Schuh.co.uk was the top performing mobile website in the first week of January, with a Speed Index of 2.08 seconds.
January, especially its first week, is an important period in the retail world with many companies and shoppers expecting the most extensive sale of the year and mobile is increasingly the channel of choice for shoppers. Even for those who eventually buy in-store or on a desktop, many choose to start their browsing on a mobile phone.
Period: 6th to 13th January; this table shows the top 10 UK retailers in the index, which covers Elite and Leading retailers in the IRUK 500 Mobile dimension
Schuh ranked first every week in December, but didn’t rest on those laurels! Its value in the Speed Index improved by 37% over the month, reducing from 3.31 to 2.08 seconds. Schuh’s top performance is something the retailer has worked hard for, with a mobile-first approach.
“Too many people are still thinking ‘How do I make my site smaller for mobile’, whereas for us, the question has become ‘how do I make my site bigger for desktop and tablet’” said Stuart McMillan of Schuh in an interview with InternetRetailing’s Paul Skeldon last year.
And the results appear to speak for themselves: Schuh’s desktop web performance has been admirable as well, coming out on top in the Top500’s Customer Dimension in 2015, which incorporated metrics on website responsiveness.
Moving to second place, Marks & Spencer moved up in ranking over November and December, with its Speed Index value improving by 9%, from 3.99 to 3.62 seconds, in the months preceding the first week of January. This result appears to recognise M&S’ investment in ecommerce, which was the stand-out performer in the retailer’s Christmas quarter with a sales increase of 21%.
The Mobile Web Tracker
Elite and Leading Top500 retailers are ranked based on average weekly Speed Index as measured by AppDynamics . The Index is a combination of mobile performance metrics. Recognising that an intelligently designed website needs to cope with users’ bandwidth limitations, each metric is evaluated via 3G and 4G networks. Speed Index is comprised of render time, visual complete time, number of elements before full page load, and full page load time. It’s an illustrative, holistic measure of mobile performance as perceived by website users. All measurements are made via a Chrome browser from a London based server and every website is tested at 30-minute intervals, 24/7.
Thanks to AppDynamics for partnering with us to create this index.
