Average page load times for e-commerce websites

Customers demand faster websites, especially on mobile devices. A slow page speed will cost you traffic and sales conversions.

Studies show that a page that takes more than six seconds to load loses about 1 in 2 visitors. As digitally connected as our world is today, it’s understandable why consumers demand a fast and easy online shopping experience. The good news is that improving page load speed is not rocket science.

Neil Patel (who doesn’t know him?) examined 20 product pages from major e-commerce brands to see how they measure up in terms of page speed. The results will help you better understand average page load time standards and see if they align with page load time best practices.

Page load times and how they affect consumer behavior

Tooltester reports that the average page load time is 2.5 seconds on desktop and 8.6 seconds on mobile, based on their analysis of the top 100 web pages globally. If your site takes longer than usual to load, it affects your conversion rate, ranking, and traffic.

According to Bidnamic’s research, conversion rates can decrease by 17% for every second increase in loading time, which could cost you money and leads from customers who stay on your site. An Unbounce survey reveals that nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed affects their willingness to buy from an online retailer. It’s time to get faster.

What the data shows on page load times

The methodology involved using the Google APIPageSpeed Insights withinScreaming Frog to analyze the average page speed of top e-commerce sites. 20 different high-profile sites within the e-commerce space were analyzed to see how well their product pages stack up in terms of page speed. The focus was specifically on the biggest names in the industry, as opposed to just the top performers in the SERPs. This was done to understand what the average page load time would be for those big names in the e-commerce space.

Also, keep in mind that Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures how long it takes for the main content of a page to load, was used as a metric for page speed success. So, how did the different URLs perform? Take a look at the table below:

From this analysis, 100% of the pages analyzed failed the LCP and Time to Interactive (TTI) scores according to Google’s standards:

• 12 out of 20 pages (60%) analyzed were under 10 seconds for LCP
• 2 out of 20 pages (10%) rank in the ‘needs improvement’ area for LCP
• 18 out of 20 pages (90%) were considered poor for LCP
• 2 out of 20 pages (10%) just missed the passing threshold for TTI

What did we learn from our data

Of the 20 sites, we analyzed brands such as Adidas, Nike, Asos, Gucci, Warby Parker, Louis Vuitton, and Apple. Since 100% of these pages did not pass LCP and TTI, we feel it’s important to note that some of these brands sell luxury goods and are household names. This gives them a little more leeway than the average player in the e-commerce space.

This also shows that, regardless of your brand’s size, there’s still room to improve theuser experience on your site. One way to take down the big brands in your industry is to make sure your pages load quickly to improve the user experience andreduce bounce rate. But we found that this is not the end of everything, but only part of the puzzle to help you build a top-notchSEO campaign as part of your holistic marketing efforts.

How can you reduce page load times?

Now that you’ve seenhow page speed affects your profits, you can work to improve page load times. To reduce wait time, follow these page load time best practices:

1. Compress and optimize your images: not only does this improve the look, but it won’t slow your page down by storing so much content.
2. Clear your cache: This helps remove the work needed to load a page in a visitor’s browser. When using a web browser, it saves data from websites in its cache and cookies. Clearing them fixes issues like page loading or formatting on websites. Find out the best way to clear your cache here..
3. Remove unnecessary plugins: Sometimes plugins aren’t helpful and can make your site bloated. Ensure you remove ones that you aren’t using (and you can test it in your staging site first).
4. Use a content delivery network (CDN): This can boost website performance by serving content from servers that are closer to the user than the origin server. Images are transferred much faster with this method. Cloudflare, for example, is a well-known CDN.
5. Remove unnecessary redirects : Too many redirect links can slow down load speed. Removing them can be a quick fix for a slow site.

You can even reach out to your hosting solution to optimize site speed performance with built-in page speed features.

Every second counts. Therefore, use these page load time best practices to ensure you provide a good user experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

I hope you see how poor page speed is one of the biggest mistakes that will damage your e-commerce website. They say first impressions are everything and often your site is the first impression a customer has of your brand. When load times increase, e-commerce conversions decrease. You don’t want your shoppers bouncing.

Keeping up with your site’s page speed ensures that you see the conversions you desire. It may not seem like a big deal, but it goes a long way with your site visitors. It doesn’t take much effort to find the solution and optimize your site speed. Think of it this way: improve website performance, improve your brand.

Pubblicato in E-commerce, SEO