Why page load speed matters
- 53% of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.
- 40% of users abandon a site that takes over three seconds to load.
- 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
- 1 in 4 visitors will abandon a site if it takes more than four seconds to load.
- As page load time goes from one second to 10 seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases by 123%.
- 14% of shoppers will begin shopping at another site if made to wait, and 23% will stop shopping or walk away entirely.
The link between speed and revenue
- Amazon found that every 100ms of latency cost them 1% in sales.
- A one-second delay in page load time can lead to a 7% reduction in conversions.
- Sites that load within five seconds on mobile devices earn up to twice as much mobile ad revenue than those that load in 19 seconds.
- Walmart reported that improving page load time by one second increased conversions by 2%.
- Google considers page speed a ranking factor. Faster websites rank higher, boosting visibility and organic traffic.
User frustration from reliability issues
A 2023 online reliability report found that:
- 94% of users reported that apps and websites were less reliable in 2023 compared to the previous year, leaving many feeling frustrated (71%), annoyed (65%) and even angry (26%).
- One-third of respondents said online disruptions were more frustrating than being stuck in traffic or having bad weather ruin their plans.
- Americans will tolerate fewer than 4 instances of unreliability/outage on an app or website before switching to a competitor.
- 61% of consumers say they experience unreliable apps/websites at least once a week, with Gen Z (25%) reporting experiencing glitches daily.
- 25% of Gen Z consumers will transition to a competitor in response to slow or unreliable digital services.
- 1 in 4 members of Gen Z (25%) admitted to having cried at least once when an app or website went down.
Cost of downtime
Even brief IT system downtime and Internet disruptions can have far-reaching consequences on revenue. Here are statistics from various studies quantifying the high cost of downtime: can have far-reaching consequences on revenue. Here are statistics from various studies quantifying the high cost of downtime:
- 86% of businesses say an hour of downtime costs $300,000 or more.
- 44% of firms report downtime costs exceeding $1 million per hour.
- 80% of data centers reported experiencing outages between 2019 and 2022, with 60% resulting in losses of at least $100,000.
- Fortune 1000 companies can face annual costs of $1.25 billion to $2.5 billion due to unplanned application downtime.
- For 10% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), downtime costs exceed $50,000 per hour, and for the rest, it ranges from $10,000 to $40,000 per hour.
- Forty percent of enterprise organizations indicate that a single hour of downtime can cost their firms from $1 million to over $5 million, exclusive of any legal fees, fines or penalties.
A 2023 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on the financial impact of Internet disruptions on eCommerce found that:
- In the month before the study, 37% estimated their companies lost between $100,000-$499,000, and 39% lost $500,000-$999,999 due to internet disruptions.
- Disruptions also damage companies internally by increasing employee churn (55%) and reducing workforce productivity (49%).
- Without adequate visibility, companies are experiencing 76 disruptions per month on average.
Customer loyalty
- 79% of online shoppers who experience a dissatisfying visit are less likely to buy from the same site again.
- 52% of online shoppers state that quick page loading is important to their site loyalty.
Gen Z digital expectations
The IBM Institute for Business Value surveyed 15,600 Gen Zers from 16 countries, revealing key insights into their high standards for digital experiences:
- 87% of Gen Z have access to high-speed internet at home
- 62% will not use an app or website that is difficult to navigate
- 60% will not use an app or website that is too slow to load.