CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the global leader in content
delivery network (CDN) services, today announced the release of the
latest State of Online Retail Performance report, a biannual study
that analyzes performance metrics for leading retail websites. The
report was previously issued by SOASTA, acquired by Akamai in
April 2017.
The data, gathered by SOASTA (now part of Akamai), represents
one month's worth of anonymous user data from top online retailers,
equating to approximately 10 billion user visits. The team
applied data analytics to generate insights into the intersection
of IT, business, and user experience metrics.
Access to an extraordinary amount of user data, as well as the
ability to correlate that data with key performance indicators,
helped create the only report of its kind in the industry. The
Online Retail Performance Report delivers insights into how web
performance affects consumers and, ultimately, online businesses.
The report explores the "magic number" for page load times and the
impact of one-second performance improvements – or slowdowns – on
conversion and bounce rates, as well as impact of performance on
session length.
"Since my days as Executive Director at Shop.org I have seen how
e-commerce businesses are impacted by performance challenges, yet
struggle to identify and treat the root cause," said Scott Silverman, co‑founder of GrowCommerce and
the Global e-Commerce Leaders Forum. "This research clearly shows
the link and provides a methodology for retailers to systematically
assess and address those issues."
At the highest level, the data indicates that website
performance is critical to maintaining customer attention and
completing online transactions. Specific findings include:
- Half of consumers browse for products and services on their
smartphones, while only one in five complete purchases using those
phones
- A 100-millisecond delay in website load time can hurt
conversion rates by 7 percent
- A two-second delay in web page load time increase bounce rates
by 103 percent
- 53 percent of mobile site visitors will leave a page that takes
longer than three seconds to load
- Bounce rates were highest for mobile phone shoppers, while
tablet shoppers had the lowest bounce rate
The report is rooted in the e-commerce market's ongoing drive
towards faster web performance. Online retail benefits from
delivering better customer experiences, especially on mobile
devices, and the State of Online Retail Performance report offers
insights into what makes a superior online buying experience.
The report identifies ways that high-performance web pages are
different from poorly performing pages, looks at third-party
scripts and other outside factors that can impact performance, and
provides the reader with practical, actionable guidance on how they
can compete in an ever-changing e-commerce landscape.
"Results from our State of Online Retail Performance report have
shown that user experience is critical to e-commerce success, and
things aren't getting any easier," said Ash Kulkarni, senior vice
president and general manager, Web Experience Division, Akamai.
"Customers have extremely short attention spans, and degradations
in website performance – no matter how small – can cause consumers
to go elsewhere in an instant. Sharing our findings about
performance gives online merchants the actionable data they need to
stay competitive."
In addition to making the State of Online Retail Performance
report available for download, Akamai will host a free webinar on
Wednesday, April 19, 2017, at
1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time that
addresses a number of topics related to the report, including how
page speed affects user engagement and conversion and the causes of
most common performance issues. Online commerce experts from Akamai
and Walmart will also explore how leading retailers are optimizing
promotional campaigns, and the panel will look at enhanced tools as
a way to go beyond traditional web analytics solutions.
About Akamai
As the global leader in Content Delivery
Network (CDN) services, Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable
and secure for its customers. The company's advanced web
performance, mobile performance, cloud security and media delivery
solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer,
enterprise and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere.
To learn how Akamai solutions and its team of Internet experts are
helping businesses move faster forward, please visit www.akamai.com
or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.
Contacts:
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Rob
Morton
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Tom Barth
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Media
Relations
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Investor
Relations
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617-444-3641
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617-274-7130
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rmorton@akamai.com
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tbarth@akamai.com
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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.