Why should you care about web performance? Slow pages can hurt mobile user metrics – from bounce rate to online revenues to long – term user retention. Radware researcher and solution evangelist, Tammy Everts, speaks at IRCE Focus and reveals the four all-too-common mobile assumptions that could be making your site visitors suffer. To read more about the long-term effects “web stress” has on brand perception and business metrics, visit: http://www.radware.com/mobile-eeg2013/.

1. How Poor Mobile
Performance
Hurts Your Brand
(and by how much)
Tammy Everts
IRCE Focus – February 2014

2. Why neuroscientific mobile testing?
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3. • 2010 EEG study of desktop
users
• Throttled connection from 5MB
to 2MB
• Found that participants had to
concentrate up to 50% harder
• Afterward, participants reported
negative brand associations
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4. Slide 4

5. Slide 5

6. It’s a mobile-first world.

7. 55% of all time spent
on retail sites takes
place on a mobile device.
comScore, October 2013
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8. Slide 8

9. Stuart McMillan, Schuh’s Journey to RWD (Conversion Conference 2013)
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10. Four all-too-common
mobile assumptions

11. Assumption #1
My site isn’t slow on mobile.
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12. Two things are slowing down your mobile site
(and they’re completely beyond your control).
• Latency – can range from 35 milliseconds to 350+
milliseconds per resource (e.g. images, CSS files)
• Connection – 3G can be up to 15 times slower than
broadband
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13. Radware, 2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance
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14. Radware, 2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance
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15. Assumption #2
Mobile users expect pages to be slow.
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16. Keynote, 2012 Mobile User Survey
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17. Assumption #3
Mobile users want to browse, not buy.
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18. By 2017,
retail mcommerce
is expected to hit
$113 billion –
26% of total
ecommerce sales.
eMarketer, September 2013
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19. Mobile shopping cart
abandonment rate
is 39% greater
than desktop rate.
2013 Google I/O
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20. Assumption #4
Users will stick around, even if pages
are slow, if they really want to buy.
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21. Skava/Harris Interactive, 2013
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22. Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics
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23. What is emotional
engagement research?

24. “95% of the consumer’s
decisions are made at the
subconscious level.”
Dr. Gerald Zaltman, Harvard University Executive Committee of Harvard University’s
Mind, Brain and Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
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25. The problem with surveys…
Traditional research relies on eliciting post-cognitive
responses.
But thinking and talking about emotions changes and
distorts them.
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26. Five benefits of neuroscientific testing
1
2
3
4
5
Evaluates think/feel (not say)
Quantified data
Moment-by-moment interaction
Cause-and-effect triggers
Fresh, deeper insights
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27. EEG Emotional Engagement Study

28. Our research team
• Seren – leaders in customer experience & service design
• Neurosense – global leader in implicit methodologies
• NeuroStrata – expert consultants in blending neuromarketing
applications
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29. The brands we tested
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30. Our testers
• 24 testers (12 male and 12 female)
• Pre-screened to ensure normal cognitive functioning
• Experienced mobile device users
• Did not know they were part of a performance study
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31. Methodology
• Standardized set of shopping tasks (browsing and checkout)
• Testers served sites over one of two speeds:
– normal Wifi
– artificial 500ms delay
• Using EEG headset and eyetracker, measured moment-bymoment responses
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32. Slide 32

33. Why test a 500ms delay?
Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics
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34. We focused on the metrics most affected by the 500ms delay.
Frustration
Emotional engagement
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35. Slide 35

36. Normal speed
2.66s
2.92s
2.83s
4.24s
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37. Frustration levels across sites (normal speed)
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38. Engagement levels across sites (normal speed)
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39. 500ms delay: Peak frustration results
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40. 500ms delay: Average engagement results
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41. Impact of site speed on post-test brand association
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42. If pages aren’t fast, everything suffers.
Content
“boring”
Visual design
“tacky” and “confusing”
Navigation
“frustrating” and “hard-to-navigate”
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43. Slide 43

44. Takeaways

45. 1 People feel “web stress” even when mobile shopping under
ideal conditions.
2 Slower web performance has a clear and measurable impact
on people at a neurological level.
3 Slow sites can seriously undermine overall brand health.
4 The nature and scale of impact varies, depending on a
number of factors (e.g. inherent strength/weakness of brand).
5 This presents great opportunities to strengthen overall brand
by investing in performance optimization.
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46. Slide 46

47. http://www.radware.com/mobile-eeg2013/
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48. Sources
Web Stress: A Wake-Up Call for European Business (Foviance, 2010)
http://www.ca.com/us/~/media/files/supportingpieces/final_webstress_survey_report_229296.aspx
2013 Social & Mobile Commerce Consumer Report (Shop.org / comScore)
http://shop.org/research/original/2013-social-mobile-commerce-consumer-report
2012 Mobile User Survey (Keynote)
http://www.keynote.com/docs/reports/Keynote-2012-Mobile-User-Survey.pdf
2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance (Radware)
http://www.radware.com/mobile-sotu2013/
The Danger of a Poor Mobile Shopping Experience [INFOGRAPHIC]
http://www.getelastic.com/the-danger-of-a-poor-mobile-shopping-experience-infographic/
Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics (Web Performance Today, November 2011)
http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2011/11/23/case-study-slow-page-load-mobile-business-metrics/
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49. Questions?
webperformancetoday.com
twitter.com/tameverts
linkedin.com/in/tammyeverts
plus.google.com/+TammyEverts/
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