Based on my own experiences shopping online, I can't say that I'm surprised by the findings of the report. After all, when people shop online they expect to have a positive experience, which means the site should work properly and be easy to navigate.

Here is a summary of the key findings in the report:

• Poor site performance leads to customer dissatisfaction
  This is common sense, but the question here is does the level of dissatisfaction cause the customer to abandon the site? The answer is yes -- more than one third of those surveyed said they would abandon a site that is performing poorly.

• Brand perception is diminished by poor site performance
  Most of those surveyed would not shop again at a site that performs poorly, and twenty seven percent even developed a negative perception of the company.

• Site pages should load in four seconds or less
  About a third of those surveyed claimed they would abandon a site that took more than four seconds to load.

• Customer loyalty depends on quick page loading
  This was particularly true for those who have been shopping online for at least two years.

Other factors that online shoppers considered influential in their loyalty to a site include ease of navigation, security, ease of checkout, and clarity of information.

The fact that online shoppers demand well designed, high performing web sites is worth considering if you are an online retailer. For more details, I suggest you review the press release and register to download a complete copy of the report for free.

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