Top U.S. Retail Websites Perform Well, Mobile Remains a Challenge

By Matthew Poepsel

Accordingly, Gomez’s top recommendations for proactively improving website and mobile site performance under heavy loads include the following:

Never underestimate the significance of even the slightest performance degradation. Industry data shows that a one second delay in speed can reduce online conversions by 7 percent. As consumers slowly open their wallets this season, retailers will be competing for every online dollar. Milliseconds count when you’re dealing with time-pressed consumers.
Gauge performance under various load sizes from the real-world perspective of users, which helps verify that all elements of a complex web application (including those delivered from third-party sources beyond your firewall, like ratings and reviews and shopping carts) can effectively scale. Understanding the user's perspective can also help you determine if speed-enhancing services like a content delivery network may be in order.
Benchmark against proven performance leaders. The top performers in Gomez’s UX Index — Dell, Williams-Sonoma, QVC, Best Buy and Sears for websites; and QVC, Newegg, Dell, Williams-Sonoma and OfficeMax for mobile sites — are defining “good” online experiences and setting user expectations this holiday season. Benchmarks can help you determine how strong your performance needs to be, while providing a context for ongoing performance optimization efforts.
Optimize your mobile site for speed. Most users of retail mobile sites view speed as more important than feature-richness when it comes to assessing the quality of experience. As you streamline web content for your mobile site, consider doing away with applications and features that consumers aren’t apt to use while on the go (e.g., ratings and reviews). Likewise, before adding any “heavy” content like graphics and product images, assess the performance impact from the real-world perspective of mobile users and decide if any tradeoffs in speed are worth it.

Overall, online retailers should be commended for a solid start to the holiday season. However, further spikes in traffic can be expected as we get deeper into the season and closer to the actual holiday. Leverage the upcoming days and weeks to build upon and improve your website and mobile site performance, helping to enhance and protect brand, customer satisfaction and revenues at this critical time of year.