Site Performance

Make no mistake, ecommerce is a race

Every year the stakes are higher and competition for sales is more arduous.  Site performance is one of the most important factors that define customer loyalty, improved conversion to sales, and growth in market share.

There are currently around 20 million ecommerce websites globally with 2 billion consumers placing orders yearly for an estimated 5.5 trillion dollars in global sales (2022). (Similarweb)

With ever-growing stakes and more competition in the ecommerce race, your online storefront needs to be powered by a high-performance platform to stay ahead of the pack.

BORN XDS has been engineering and developing global award-winning enterprise ecommerce sites for over a decade, we know exactly what it takes to beat the competition and how to design performance enhanced sites that win over customers.

“Improvements to your site’s performance will directly impact customer experience and will lead to greater revenue for your company”

Performance Driven Revenue

Why site speed and performance are important and how they impact your profits

1. Revenue Increase

Investing in site speed optimization can positively impact a company’s revenue by improving conversion rates, reducing cart abandonment, boosting user engagement, enhancing user experience, optimizing mobile sales, and increasing organic traffic.  Greater sales in any industry resulting from these factors increase revenue and enables a constant revenue stream throughout.

2. User Experience

Fast-loading websites provide better user experiences which increase customer satisfaction and engagement. Slow sites lead to higher customer bounce rates (a metric representing the number of users leaving a site without interaction).  Performance improvement on a site makes the navigation more interesting and fluid for customers.  Users have become accustomed to fast-loading websites and have little patience for slow ones. When a website loads quickly, users can access the desired content or complete their tasks efficiently, leading to higher satisfaction levels. Fast site speed minimizes frustration, reduces waiting time, and ensures a smooth browsing experience.

3. Conversion Rates

Studies show that even delays in website loading time can lead to significant decreases in conversion rates. Faster websites facilitate smoother navigation, quicker product searches, and faster checkout processes, which contribute to higher conversion rates and ultimately more sales. Increased load time of 1 to 3 seconds raises the risk of customers leaving by 32%, that number increases to 123% with a 10 second delay.  This shows just how appreciative customers are when you provide them with an efficient experience, and how unforgiving they can be about performance issues.

4. Search Engine Ranking

Search engines, like Google, consider website speed as one of the factors when determining search rankings. Faster websites tend to rank higher, leading to increased organic traffic and visibility. Improved visibility can attract more potential customers to your ecommerce site, positively impacting profits.

5. Mobile Commerce

New studies show that nearly 80% of all online purchases are being made through smart mobile devices. Mobile users often have limited bandwidth and slower internet connections. Optimizing your website for mobile devices and improving its speed can enhance the mobile shopping experience, leading to higher conversion rates and increased revenue from mobile users.

6. Customer Trust and Reputation

A slow-loading website may create doubts about the professionalism and reliability of an ecommerce business. Customers may question the security of their personal and financial information when using a poorly performing website.  A fast and responsive website helps establish trust and credibility, leading to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

7. Better Site Management

Faster loading times make it easier for your team to manage and update the website, reducing the time spent on site updates and maintenance tasks. This efficiency allows you to focus more on personalized targeted marketing, product management, and customer support, ultimately driving higher profits.

8. Operational Efficiency

Improved website performance and speed can also benefit the operational side of your ecommerce business. To maximize profits, it’s crucial to regularly monitor and optimize your site’s performance, focusing on factors such as page load times, server response times, and overall user experience. Conducting regular speed tests, optimizing code and images, utilizing caching techniques, and investing in robust hosting infrastructure are some strategies to improve website performance and speed. [BORN can help you implement and manage these complex steps]

“…even the most passive online consumer is too savvy to tolerate bad performance“

Today, every individual, whether just a casual internet user or daily online ecommerce customer, has their own expectations, needs, wants, and demands when it comes to the user experience they have come to expect; from bespoke personalized landing pages to personally tailored shopping carts, to pinpoint targeted and customized user journeys. In 2023, ecommerce business better be able to meet those unique expectations.

We often see brilliantly designed ecommerce sites that have beautiful aesthetics with award winning interfaces get totally ruined by back end failure with slow and cumbersome checkout systems that totally hinder the sales process (if not lose sales altogether). It’s the classic “form over function” dilemma, and today, even the most passive online consumer is too savvy to tolerate bad performance. This isn’t to say that ecommerce sites should consider function over UI/UX design, but rather that the two MUST complement each other to create a fast, beautiful, user-friendly streamlined digital sales experience.

The competition is intense and the leaders set the pace!

According to Similarweb, 4 out of the top 10 most visited ecommerce sites worldwide are Amazon marketplaces (Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon Japan, and Amazon Germany).  The Reason: ease of use, a naturally intuitive and personalized UI/UX, and the delivery of a nearly faultless performance, which gives every single user a repeatable, simple, and hassle-free shopping experience for every visit and purchase.

Amazon closed $514 billion (US Dollars) in global online retail sales in 2022, and It dominated nearly 40% of all online retail in the US, the next highest single operator being Walmart at 6.3% (Statista.com). While Amazon’s platform will probably not win on its looks, it does offer comfort in its simplicity and ease of use. A one or two word search inside the site’s marketplace almost always delivers perfectly ranked pages of expected results. That search can then be easily filtered by cost, shipping dates available, free shipping vs paid, brand names, ratings and reviews,  and previous purchases. One click adds the item to your cart, another click checks you out.  No need to worry about tracking that purchase, Amazon will send you automated updates on when the order was received, fulfilled, shipped and “out for delivery”.

Hudson’s Bay Company : Performance must be measured!

Among the hundreds of award-winning projects BORN XDS has produced, our work with Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) showcases how much improved performance can affect ecommerce websites.

HBC is the parent company of the iconic online and brick-and-mortar fashion stores, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5^th, and The Bay. With estimated yearly sales revenues of $9.5 billion, Hudson’s Bay had very good reasons to want to ensure they stayed competitive.

When Hudson’s Bay came to BORN XDS, they had an ambitious goal of improving the response time of their different ecommerce websites by 30%.

To start this project, BORN XDS conducted an in-depth performance review of their websites’ operational speeds, the front and back end technologies, and third-party integrations. During this process several performance issues were determined; which included 3^rd party integration problems, connectivity issues, and product ataloguing issues.

After the BORN technical audit was concluded and performance issues were identified, the sites experienced TTI (Time to Interactive) and LT (Load time) improvements of up to 49% in key pages of the sites like Search Page, Product Array, Product Details, and Cart Page.

The following figures show the dramatic front-end response time improvements experienced by Hudson’s Bay’s key web sites, after BORN XDS’s intervention:

Hudson’s Bay Company : Performance Results

As part of BORN XDS’s comprehensive audit and website overhaul, a series of back and front-end changes and industry best practices were implemented. Among many others, Java script errors and unused code packages were removed, page caching was fine-tuned, image formats were standardized, and ‘Wishlist’ features were optimized— as a result, HBC’s revenue increased by an astonishing 7%.  BORN XDS has the expertise to measure real results and pinpoint the performance improvements required to enrich customer experience that result in greater revenue.

Staying ahead through Continuous Improvement

All that is gained from a robust performance rebuild can be lost over time; healthy ecommerce demands constant monitoring, testing, and care. Much like an elite athlete, a top-performing ecommerce site needs to constantly develop in order to stay ahead of the ever-encroaching competitor. Techniques and technology that win today can change tomorrow and if your brand doesn’t stay in top shape, it can soon find itself out of first place.

If your brand is ready to impress the world with the power of performance that can go the long haul, we’d love to show you how we can enhance your site for results.

For a FREE Performance Audit Contact BORN XDS