STATE OF THE UNIONEuropean Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance

STATE OF THE UNION European Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance Report

Smart Network. Smart Business. 2

Table of Contents

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... 3

How the Top 20 Retailers Performed............................................................................................................ 3

Key Findings: Analysis and Interpretation ..................................................................................................... 4

Finding #1: Page speed is not meeting the demands of online shoppers. ................................................. 4

Finding #2: One out of three pages contained 100+ resource requests. ................................................... 4

Finding #3: Many sites do not follow core performance best practices...................................................... 5

Finding #4: Firefox 17 outperformed other browsers. .............................................................................. 6

Finding #5: Ecommerce web performance in Europe and the U.S. is strikingly similar. ............................... 7

Takeaways ................................................................................................................................................. 7

Methodology .............................................................................................................................................. 8

About Radware ........................................................................................................................................... 8

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STATE OF THE UNION European Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance Report

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Executive SummaryAround the world, the speed with which websites and web applications perform is emerging as a critical business issue. While this awareness lags in some parts of the world more than others, what is certain is that internet users are very aware of the issue of poor website performance, regardless of their location. In 2011, a UK survey of more than 1,500 web users found that: •71%ofrespondentssaytheyareregularlyinconveniencedbyslowwebsites. •Halfbelievethatwebsiteseitherhavenotimprovedinspeedorhavebecomesloweroverthepastfiveyears. •42%ofmenand35%ofwomenhavedecidednottouseacompanyagainasaresultofexperiencinga slow website.1

InNovemberandDecemberof2012,Radwareconductedthefirst-eversurveyofpageloadtimesfortheIR400--thetop400ecommercesitesinEurope,aslistedbyInternetRetailer.One of the goals of this research was to determine if European websites are meeting the performance expectations of internet users. After 3 seconds, at least 57% of online shoppers say they will abandon a site, and up to 80% will not return.2

Eachsitewastestedacrossseveraldesktopbrowserversions:InternetExplorer7-9,Firefox17,andChrome23.Unlessotherwisespecified,theresultsdiscussedinthisreportareforChrome,duetothefactthatitisthemostwidelyadoptedbrowserintheEU,withamarketshareof33%asofNovember2012.

The results were also compared to similar data collected for leading U.S. websites.3

Ourkeyfindingsaredescribedindetailinthisreport and summarized below:

1 Need for Speed, 1&1 Internet, 2011

2ConsumerResponsetoTravelSitePerformance, PhoCusWright,2010

3 Fall 2012 State of the Union: Page Speed and Website Performance, Strangeloop Networks

Key Findings

1. With a load time of 7.04 seconds, the median web page does not meet the 3-secondloadtimethatmostonline shoppers demand. 1 out of 4 ecommerce sites takes 10+ seconds to load.

2. 1 out of 3 pages contained 100+ resource requests.

3. Many ecommerce sites do not follow core performance best practices.

4.Firefox17outperformedChrome23and InternetExplorer9.

5. Ecommerce web performance in Europe and the U.S. is strikingly similar.

How the Top 20 Retailers PerformedThe following is a performance snapshot for the top 20 retailers.Loadtimesrangedbetween1.72and11.29seconds, with a median of 6.15 seconds.

IR Rank Company Load Time (seconds)

1 Amazon.co.uk 3.84

2 Otto Group 5.22

3 Tesco 1.72

4 Staples 1.80

5 PPR 7.44

6 Home Retail Group 10.39

7 Shop Direct 1.69

8 Apple 3.71

9 Cdiscount 11.04

10 3 Suisses 4.64

11 Sainsbury’s 6.38

12 Currys 7.15

13 Carrefour 3.29

14 Vente-Privee 3.34

15 Next.co.uk 7.50

16 John Lewis 5.92

17 ASDA 7.65

18 Neckermann.at 6.91

19 Marks & Spencer 6.46

20 Comet.co.uk 11.29

STATE OF THE UNION European Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance Report

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Key Findings: Analysis and InterpretationExceptwherespecificallynoted,theresultsdiscussedinthisreportareforpagestestedonChrome22.(Readthe“Executive Summary” section of this report to understand why.)

Finding #1: Page speed is not meeting the demands of online shoppers.Themedianloadtimeforfirst-timevisitorstoahomepageintheEuropeanInternetRetailer400was7.04seconds. For returning visitors, the median load time was 1.81 seconds.

Thesefindingslagsignificantlybehindtheoptimalpageloadtimeforonlineretailers:3secondsorless.After 3 seconds, at least 57% of online shoppers say they will abandon a site, and up to 80% will not return. For ecommercesites,slowpageshavebeenlinkedtosignificantlossacrosskeyperformanceindicators,includingpage views, conversions, and revenue.

1 out of 4 ecommerce sites takes 10+ seconds to load.

It is important to note that these are median results. Looking at individual page results presents a more nuanced picture that demonstrates how many sites are not meeting consumer expectations. As the histogram on this page illustrates,manysitesperformedmuchmorepoorlythan7.04seconds:24%ofthesitestook10secondsormoretoload,and8%took15secondsormore.

Finding #2: One out of three pages contained 100+ resource requests.Pageresourcesarethecontentobjectsineverywebpage--includingCSS,JavaScript,andimagefiles.Eachofthese resources represents one server round trip that is needed to pull all the page’s resources to the user’s browser.

The median IR 400 site had 76 resource requests. But, as with the load time results, this median number gives only a partial understanding of the resource issue. Looking at the full set of results, as presented in this histogram, it is noteworthy that one out of three of the pages tested contained 100 or more resource requests, and2%contained200ormorerequests.

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Load time (seconds

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

Median Load Time7.04 seconds

STATE OF THE UNION European Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance Report

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What this meansEvery page resource experiences some degree of latency -- the amount of time it takes for the host server to receive and process the request for that specific resource. Latency varies according to how far away the user is from the host server. Typically, latency is between 75 and 140 milliseconds for every resource, even for sites that useaCDN.Themoreresourcesapagecontains,thegreaterthecumulativelatency.

Images and third-party scripts are the primary contributors to page bloat. Images account for more than half of apage’stotalpayload,whilethird-partyscripts–suchasads,pageanalytics,andsocialsharingbuttons–arethefastest-growingareaofpagegrowth.

While “reduce server round trips” is a core principle of web performance optimization, this principle is easier said than followed. Ecommerce sites are in a perpetual struggle to balance the competitive advantage of offering bandwidth-intensivecontentagainsttheinevitablelostrevenuecausedbyslowerpages.Siteownersmustconsider the demands of shoppers, who expect to see multiple detailed product images, as well as marketing departmentsthatwishtoimplementthelatestconversion-boostingpagetools.

Finding #3: Many sites do not follow core performance best practices.We measured each site’s implementation of three core performance best practices: 1. Use a CDN--Acontentdeliverynetwork(CDN)isacollectionofwebserversdistributedacrossmultiple locationstodelivercontentmoreefficientlytousers. 2. Enable keep-alives--ToomanyTCPconnectionswillslowdownasite.Enablingkeep-alivesallowssiteowners tocontrolhowmanytimestheTCPconnectiontakesplace. 3. Compress text--Compressingresourcescanreducethenumberofbytessentoverthenetwork.

Accordingtoourfindings,mostsiteownersaremissingoutononeormoreopportunitiestoplucklow-hangingperformance fruit and improve the speed of their pages.

Morethanthree-quartersoftheIR400sitesdonotusearecognizedcontentdelivery network to cache static resources closer to their users.

Ofthe400sitestested,only85(21%)usearecognizedCDN.4SiteownerswhodonotuseaCDNmaynotchooseto do so because their consumer base is not widely dispersed; however, any company that is seeking to expand its audiencegeographicallywillquicklyrealizethataCDNisanessentialtool. 4 A“recognizedCDN”referstoanyCDNlistedinthedirectoryofCDNsmaintainedbyWebPagetest,thetestingtoolusedtogatherdataforthisreport. While this directory is extensive, it is not exhaustive.

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STATE OF THE UNION European Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance Report

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Keep-alivesandcompressionaretwooftheeasiest-to-implementtechniquesavailabletosite

owners,yet9.5%ofIR400sitesfailedtoimplementkeep-alivesand19.5%failedtousecompression.

Implementingkeep-alivesandcompressioncanhaveadramaticimpactonpagespeed,improvingstartrendertimebyupto52%andloadtimebyupto31%.

Finding #4: Firefox 17 outperformed other browsers.The median load time for each browser suggests the following ranking:

We also tested each site on Internet Explorer 7 and 8, and found that, whileperformancewassignificantlypoorerinIE7,theIE8resultswerenotmarkedly different from the results for the newer browser versions:

What this meansWhilethemedianFirefoxresultwas4.4%fasterthanthemedianresultforInternetExplorer9,thisfindingcannotbesaidtodefinitivelyanswerthequestion of which browser offers the best performance. In recent years, speed has emerged as a highly competitive issue in browser development; however, browser performance is nuanced and cannot be summed up simply. These test results are just one part of a larger picture.

85 out of 400 sitesuse a CDN (21%)

21%

38 out of 400 sitesdo not use

keep-alives (9.5%)

9.5%

78 out of 400 sitesdo not use text

compression (19.5%)

19.5%

Firefox6.98 seconds

1st

Chrome7.04 seconds

2nd

Internet Explorer 97.30 seconds

3rd

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

IE8 7.37s

IE7 9.35s

Note: Our tests were able to simulate how fast each site loads for a real user who is viewing only one site at a time within the browser. The tests did not include:

1. Browser performance under stress from having multiple tabs open simultaneously.2. Browser performance degradationovertime(i.e., the longer the browser remains open, its likelihood of crashing).3. Browser performance when visiting sites that use HTML5 or Flash, or when watching videos.4. Usability. This often boils down to personal preference, as some users prefer minimal functionality, whereas others prefer a more feature-richbrowser.

STATE OF THE UNION European Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance Report

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Finding #5: Ecommerce web performance in Europe and the U.S. is strikingly similar.WecomparedtheInternetRetailer400findingstodatafromasimilarstudypublishedinFall2012,whichsurveyedthetop2,000ecommercesites(asrankedbyAlexa.com)intheUnitedStates.5 While the data sets are different in sizeandscope,itisveryinterestingtonotehowsimilarmanyofthefindingsare.

Median load timesThemedianIR400sitetook1.6%longer(7.02seconds)toloadthanthemedianAlexasite(6.91seconds)onChrome.

Resource requestsThe median IR400 page had 76 resources, compared to 77 for the median Alexa page.

CDN useCDNusestoodat21%fortheIR400and23%fortheAlexa2000.

Core best practices: keep-alives and compressionTherewassomewhatmorevarianceintheseareas.FortheIR400,keep-aliveswereenabledin91.5%ofsites,comparedto88%oftheAlexasites.Compressionwasusedin80.5%oftheIR400sites,comparedto70%oftheAlexa sites.

Takeaways 1. Optimal performance is a constantly moving target. As pages contain to grow in size and complexity, site owners are tasked with ensuring that their pages meet their customers’ need for pages that load in 3 seconds or less.

2. Real-user testing and benchmarking is a critical activity for site owners. With the growing number of syntheticandreal-timemeasurementtoolsavailable,thereisnoreasonwhyeverysiteownershouldnotbe able to keep ongoing tabs on the performance of their sites.

3. While newer browsers can sometimes offer slightly better performance than older browsers, they are not a catch-all solution.Browserscanmitigatesomeperformanceissues,buttheycannotfixpagesthatare excessively bulky, poorly designed, or badly optimized.

4. Site owners should ensure that their sites are grabbing the low-hanging performance fruit.Keep-alivesand compressionaretwooftheeasiest-to-implementtechniquesavailabletositeowners,yet9.5%ofIR400sites failedtoimplementkeep-alivesand19.5%failedtousecompression.Combined,thesetwopracticescan haveadramaticimpactonpagespeed,improvingstartrendertimebyupto52%andloadtimebyupto31%.

5 Fall 2012 State of the Union: Page Speed and Website Performance, Strangeloop Networks

Keep-alives:91.5% (IR400)

88% (Alexa)

Compress Text:80.5% (IR400)

70% (Alexa)

STATE OF THE UNION European Ecommerce Page Speed and Web Performance Report

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MethodologyThe tests in this study were conducted using a tool called WebPagetest–anopen-sourceprojectprimarilydevelopedandsupportedbyGoogle–whichsimulatespageloadtimesfromarealuser’sperspectiveusingrealbrowsers. We tested the home page of every site in Internet Retailer’s Europe 400 list three consecutive times. (Thesystemclearscachebetweenpageloads.)Themediantestresultforeachhomepagewasrecordedandusedinourcalculations.Thetestswereconductedoverathree-weekperiod–November21toDecember14,2012–viatheWebPagetest.orgserverinAmsterdam,NL,usingthefollowingbrowsersonaDSLconnection:

•InternetExplorer7,8and9 •Firefox17 •Chrome23

In very few cases, WebPagetest.org rendered a blank page or an error in which none of the page rendered. These instances are represented as null in the test appendix. Also, in very few cases, Webpagetest.org rendered a page inmorethen60seconds(thedefaulttimeoutforwebpagetest.org).Inthesecases,60secondswasusedfortheresult instead of null.

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