The wholesaler and retailer of outdoor apparel and equipment ranging from binoculars to climbing tools has increased online conversion rates with a new responsive design web site, the company says.

Tactical Distributors LLC has a new tactic for winning more sales across its business-to-business and retail e-commerce operations: Deploying a new responsive design technology system that renders its e-commerce sites properly on tablets and smartphones as well as computers.

The company sells to consumers through TacticalDistributors.com, and through B2B portals built for individual wholesale customers on the same e-commerce technology platform. B2B customers can use the portals for online purchases made by their employees or by their own customers; they can also place orders via e-mail, phone or fax.

"Our wholesale transactions are handled however the B2B customer feels most comfortable," says Tim Sisson, business analyst.

Now that also includes a better mobile interface when clients place orders via tablet computers or smartphones. Tactical Distributors operates its e-commerce sites-including a number of B2B portals as well as the retail site TacticalDistributors.com-on the Magento Enterprise Edition e-commerce software platform from eBay Inc.'s e-commerce technology division, eBay Enterprise.

Until recently, it wasn't easy for customers to shop on Tactical Distributors' sites via a mobile phone or tablet, Sisson says. "Over the past few years as phones became bigger and faster with more people feeling secure in making online transactions, we noticed our site didn't offer the same experience on mobile devices as it did on computers," he says.

Just before the 2014 holiday shopping season, Tactical Distributors launched mobile technology from web site development and design firm Warp 9 that renders the content on its e-commerce site in an easier-to-shop format across mobile devices, Sisson says. Warp 9 deployed for Tactical Distributors the WarpMobile Magento application, which tailors web content from Magento e-commerce sites to fit the size of the screen the customer is using. "Warp 9 came through with a solution that gives the mobile customer the same feeling they were used to on non-mobile versions of our e-commerce sites," Sisson says.

Tactical Distributors quickly saw a sharp increase in mobile traffic and conversion rates, even when accounting for the seasonal increases in holiday activity, Sisson says. From Nov. 22 through Dec. 22, mobile traffic rose 15% over the same period last year, as mobile conversion rates surged by 23%.

While Sisson figures the increase in mobile traffic was partly due to the overall trend of online buyers increasing their use of mobile devices, he attributes most of the surge in the mobile conversion rate-which coincided with a doubling of mobile transactions-to the new responsive design technology. "That's directly related to the mobile theme," Sisson says.

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