Shoppers Want Quick, Reliable Web Sites

Mobile shoppers can be demanding shoppers. Don't believe me. Check out the results of this Harris Interactive poll.

Riverbed Technology, an application performance company, recently announced the results of one of the most extensive surveys to date on website performance and mobile shopping. According to the Riverbed-sponsored Harris Poll, once online, shoppers consult three websites on average before making a purchase and poor website performance causes the shopper to go to a competitor.

A majority of U.S. adults (68 percent) expect to shop online for gifts this upcoming holiday season. The survey found that:

  • 67 percent of shoppers said they would stop using a website if pages were loading slowly on their smart phone.
  • 29 percent of shoppers using a mobile device would buy from a brick-and-mortar store after experiencing website issues, such as slow speed and reliability.
  • 22 percent would buy from a competitor's website after experiencing website issues and 20 percent would abandon the purchase all together.

Further emphasizing the importance of a positive shopping experience, nearly three quarters (70 percent) of online shoppers would buy from a store if they had a previous positive experience even if they knew they could get the item cheaper elsewhere.

"We've just completed one of the most extensive surveys to date on website performance and online shopping behavior and how consumer decisions are influenced by factors other than price," said Jeff Pancottine, senior vice president and general manager of the application delivery business unit at Riverbed. "The results are very clear — maintaining fast website performance is increasingly important."

In order to avoid losing customers once they visit a website, Riverbed recommends making sure a website is high performance and scalable to take peak loads over the holiday season. In addition to spending time optimizing prices and shipping, ecommerce sites need to optimize their websites so shoppers do not leave because the site cannot deliver pages fast enough. It is important to measure performance and improve both website speed and performance of integration with the back office systems.