We have often heard the phrase-’Slow and steady wins the race’ and whilst there is no denying the wisdom in that philosophy it is a little different when it comes to mobile digital platforms where speed matters!
Let’s dive into this digital philosophy and find out why…
Most businesses in recent years have now integrated e-commerce but have yet to look to ‘mobile site speed’ as a major growth driver. The reason for this is- there are many growth strategies as there are businesses and too often in the clutter filled world of digital marketing- mobile web somehow takes a backseat even though it is a crucial factor in all strategic areas like SEO, PPC, SEM and so on. In fact mobile web at present is the most widely used platform, especially in a world where people have a million ways to search, browse and shop than ever before.
So the question to ask is- is it enough to just have a mobile presence? Or is your business able to deliver a speedy mobile experience that your customers expect?
And this not only affects the bottom line but also presents any business that has a mobile site with a simple choice- either provide their customers the kind of mobile experience they deserve or be prepared to lose them- fast!
This also highlights the relation between page load time and page abandonment and the more the load time, the higher the chances of abandonment and thus a significant revenue drop.
– 46% said that waiting for pages is tiresome work.
– 53% users abandoned the site if pages took more than 3 seconds to load.
– 65% users assume that brand is not up to mark if its website takes the time to load.
A page which takes 6 seconds to load would experience 50% conversation loss. Walmart stated that – for every 100ms improvement in the speed, extra 1% revenue is gained. And this 1% revenue comprises of a billion dollars.
Your page load time impacts your SEO rating. The presence of social media resulted in an increase of 202% in e-commerce.
If a slow mobile experience can drive customers way, then isn’t it easy to figure that a fast and speedy mobile platform can not only bring in more customers but also build brand loyalty since 70% of web traffic comes from mobile devices.
If increasing sales, reducing transformation costs and optimising brand experience is the name of the game for you and your company then focussing on speed will unlock growth like never before.
Every e-commerce organisation asks the veritable question- what should my ideal site speed be?
Google’s site performance for webmaster states that – “e-commerce website should not take more than 2 seconds time.” Google expects this time under half a second. So the answer for a speedy mobile app development can be placed like this. A website should load between 500 milliseconds to 2 seconds maximum.
One of the ways to go about doing this is to work with your existing web developers/ digital team, and conduct a trial of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) as it’s commonly known. It’s an open source standard that enables and assists in building near-instant load times on mobile pages.
In fact, our clients have found that optimising load times for their mobile sites by 70%- from 6 seconds to only 2 seconds in 3G connections improved their company’s click through rate by 25-30% – You do the MATHS!
It doesn’t really matter if you are in the e-commerce business or not, mobile speed does affect your bottom line one way or another.
BMW proved this when it revamped its mobile site in an effort to invoke the same feelings of speed, performance, and reliability as its cars. BMW supercharged its website using AMP and Progressive Web Apps (PWA) — state-of-the-art technology for reliable, smooth, and secure web experiences that responds quickly to user interactions, even under poor network conditions. And what happened next? The proportion of people clicking from BMW.com to a BMW sales site soared from 8% to 30%, nearly 4X higher than before.
So there you are- start by diving into your brand’s mobile site speed.
Discern in working with a team/digital agency that is transparent and ethical.
Making the wise choice of where and how to invest is one of the most important business decisions and at Elixir, we want to make it simpler and easy for businesses to invest wisely in mobile speed improvements.
Google has rolled out a new Test My Site tool to help businesses understand, measure, and benchmark their mobile site speed. Feel free to get in touch with us and we will give you some valuable insights that will set the stage to unlock growth by better understanding how to deliver fast mobile experiences that your consumers demand in 2019 and going forward.
Come have a cuppa with us.
Our ethos @Elixir is that we love to give back to the world by working with our clients and fostering long term relationships.
Our brand founder and author of this blog Chetan Jha is leading not just change but also innovation across the board through best practises that echo compassion understanding and reflection. To know more, email us: [email protected]