m-commerce) is how the site looks and works on a smartphone: from the catalog and search to checkout. Mobile traffic in Ukraine is large: by recent data, about 60-78% of online purchases are made from a smartphone (details below).

In plain words

A phone has a small screen, a finger instead of a mouse and an unstable connection. What is convenient on desktop turns into long scrolling, tiny buttons and complicated forms on a smartphone. So "responsive layout" alone does not remove the problems.

What the research shows

How many purchases come from a smartphone in Ukraine. According to the payment service WayForPay (as retold by Forbes Ukraine, 25.05.2026), about 60% of all online purchases are made by Ukrainians from smartphones, and Apple Pay and Google Pay account for roughly 55-65% of online payments (Forbes Ukraine). According to CDP eSputnik data on 946 Ukrainian retailers, in November 2025 the share of transactions from smartphones rose from 75% to 78% year over year, reached 83% on weekends, and was 75% on Black Friday 2025 (Mind.ua, 08.10.2026). The figures differ because the samples differ: payments through one service versus mailings to the customers of one platform. Look at the order of magnitude and at your own analytics.

There is no fresh open data on how far mobile conversion in Ukraine lags behind desktop.

Baymard assesses the current state: 75% of more than 150 mobile sites are rated "mediocre", only one got "good", and none "perfect" (article updated July 2026, Baymard). For product lists, 78% of mobile sites have a "mediocre" or worse result (updated September 2025, Baymard). For product pages, 62% of mobile sites are "mediocre" or worse (updated March 2026, Baymard). The sites are rated using Baymard's methodology; this is not measured conversion.

From Baymard's ten practices (in brackets, the share of sites that do not do it) (Baymard):

  • merge color variants into a single list entry (42%);
  • have a visible "Search" button next to the search field (27%);
  • let users swipe through photos from all reviews (57%);
  • validate the address at the delivery step (54%);
  • show specific errors (93% do not);
  • have "Show all" at every category level (42%);
  • highlight the current category in the menu (94%);
  • show all color swatches in a horizontal scroll (73%);
  • show applied filters above the list (66%);
  • bring up the right suggestions for common mistakes in a query (28%).

Make a separate mobile design rather than scaling the desktop one, and fix the basics first. On mobile, product lists and photos matter especially, since fewer items fit on the first screen (NN/g). This is a principle, not a statistic. For a Ukrainian store, practical items are: autosuggest for the city and Nova Poshta branch, Apple Pay / Google Pay (per WayForPay, 2026, more than half of online payments), and fields that bring up the right numeric keyboard for phone and card.

How different sources see it

Measure revenue per visit separately by platform to see your own gap. Baymard focuses on ratings against guidelines on large sites and notes that the problem is probably even sharper for smaller stores with smaller budgets. This is an assumption, not a measured figure.

A made-up example

The numbers are made up. In a month a store has 60,000 mobile and 40,000 desktop sessions. Mobile conversion is 1.0%, desktop is 2.5%. If mobile rises to 1.5%, that is +300 orders a month. Count such gaps in conversion separately by device.

Common mistakes

  • Treating a "responsive" site as a finished mobile version.
  • Long checkout forms on a phone: see checkout.
  • Tiny elements and buttons placed close together.
  • Testing only in an emulator rather than on real phones and a slow connection.
  • Looking at overall conversion without a breakdown by device.

FAQ

Why is conversion lower on mobile? There is no shared fresh figure, and there are several causes: a smaller screen, harder forms, layout errors. Baymard shows that most mobile sites have mediocre UX, but only your own analytics by device will show the cause in your store.

Is responsive layout enough? No. NN/g advises separate solutions for a different screen and input method, and Baymard shows that most mobile sites have a mediocre result.

What should I fix on mobile first? The basics: photos and the product list, search, filters, the checkout form. See at which funnel step the biggest drop-off happens.

Sources

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