Why Customers Leave Slow Sites

There has been a great deal of research into the impact page speed and page load time has had on the key metrics of bounce rate, customer engagement and conversion.

Interestingly, nearly all studies in this area conclude that when a visitor to a website perceives they are kept waiting for a web page to respond, the brain activates a neurological response. This response causes frustration, stress and in many cases - such as when visiting an online shopping website - abandonment.

These responses occur quickly, often within 2 seconds. Research studies suggest that slow loading web pages increases blood pressure and can create the same feeling of stress that is experienced when sat in slow moving traffic. This is not the experience you want for your customer!

See the Core Web Vital user experience signals for your website home page by using the Webspeed Index Analyser.

The Customer’s Need for Speed is Increasing

In today’s always-on culture, competition could not be tougher, consumers are constantly on the go, have limited patience and have a hunger for instant gratification.

Brands now no longer just compete with the best experience in their industry, they are competing with all of the best digital experiences a consumer enjoys on a daily basis.

This sets the benchmark very high and when a brand is unable to evaluate the experience they deliver compared to a competitor, it puts them at a disadvantage.

Salesforce recently observed that 61% of customers have stopped buying from a company because a competitor provided a better experience.

Observing how fast your page speed is versus the competition is available using the Webspeed Index platform.

How do Customers React to Slow Loading Ecommerce Sites?

A study by CA Technologies at the Glasgow University ran a series of tests over a 5MB network connection to a website and then asked the testers (users), to complete various actions. They then repeated the test over a 2MB connection to enable comparison of their experiences.

They found that the users had to concentrate 50% more on the slower connection to the website and cited their main concern as the lack of responsiveness and their frustration was due the slower page speed and longer load times.

A further study by Milliseconds make Millions concluded that fast pages create happier users. When users are happy they are more likely to follow calls to action and progress through the sites sales process.

Unhappy users or those that have a perceived poor user experience simply do less, become frustrated and as a result have a much higher chance of leaving a website without further investigation, responding to a call to action or buying.

Mobile Amplifies User Speed

Mobile has now asserted itself as the dominant digital touch point for most retailers, heavily impacting their online sales and conversion rates.

Speed is proven to have a direct impact on user experience and plays a vital role in the success of any digital initiative.

Market watchers SEJ observed that 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer and cited latency (the delay in response) as the number one reason why consumers decide to abandon mobile sites.

Poor performance, including latency and slow page load times, of mobile websites continues to be an ongoing issue and is conditioning users to navigate away before they even see the content or products they want.

If a marketer creates a landing page or new product page but has no visibility over how that page performs for the intended customer or prospect they run a high risk of losing out on potential sales.

Summary

Speed is considered as the number one customer driver for site abandonment, user frustration and lost sales opportunities.

Humans are impulsive, act on emotion and hate to be kept waiting so if a website experience falls below expectations, they are likely to leave without buying.

Today’s marketers have it tough as being measured on the success of their marketing campaigns but without visibility of how page speed affects vital success indicators such as bounce rate, cart abandonment and conversions leaves them exposed to their faster competitors.

If it is of interest to see how real customers experience the speed of your website and view this in context to your competitors contact Webspeed Index today for a free walk through of your business.