Published April 23, 2018
Consumers have come to demand speed and efficiency from today’s eCommerce storefronts. As computers, mobile devices, and data providers continue to increase performance, users have only grown more used to faster load times, and they might become frustrated if a website fails to meet their expectations. In fact, one survey indicates that
“79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with website performance are less likely to buy from the same site again.” 1
Even if users have no trouble accessing the site itself, certain elements failing to load correctly can distract users and potentially even interfere with them making a purchase. Besides the possibility of harming the company’s reputation, the real risk for most merchants is that any obstacles in the user’s browsing experience might cause users to go to other storefronts, costing them both the initial sale and potentially other future business.
That is why when you assess the impact of load times on a storefront, a few seconds delay can seriously damage a business's reputation and revenue:
“A 1-second delay in page load time equals 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and 7% loss in conversions” 2
A number of things can affect the performance of a given storefront, but no matter what the business, every app and plugin added to a website can also have an unintended impact on overall site performance. In order to stay on top of their site loading times, companies will want to monitor a number of different metrics including:
- DNS Time-The average amount of time DNS resolution takes.
- Response Time-The average amount of time the server takes to respond to the user.
- Interactive Time-The average amount of time before the page becomes interactive.
Furthermore, as people access a site from different browsers, devices or locations, companies need effective Real User Monitoring (RUM) to see how individual people view their website around the world. This ensures that regional or compatibility issues do not affect site performance, and it helps companies create a more seamless browsing experience for their customers.
Solutions like NS8 Protect and NS8 StayLive can help with all of these different issues by monitoring a site’s loading times and alerting merchants if something is affecting their overall site performance. With a number of different monitoring locations around the world, merchants can understand how real users are able to interact with their site and identify any potential issues before they become a problem.
References
- 1 “How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line,” Kissmetrics, April 2011, https://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/
- 2 “The Performance Of Web Applications: Customers Are Won Or Lost In One Second,” Aberdeen Group, 4 May 2015, http://www.aberdeen.com/research/5136/ra-performance-web-application/content.aspx
