The holiday season is just around the corner, and retailers are struggling to keep their heads above water. There are plenty of reasons to be happy, as surveys predict an increase in sales for the holidays, but there are also a lot of challenges and pain points that need to be addressed if retailers want to take a bigger piece of this year’s sales pie.
The forecasts for the upcoming holiday season are quite optimistic. According to Deloitte’s 2018 Holiday Retail Survey total retail sales will increase 5-5.6%, with online sales rising 17-22% during 2018.
The report shows that 78% of consumers plan to spend more or the same amount as they did last year due to an improved household situation and more confidence in the economy.
One other interesting fact from this survey is the fact that 60% of consumers plan to shop online, which is a 5% increase when compared with 2017. Mass merchants are the second most popular venue type (52%), followed by traditional departments stores (32%) and off-price stores (28%).
The Importance of Speed in this Online-First World
One thing that remains constant throughout the years is the fact that seamless user experience is one of the most important aspects of shopping, both online and in-store. Long queues or complicated and slow checkouts can kill your business. This is especially true for the holiday season. People tend to be more sensitive because they want to spend more time enjoying the holidays, instead of dealing with slow e-commerce websites, or crowded stores.
Even though there were some retail apocalypse predictions a few years ago, today, as we witness pure plays opening physical stores and traditional retailers investing heavily in outstanding digital presence, we can definitely say that retail is not an ‘either-or’ thing. Now when we put that aside, we can dive deep and uncover the reason why page load time is so crucial for e-commerce.
There's No Second Chance to Make a First Impression
First of all, the shopping journey starts online for most people. According to research, 70% of consumers shopping for furniture begin the process online. As digital-native generations steal the spotlight, it’s clear that digital presence will be a key differentiator between success and failure.
In a constant struggle to be interesting and relevant to grab visitor attention, companies burden their websites with lots of content, making their web pages cluttered and more complex than ever.
And just when you thought that you could fill your website with unique content and win the business race, it turns out there’s a catch: visitors love content-rich sites, but they will not waste their time if your page is slow.
Research from Soasta shows that customers are impatient when it comes to web performance and digital customer experience:
Source: Soasta - Web Performance Is User Experience
We are witnessing a complete shift in user experience. The adoption of mobile devices is exploding. According to Zenith’s Mobile Advertising Forecasts, in 2018, 66% of individuals in 52 key countries will own a smartphone. Knowing that more than 50% of all web traffic is coming from smartphones and tablets, it becomes clear that focusing on mobile can be a significant competitive advantage.
Deloitte's 2018 Holiday Survey shows that most customers plan to use a desktop/laptop to make a purchase, but the biggest potential in mobile lies in other factors. Most of the customers said that they plan to use their mobile device to track order status (72%). The second and third top uses of a mobile device are browsing online (71%) and comparing offers (68%). According to the report, 67% of customers plan to use their mobile phones to make a purchase during the upcoming holiday season.
When it comes to customer expectations, they are even higher for mobile websites. 74% of mobile users will abandon a site after waiting 5 seconds for a page to load and 46% will not return to a website that performs poorly.
According to Akamai research, the mobile bounce rates during the 2017 holiday season went from 38% to 44% as page load time increased from 1.5 to 3 seconds.
And let’s not forget Google’s updates from earlier this year, which touted the importance of mobile and implied that mobile should be an important part of your strategy.
All this being said, you must wonder: What are the factors that affect page load speed and how can I improve them? Well, here is everything you should know:
Page load time is a web performance metric that represents the time needed to display all of the content on a web page.
There are many factors that affect page load speed, and while you can’t influence some of them (like user connection speed), you are in charge of the rest:
Customers will not wait forever for your page to load.
How long is forever?
“Sometimes, just one second” - says the White Rabbit from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
This is true, especially when we are talking about page load time. According to Skilled, a one second delay means an 11% loss in page views and a 7% reduction in conversions. On the other hand, if your site makes $100,000/day, a one-second improvement in page speed could bring in another $7,000, daily.
Studies have shown that page load speed can be critical for your business. Here are a few aspects that can be heavily affected by your website performance:
The bottom line is that bad web performance can negatively influence your brand advocacy and it can undermine your reputation.
4 Proven Tactics to Improve Page Load Time
When it comes to web performance, every second counts. Here are a few tips that can help you improve your page load speed:
Holiday shopping surges can quickly turn into horror stories if you don’t solve all of these issues in advance. According to some estimates, the downtime Amazon experienced during Prime Day this year cost them around $72 to $99 million.
Here is how to prepare for the holiday shopping spree:
With all these tips and tricks in mind, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and win more holiday sales.
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