Web performance of etailers in decline

A new online retail report has found that the web

performance of the UK's top 50 e-tailers continued to slide in Q3.

NCC Group’s quarterly online retail report analysed the web performance of the UK’s 50 busiest retail websites in terms of traffic, measuring both the average download speed and website downtime. It found that average speed was down in the quarter and that there was an increase in website downtime compared to the first half of 2012.

Bob Dowson, director of NCC Group’s website performance division, said: "We’re approaching the most important time of year for e-tailers, but this indicates that the big players are not at all prepared."

The websites averaged a download speed of 6.62 seconds over a connection speed of 2 Mbps; falling significantly short of the 3 second target that most e-tailers aim for. This was a full second slower than in both Q1 and Q2. The report also showed that website downtime had increased by over 50% - at 3 hours and 29 minutes – up from 2 hours and 5 minutes in the second quarter of 2012.

Dowson continued: "With online retail traffic increasing year on year, e-tailers should be putting more resources into improving their website performance. The statistics from this report are not at all encouraging.