Are you interested in ensuring that your eCommerce store provides a great user experience? If so, you need to measure and track your site’s performance. By monitoring specific web-performance metrics, eCommerce businesses can assess the user experience and take steps to improve it. We’ll explain some of these metrics and how they can help ensure a smooth, successful shopping experience for your customers.
What is an eCommerce storefront?
It’s essential to understand the definition of an eCommerce Storefront, and how these performance metrics influence it.
An eCommerce frontend or UI is the graphical interface through which customers interact with an online store. It enables customers to browse products, add items to their shopping carts, and checkout. A well-designed frontend can make the difference between a successful online store and one that struggles to attract and retain customers.
There are a few key elements that make up a great eCommerce frontend or UI. First, it should be visually appealing and easy to navigate. Second, it should be designed for mobile devices as well as desktop computers. And finally, it should offer a seamless and user-friendly checkout experience. By investing in a quality frontend or UI design, you can ensure that your online store has the best chance of success.
How to measure your eCommerce store’s performance?
Google Core Web Vitals
In May 2021, Google announced it would use three web-performance metrics as part of the ranking algorithm.
These metrics, also known as the “Core Web Vitals,” are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measurement indicates the time it takes for the biggest element on the page to load. This is generally representative of the overall page load time.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measurement shows you the number of elements on the page that move around while the page is loading. This can be caused by images or adverts loading in different positions from where they were originally placed.
- First Input Delay (FID): This measurement indicates the time needed for the page to become interactive, i.e., how long it takes for the user to be able to click or tap on something on the page.
These metrics are all measured by Google’s Chrome browser and are reported as a score out of 100, with 100 being the best possible score.
Largest Contentful Paint
The LCP metric is vital for eCommerce stores as it captures how long it takes for the page’s main content to load. This is generally what users are interested in when they visit a product page, so it’s important that this loads quickly.
A good LCP score is anything under 2.5 seconds, and you should aim to have your LCP score in the green for all pages on your site.
Improving your LCP score can be achieved by reducing the size of images, using faster hosting, and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.
First Input Delay
The FID metric is also vital for eCommerce stores as it captures how long it takes for the page to become interactive. It’s crucial for users as they need to be able to click on links and buttons to add items to their cart or proceed to checkout.
A good FID score is anything under 100 milliseconds, and you should aim to have your FID score in the green for all pages on your site.
Improving your FID score can be achieved by reducing the size of JavaScript files, using faster hosting, and avoiding render-blocking resources.
Cumulative Layout Shift
The CLS metric is essential for eCommerce stores as it captures how many elements on the page move around while loading. This can be especially problematic on product pages where users try to click on a specific product, but it keeps moving around due to loading other elements.
A good CLS score is anything under 0.1, and you should aim to have your CLS score in the green for all pages on your site.
Improve your CLS score by faster hosting, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and using spritesheets for images.
Page-load time
Another important metric for eCommerce stores is page-load time, which measures how long it takes for a page to load fully. It’s important as users will likely leave the site if they wait too long for a page to load.
A good page-load time is anything under 2 seconds, and you should aim to have your page-load time in the green for all pages on your site.
Improving your page-load time can be achieved by reducing the size of images, using faster hosting, and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.
Time to first byte (TTFB)
The time to first byte (TTFB) metric measures how long it takes for the first byte of data to be received from the server. It can indicate how long the page will take to start loading.
A good TTFB score is anything under 200 milliseconds; you should aim to have your TTFB score in the green for all pages on your site.
Improving your TTFB score can be achieved using a content delivery network (CDN), faster hosting, and optimizing your server-side code.
Requests per second (RPS)
The requests per second (RPS) metric measures how many HTTP requests are made to the server per second. It shows how well the server can handle the traffic.
A good RPS score is anything under 500, and you should aim to have your RPS score in the green for all pages on your site.
Improving your RPS score can be achieved using a CDN, faster hosting, and optimizing your server-side code.
Response time
The response time metric measures how long it takes for the server to respond to an HTTP request, and it shows how well the server can handle the traffic.
A good response time is anything under 200 milliseconds, and you should aim to have your response time in the green for all pages on your site.
Improved response time can be achieved using a CDN, faster hosting, and optimizing your server-side code.
Page size
The page size metric measures the size of the pages on your site. This metric is important as it can indicate how long the pages will take to load.
Good page size is anything under 2 MB, and you should aim to have your page size in green for all pages on your site.
Conclusion
These are just some web-performance metrics that eCommerce businesses should monitor and consistently improve on. There are many reasons why web performance is important for your eCommerce store. First, customers expect fast loading times and smooth navigation when they visit an online store. If your site is slow or difficult to navigate, they’re likely to leave without making a purchase. In addition, poor web performance can hurt your search engine ranking and make it harder for potential customers to find your site. Finally, fast loading times and efficient website operation can improve your bottom line by reducing hosting and bandwidth costs .
