1. The document analyzes data from over 5,000 performance tests and 500 user surveys on the state of web readiness for e-commerce sites. 2. It finds that e-commerce sites have significantly slower page load times than other website categories, averaging almost 8 seconds compared to 4-5.5 seconds for others. 3. E-commerce sites also report losing money more often due to performance issues, with 40% reporting losses in the last year compared to 25% for other sites.

1. 1 June 2013
State of web
readiness:
E-commerce
E-commerce sites are some of the worst
performing as a category. Even though
availability and performance directly
impact their bottom line.

3. 3
The results of this, our second report on the state of web readiness, surprised us.
We analyzed the data from over 5,000 performance tests and more than 500
user surveys and concluded that, on average, e-commerce sites perform well below
expectations; and often with profound performance issues. The reason for our sur-
prise is that, based on usage patterns on loadimpact.com, e-commerce sites spend
substantially more on performance testing than other categories. Performance, it
would seem is very important to them, and with good reason; a number of studies
have shown the direct correlation between increased latency and decreased custo-
mer conversion.
The data also revealed that e-commerce sites are slower than other website cate-
gories. The average time it took to load a page on an e-commerce site was almost 8
seconds while other sites exhibited page load times somewhere between 4 and 5.5
seconds. The average for all sites, including e-commerce, was 5.6 seconds.
According to survey participants, e-commerce sites more often lose money and
visitors due to performance or stability problems than other site categories. 40% of
e-commerce respondents reported losing money in the last year due to performan-
ce/stability issues. This compared to 25% of sites in other categories. Clearly there is
a need for change.
Good performance is crucial to e-commerce, as the correlation between perfor-
mance and increased sales is well understood. Perhaps even more important is the
impact of poor performance on the brand of a site. So why is it that despite all this,
e-commerce sites seem to be doing worse than others? We believe it’s a combina-
tion of several factors:
E-retailers invest the
most in web performance
but have slowest sites

4. 4
• Rapid growth in e-commerce traffic means that reality outstrips projections;
and the sites have no reliable means of tracking this.
• E-commerce requires more complex, dynamic, user generated content – and
latency inducing back-end calls - than other types of websites.
• E-commerce websites may simply have a higher awareness of these issues
since performance failures directly impact sales statistics.
Conclusion: E-retailers are more sensitive to and invest more in performance than
other groups. Yet e-commerce websites are, as a category, the slowest and even they
rate their own performance as inadequate. Worst of all, it is more common for
e-commerce sites to report losing money due to performance than it is for non
e-commerce sites.
The Load Impact Team
June 2013

5. 5
Brief
• Sixty-eight percent of all survey respondents experienced performance or
stability problems with their website last year. Lack of resources was the main
reason for these problems, both among e-commerce sites and other websites.
• Thirty-nine percent of e-retailers claimed they lost money last year due to
performance or stability problems. In comparison, only 24 percent of the non
e-retailer respondents claimed they lost money.
• Sixty percent overestimated their site’s capacity to handle traffic according
to their load testing results. This level of overconfidence was similar across all
website categories.
• Ninety-eight percent of e-retailers thought sub two-second response time was
desirable. However, load time for e-commerce sites analyzed exceeded this re-
sponse threshold by a wide margin. The average was 7.9 seconds - higher than
for non e-commerce sites.
• Low latency, while important for all websites is crucial for e-retailers. Also
e-commerce sites are more likely to proactively analyze and predict response
times.
• Even though it is common to deploy mobile versions of sites it is uncommon to
load test of mobile versions of sites.
Methodology
• Based on analysis of Load Impact test data from over 5,400 independent
tests in 118 countries.
• Based on 538 user survey responses.
• Tests and survey conducted September – October 2012.

6. 6
Failure to Perform:
Poor performance and its effect
on revenue
68 %
Yes
No
32 %
Sixty-eight percent of all respondents claimed to have experienced performance or stability problems with
their sites in the last year. The response of e-retailers was not significantly different from non e-retailers.
Sixty seven percent of e-retailers responded that they had problems during the last year.
Q: Have you experienced any performance or
stability problems on your site in the last year?

7. 7
The most common reason for performance problems were ‘lack of resources’, and ‘unexpected events’.
0 %
10 %
20 %
30 %
40 %
50 %
OtherProblem
with
a cloud
service
Unexpected
events
BugsLack of
information
on the
expected
number
of visitors
Lack of
information
about the
sites
capacity
Lack of
resources
46 %
27 %
26 %
35 %
37 %
16 %
6 %
Site owners – all cAtegories
Q: What are the major reasons behind
performance problems on your website?

8. 8
‘Lack of resources’ was less common among e-commerce sites as compared to other categories. However it
remained the most common reason for performance problems, with ‘bugs’ coming in a close second.
0 %
5 %
10 %
15 %
20 %
25 %
30 %
35 %
40 %
OtherProblem
with a
cloud
service
Unexpected
events
BugsLack of
information
on the
expected
number
of visitors
Lack of
information
about the
sites
capacity
Lack of
resources
40 %
26 %
29 %
39 %
29 %
13 %
7 %
Site owners – E-Commerce
Q: What are the major reasons behind
performance problems on your website?

9. 9
E-commerce sites say they lose revenue due to performance or stability problems far more often than
other sites. Thirty-nine percent of e-commerce site owners claimed they lost money in the last year.
In comparison, only 24 percent of the other respondents claimed to have lost money.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Don't knowDidn’t lose
money or customers
Lost money
or visitors
53 %
15 %
28 %
33 %
25 %
E-commerce
Other
48 %
Q: Have you lost money or visitors due to
poor performance or stability on your site
during the last year?

10. 10
When analyzing the load tests in the survey we identified a trend we came to call
the ‘overconfidence factor’. The overconfidence factor describes sites that make
incorrect assumptions regarding their capacity. It is produced by looking at how
many concurrent users a load test was configured to simulate, and comparing
that to the load level at which page load time had increased by 100 %.
False Confidence
Overestimating capacity is prevalent
58 percent of owners had overconfidence in their site’s capacity. The overconfidence was fairly even
throughout the field, but media sites stood out as being slightly more realistic about their site capacity
- only 50 % of media sites overestimated their capacity.
0 %
10 %
20 %
30 %
40 %
50 %
60 %
70 %
80 %
TotalOtherOnline
service
MediaE-commerceCorporate,
product
and interest
Campaign
and event
56 %
61 % 62 %
50 %
61 %
58 % 58 %
How many have overconfidence in the
capacity of their site to handle traffic?

11. 11
RESPONSE TIME
Analysis of results from 5,240 load tests show that average initial (i.e. with no simulated traffic on the site)
page load time for e-commerce sites is 7.5 seconds – much higher than other websites. This contrasts with
the e-retailer sentiment that acceptable response times are 2 seconds or less.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
OtherOnline
service
MediaE-commerceCorporate,
product
and interest
Campaign
and event
4.8 4.8
7.5
4.8
4.2 4.3
Seconds
User load time on average by category

12. 12
Professed tolerance for load times seems to correlate with industry latency /conversion data which shows
a dramatic fall off in conversion after 1 sec page load times
0 %
5 %
10 %
15 %
20 %
25 %
30 %
35 %
Over 4 sec2 – 4 sec1 – 2 sec0.5 – 1 sec0.25 – 0.5 secUnder
0.25 sec
8 %
4,3
17 %
22 %
31 %
21 %
2 %
Responsepercent
Q: What’s an acceptable load time on
an e-commerce site?

13. 13
0 %
10 %
20 %
30 %
40 %
50 %
60 %
Very importantImportantLess importantNot important
1 %
4,2
0 %
6 %
3 %
42 %
37 %
52 %
59 %
Responsepercent
E-commerce
Other
Q: How important is a short response time?
Short response times are important to everyone, but especially so for e-retailers.

14. 14
0 %
10 %
20 %
30 %
40 %
50 %
Don't knowWe don't
monitor
the response
time on
our site
AlarmsLoad testing
before
predicted
traffic peaks
Preventive
load testing
before
technical
changes
Scheduled
load testing
42 %
E-commerce
Other
28 %
34 %
31 %
39 %
30 %
45 %
36 %
14 %
23 %
4 %
3 %
14
E-retailers actively work to monitor or predict response times. Only 14 percent of e-commerce sites
claimed they did no performance testing. This compared to 23 percent of sites in other categories.
Q: Which activities do you engage in to monitor
or predict response times on your site?

15. 15
Download this and future reports at
loadimpact.com/readiness
Even though it is common to deploy mobile versions of sites it is uncommon to load test these. However, the
e-commerce site owners tend to test more often (17 % ) when compared to other site owners (13 %).
GOING MOBILE
Q: Do you perform load tests on the mobile
version of your site?
0 %
10 %
20 %
30 %
40 %
50 %
60 %
We don't have
a mobile version
Don't knowNoYes
17 %
E-commerce
Other
13 %
50 %
55 %
4 %
2 %
29 % 30 %

16. We don't have
a mobile version
Don't knowNoYes
17 %
E-commerce
Other
13 %
50 %
55 %
4 %
2 %
29 % 30 %
About Load Impact
Load Impact is the world’s largest cloud-based,
on-demand load testing tool, with more than
800,000 load tests executed since the service
was launched in 2009. Load Impact has earned
the trust of over 50,000 users who continuously
use the service to ensure the quality of their
online presence. This allows each organization to
allocate the appropriate amount of infrastructure
resources, and to spot potential performance
problems before they become an issue, providing
an accurate, scalable and proactively optimized
service for the end user.
Load test your site at loadimpact.com