People today live in the fast food age. They want things right now, and they don’t want to wait for it. That’s why marketplaces such as Amazon offer next day shipping and why some companies are offering digital downloads of items. People don’t like waiting, and that is never more present than in the realm of online shopping. The page load times for your ecommerce pages can play a huge role in just how well your site does. If they take a long time to load, there is a very good chance that people will move on to another site that sells the same or similar products.
People Have a Need for Speed with Ecommerce Sites
It makes sense, but many companies feel that aesthetics, or the way their site looks, is actually more important. They have to strike a good balance if they actually want success though. The pages need to look great, but they really do need to be responsive. Speed is what will really impress the visitors, so that should be the main focus when creating a site.
Just how important is this? According to research, about 73% of mobile users say they’ve found trouble when trying to load certain sites, particularly ecommerce sites with a large number of products per page. Mobile technology, as impressive as it is, can’t compete with home connections. Yet, many people want to shop when they are out and on their mobile devices. No matter where they are searching, people want sites to open quickly.
Delays in page loading time can result in lost sales, and no matter how large your company might be, that is something you simply can’t afford.
Build a Better Site
Sometimes, it is better to simplify things. You can reduce the load times of the pages by streamlining your pages as much as possible. Here are some tips you can use to improve your page loading time, starting with getting a quality host that offers better speeds. Also, make sure you are using browser caching on the site. This simply means the next time the same visitor returns to the site, the pages he or she has visited will load even faster. If this happens to be a product page, they are at the point of purchase even faster.
You should also optimize your code and your images to make the files as small as possible. It is possible to reduce file size and still keep the quality good enough for online viewing. For many small business owners running ecommerce sites, this is beyond their technical prowess. This is actually common, and you can find some designers and builders who should be able to help to increase your site’s speed relatively quickly and without spending a fortune. It may be a good idea to work with them.
Test the Speed
Once you make changes to your site, you need to test them under different conditions. Check your site using different browsers, and make sure you check from as many different types of devices as possible. This will give you a better idea of the type of experience your customers will have when they get to your site. If you notice that the pages are still loading slowly, it’s time to start looking for other ways to improve your speed and simplify further. Optimizing special mobile content could be a good way to improve the speed of mobile responsiveness for those pages. Again, working with a professional could be in your best interest in this case.
Always make sure you are giving your customers the best possible experience, and they will reward you by actually shopping at your ecommerce store.