• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 9, 2017

According to a new report from Soasta, with data and delivery solutions from Akamal, retail businesses today face enormous challenges in delivering the fast, reliable, 24x7 omnichannel experience that users demand. And, says the report, those users won’t wait around for you to get it right: 53% of mobile site visitors will leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load, and 28% of customers won’t return to a slow site.

In recent years, many leading retailers have discovered that the page load times of their websites and apps have a significant, and measurable, impact on metrics like conversions and engagement. Key insights from the report include:

• While almost half of all consumers browse via their phones, only 1 in 5 complete transactions on mobile
• Optimal load times for peak conversions ranged from 1.8 to 2.7 seconds across device types
• Just a 100-millisecond delay in load time hurt conversion rates by up to 7%
• Bounce rates were highest among mobile shoppers and lowest among those using tablets
• Optimal load times for lowest bounce rates ranged from 700ms to 1.2s across all device types
• A two-second delay in load time hurt bounce rates by up to 103%
• Pages with the lowest bounce rates had start render times ranging from 0.9 to 1.5 seconds
• A two-second delay correlated with up to a 51% decrease in session length

The report addresses the cost of a few seconds in the digital marketplace, answering key questions such as: what is the “magic number” for page load time that yields the highest conversion rate? And, what is the impact of one second of performance improvement (or slowdown) on conversion rate/bounce rate/session length?

Considering load time correlation to conversion rate, the report shows that, while 47% of all consumers browse via their phones, only 1 in 5 complete transactions on mobile.

All visits  (% of Respondents)

   Tablet … 10.43%

   Mobile … 47.42%

   Desktop … 42.15

Visits ending in Conversion (% of Respondents)

   Tablet … 9.67%

   Desktop … 68.46

   Mobile … 21.87%

Mobile is a critical tool in the browsing process. While only 22% of visits to mobile sites ended in conversions, this number is expected to grow, says the report. Retailers that invest in mobile, email and social see 30% more sales on average and 25% higher average order values. And, pages that converted were up to 26% faster than those that did not.

While these averages fall within industry norms, says the report, it’s important to note the gap between the average conversion rates and the peak conversion rates. For example, the average conversion rate for desktop shoppers was 4.1% but the peak conversion rate for desktop shoppers was 12.8%.

Optimal load times for peak conversions ranged from 1.8 to 2.7 seconds across device types. Consumers have similar expectations and behaviors, regardless of whether they’re using their desktop or their tablet. (“load time” refers to the median load time for pages in a user session)

• On desktop, pages that loaded in 1.8 seconds experienced the highest conversion rate (12.8%)
• On mobile, pages that loaded in 2.7 seconds experienced the highest conversion rate (3.3%)
• On tablets, pages that loaded in 1.9 seconds experienced the highest conversion rate (7.2%)

Just a 100-millisecond delay in load time hurt conversion rates by up to 7%, says the report. Even tenths of a second count. Desktop pages that loaded in 2.7 seconds experienced a peak conversion rate of 12.8%. Pages that loaded 100 milliseconds slower, in 2.8 seconds, experienced a 2.4% decrease in conversion rate.

These impacts were felt even more with pages that were one and two seconds slower. Desktop pages that experienced a two- second delay – loading in 3.8 seconds instead of the optimal 1.8 seconds – had conversion rates that were almost 37% lower.

 Concluding, the report says that, when it comes to the performance of your retail properties, even milliseconds can matter. The complexities of online business, and the sophistication of digital marketing, are evolving rapidly. Understanding and managing digital performance has never mattered more than it does now.

For additional information from SOASTA now part of Akamai, please visit here.