A slow e-shop is an expensive e-shop: what one second of loading does to conversion

Marketing negotiates the cost per click down to fractions of a cent, while some visitors leave before the page has even loaded. Speed is one of the cheapest marketing channels there is.

What a second does to revenue

Public studies by large retailers agree on the direction: with every extra second of waiting, the share of visitors who buy falls, and on mobile, patience runs out fastest. The exact percentage varies by industry, so calculate it conservatively. With annual revenue of one million euros, losing 5% of conversion means €50,000 of revenue a year that never shows up in your books.

A slow website also pays a price elsewhere: Google takes loading speed into account (the Core Web Vitals metrics) when ranking results, so a slow shop gets worse positions and more expensive clicks. If you’re planning a new website or web application, speed belongs in the brief from day one.

Where speed gets lost

1. 01Unoptimised images: product photos sized for print instead of for screens.
2. 02Marketing scripts: click maps, tracking pixels, chat widgets. Over the years dozens accumulate, and each one slows the page down.
3. 03A slow checkout: every wait during an order is a point where the customer leaves.

All three can be fixed without changing platforms.

Speed is part of the brand, too

Users associate slowness with the brand, even if they can’t put it into words. A fast website, on the other hand, feels trustworthy and reliable before the visitor has read the first sentence. First impressions here are measured in milliseconds.

Why a redesign usually won’t fix speed

Companies respond to a slow website with a complete redesign costing tens of thousands, and the result is often just as slow, because the cause wasn’t the look but the images, scripts and checkout. Targeted optimisation is cheaper and faster, and it often speeds up the existing site significantly without changing platforms. Measure first, then spend.

Start by measuring: the free Google PageSpeed Insights test takes a minute. Then work out what a one-second difference would bring you, and only then decide how much to invest in it.