Case Study

Milliseconds make millions

Milliseconds make millions is a new study that shows the significant impact of site speed on the customer’s actions on mobile devices. The results show that even small improvements can have a positive effect on the business results for brands.

Based on a 0.1-second improvement, the key findings they made should convince every product owner, marketing manager, or decision-maker to invest in web performance or, even better, to encourage creating a dedicated performance team.

The results reveal that mobile speed improvements have a direct correlation to improved funnel progression. Besides that, they observed a positive change in page views, conversion rates, and average order value. A 0.1-second improvement of mobile site speed increases conversion rates by 8.4% for retail sites and 10.1% for travel sites.

The need for mobile speed

Speed has a significant impact on user experience. As more and more people use their mobile phones in their daily lives, speed plays a vital role in their web experience. We, as users on the web, are sensitive. A user loses focus after 1 second (High-Performance Browser Networking - Ilya Grigorik).

TimeUser Impact
0 - 16msUsers perceive an action or animation as smooth as 60 frames are rendered every second. That is 16 ms per frame.
0 – 100 msIn this range, the user feels that the responses to his actions are instant.
100 – 300 msUsers experience a small perceptible delay.
300 - 1000 msActions feel slow, and the user recognizes that something has to be done (page load, etc.)
1000 ms - +Users will likely have a mental context switch.
10 s - +Users will leave.

Study summary

All of the improvements that were observed resulted from an 0.1s improvement of four metrics:

  • First Meaningful Paint
  • Estimated Input Latency
  • Observed Load (Avg. Page Load Time in Google Analytics)
  • Max Server Latency (Time To First Byte)

Retail

For retail, the study includes 15 brands, and the findings are based on 20.5 million user sessions with an improvement of 0.1s of the four metrics. They observed a positive change in progression through the purchase funnel on mobile devices. The user transaction increased by 8.4%, and the average order values increased by 9.2%.

Retail results

source

For retail product details page are very important. Many customers from ads will come to the product details page directly. After the improvement, they measured an increase of 3.2% from users that navigated from the product listing page to the details page. Additionally, the results show a rise of 9.1% of the users that added the product to the basket.

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Travel

The results were based on 7.4 million users for travel, and by 0.1s improvement of mobile site speed, they measured a 10.1% increment for the conversion rate. The page views per session rose by almost 3%, and the bounce rate on product listing pages decreased by 5.4%. These numbers seem little, but depending on your revenue, they can bring dollar signs into your managers’ eyes.

Travel results

source

Luxury

The data from the luxury brands based on 2.1 million user sessions had a significant impact on the user’s behavior. The results show a 40.1% increase in users that moved from the product details page to add to basket, and the bounce rate of these pages decreased by 4.8% on desktop and 3.8% on mobile.

Luxury results

source

Lead generation

Lead generation describes the consumer engagement and likelihood to convert to a customer. The data based on 505k user sessions and also had a considerable impact. They measured a 21.6% increase from the first step of the form to the form submission page, and the bounce rate decreased 8.3% on mobile and 3.4% on desktop.

Lead generation results

source

What should this tell you?

Speed is essential for your business. If your marketing manager hasn’t tried to convince your decision-makers yet, show them the study results. The numbers speak for themselves, and no one can ignore a rise in a 10% conversion rate.

Conclusion

In this post, I presented you with the new study “milliseconds make millions”. Read the full version if you want to know more.

If you like this article, smile for a moment, share it, follow me, check out my RSS feed, and subscribe to my newsletter.

Cheers Marc

Further Reading




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