Tammy Everts

IRCE Focus – February 2014

How Poor Mobile

Performance

Hurts Your Brand

(and by how much)

Why neuroscientific mobile testing?

Slide 2

Slide 3

• 2010 EEG study of desktop

users

• Throttled connection from 5MB

to 2MB

• Found that participants had to

concentrate up to 50% harder

• Afterward, participants reported

negative brand associations

Slide 4

Slide 5

It’s a mobile-first world.

Slide 7

55% of all time spent on retail sites takes place on a mobile device.

comScore, October 2013

Slide 8

Slide 9

Stuart McMillan, Schuh’s Journey to RWD (Conversion Conference 2013)

Four all-too-common

mobile assumptions

Slide 11

Assumption #1

My site isn’t slow on mobile.

Two things are slowing down your mobile site (and they’re completely beyond your control).

• Latency – can range from 35 milliseconds to 350+ milliseconds per resource (e.g. images, CSS files)

• Connection – 3G can be up to 15 times slower than broadband

Slide 12

Radware, 2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance

Slide 13

Radware, 2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance

Slide 14

Assumption #2

Mobile users expect pages to be slow.

Slide 15

Keynote, 2012 Mobile User Survey

Slide 16

Slide 17

Assumption #3

Mobile users want to browse, not buy.

Slide 18

By 2017, retail mcommerce is expected to hit $113 billion – 26% of total ecommerce sales.

eMarketer, September 2013

Mobile shopping cart abandonment rate is 39% greater than desktop rate.

2013 Google I/O

Slide 19

Slide 20

Assumption #4

Users will stick around, even if pages

are slow, if they really want to buy.

Skava/Harris Interactive, 2013

Slide 21

Slide 22

Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics

What is emotional

engagement research?

“95% of the consumer’s

decisions are made at the

subconscious level.”

Dr. Gerald Zaltman, Harvard UniversityExecutive Committee of Harvard University’s

Mind, Brain and Behavior Interfaculty Initiative

Slide 24

The problem with surveys…

Traditional research relies on eliciting post-cognitive

responses.

But thinking and talking about emotions changes and

distorts them.

Slide 25

Five benefits of neuroscientific testing

1 Evaluates think/feel (not say)

2 Quantified data

3 Moment-by-moment interaction

4 Cause-and-effect triggers

5 Fresh, deeper insights

Slide 26

EEG Emotional Engagement Study

Our research team

• Seren – leaders in customer experience & service design

• Neurosense – global leader in implicit methodologies

• NeuroStrata – expert consultants in blending neuromarketing

applications

Slide 28

The brands we tested

Slide 29

Our testers

• 24 testers (12 male and 12 female)

• Pre-screened to ensure normal cognitive functioning

• Experienced mobile device users

• Did not know they were part of a performance study

Slide 30

Methodology

• Standardized set of shopping tasks (browsing and checkout)

• Testers served sites over one of two speeds:

– normal Wifi

– artificial 500ms delay

• Using EEG headset and eyetracker, measured moment-by-

moment responses

Slide 31

Slide 32

Slide 33

Why test a 500ms delay?

Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics

Slide 34

We focused on the metrics most affected by the 500ms delay.

Frustration

Emotional engagement

Slide 35

Normal speed

Slide 36

2.66s 2.92s 2.83s 4.24s

Frustration levels across sites (normal speed)

Slide 37

Engagement levels across sites (normal speed)

Slide 38

500ms delay: Peak frustration results

Slide 39

500ms delay: Average engagement results

Slide 40

Impact of site speed on post-test brand association

Slide 41

If pages aren’t fast, everything suffers.

Content “boring”

Visual design “tacky” and “confusing”

Navigation “frustrating” and “hard-to-navigate”

Slide 42

Slide 43

Takeaways

1 People feel “web stress” even when mobile shopping under

ideal conditions.

2 Slower web performance has a clear and measurable impact

on people at a neurological level.

3 Slow sites can seriously undermine overall brand health.

4 The nature and scale of impact varies, depending on a

number of factors (e.g. inherent strength/weakness of brand).

5 This presents great opportunities to strengthen overall brand

by investing in performance optimization.

Slide 45

Slide 46

http://www.radware.com/mobile-eeg2013/

Slide 47

Sources

Web Stress: A Wake-Up Call for European Business (Foviance, 2010)

http://www.ca.com/us/~/media/files/supportingpieces/final_webstress_survey_report_229296.aspx

2013 Social & Mobile Commerce Consumer Report (Shop.org / comScore)

http://shop.org/research/original/2013-social-mobile-commerce-consumer-report

2012 Mobile User Survey (Keynote)

http://www.keynote.com/docs/reports/Keynote-2012-Mobile-User-Survey.pdf

2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance (Radware)

http://www.radware.com/mobile-sotu2013/

The Danger of a Poor Mobile Shopping Experience [INFOGRAPHIC]

http://www.getelastic.com/the-danger-of-a-poor-mobile-shopping-experience-infographic/

Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics (Web Performance Today, November 2011)

http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2011/11/23/case-study-slow-page-load-mobile-business-metrics/

Slide 48

webperformancetoday.com

twitter.com/tameverts

linkedin.com/in/tammyeverts

plus.google.com/+TammyEverts/

Slide 49

Questions?