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Most people are unwilling to wait more than 30 seconds for a Web site to load before taking their custom to a rival online store, research has found.

A study by Tickbox found 89.5 percent of survey respondents would go to a competing store if their preferred Web site was down.

Mike Tobin, chief executive of hosting company TelecityRedbus, which commissioned the study, said the Internet is giving customers more reasons to shop around.

He said: "Online brand loyalty is so fragile. You have to be really on the ball if you want to do anything that creates brand loyalty. You have to make sure your foundations are right."

The vast majority (85 percent) of the 2,000 people surveyed said downtime has an adverse effect on a business' reputation.

Tobin added: "A company's Web site being down for 10 minutes is no longer a short-term problem. By having an unavailable or slow-loading Web site, a company is missing out on future revenue from frustrated consumers."

The top three reasons to move to an alternative Web site were poor customer service (70.8 percent), slow loading time (68.9 percent) and non-delivery on items ordered (68.5 percent).

Talkback

Surely this doesn't just relate to web sites being out of action but also those that are far too showy and take too long to load, even in these days of broadband.
For example websites built using Flash. Where are the HTML only page buttons?
The time taken to load combined with the 'back' button resetting the flash site is so frustrating the I no longer bother.
Web developers please feel free to show off using these fancy tools but give us a more useable option as an alternative.
Admittedly this tends to be the more high street style shops and or brands but I can't be the only one annoyed by this?

via Facebook 8 May, 2006 12:37
Reply

You are right about this, websites that have too much flash and not enough usability need reshaping!!

They also dont seem to have taken into account the type of item being bought or the urgency with which is is required.

If i am looking for personal IT equipment i will only buy from one supplier, the cheapest on the internet. if their site is down i wait a few hours and try again, if it is still down i will wait until the next day. If it is a purchase for a client i will research the cheapest price and try them, if it is not urgent i will wait.

If something is an impulse purchase and the cheapest site i have found is down i will go and visit an alternate site or even ebay / amazon to see what their second hand alternatives are.

The research is good, yes people will go and visit other websites quite easily however it depends on what they are purchasing and how savvy the person really is.

via Facebook 10 May, 2006 17:49
Reply

Surely this has been the case forever, even in the days of 56K modems!?!.... Even with today's conenction speeds, i think it still stands true today. I know personally, if a site takes a while to load, i don't bother waiting and go elsewhere....

modafo 3 November, 2006 17:40
Reply

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