3 Ways E-Tailers Can Make Their Sites Faster

The magic number to keep a visitor from abandoning your web page is just three seconds. You have less than three seconds to engage visitors, whether your goal is to serve content to as many people as possible or to convert browsers into buyers.

Countless studies have found an irrefutable connection between load times and key performance indicators, ranging from page views to revenue. For instance, big-box retailer Wal-Mart experienced up to a 2 percent conversion increase on its website for every one second of speed improvement. When auto parts retailer AutoAnything.com cut its web page load times by 50 percent, it experienced a 13 percent increase in sales. In a world where every second counts, retailers can hurt their users’ experience — and ultimately their own bottom line — if they don't meet expectations of how long it takes for a page to load.