Slowly Going Mobile - Poor Site Performance Is Holding Us Back

The mobile web is growing rapidly, but in stark contrast to the pace of the mobile webs growth, the speed at which it performs has lagged behind most consumer expectations. The performance gap poses a great risk to mobile-commerce sites, as well as mobile sites that rely on advertisements for revenue.

So long as the astronomical growth in mobile web surfing continues, its quite possible that many will overlook the performance issues of their mobile sites and content. But a site owner cant rely on the carrier networks to deliver a clunky, un-optimized mobile site at desktop speeds. If a company isnt optimizing its site for mobile performance, its literally throwing money out the window.

How much money could mobile possibly be worth? Well, eBay reported $2 billion in mobile sales in 2010, up from $600 million in 2009, and eBay isnt an outlier. Reports indicate that mobile commerce more than doubled in 2010 to $3.4 billion, and that didnt include travel sales, like buying plane tickets online, which added another $1.5 billion.

Thats the opportunity the upside. But theres also a downside if a developer doesnt choose to improve a sites performance. The e-commerce world has long been familiar with abandonment rates, particularly when the abandonment happens in the shopping cart. The same issue is presenting itself in mobile commerce as well with Aptimize, a company that produces software to accelerate websites.

Image courtesy of EraPhernalia Vintage . . . here only occasionally.