INTERNET LAW - Slow-loading Websites May Cause Loss of Revenue for E-commerce Businesses

Marketing and internet search engine companies have recently reported that slow-loading websites may cause loss of revenue and clients for e-commerce businesses.  Visitors may divert to other web pages when they have to wait too long for a webpage to appear on their screens.  Similarly, search engines cannot load a page properly when the page is too slow.  In both scenarios e-business are loosing marketing opportunities.  Forrester Research and Gartner Group, reported that "ecommerce sites are losing $1.1 to $1.3 billion in revenue each year due to customer click-away caused by slow loading websites."     

Size and complexity of the content are the major reasons for slow web sites.  Text-only sites may be faster than web sites containing graphics and variety of information, like shopping sites.  Yet, experts advise to have web pages load in less than 12 seconds in a 56k modem and include JavaScript which speeds the loading time and benefits indexing.   

Logos, designs, effects, etc. are great enhancement tools but they may harm e-business more than providing a nice appearance.  People go to a website looking for information and that is what they want to get, information in some timely manner.  Colors, fonts and other design specification should be included in a CSS file so the loading speed is not affected, experts said. 

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