Have you noticed that it is taking longer to get your shopping done online? It is, according to a new study on page speed and website performance, and that could be costing online merchants customers.
The study, State of the Union: Ecommerce Page Speed & Web Performance, Summer 2013, from Radware, a provider of application delivery and security solutions for cloud data centers, found that a growing number of the top 500 retail websites in the U.S. has slowed down. The media load time for a page was 7.72 seconds, a slowdown of 13.7 percent since the same period last year.
The research found the median time to interact (TTI) is now 4.9 seconds. TTI is the point at which a page displays its interactive content such as feature banners or call-to-action buttons. Only eight percent of the top 100 sites had a TTI under two seconds while nine percent took eight or more seconds.
"These findings are startling — retailers still don't realize that they are losing customers," said Tammy Everts, web performance evangelist, Radware, in a statment. "Fifty-seven percent of consumers will abandon a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. Web pages need to work smarter and harder. Site owners not only need to adopt core best practices, but also utilize advanced techniques that optimize the browser's efficiency."
The 10 fastest sites, according to Radware, are:
- Ikea.com (1.85s load time)
- Abebooks.com
- Pixmaina.com
- Groupon.com
- Adpost.com
- Walgreens.com
- CDUniverse.com
- Vitacost.com
- Nordstrom.com
- Forever21.com