Small announcement: There will be no issue next week. I am attending Figma Config.
🎯 The Metric
Page Load Time
We all know how frustrating it is when a website won’t load.
Most companies think of performance as a technical problem, but it’s also a UX problem. Users don't care why a page is slow. They only know that they're stuck waiting and having a poor experience.
When people have to wait, many of them leave.
The Hard Data (Portent 2022)
A website that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3 times higher than one that loads in 5 seconds. The difference is even more pronounced with websites that take 10 seconds or more to load. A website that loads in 1 second will have 5 times higher conversion rates than truly slow websites like that. Even small delays can have measurable business consequences because they affect every user who interacts with your product.
The Revenue Impact
Performance affects quite a few business metrics.
Slow pages reduce the number of people who buy things, increase the number of people who leave, lower, engagement, and make it harder to get new customers because fewer visitors make it through the process.
Making your website faster benefits every user right away. A faster experience means more people reach the moments where value is created.
💼 The Case Study
Faster Pages Helped FavoriteBikes Increase Conversions by 47%
FavoriteBikes is an online ecommerce company selling bikes and cycling equipment. They found that their website faced challenges in turning visitors into paying customers, although traffic levels were healthy. An analysis showed that the website was plagued by poor UX and performance issues. Pages loaded slowly, product information was difficult to scan, and the mobile experience created friction throughout the buying journey.
The Experiment
They redesigned their website entirely with a special focus on usability and speed. The redesign improved navigation, simplified the user journey, optimized page layouts, reduced unnecessary complexity, and significantly boosted loading performance across the website. Notably, the redesign reduced page load times by 50%.
The Results
After launching the redesign:
Conversion rate increased from 1.27% to 1.87%.
Revenue per visitor increased significantly.
Page load times improved by 50%.
The Why
Momentum. Every successful ecommerce experience builds momentum toward a purchase, and slow load times interrupt that. Users become distracted, lose confidence, or abandon the purchase altogether. By reducing load times and simplifying the shopping experience, FavoriteBikes made it easier for customers to focus on completing their purchase.
📈 The “Founder’s ROI” Calculator
Let’s imagine this scenario with some numbers.
Monthly visitors: 10,000
Current conversion rate: 1.27%
Average order value: $100
With those stats, your ecommerce business’s MRR is $127,000 on average.
Now imagine you achieve a similar conversion lift to FavoriteBikes.
New conversion rate: 1.87%
Additional revenue: $60,000/month
New MRR: $187,000/month
📚 The Reading List
Website Response Times: The 3 Important Limits (Nielsen Norman Group)
Learn why even small delays have an outsized effect on user behavior and satisfaction.
The majority of marketers don’t make page speed a priority, even though they know it’s important, but nearly 70% of customers say it affects their willingness to buy from an ecommerce shop.
How fast should your website load? by Bram Vergouwen (Seobility)
Aim for a load time under 2 seconds, a PageSpeed score of 90+, and a server response time under 500ms.
👋 That’s all!
If you found this useful, forward it to someone who is interested in what design can do.
