Why is Page Load Time So Vital For Successful Online Businesses?

These days, online shoppers have such a broad range of products and services at their disposal. The last thing they need is slow page loading. In fact, according to numerous surveys, slow page load times are one of the primary culprits for abandoned carts and, therefore, a loss of short and long-term revenue.  

It’s a no-brainer really, as online shoppers don’t need to wait for pages to load as they browse and fill their shopping carts. The sheer volume of options makes it easy to abandon a cart and simply move to a similar website, but one with faster page load times. Bearing in mind there’s little-to-no margin for error when it comes to making a sale from an online store, slow page load times are out of the question. An Aberdeen Group report, entitled “The Performance of Web Applications: Customers are Won or Lost in One Second,” actually found that a delay in page loading of even a single second affects conversions by 7%, page views by 11%, and overall customer satisfaction by 16%.  

1. What is Page Load Time? 

In a nutshell, page load time is the time it takes for a page to display fully on a customer’s screen. The time is calculated based on the average period between page initiation and completion. Page load time is measured in seconds and is derived from two parts; network and server time and browser time. The former being based on the speed of the internet connection, and the latter being the time it takes for the browser to parse and execute the document, rendering the page and making it available for interfacing with the user.  

2. Why Page Load Time is Important?

Page Load time and time of loading for our payment page are vital for merchants. When End-Users click the “Pay” button on the merchant’s website, they expect to see the page loading (redirecting) immediately. Pages that take a long time to load or don’t load fully often result in an abandoned cart and a failed transaction. This can then lead to a drop in approval ratios. Page loading delays can occur for different reasons, including outdated devices, lousy internet connection, or other factors.

3. Overcoming Slow Page Load Times

It’s vital for any online store to overcome slow upload times, especially those who are serious about expanding their business. Zotapay’s Gateway includes a number of internal features which help to overcome the issue of slow loading times. This, in turn, improves conversion rates for businesses. Our gateway has the ability to define whether a transaction request was from a mobile device or browser and send the end-user to the appropriate cashier version for them.

4. Smooth Processing

As Zotapay is able to define region, IP, device, and other end-users parameters, this gives us the ability to provide the end-user with the most optimized version of the cashier to meet their needs. This means that clients in the farthest regions of the world with rare devices will not experience any loading issues and will be able to process their payments smoothly. This all equates to a higher approval ratio and happy merchants.  

5. Happy Shoppers = More Sales

Optimizing one’s website for ideal load times is a fantastic way to enable online shoppers to purchase goods simply, securely, and fast. The Aberdeen Group report mentioned above also found that up to 40% of shoppers will abandon a site if it takes longer than around 3 seconds to load. The bottom line here is that rapid page load times are crucial for any serious online business, especially those wanting to expand into new regions. The fact is that the old saying “every second counts” is the overriding principle, and that’s what online companies need to focus on if they want to convert more customers and reap the benefits of global online shopping. 

To find out more about how Zotapay can help your company to grow, check out our website or visit our blog for more payment industry information.