Retail sites must load in 10 seconds, or risk losing a user to a competitor, according to a consumer study from cloud hosting company Rackspace.
38 per cent of the 2,000 UK adults questioned in the study say they abandon websites or apps that take longer than 10 seconds to load. Of those, 45 per cent simply jump ship to a competitor.
Fabio Torlini, VP of cloud at Rackspace, says: “Our study shows that 90 per cent of the UK adults we surveyed plan to buy at least some of their Christmas presents online, but over a third of busy shoppers will be gone in 10 seconds if they have to wait for websites or apps to load. This means that retailers need to prepare their web-based store fronts for surges in demand by having the right cloud hosting service in place – especially if they offer discounts and other deals, which may instantly attract masses of bargain-hungry online shoppers.”
The survey also found that smartphone and tablet use in the shopping experience is set to explode this Christmas, with 23 per cent of UK consumers planning to use a smartphone or tablet in their Christmas shopping. 68 per cent say they are hunting for discounts and deals via mobile, and 27 per cent planning to use mobile voucher codes. 
19 per cent plan to scan QR codes, and 18 per cent will scan barcodes in store to compare prices.
The research was commissioned by Rackspace and carried out by independent research company OnePoll.
