Three-quarters (75%) of UK adult consumers move to competitors’ sites as slow-loading web pages silently kill conversion rates, finds a new study.
According to Eggplant’s report, 81% of UK adult customers find slow-loading websites more frustrating than non-functioning websites, with 33% of them citing web-speed as “important” in contrast to 17% who don’t think so. Some 1,600 of UK adults were surveyed on their attitudes to a retailer web-site speed.
Shoppers are more tolerant towards non-working websites in comparison to those that invest less in their user experience. In fact, 60% of the surveyed UK adults say that they feel much more negative about a brand if its site is consistently slow. Whereas, 23% of consumers feel the same if the site is down and not working, with 49% feeling “slightly negative” if the website is down or not working.
“This goes to show that when it comes to business performance, slow websites are a silent killer. This is especially true in an age of instant gratification — the two-second attention span and quick social media retaliation at anything less than full performance. Today, speed, connectivity, and an outstanding user experience are critical to ongoing business success, and while customers will forgive and forget the odd bug, crash, or period of site maintenance, they will not tolerate a site that doesn’t move at the speed they’ve become accustomed to.”
“If brands were not aware before, they are now — website speed is critical to business success. With retailers already preparing for the holiday shopping season, we urge them to make sure they analyze and optimize every element of their online presence to make sure it is running as efficiently as possible,” says Dr. John Bates, chief executive officer of Eggplant.
He continues: “As the research has shown, a slow website will drive consumers away, negatively impacting the health of the business.”
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