SEO marketers know that site speed is becoming an increasingly important ranking signal, as well as an in-demand feature to please online searchers. International retailers that focus on site speed may gain an edge in the highly profitable Chinese ecommerce market, according to new data from Strangeloop.
In its new report, Why Luxury Websites Are Disappointing Chinese Consumers (And Why This Matters to You), Strangeloop says that the average load time for luxury brand sites in urban China is 16.2 seconds. At the same time, the firm relays Forrester Consulting research that indicates the optimal load time is two seconds (demonstrating a 14.2 second gap between average and optimal).
Why would this information be of interest to U.S. marketers? Strangeloop reports that the Chinese ecommerce industry is growing at an unbeatable pace. The company references iResearch data showing that in 2010 both the American and Chinese ecommerce consumer bases stood at 140 million. By 2015, U.S. ecommerce audiences will reach 200 million – but this pales in comparison to Chinese growth. Chinese ecommerce audiences will hit 520 million by 2015.
Retailers who want to improve their site speed to better engage this rapidly growing audience should consider using a global CDN. As Brafton explains in its Site Speed Primer blog, CDN’s effectively deliver content from a server geographically closer to a site visitor (ie: a visitor in China) and this will speed up the browsing experience.
Of course, whether marketers want to engage international consumers or not, site speed is an important SEO factor to consider. Google has recently emphasized the value of site speed in its search engine. The company has launched both a Page Speed Service to help marketers increase their load times and Instant Pages to instantly download results consumers are likely to click.
