Consumers wait about 3 seconds before ditching a website: report

Photo of person using their cellphone and laptop simultaneously to monitor online news.
FILE PHOTO. Photo credit Getty Images

LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Think about it, how long do you give a website to load before you give up and close the page? The average is about three seconds, according to a recent survey.

Digital.com surveyed 1,250 online shoppers to determine what their habits are when it comes to online web pages — and it wasn't pretty for finicky pages.

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More than half of the group said they give it about three seconds before they call it quits on a website, even if they have items in their cart.

"The results show that customers know their time is valuable and are prepared to spend their money elsewhere if they feel e-commerce sites are wasting their precious seconds," the review site wrote.

They added that about 21% of those surveyed said slow-loading pages were a main source of dissatisfaction with online shopping. Though it is important to consider that some Wi-Fi providers or cell phone services could be to blame for the lag in some cases.

"39% [of online shoppers] think pages on e-commerce sites should take, at most, two to three seconds to load," survey results showed, while 14% of that same group said they want pages to load in just one second.

Digital marketing executive Huy Nguyen said the results are out of line with other online consumers.

"In today’s digitally-connected world, where many people have access to high-speed internet at home and on the go through their mobile devices, it’s completely reasonable for consumers to expect a quick and easy online shopping experience," Nguyen said.

He added that sometimes, too many large elements on a page can lead to slowness and said there are several tools website managers can use to check their loading times in order to better serve customers.

Digital.com found that load speed affected customer's overall wish to bother returning to a site, with 16% saying they would not go back if they had a tough time the first go around.

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Featured Image Photo Credit: Getty Images