Half a bull ride

Not only do you not have a second chance to make a first impression, online retailers only have four seconds (on average) to retain shoppers:

Four seconds is the maximum length of time an average online shopper will wait for a Web page to load before potentially abandoning a retail site. This is one of several key findings revealed in a report made available today by Akamai Technologies, Inc., commissioned through JupiterResearch, that examines consumer reaction to a poor online shopping experience.

The report ranked poor site performance as second only to high product prices and shipping costs as leading factors for dissatisfaction among online shoppers. …

Additional findings in the report show that more than one-third of shoppers with a poor experience abandoned the site entirely, while 75 percent were likely not to shop on that site again. These results demonstrate that a poorly performing website can be damaging to a company’s reputation; according to the survey, nearly 30 percent of dissatisfied customers will either develop a negative perception of the company or tell their friends and family about the experience.

According to the study, checkout time is also a major factor for online shoppers. I think I give a site a little more leeway when it comes to time in loading, but my main frustration is usually on site layout and poor search engines. If the site doesn't feel intuitive or doesn’t return anything close to what I’m searching for, I’m prone to bail on the site.

I find the four-second result fascinating. What are the benefits of shopping online vs. going to a store? If you are saving a lot of time by shopping online, why such a short timeframe for the site to respond? If just goes to show how fast our expectations change. I would love to see a similar study done say in 2000, when more people had dial-up connections.

I can’t find whoever originally linked this study, but thanks if you did!