Aussie e-commerce platforms lag behind globe

laptop, keyboard, e-commerce, onlineAustralian retailers websites have clocked the slowest load times, lagging behind overseas counterparts in the latest benchmark tests by Dynatrace.

UK and Germany retailers led the way during the holiday period, China and Australia clocked the slowest times

Dynatrace analysed shopper experience by measuring the time it took for leading retail sites in the UK, US, France, Germany, China, Australia, Spain and the Nordic region to be ready for shoppers to use.

On average, global retail websites for consumers doing online shopping between Black Friday and the January 3 were visually complete and ready to use within 2.5 seconds.

Shoppers in Germany and the UK could access and browse retail websites the quickest, whilst Australia and China lagged behind the rest;

Retail websites in the US were 42 per cent slower than Germany and 39 per cent slower than the UK.

“Consumers expect websites to load within three seconds or less, so these results make for good reading for retailers,” said Dave Anderson, digital performance expert at Dynatrace.

“Germany and the UK are out in front when it comes to user experience, but there’s still work for retailers to do in other countries. The numbers involved may be considered fine margins, but the slightest delay in user experience can have a ripple effect on sales. For example, US-based fashion retailer Nordstrom reported an 11 per cent fall in sales following a slowdown of just half a second.”

Dynatrace tested the user experience of the top retail sites in eight countries every 10 minutes from November the 24th 2017 to the 3rd of January 2018. The results of this testing are outlined in the table below.

Dynatrace-website-loadtimes

Dynatrace’s analysis of global visually complete times found that the best online experience was found predominantly in western European countries. Consumers in Germany (36 per cent faster), the UK (32 per cent faster), France (7 per cent faster) and the Nordic region (4 per cent faster) all had consumer experiences that were faster than the global average of 2.5 seconds. The US (10 per cent slower), Spain (14 per cent slower), Australia (15 per cent slower) and China (42 per cent slower) came in slower that the global average.

“Providing shoppers with a great online shopping experience is vital for retailers looking to succeed in the cut-throat world of e-commerce,” added Anderson.

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