When it comes to website performance, speed is not just a luxury but a necessity. Studies have found that just a one-second delay in page load time can cause a loss of conversions by 7%.
Ultimately, a slow site isn’t just a minor inconvenience, it can negatively affect your customer experience, user experience (UX), and conversions.
Let’s face it: first impressions really do matter. The initial interaction a customer has with your website can set the tone for their entire shopping experience. A slow-loading site can frustrate users before they’ve even had a chance to explore your products.
At the end of the day, the faster a website or webpage loads, the more likely the customer will perform and complete the targeted action on the page. When a site takes longer to load than expected, users often give up and click out of the site, leading to high bounce rates.
So how quickly should your page loading speed be? According to research done by skilled.co, 47% of customers expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds or less. In fact, the same research shows that the longer a webpage took to load, the lower the conversion rate, with the conversion rate dropping to just 0.6% at a site loading speed of 5.7 seconds.
With the influence of digital technology, consumers today have come to expect instant gratification. They are used to getting things quickly, whether it’s next day delivery, seamless online experiences or fast-loading websites. When a site fails to meet these expectations, not only does it frustrate users and reduce conversions, it also reflects poorly on the brand.
How does this affect sales? We’ve already talked about how slow site speeds cause higher bounce rates, with customers clicking out the site before they can even complete the action, for example completing a sale.
Furthermore, slow loading times are also one reason for cart abandonment. When customers face delays during the checkout process, they can grow impatient and are more likely to abandon their purchases.
As such, making sure that your site performs efficiently throughout the entire shopping and checkout process is key to ensuring customers complete the entire checkout process and securing the sales.
Another thing you may not know: page speed can also negatively affect your site’s SEO ranking, further diminishing visibility and potential traffic. Google has always looked at site speed as a search ranking factor and recently implemented that for mobile search as well. Since 2018, Google has been using mobile page speed as a search engine ranking factor in their mobile search results.
So, if there’s only one takeaway, it’s that a fast site enhances user engagement. When pages load quickly, users are more likely to stay longer, explore more pages, and interact with your content. This ultimately can lead to higher conversion rates. So as a business, it’s only right that you ensure that your site speed is sufficient to avoid missing out on these conversions!
It’s not just desktop site speed, don’t forget to account for mobile site speed as well! Besides optimising your site for mobile, you also need to optimise your mobile site speed accordingly.
With more than 90% of users accessing the internet via mobile devices, optimising for mobile speed cannot be missed. Google’s mobile-first indexing also means that the mobile version of your site is considered the primary version. A fast mobile site can improve your mobile SEO ranking, leading to increased traffic and higher potential for conversions.
Here at Vertical Plus, our ecommerce platform is built for speed. Developed by us over the past 10 years, it has been designed specifically to help ecommerce businesses create growth and generate more sales. As a bespoke platform, it also means the platform can adapt quickly and easily to suit your own business. In terms of webpage performance, our platform consistently gets a Good score on Google’s Page Score Insights.
Want to learn more about our ecommerce platform and how we can help increase traffic to your website? Reach out to us today!