igourmet Launches Mobile Website

After two years of planning and development, the igourmet mobile site – m.igourmet.com – is now live. Customers of the gourmet food website who use a smartphone for access are now automatically redirected to the company’s mobile site. igourmet’s full catalog of products is accessible from the mobile site via its search tool, and its most popular categories are organized on the mobile home page for those who prefer to browse rather than search.

Every aspect of the website was rewritten to optimize the user’s experience when viewing content on the small screen of a smartphone. 

“Building our mobile website was basically starting from scratch,” said David Mattingly, igourmet’s director of technology and the architect of m.igourmet.com. “Every page had to be streamlined and reorganized to make it easy to read on a 4-inch screen.” 

Users of larger-format tablets will continue to use the company’s main website, at least for now. “Now that we have completed our smartphone-optimized website, our next logical step would be to develop another version optimized for tablets.”

Rather than outsource the project, igourmet developed its mobile site using in-house resources. Creating a dedicated mobile site was a key strategic project for the company because 25 percent of its traffic now comes from smartphones, yet less than 2 percent of total sales had been generated from mobile visitors. With its critical fourth-quarter gift-basket season rapidly approaching, the timing of this launch is strategic for the company.

West Pittston, Pa.-based igourmet LLC has been a leading online retailer of specialty foods and gourmet food gifts since its launch in 1997. Based on a third-generation family business that dates back to 1915, igourmet offers a wide selection of gourmet foods imported from more than 100 countries, with a core focus on cheeses, cured meats, olive oils, honey and gift baskets.