Survey: Two-Thirds of E-Commerce Leaders Worried that Website Images Slow Performance, Lose Customers

Fears Include SERP Rank Reduction, Slipping SEO Standing, and Shopping Cart Concerns

LiquidPixels, Inc., the premier provider of enterprise class dynamic imaging solutions, announced the results of a new survey that surfaced fears from e-commerce and retail website leaders over the effects of sub-optimal image performance on their websites. A lack of site image analytics and increased complaints about slow load times have retail leaders anxious about the holiday season. Worries include sagging sales, second-page SERP rankings, unsatisfactory SEO standings, and the overall competitiveness of their businesses.

The survey targeted 600 senior executives of pure e-commerce and retail-based companies in the U.S. with more than 250 employees. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents were employed with companies of more than 5,000 employees, and all respondents were with companies doing greater than $20 million in sales.

Seventy percent of those surveyed said their customers sent in complaints about their website’s performance. The top issue, with 49 percent of the vote, was “Your website is very slow.” Thirty-six percent complained that their device did not show product pictures; another 36 percent said they could not see details about the product; and 35 percent said they could not zoom in or out of the product image on their device. The ability to manipulate images on mobile devices is increasingly important, as last September Google started to index websites according to how well their pages were optimized for a mobile-first experience.

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“These results do not surprise us,” said Steve Kristy, CEO, LiquidPixels. “Page load time is crucial to the overall customer experience. Companies may have a beautiful website and exceptional products, but if their site loads too slowly, shoppers will get frustrated and move on.”

Eighty-four percent of respondents said they were either “slightly” or “very concerned” about how images affect their website’s performance. As a result, 66 percent felt their organization was losing traffic and potential customers to competitors with better, faster websites. Sixty percent felt their SERP rankings and SEO standings were suffering because of website speed, and more than 50 percent felt that abandoned shopping carts were a “major challenge” for their company. On top of this, 74 percent of the respondents were worried about the rising costs of maintaining an e-commerce website.

“Google ranks fast sites higher in search results versus those which are slower,” added Kristy. “Optimizing the images on a site is painless and automatic, resulting in the most significant improvement in page load speed with the highest ROI across all platforms.”

According to data from Adobe Analytics, holiday e-commerce sales are projected to reach a record $207 billion in the U.S. between November and December, a full 10 percent more than the same period in 2020. Cyber Week 2021, the days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, was expected to see online sales hit $36 billion, a five percent increase from last year. Cyber Monday alone was projected to see sales of $11.3 billion or more, which underscores the importance of an efficient e-commerce site, that has fast load times and is optimized for every device.

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To that end, the survey found that 82 percent polled would like to be able to display their website imagery with more flexibility. Seventy-five percent said they would like to know more about their site’s performance, including how to reduce page load time, optimize image resolution across devices, and increase traffic, among other improvements.

Eighty-one percent of respondents indicated they are planning on making upgrades to their sites in 2022, with 78 percent saying they will invest in imagery tech to increase their company’s competitiveness in the e-commerce space. When asked about the budget for upgrades, 47 percent indicated they were willing to spend between $100,000 and $1,000,000. Twenty-four percent had more than $1,000,000 allocated for improvements.

“Imagery is the most powerful selling tool on any website,” said Kristy. “It is the virtual window into your store to entice customers to explore products and to fill their shopping carts. We are encouraged to see that retailers are investing in the imagery technology that will make them competitive in this new selling environment.”