Running an eCommerce store? Want to know what’s holding you back from making bundles of cash?
Well, it can be the slow loading speed of your online store. In this article, I have discussed how website loading speed can affect your eCommerce store business and the ways to improve it.
High-quality organic traffic that converts is everything that eCommerce businesses want. Website loading speed can play a crucial role in driving high organic traffic to your site and converting a part of that traffic into customers.
There are multiple reasons behind that. First, slow website loading speed deteriorates the user experience. The second thing is that Google and other search engines are now prioritizing faster web pages for ranking. Google has also included site loading speed as one of its core web vitals.
This article will cover complete details about why site loading speed is important for eCommerce businesses in this mobile-first world.
Why does page speed matter for your eCommerce site?
Time is money, and eCommerce site loading time really means it. Google suggests that over 50% of the visitors are likely to quit the session if the site takes over 3 seconds to load.
According to DataReportal, the average mobile internet connection speed in the US is 74.83 Mbps in 2023. In such a fast-paced world, everyone wants to get their screen painted with new content spontaneously in no time.
Slow internet speed can make you lose sales even before the visitor lands on your website. Just a second delay in loading the webpage, and the user will think about hitting the back button. Such a scenario can lead to increased bounce rates and, thus, can hit your search engine rankings.
In 2018, one data by Google revealed that, for mobile internet users, the probability of bounce surges if the page loading time surpasses 3 seconds. Mobile users are more likely to bounce off from sites that take over 3 seconds to load than the faster sites.
The following graph by Edit.co.uk shows an intriguing interrelationship between the increased website loading time, conversions, and bounce rates.
What happens if the website page load speed is too slow?
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Increased bounce rates
A slow-loading page triggers the users to bounce back. This can increase the bounce rates of the web page.
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Reduced organic reach
Google considers page loading speed as one of its ranking factors. It is hard for your site to rank if it is taking ages to load.
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Reduced conversions
If your website is awfully slow, it may affect the user experience. One report suggests that the conversion rates drop naturally with each second of delay.
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Impacts branding skeptically
An unpleasant experience on your online store can go against your branding efforts. Your store may look unprofessional and less authentic if it takes much time to load. -
Affects customer retention
Users are less likely to return to your store if they had an unpleasant experience with your store, such as a slow loading speed. It can impact the customer retention rate in the long run.
No eCommerce store owner can afford these consequences, and therefore, it becomes crucial for them to optimize their online store.
If you are running your eCommerce store on Magento, you can use the Magento Optimization Service to boost up your online store for improved conversion and sales or choose a Magento hosting that offers a fully optimized managed platform and speed.
If you have any problem with this platform, experts will always help you with Magento maintenance service.
Site Loading Speed - Desktop vs Mobile
The site loading speed can be different on different devices. Your website can be super fast on a desktop device while being sluggish on mobile ones. This is because the processing power of mobile devices is lower than that of desktop ones.
The number of mobile internet users has increased drastically around the globe, and so do the number of mobile shoppers.
Customers like to do shopping right from their fingertips, and therefore eCommerce businesses must be ready to serve a seamless shopping experience across multiple devices.
Also, Google takes site loading speed on mobile devices as one of the ranking factors. In 2023, it will become crucial for eCommerce businesses to optimize their site for multiple devices and platforms to enjoy more sales.
Site Speed Tactics for eCommerce Websites
Ready to boost up your eCommerce store speed? Here are some of the important site speed tactics you can use to boost up your eCommerce store in 2023.
Optimizing The Web Server
There can be several factors behind a slow webpage loading speed. It can be a delayed response from the server that is making your website look sluggish to the users.
Generally, a server response time of up to 200ms from the user's request is normal. If it is anything beyond that, you may need to check what’s affecting the server response time.
You can improve the server response rate by using the following tactics:
- Use a reliable and fast web hosting
- Choose fastest DNS
- Optimize your data
- Opt for dedicated hosting
- Reduce the bloat
Working on Codes
Once you are done with the server-side issues, it is time to work on your HTML, JS, and CSS files. Bulky and redundant codes can add to the webpage size and, therefore, can affect the site loading speed.
It becomes necessary to minify these files by removing redundant codes, white spaces, and unnecessary formatting for improved speed and performance. It is always better to reduce the number of HTTP requests a browser will need.
Improve the site performance by using the following tactics:
- Minify JS / CSS / HTML files
- Remove redundant files
- Combine files
- Defer parsing of JavaScript
- Enable asynchronous loading for CSS
Making Your Site Light-Weight
The logic is simple, the more the side, more the time it will take to load. Once you have worked on the codes and fixed the server-side issues to improve the site speed, it is time to look at the website size.
You can make your website lightweight by compressing the media files to optimum size without sacrificing the quality. Also, make sure that the website theme you are using is not adding much to your website size.
Seeking guidance from experienced professionals, such as a Kansas City web design agency, can provide valuable insights on optimizing your website for improved performance and efficiency.
You can use the lazy load feature to prevent the loading of all the images on the page at once to improve the speed.
Use the following tactics to make your website light-weight:
- Use Gzip compression
- Compress images
- Implement lazy load images
- Prioritize the loading of resources
Focusing on Mobile Devices
Your website should be fast enough to impress the Google bots testing it on their simulated mobile devices.
Also, a majority of online shoppers prefer shopping through their mobile devices. Make sure that your site works perfectly fine with different mobile devices.
Make sure that your online web store is responsive and can adjust to different screen orientations and resolutions.
Google released Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) to boost the page loading time for mobile devices. Google shows AMPs to users browsing from mobile devices or through slow internet speeds.
Here are some things to focus on to boost your site speed for mobile devices:
- Use responsive web design
- Implement AMPs
- Remove complex and redundant scripts
- Compress images for mobile devices
Conclusion
Slow site pages can have a high impact on eCommerce store growth as they can hamper conversions and increase bounce rates.
Improving your website loading speed for mobile devices can surely be a success-deciding factor in 2023.
There is no rocket science behind the fact that improved loading speed can increase sales. The logic is simple: people love swiftly loading sites, and so does Google.
In 2023, if you are an eCommerce business owner, your website speed should be the first thing you should review to step towards success.
