Tag: keynote systems

Mobile commerce reaches fever pitch during holiday season

The holiday season is settling in and mobile startups may stand to see major success this year as they engage mobile consumers in a new way. Keynote Systems, a developer of measurement products for mobile communications, has released a new study highlighting mobile startups. The study, called “Keynote Startup Shootout Index,” sheds some light on numerous startup retail organizations and how well they are accommodating the needs of mobile consumers. Given the growing importance of mobile commerce, ensuring that mobile users have a favorable experience through a retail platform is becoming a more important issue.

Retail startups putting focus on site performance

According to the study, retailer RueLaLa boasts of the best mobile performance than its competitors. The retailer offers fast load times for those accessing its website from smartphones and tablets. While the retailer’s website may not be ideal in terms of speed, as it receives an average of 38 new requests as the website loads, it does enable mobile consumers to access information on products more quickly than its competitors. This makes it relatively easier for consumers to purchase products online.

Loading times can greatly affect mobile commerce

Loading times have a significant impact on mobile commerce. The longer it takes to load a website, the less likely it is for a consumer to enjoy their shopping experience. Long loading times can lead to frustration that can derail any mobile commerce initiative. Loading times for mobile websites tends to become significantly problematic during the holiday season as the more people that access a website tend to put significant strain on the site’s servers. If consumers cannot access a retail site, they cannot actually purchase any products.

Success of mobile commerce provides encouragement to retail startups

Mobile commerce has inspired a new generation of retailers to enter into the field. Retail startups have placed a strong focus on the mobile sector. This is partly due to the success that many retailers saw during the 2011 and 2012 holiday season through their focus on mobile commerce. In order for retail startups to find this same degree of success, they must ensure that people can access their websites quickly and that these sites offer an enjoyable experience.

American Eagle Outfitters makes it into the Keynote Systems top 10 out of 30 sites.

The teen fashion retail chain, American Eagle Outfitters has seen a considerable jump in the performance of its m-commerce website particularly because of its successful load completions and rapid loading time.

The website was recorded to have an average load speed of 11.23 seconds for its homepage.

Until the most recent Keynote Mobile Commerce Performance Index ranking was released, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. had never been included among the leading performers. This changed in the latest report, which included the statistics for the week that ended on April 7.

The retailer’s m-commerce performance rank leapt up by 9 positions due to some important changes.

This marked the first time that the retailer made it into the top 10, as it ranked tenth out of the thirty sites that are included on the index. This favorable ranking was achieved after the site’s m-commerce homepage loaded at an average rate 11.23 seconds. That same page was able to load successfully and completely 99.87 percent of the time.

When these two figures were brought together using the Keynote m-commerce ranking system, it scored the company a 741 out of a possible 1,000. The progress that the retailer made with their website performance was explained by one of Keynote’s mobile performance experts, Venkatesh Giri, who said that “American Eagle cut down extra page objects and optimized its site for a better mobile experience,” going on to explain that “Its mobile home page is serving up 30 objects which add up to 220 kilobytes.”

The retailer has been applying a number of design techniques for m-commerce websites that are known to be helpful in boosting performance. Cutting back on objects was a start, but they also used sprite files for all of the icons and images on the page, which allowed them to be saved as one, reducing server calls and therefore the time needed to load the page.

Giri said that slashing the number of unnecessary objects on an m-commerce page without sacrificing the functionality and look of the site is one of the most critical elements of optimizing for smartphones and tablets.