Online marketing: seconds count

Seconds really count in online marketing.

• Amazon calculated that a one-second slowdown in loading its e-commerce site could cost it as much as £1.2 billion (US $1.6 billion) in sales per year. 
• The US department store Nordstrom actually experienced a sales drop of 11% after its retail website began loading more slowly--only half a second more slowly. 
• Mobile-friendly websites also have to be speedy to retain Millennials' attention, which is why Google offers a free speed-test utility.

Google reportedly plans to lower the results ranking of mobile websites that use pop-up ads--because it wants mobile users to get their results faster. Meanwhile, Google itself is testing ads that will load more quickly on mobile sites, helping to speed up load time for sites that carry the ads.

Marketers, when you develop your marketing plans for e-commerce or brand promotions online, test and refine to be sure your sites load quickly. Seconds lost can translate into visitors lost and money lost.