Study: Even 100-millisecond Delays Can Impact Performance Of Retail Websites

Study: Even 100-millisecond Delays Can Impact Performance Of Retail Websites

New research by content delivery network service provider Akamai Technologies has revealed just how crucial website performance is for retailers in maintaining customer attention and completing online transactions.

According to Akamai’s latest State of Online Retail Performance report, a biannual study that analyses performance metrics for leading retail websites, 53 per cent of mobile site visitors will leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.

Furthermore, a two-second delay in web page load time increase bounce rates by 103 per cent, while a 100-millisecond delay in website load time can hurt conversion rates by 7 per cent.

The study found that bounce rates were highest for mobile phone shoppers, while tablet shoppers had the lowest bounce rate.

Half of consumers browse for products and services on their smartphones, while only one in five complete purchases using those phones, according to the study.

Ash Kulkarni, senior vice president and general manager of Akamai’s web experience division, said the study shows that user experience is critical to e-commerce success, and things aren’t getting any easier.

“Customers have extremely short attention spans, and degradations in website performance – no matter how small – can cause consumers to go elsewhere in an instant,” he said.




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