|
|
|
|
|
|
| Access and availability of e-commerce websites: minimise non-arrival and bounce rates, maximise revenue |
|
| Whilst an e-commerce website’s performance is largely due to its marketing strategy and tactics, the technical aspect should certainly not be ignored. After all, the speed at which websites can be viewed and accessed by its visitors can significantly impact the overall performance and success of the site. AT Internet Institute provides you with a short overview of the quality level of access to British, French, German and Spanish e-commerce websites. |
| Cross section: |
- Study carried out from the 9th to the 22nd November 2009
- Cross section of 88 e-commerce websites
|
|
| British e-commerce websites have an average availability rate higher than that of the French, German and Spanish |
This study was conducted from data measured by Observer, a monitoring module from AT Internet, which allows us to measure the availability and access level of websites.
The chart below represents the average availability rate of e-commerce websites in each of the 4 countries measured from 9th to 22nd November 2009, with minimum and maximum values recorded on the websites.
British e-commerce websites had the best average availability rate. 99.57% of Observer tests did not experience any errors when accessing a website. Britain was followed by France (99.37%), Spain (99.08%) and Germany (98.90%).
|
AT Internet then used its Observer module to measure server performance (i.e. its response time). In each case after a site successfully passed the availability test Observer measured the average amount of time taken to receive the first byte of data from the site.
German e-commerce websites had the best score with an average server response time of 371 ms (milliseconds) while the average time for Spanish e-commerce websites is almost double this figure (674 ms).
|
The performance perceived by Internet users represents the average time taken to load all objects displayed on a web page. French e-commerce websites had the best score with an average loading time of 3.402 seconds, followed closely by German websites (3.594 seconds), Spanish websites are once again lagging behind with an average time of 6.241 seconds.
|
| In each of the 4 countries, timeout is the main source of error leading to the unavailability of e-commerce websites |
The chart below represents the top 5 errors encountered, by country, when e-commerce websites are unavailable.
The main error behind the unavailability of e-commerce websites in each of the 4 countries, over the 14-day period, was: “timeout” (no response was received within the time-out period set for the request), with ratios which vary from one country to another:
- “Timeout” accounted for 96.4% of errors in Germany, on average,
- 83.4% of errors in Spain,
- 76.7% of errors in the United Kingdom,
- And 63.2% of errors in France.
In Germany, the second most common error is “internal server error” with a share of 2.3%, as is the case in the United Kingdom with 14.8% of errors.
In Spain, “name resolution failure” is the second most frequent error with a share of 7.3% and in France “receive failure” was measured with 13.8% of errors.
|
|
For websites, in particular e-commerce websites, it’s important to monitor server performance to detect errors that compromise the quality of access or indeed the visitor experience.
Server performance has a direct impact on accessibility, ergonomics, good execution of web applications and finally the sites conversion rate.
Website performance analysis cannot be detached from server performance analysis, which in many cases can be used to explain all or part of problems encountered. To learn more about how the Observer solution from AT Internet can help you optimise the quality of access to your website, improve the visitor experience and contribute to improving ROI, please get in touch.
If you would like more information or are interested to receive updates regarding this study, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
|
Methodology:
This study was conducted from data measured by the Observer solution from AT Internet. Observer is a supervision service enabling you to monitor your web site in real-time. Thanks to servers distributed in several geographical locations, robots can simulate visits to your site and deliver qualified data to your interface.
For each country (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) robots simulated visits to the sites monitored in the country studied.
Studied websites:
- Germany : Amazon, Apple, Brands 4 friends, Ciao, Dell, Neckermann, O2, Otto, Paul Direkt, Quelle, Shopping 24, Smatch, T online, Tchibo
- Spain : Acuista, Apple store, Beep, Buy Vip, Casadellibro, Ciao, Dell, Dvdgo, EL Corte Ingles, Kelkoo, Mango, Onedirect, PC City, Pixmania, Privalia, Redcoon, Shopall, Soloprecios, Telefonica, Venca, Viajes El Corte Ingles, Zara Home
- France : 3 Suisses, Amazon, Carrefour (Ooshop), Cdiscount, ebay, Fnac, Kiabi.com, La Redoute, Pixmania, PriceMinister, Quelle, Rue du Commerce, Spartoo.com, Vente-privee.com
- The United kingdom: Aldo, Amazon, Argos, Asda direct, Asos, Aviva, B&Q, Churchill, Dabs.com, Dell, Dfs, Direct line, Dixons, ebay, Elephant.co.uk, Empiredirect, Glasses direct, Hmv.com, Ikea, JD, JJB sports, John Lewis, Kelkoo, M&S, Maplin, Next, Ocado, Pixmania, Play.com, Sainsbury's, Schuh, Specsavers, Sportshoes.com, Tesco, Tesco Direct, Ticketmaster, Topshop, Vision express
Glossary of errors:
- Connect failure: the remote service could not be contacted at the transport level.
- Internal server error: a generic error message, given when no more specific message is suitable.
- Name resolution failure: the name service could not resolve the host name.
- Receive failure: a complete response was not received from the remote server.
- Service unavailable: the server is currently unavailable service (because it is overloaded or down for maintenance).
- Timeout: no response was received within the time-out set for the request.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|