With Christmas all done and dusted it’s time for the New Year sales. Traditionally this is one of the busiest times of the year for retailers, both online and offline. Traditional retailers have boxing day sales down to a fine art, bringing in extra stock and limiting holiday time. However, the same cannot be said for most online retailers.
According to a recent survey by Visualsoft, up to 53% of the UK’s biggest online retailers are unprepared for the traditional holiday sales surge. One of the biggest problems they highlighted was site speed and slow page loading times. 53% of sites surveyed failed to load within 9 seconds and 32% failed to load within 6-8 seconds.
With site speed recognised as one of the biggest factors for customer satisfaction, this sluggish performance could be costing those sites dearly. Visualsoft estimate the worst performing sites will lose around 29% of sales. While those rated as fair (failing to load within 6-8 secs) will lose between 24%-28%.
Key findings:
– 53% of the UK’s largest eCommerce sites have ‘poor’ page loading speed
– 57% of shoppers will experience issues while using a mobile device
– The worst performing sites will lose approximately 29% of potential sales as a result
The report makes poor reading for the UK’s leading eCommerce sites, with only 2% of retailers classified as excellent, with page load speeds within 4 seconds. How much revenue is this potentially costing them? Research shows that most internet users expect a page to load within 2 seconds, with every additional second lowering conversion by up to 20%.
The issue with mobile sites is also worrying, mobile eCommerce is not new and is growing all the time. Data from Capgemini shows that 51% of all eCommerce sales will be made from a mobile or tablet device in 2017. So having sites which are not optimised for this medium is a major oversight.
The report is good news for smaller retailers, however. By ensuring their sites are optimised for mobile devices and maximising page load speeds, smaller, nimbler operators can level the playing field against the massive marketing spend of their larger rivals by taking sales from customers who expect a faster service.
At Creative Digital Agency we are experts at optimising websites for speed. Our eCommerce sites are built on the market leading platform, Magento, which is optimised for speed across all devices. So you can be sure your site will perform where it counts in order to scoop up those lost sales.
Get in touch today to see how we can help improve your site performance.
