Website performance data has revealed that some of Australia's largest retail brands are trailing behind when it comes to online systems.
US digital performance monitoring company Dynatrace has been tracking site responses from around 150 retail participants in Australia's Click Frenzy shopping event.
Where consumer expectation demands a site to load in three seconds, the data suggests that retailers serve up on average response time of 8.19 seconds with the slowest lagging behind at a dismal 17.9 seconds.
The five fastest retailers averaged a pleasing 3.21 seconds.
Dynatrace APAC marketing director Dave Anderson believes that responsive online systems are critical to turning traffic into conversion.
“We know that response times correlate to revenue for retailers.
“Research says that speed is the number one consumer expectation of a site, ahead of features and functionality.
“Retailers need to understand the user experience and how all the elements impact that journey.
“Take US retail giant, Nordstrom, as an example.
“They recently came to Australia to present on this very topic.
“They peg their optimal site response time at 2.5 seconds, and a mere 0.5 second slow down will see them experience an 11% reduction in conversion.”
Anderson said that Australian retailers need to bolster strong ecommerce strategies in order to make the most out of busy periods.
“Our data shows retailers aren’t addressing every day consumer expectations and they definitely aren’t adequately preparing for special events and peak traffic periods.
“If we’re seeing the majority of retailers average a response time of around 8 seconds before Click Frenzy has even started, then there’s a very real concern that their sites will get slower and slower as more and more traffic hits.
“During an event like Click Frenzy, retailers need to be focused on conversions and they need user experience data to tell the story of what’s actually happening for customers and therefore make it possible to fine tune it for next time.”