Under 4 Seconds
You’ve got the killer keyword campaign. Your site is easy to navigate. Promotions are prominent and pertinent. Check-out is down to a few clicks. So why the low conversion rate?
It could be that your pages are loading too slowly. Four seconds is the maximum length of time an average online shopper will wait for a Web page to load before potentially abandoning a retail site, according to a report issued by Akamai Technologies and JupiterResearch.
The report examined consumer reaction to poor online shopping experiences and showed that a slow-loading site is second only to high prices in turning customers away.
Based on the feedback of 1,058 online shoppers that were surveyed during the first half of 2006, JupiterResearch offers the following analysis:
- The consequences for an online retailer whose site underperforms include diminished goodwill, negative brand perception and, most importantly, significant loss in overall sales.
- Online shopper loyalty is contingent upon quick page loading, especially for high-spending shoppers and people with more online shopping experience.
- JupiterResearch recommends that retailers make every effort to keep page rendering to no longer than four seconds.
- More than one-third of shoppers with a poor experience abandoned the site entirely, while 75 percent were likely not to shop on that site again.
So, what’s a Web shop owner to do? Most Web site home pages average around 175 kilobytes, it’s recommended to keep your site page under 150 kilobytes to stay “ahead of the pack”.
Photo by atomicShed.
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