Gone in 4 seconds …

Shoppers are likely to abandon a (shopping) website if it takes longer than four seconds to load, a survey suggests. The research published by Akamai in November 2006 revealed users’ dwindling patience with websites that take time to show up. The time it took a site to appear on screen came second only to high prices and shipping costs in the list of shoppers’ pet-hates.

Akamai consulted those who shop regularly online to find out what they like and dislike about e-tailing sites. About half of mature net-shoppers – who have been buying online for more than two years or who spend more than $1,500 (£788) a year online – ranked page-loading time as a priority.

Of the 1,058 people interviewed in the first 6 months of 2006:

• 75% would not return to websites that took longer than four seconds to load;
• One-third abandon sites that take time to load, are hard to navigate or take too long to handle the checkout process;
• About 30% said they formed a “negative perception” of a company with a badly put-together site and would tell their family and friends about their experiences.

The last finding is important because the research found that the experience shoppers have on a retail site colours their entire view of the company behind it. In other words, if your site is poorly constructed, badly designed and loads slowly, you’ll guarantee yourself less sales and have a hard job convincing people to come back due to the negative PR you’ll generate.

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