Report: 3rd party requests slowing site load times

It has been common knowledge for several years now that site load times are essential to on-boarding consumers, with many leaving websites which don't load within 2-4 seconds. New data, however, shows that site load times are slowing on many ecommerce sites. This could lead to consumers bouncing to competitors.

by Kristina Knight

Retail Systems Research has released their second annual ecommerce report, 2018 eCommerce Website Performance: The Stakes Are Increasing, But Are Retailers Falling Behind?, and the findings aren't great for many merchants. The highest score on this year's report was a 63%, with the median score a 45% - and RSR's data shows that this is because of site load times which are being slowed by third party requests.

The slow-downs aren't relegated to desktop/laptop performance. Mobile sites are also slowing, although most of those surveyed had a good customer experience. The problems are in the load and response times which are being hampered by third party add-ons.

While most agree that third party functions can be beneficial to ecommerce sites, those additions need to be balanced so that the overall site performance also remains high. On average, sites received 139 third party requests, a 50% increase YoY; most sites have between 30 and 40 third party functions on-site. These functions range from live-chat options to personalization options.

"This year's RSR report on eCommerce website performance highlights both the importance of third party technologies and the impact they have on site performance," said Rich Stendardo, CEO of Yottaa, the sponsor of the report. "These technologies, such as personalization and live chat, provide great online experiences for shoppers. However, as retailers add more and more third parties, they also risk slowing down page load speeds, which causes shoppers to leave a site resulting in lost online revenue. This report demonstrates that retailers need to find a way to create both engaging and fast online experiences."

"Today, the stakes in online retail have increased as consumers' appetites for shopping on eCommerce websites only continue to grow," said Steve Rowen, Managing Partner, Retail Systems Research (RSR). "Yet based on the findings in our report last year, the signs were already in place that retailers were barely keeping up in terms of website performance - let alone staged to handle such a massive eCommerce increase. The findings in this year's report further validate that retailers need to find ways to improve site performance."

The full report can be downloaded here.

Tags: ecommerce, ecommerce trends, M:Commerce trends, mobile commerce, mobile marketing, RSR, Yottaa