It's often thought, now that broadband internet access is widespread in the UK, that page loading times are no longer an issue. In fact, exactly the opposite is true. A recent report from Juniper Research highlighted that on-line users are now so accustomed to speed, that the maximum length of time an average on-line shopper will wait for a page to load has come down to 4 seconds. Just a few years ago this was 8 seconds.

The problem with widespread broadband internet access is that users no longer blame their internet connections if a page takes a long time to load and so a load time in excess of 4 seconds not only drives customers away, it damages your brand. The key findings from the report: 

• One-third of shoppers with a poor experience abandoned the site
• 75% were unlikely to shop on that site again
• 30% of dissatisfied customers will develop a negative perception of the company or tell their friends and family about the experience
• 65% indicated they are likely to return to a site that is easy to navigate, particularly during the registration, log-in and checkout processes

Performance is made up of a number of factors, the main ones being Internal Response Times (the time it takes your website infrastructure to start sending out a page from the time it gets the request) and Download Speed (the speed at which your site "sends" the page).  Of course, the speed of the user's connection is also a factor but as I said above with the widespread adoption of Broadband the users are tending to blame the website and not their connection.  The performance tab in Sitemorse shows you the average for these two figures in order to give you some indication of which aspect of your website's performances needs investigation

Of course, Analytics tools such as Google Analytics have a role to play as well. There are several reports under Content Optimisation -> Web Design Parameters that can tell you what technologies and connection speeds your users have, thereby allowing your web designers to build the site that is best for your market. If you have an unusually large number of users still using a modem connection you need to think about page sizes.  When modems were the de facto connection the general rule was that pages should be an average of 30Kb. 

On-line customers are a fickle and impatient breed. Unless you give them the best possible shopping experience, not only will they not buy from your site, they'll tell their friends not to as well.