Every second counts in the world of ecommerce, but many retailers overlook just how much slow page speed is actually costing them. We’ll take a look at data insights, the real impact of slow load times, and how a performance-first approach from trusted experts, like Reckless, can help improve your performance.
The cost of waiting: Why speed = sales
In modern society, instant gratification is the norm, and shoppers are losing patience faster than ever. The longer you keep customers waiting, the more likely they are to abandon your website and go elsewhere. In fact, 73% of consumers say they’d try a different website if one is too slow — a clear warning of just how much revenue slow load times could cost you.
Amazon found that a 100-millisecond delay in page load time could result in a 1% drop in revenue; for them, that’s around $3.8 billion a year. While your business might not be operating at that scale, the impact still adds up. If your site brings in £100k a day, a 1% drop means losing £1,000 daily or £365,000 over the course of a year. All from a fraction of a second.
Real-world revenue losses: The proof is in the data
Slow page speed can be a real problem. HoweverBut, by improving the speed of your ecommerce store, you can experience positive results, as demonstrated by the case studies below.
Photobox was experiencing a slow page load speed, which was impacting user experience and customer retention. By implementing a headless CMS, Photobox was able to reduce page load speed by 50%, which improved retention and UX and, ultimately, led to business growth.
Similarly, the Renault Group found a correlation between Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and conversion rates after analysing 10 million landing page visits. By optimising LCP to under one second, they experienced a 13% increase in conversion rate.
Finally, Furnspace had large images on their website that were contributing to slow page speed load times. By optimising their images, they saw a load speed reduction of 65%. This led to a 20% lower bounce rate and a 2x increase in conversions.
Understanding core web vitals: The Google gold standard
Understanding Core Web Vitals is essential to ecommerce success. Simply put, they are the metrics Google uses to measure real-world user experience for page loading speed, interactivity, and how visually stable a page is. A combination of these metrics allows Google to understand how well your website performs and how easy it is for people to use it.
The three metrics that make up Core Web Vitals are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). We’ll explain what each of these means in more detail below.
Largest Contentful Paint: LCP is simply the web page loading speed. It measures how long it takes for the largest element on the page to become visible to users. Ideally, this should be 2.5 seconds or less.
First Input Delay: FID measures how long it takes for the browser to process an interaction. For example, when a user lands on a page and clicks a button or a link, this metric tracks how long it takes for the browser to respond.
Cumulative Layout Shifts: CLS measures the visual stability of the page. It looks at how much the page layout moves unexpectedly while it is loading, leading to accidental clicks and a poor browsing experience. Failing Core Web Vitals, your SEO performance can tank, which can frustrate customers and lead to a decrease in revenue.
Improve your speed. Improve your performance
If you suspect page load speed might be causing you some issues, it’s time to put some work into optimising your website.
A trusted agency, like Reckless, can carry out an audit of your site, plan a strategy for improving your page speed and implement the changes on your existing platform. However, if your existing platform is no longer suitable, that’s where Aero comes in.
Aero’s platform is built for speed with proven performance. The performance-first philosophy is designed with ecommerce retailers in mind to help generate more money with a lightning-fast platform. Say goodbye to old, clunky legacy platforms with guaranteed sub 1.5-second load times from Aero.
Speed isn’t just technical, it’s commercial
Slow sites don’t just frustrate users; they stall growth. Every delay costs you in conversions, customer trust, and ultimately, revenue.
Speed is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It’s a competitive advantage. Faster sites rank better, convert more, and retain more customers. And with platforms like Aero, lightning-fast performance isn’t just possible, it’s guaranteed.
So if your site feels sluggish, don’t shrug it off. Because chances are, your customers won’t wait around.
Time to speed up — or fall behind.
Need help speeding up your site?
If you’d like to understand what’s slowing your store down, and how to fix it, Reckless can help. From performance audits to full-scale replatforming, we work with ambitious retailers to turn slow sites into high-performing ones.
Drop us a line at studio@reckless.agency or visit reckless.agency to get started.
