eCommerce Site Health: Site Speed, Slowdowns and Overall Performance An OSHU Index Analysis
Wednesday, May 2, 2018Lauren Macdonald
Every online retailer knows that website speed is crucial to the success of an eCommerce business, and that slowdowns can be costly and result in lost revenue. But how exactly did slowdowns and other technical and content issues effect some of the top retailers in Q4 of 2017? We took a look at the Online Store Health and Usability (OSHU) Index to find the answers.
Here’s a brief summary of what we learned:
The Online Store Health and Usability (OSHU) Index was created to provide a window into how leading retailers succeed in the world of online sales. Their 2017 Q4 report suggests that performance improvements made by eCommerce companies leading up to Q4 of 2017 and the end of the year may have generated as much as $1.5 billion dollars in additional revenues. That said, retailers’ focus on speed may have cost them up to $11.8 billion in sales due to technical and content issues they were unaware of until it was too late.
The report ultimately alludes to the fact that when armed with the right data, and provided with the opportunity to change site health and performance, online retailers can have a dramatic impact on their stores, and in turn, sales.
However, the same is also true, that when things go wrong, if ignored or put aside, an otherwise healthy store can see its performance and revenue decline.
Let’s dive in a bit deeper:
Top retailers are mastering the speed of their websites
Leading up to Q4 of 2017, and the holiday shopping season, the OSHU Index saw online retailers invest heavily in preparation of the upcoming buying frenzy. In fact, sites indexed by the OSHU closed out the holiday season and Q4 of 2017, a full 13% faster than the average site on the index at the end of Q3.
Adobe estimated that online retailers would go on to sell $107.4 billion in merchandise over the 2017 holiday season, and the OSHU Index estimates that approximately $1.5 billion of those sales are due to the speed improvements made by eCommerce companies leading up to Q4.
The eCommerce industry as a whole is still unsure how to resolve certain technical and content-related issues
The eCommerce community’s focus purely on speed, leads retailers to ignore the impact of technical and content issues until it’s too late. This leaves them scrambling to understand what went wrong and why, after business has already been lost and customers have complained.
How common are content and technical issues? Well, the OSHU Index estimates they are 7 times more common than slowdowns. While speed and performance improvements earned online retailers an estimated additional $1.5 billion in sales during Q4, it’s estimated that technical and content issues cost them $11.8 billion.
What does all of this really mean?
Technical and content issues include things like:
When technical or content issues like these occur, they stand to result in immediate lost sales. And when they happen during the holiday season, they can be an absolute disaster. Often resulting in tens of thousands of dollars or more in lost sales, before retailers even become aware there is a problem.
All this to say that, it’s time for eCommerce retailers to begin focusing on far more than performance and performance stability, and start looking at overall site health.
How eBridge helps merchants with with their eCommerce and ERP
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With so many things to worry about when it comes to the overall health of your eCommerce website, don’t let 3rd party integration be another concern on your list.