Many retail websites were unable to cope with the increase in traffic during the Chinese New Year period brought on by sales promotions and the seasonal online rush of consumers hunting for bargains and best deals, a new Borland study showed.
Using an advanced in-house website performance tool based on Silk Performer technology, Borland identified an overwhelming correlation between sales-generated traffic rises and increases in website response times.
Borland said most of the popular shopping sites in Singapore experienced a rush of last minute online purchases with response times on the home page exceeding 18 seconds. Web traffic peaked especially during the holidays and most online retail stores struggled to keep up their websites’ performance.
Transactions pass through multiple servers, containers and databases on their round trip “conversation” with end users. Websites fail when the traffic through the supporting environment is higher than expected, or the expected capacity of transactions cannot be met. Poor code quality and insufficient or problematic supporting environments are the major contributors to poor site performance.
Research has shown that even minor delays to website response times can have a sizable impact on customer satisfaction, page views, conversion rates and site abandonment. A one second delay in website response time equals 11 percent fewer page views, 16 percent decrease in customer satisfaction and 7 percent loss in conversions.
Moreover, the study showed that the average online shopper expects web pages to load in 2 seconds or less. After 3 seconds, up to 40 percent will abandon the site1. Seventy-four percent of users will also abandon a mobile site after waiting only five seconds for it to load2. Once visitors leave, it’s very difficult to get them back and 88 percent of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience3
“There is lots of data available showing that users are losing patience with poor performing websites. Consumers are redefining what ‘instant’ means – attention spans are getting shorter and brand loyalty is increasingly fragile,” said Jeff Findlay, Borland Architect – APJ, at Micro Focus. “It looks like a number of the sites monitored over the seasonal period will have missed out on potential revenue as a result of their website’s inability to process high levels of traffic."
Borland recommends developing a robust performance strategy. This, however, takes time and peak period preparation should begin early with testing starting about six months beforehand. Putting in this groundwork is crucial if retailers are to take full advantage of peak shopping times throughout the year.
“Clearly this is an issue that online merchants need to get a handle on. Online commerce is growing across channels, and smartphone adoption is on the increase around the world," Findlay said.