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New Radware Report Reveals Top Retailers Continue to Struggle with Slow Website Load Times, Often Ignoring Industry Best Practices
Quarterly web performance "State of the Union" study reveals that website load times for the top 2,000 retailers have slowed by 22 percent in the past year
MAHWAH, New Jersey, March 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
With website load time affecting multiple critical business metrics - including return
visits, bounce rate, customer satisfaction and revenue - speed has become an increasingly
urgent issue for online retailers. To understand how this urgency has translated into
improved web performance, Radware [http://www.radware.com ](R), (NASDAQ: RDWR), a leading
provider of application delivery
[http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationDelivery/default.aspx ] and application
security [http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationNetworkSecurity/default.aspx ]
solutions for virtual and cloud data centers, today releases a new study titled, "State of
the Union: Ecommerce Page Speed & Web Performance, Spring 2013.
[http://www.radware.com/stateoftheunion-us ]" Now in its fourth edition, the study reveals
that website load time for the top 2,000 U.S. retailers slowed by 22 percent in just one
year - representing a significant degradation in performance.
To compile this year's "State of the Union" report, Radware tested the website
performance of the top 2,000 U.S. retail websites (as ranked by analytics firm Alexa.com
[http://www.alexa.com ]) over a two-week period. An in-depth look at the page composition
of each site in the Alexa Retail 2000 found that websites are plagued by more resource
requests than ever before. From December 2011 to December 2012, the number of requests has
risen by 8.22 percent due in part to an increase of web site complexity and size,
resulting in slower page load times and posing an additional challenge for retailers.
Additional key findings from the report include:
- The median load time for the Alexa 2000 retailers was 7.25 seconds - more
than double the average user threshold of just three seconds or less. The gap between
user demand and page performance continues to widen. If the current rate of slowdown
remains consistent, the median retail page could take as long as nine seconds to load
by the end of 2013.
- The top 100 retailers underperformed the rest of the pack - even though many
have made significant investment in support tools. Surprisingly, the top 100 sites had
a load time of 8.23 seconds, a full 14% slower than the overall median load time of
7.25 seconds. Top sites are also slowing down at a faster rate: 28% compared to 22%
for the top 2,000 sites.
- Mobile shoppers continue to pose a challenge for online retailers. Given the
performance challenges posed by poorer process power and 3G networks, mobile users are
more at risk of suffering significant usability handicaps.
- Firefox outperformed both Internet Explorer and Chrome. Firefox experienced
the fastest median load time of 6.64 seconds, with Chrome clocking in at a median of
7.09 seconds and Internet Explorer 9 taking the last spot, with a time of 7.25
seconds. Regardless of browser vendors' acute focus on speed, development is simply
not keeping pace with the growing size and complexity of modern web pages.
- Many retail websites still do not follow core performance best practices. The
survey found that only 25 percent of the Alexa 2000 retailers use a content delivery
network (CDN), which allows site owners to cache static page resources to shorten
server round trips. At the same time, 13 percent of sites also fail to enable
"keep-alives" and 22 percent fail to compress resources. Using these best practices
improves start render time, document complete and time to fully load - all important
performance indicators for complex websites.
"The fact that the median site has slowed down by 22% in just one year should be
alarming for retail site owners," said Joshua Bixby, vice president, application
acceleration, Radware. "This is a massive drop in performance. If this slowdown rate goes
unchecked, we will see median load times of 9 seconds or more, which is simply
unacceptable for online shoppers. As pages continue to grow bigger and more complex, site
owners need to take aggressive steps to mitigate this growth."
For recommendations on next steps and access to a complete version of the report,
please visit http://www.radware.com/stateoftheunion-us. An infographic on the findings
of page speed and web performance can be viewed at
http://www.radware.com/stateoftheunion-ig.
Methodology: "State of the Union: Ecommerce Page Speed & Web Performance Spring 2013"
Website load tests were conducted over a two-week period - December 3-14, 2012 - using
Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 17 and Chrome 23 on a DSL connection. The tests in this study
were performed using WebPagetest.org, an open source project primarily developed by
Google, which simulates page load times from a real user's perspective. Radware tested the
home page of every site in the Alexa Retail 2000 three times in a row, with the median
test results then recorded and used in calculations.
About Radware
Radware [http://www.radware.com ] (NASDAQ: RDWR), is a global leader of application
delivery [http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationDelivery/default.aspx ] and
application security
[http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationNetworkSecurity/default.aspx ] solutions for
virtual and cloud data centers. Its award-winning solutions portfolio delivers full
resilience for business-critical applications, maximum IT efficiency, and complete
business agility. Radware's solutions empower more than 10,000 enterprise and carrier
customers worldwide to adapt to market challenges quickly, maintain business continuity
and achieve maximum productivity while keeping costs down. For more information, please
visit http://www.radware.com.
Radware encourages you to join our community and follow us on; LinkedIn
[http://www.linkedin.com/company/165642 ], Radware Blog [http://blog.radware.com ],
Twitter [http://twitter.com/#!/radware ], YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/radwareinc ],
Radware Connect [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radware-connect/id391124100?mt=8 ] app
for iPhone(R) and our new security center DDoSWarriors.com [http://security.radware.com ]
that provides a comprehensive analysis on DDoS attack tools, trends and threats.
(c)2013 Radware, Ltd. All rights reserved. Radware and all other Radware product and
service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Radware in the U.S. and other
countries. All other trademarks and names are property of their respective owners.
This press release may contain statements concerning Radware's future prospects that
are "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Statements preceded by, followed by, or that otherwise include the words "believes",
"expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", and similar expressions or
future or conditional verbs such as "will", "should", "would", "may" and "could" are
generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. These statements are based
on current expectations and projections that involve a number of risks and uncertainties.
There can be no assurance that future results will be achieved, and actual results could
differ materially from forecasts and estimates. These risks and uncertainties, as well as
others, are discussed in greater detail in Radware's Annual Report on Form 20-F and
Radware's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Radware undertakes no
commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statement in order to reflect events or
circumstances after the date any such statement is made. Radware's public filings are
available from the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov
or may be obtained on Radware's website at http://www.radware.com.
Corporate Media Relations:
Brian T. Gallagher
+1-201-785-3206 (office)
+1-201-574-3840 (cell)
briang@radware.com
Radware Ltd
New Radware Report Reveals Top Retailers Continue to Struggle with Slow Website Load Times, Often Ignoring Industry Best Practices
Quarterly web performance "State of the Union" study reveals that website load times for the top 2,000 retailers have slowed by 22 percent in the past year
MAHWAH, New Jersey, March 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
With website load time affecting multiple critical business metrics - including return
visits, bounce rate, customer satisfaction and revenue - speed has become an increasingly
urgent issue for online retailers. To understand how this urgency has translated into
improved web performance, Radware [http://www.radware.com ](R), (NASDAQ: RDWR), a leading
provider of application delivery
[http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationDelivery/default.aspx ] and application
security [http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationNetworkSecurity/default.aspx ]
solutions for virtual and cloud data centers, today releases a new study titled, "State of
the Union: Ecommerce Page Speed & Web Performance, Spring 2013.
[http://www.radware.com/stateoftheunion-us ]" Now in its fourth edition, the study reveals
that website load time for the top 2,000 U.S. retailers slowed by 22 percent in just one
year - representing a significant degradation in performance.
To compile this year's "State of the Union" report, Radware tested the website
performance of the top 2,000 U.S. retail websites (as ranked by analytics firm Alexa.com
[http://www.alexa.com ]) over a two-week period. An in-depth look at the page composition
of each site in the Alexa Retail 2000 found that websites are plagued by more resource
requests than ever before. From December 2011 to December 2012, the number of requests has
risen by 8.22 percent due in part to an increase of web site complexity and size,
resulting in slower page load times and posing an additional challenge for retailers.
Additional key findings from the report include:
- The median load time for the Alexa 2000 retailers was 7.25 seconds - more
than double the average user threshold of just three seconds or less. The gap between
user demand and page performance continues to widen. If the current rate of slowdown
remains consistent, the median retail page could take as long as nine seconds to load
by the end of 2013.
- The top 100 retailers underperformed the rest of the pack - even though many
have made significant investment in support tools. Surprisingly, the top 100 sites had
a load time of 8.23 seconds, a full 14% slower than the overall median load time of
7.25 seconds. Top sites are also slowing down at a faster rate: 28% compared to 22%
for the top 2,000 sites.
- Mobile shoppers continue to pose a challenge for online retailers. Given the
performance challenges posed by poorer process power and 3G networks, mobile users are
more at risk of suffering significant usability handicaps.
- Firefox outperformed both Internet Explorer and Chrome. Firefox experienced
the fastest median load time of 6.64 seconds, with Chrome clocking in at a median of
7.09 seconds and Internet Explorer 9 taking the last spot, with a time of 7.25
seconds. Regardless of browser vendors' acute focus on speed, development is simply
not keeping pace with the growing size and complexity of modern web pages.
- Many retail websites still do not follow core performance best practices. The
survey found that only 25 percent of the Alexa 2000 retailers use a content delivery
network (CDN), which allows site owners to cache static page resources to shorten
server round trips. At the same time, 13 percent of sites also fail to enable
"keep-alives" and 22 percent fail to compress resources. Using these best practices
improves start render time, document complete and time to fully load - all important
performance indicators for complex websites.
"The fact that the median site has slowed down by 22% in just one year should be
alarming for retail site owners," said Joshua Bixby, vice president, application
acceleration, Radware. "This is a massive drop in performance. If this slowdown rate goes
unchecked, we will see median load times of 9 seconds or more, which is simply
unacceptable for online shoppers. As pages continue to grow bigger and more complex, site
owners need to take aggressive steps to mitigate this growth."
For recommendations on next steps and access to a complete version of the report,
please visit http://www.radware.com/stateoftheunion-us. An infographic on the findings
of page speed and web performance can be viewed at
http://www.radware.com/stateoftheunion-ig.
Methodology: "State of the Union: Ecommerce Page Speed & Web Performance Spring 2013"
Website load tests were conducted over a two-week period - December 3-14, 2012 - using
Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 17 and Chrome 23 on a DSL connection. The tests in this study
were performed using WebPagetest.org, an open source project primarily developed by
Google, which simulates page load times from a real user's perspective. Radware tested the
home page of every site in the Alexa Retail 2000 three times in a row, with the median
test results then recorded and used in calculations.
About Radware
Radware [http://www.radware.com ] (NASDAQ: RDWR), is a global leader of application
delivery [http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationDelivery/default.aspx ] and
application security
[http://www.radware.com/Products/ApplicationNetworkSecurity/default.aspx ] solutions for
virtual and cloud data centers. Its award-winning solutions portfolio delivers full
resilience for business-critical applications, maximum IT efficiency, and complete
business agility. Radware's solutions empower more than 10,000 enterprise and carrier
customers worldwide to adapt to market challenges quickly, maintain business continuity
and achieve maximum productivity while keeping costs down. For more information, please
visit http://www.radware.com.
Radware encourages you to join our community and follow us on; LinkedIn
[http://www.linkedin.com/company/165642 ], Radware Blog [http://blog.radware.com ],
Twitter [http://twitter.com/#!/radware ], YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/radwareinc ],
Radware Connect [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radware-connect/id391124100?mt=8 ] app
for iPhone(R) and our new security center DDoSWarriors.com [http://security.radware.com ]
that provides a comprehensive analysis on DDoS attack tools, trends and threats.
(c)2013 Radware, Ltd. All rights reserved. Radware and all other Radware product and
service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Radware in the U.S. and other
countries. All other trademarks and names are property of their respective owners.
This press release may contain statements concerning Radware's future prospects that
are "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Statements preceded by, followed by, or that otherwise include the words "believes",
"expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", and similar expressions or
future or conditional verbs such as "will", "should", "would", "may" and "could" are
generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. These statements are based
on current expectations and projections that involve a number of risks and uncertainties.
There can be no assurance that future results will be achieved, and actual results could
differ materially from forecasts and estimates. These risks and uncertainties, as well as
others, are discussed in greater detail in Radware's Annual Report on Form 20-F and
Radware's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Radware undertakes no
commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statement in order to reflect events or
circumstances after the date any such statement is made. Radware's public filings are
available from the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov
or may be obtained on Radware's website at http://www.radware.com.
Corporate Media Relations:
Brian T. Gallagher
+1-201-785-3206 (office)
+1-201-574-3840 (cell)
briang@radware.com
Radware Ltd