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2015 Holiday Shoppers Demand High-Performing Websites

Ann Ruckstuhl

What attributes do consumers expect from shopping sites? It's a question of critical importance to Internet retailers. At this time of the year, retail and ecommerce businesses are bracing for 15% more holiday shoppers than last year. What can they do to ensure that they get a generous slice of the holiday pie?

Image removed.

With the holidays on the horizon, SOASTA has released the results of a survey gauging the extent to which consumers' online behavior would be affected if websites had performance grades.

According to SOASTA's survey, website performance will strongly influence how Americans do their online holiday shopping. In fact, 70 percent of Americans' browsing and online shopping habits would be influenced by website performance grades, including how and where they would do their online holiday shopping.

Millennials' Need for Speed

Millennials in particular push holiday ecommerce performance. Among survey respondents, a whopping 75 percent of Millennial men and 81 percent of Millennial women said their browsing behaviors would be affected if websites had performance grades (compared to the 70 percent of the general American population cited above). Fifty-three percent of Millennial women said they would skip online shopping sites with poor grades, and 56 percent said they would do more shopping on sites with good grades.

Women are Santa's #1 Helpers

When asked in which situations Americans most rely on websites, 46 percent of American women said "online holiday shopping" as did 32 percent of American men. However, no other demographic group shops online as often as Millennial women. While the average American finds a website most important for online holiday shopping, 58 percent of Millennial women report that online holiday shopping is the most important use of a website.

Are Most Internet Retailers Failing Shoppers?

When asked which websites are generally best performing, Americans are hard-pressed to name any that are top performing, suggesting that for most sites, there is room for improvement. Only 19 percent said that consumer product sites are generally the best performing, and only 17 percent praised big box store sites.

The Importance of Getting an A on Your Report Card

So, going back to my original question — what shopping site attributes do consumers value most? Our survey findings make it clear that only the top-performing sites will earn their business, by offering superior:
■ Ease of navigation

■ Speed

■ Reliability

The reality is that no one wants to shop online for the holidays at a retail site that received a failing, or even average, grade in website performance. These findings suggest that Internet retailers with lower scores could benefit significantly by improving the performance of their websites.

Holiday shoppers are pressed for time, in a hurry to complete dozens of tasks on their holiday to-do lists. They just don't have the time to wait around if a site is slow, for example. And if they move on, they won't make purchases and, perhaps more importantly, will likely not return.

Image removed.

Ann Ruckstuhl is CMO of SOASTA.

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2015 Holiday Shoppers Demand High-Performing Websites

Ann Ruckstuhl

What attributes do consumers expect from shopping sites? It's a question of critical importance to Internet retailers. At this time of the year, retail and ecommerce businesses are bracing for 15% more holiday shoppers than last year. What can they do to ensure that they get a generous slice of the holiday pie?

Image removed.

With the holidays on the horizon, SOASTA has released the results of a survey gauging the extent to which consumers' online behavior would be affected if websites had performance grades.

According to SOASTA's survey, website performance will strongly influence how Americans do their online holiday shopping. In fact, 70 percent of Americans' browsing and online shopping habits would be influenced by website performance grades, including how and where they would do their online holiday shopping.

Millennials' Need for Speed

Millennials in particular push holiday ecommerce performance. Among survey respondents, a whopping 75 percent of Millennial men and 81 percent of Millennial women said their browsing behaviors would be affected if websites had performance grades (compared to the 70 percent of the general American population cited above). Fifty-three percent of Millennial women said they would skip online shopping sites with poor grades, and 56 percent said they would do more shopping on sites with good grades.

Women are Santa's #1 Helpers

When asked in which situations Americans most rely on websites, 46 percent of American women said "online holiday shopping" as did 32 percent of American men. However, no other demographic group shops online as often as Millennial women. While the average American finds a website most important for online holiday shopping, 58 percent of Millennial women report that online holiday shopping is the most important use of a website.

Are Most Internet Retailers Failing Shoppers?

When asked which websites are generally best performing, Americans are hard-pressed to name any that are top performing, suggesting that for most sites, there is room for improvement. Only 19 percent said that consumer product sites are generally the best performing, and only 17 percent praised big box store sites.

The Importance of Getting an A on Your Report Card

So, going back to my original question — what shopping site attributes do consumers value most? Our survey findings make it clear that only the top-performing sites will earn their business, by offering superior:
■ Ease of navigation

■ Speed

■ Reliability

The reality is that no one wants to shop online for the holidays at a retail site that received a failing, or even average, grade in website performance. These findings suggest that Internet retailers with lower scores could benefit significantly by improving the performance of their websites.

Holiday shoppers are pressed for time, in a hurry to complete dozens of tasks on their holiday to-do lists. They just don't have the time to wait around if a site is slow, for example. And if they move on, they won't make purchases and, perhaps more importantly, will likely not return.

Image removed.

Ann Ruckstuhl is CMO of SOASTA.

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E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

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The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

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The pressure on IT teams has never been greater. As data environments grow increasingly complex, resource shortages are emerging as a major obstacle for IT leaders striving to meet the demands of modern infrastructure management ... According to DataStrike's newly released 2025 Data Infrastructure Survey Report, more than half (54%) of IT leaders cite resource limitations as a top challenge, highlighting a growing trend toward outsourcing as a solution ...

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Gartner revealed its top strategic predictions for 2025 and beyond. Gartner's top predictions explore how generative AI (GenAI) is affecting areas where most would assume only humans can have lasting impact ...

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating across the telecoms industry, with 88% of fixed broadband service providers now investigating or trialing AI automation to enhance their fixed broadband services, according to new research from Incognito Software Systems and Omdia ...

 

AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

Imagine a future where software, once a complex obstacle, becomes a natural extension of daily workflow — an intuitive, seamless experience that maximizes productivity and efficiency. This future is no longer a distant vision but a reality being crafted by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ...

Enterprise data sprawl already challenges companies' ability to protect and back up their data. Much of this information is never fully secured, leaving organizations vulnerable. Now, as GenAI platforms emerge as yet another environment where enterprise data is consumed, transformed, and created, this fragmentation is set to intensify ...

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