The Retailer Web Performance Report Card: L.L.Bean, Toys"R"Us and Avon

What's the fix for longer response times? Here are some suggestions:

1. Don't let third-party vendor components slow you down. Make your content the priority and configure pages so all of your content loads first — before ad content — and third-party vendors won't prohibit availability of your products.
2. Benchmark your site against competitors with key considerations being availability, technical performance, consistency and user experience.
3. Load testing is a must to ensure your site can handle expected traffic. When your site does fail, have a backup plan.
4. Traditional web page load metrics often don't tell the story anymore. The real user experience is delivered somewhere between first paint and above the fold. That's why monitoring what it looks like to your end user is so critical.

Though online retailers that worry about slower response times and lower availability could take some cues from those at the top of the list, I'm not advocating that one way is better than another. Retailers have different online requirements based upon their market. What I do suggest is to monitor, monitor and monitor those sites. Be aware of how what's happening on your store engine impacts what the user experiences. Website monitoring can also prevent possible disasters to your bottom line and ensure you'll be celebrating the most wonderful time of the year.