2022 Ecommerce Technology Index Report Enables Brands to Optimize Digital Experiences
Fourth Annual Index Rates the Best and Worst Performing eCommerce Technology 3rd Parties
Palm Springs, CA—March 1, 2022—Yottaa, Inc., the leading cloud platform for accelerating and securing eCommerce digital experiences, today announced at eTail West the publication of the latest version of the company’s annual index on the performance of 3rd party technologies used on online retail and brand websites. The “2022 eCommerce Technology Index” is designed to help retailers research new innovative features for their sites and understand the impact 3rd party technologies can have on site performance and digital experience. Yottaa, a sponsor of eTail, where the top minds in retail meet, collaborate and learn about what’s disrupting the industry today and what’ll change tomorrow, can be found in booth 311 in the eTail expo hall.
Accelerated by the rise of digital engagement during the last two years, eCommerce is finally meeting a new era of technology adoption. Innovative 3rd party technologies, such as live chat, ratings and reviews, and personalization, enable brands to make their sites more experiential and more profitable. However, all this innovation does have a cost: 3rd party technologies, without optimization, slow down page loads leading to higher bounces, lower conversions, and poor digital experiences.
The 2022 eCommerce Technology Index examines the site performance impact of close to 1,000 of the most widely adopted eCommerce 3rd parties. The data in this report was collected over the course of a month (January 2022) representing 4 billion page views, and more than 788 billion 3rd party resource timing events
from the 1,500 eCommerce sites using Yottaa’s digital experience optimization solutions. As part of its platform, Yottaa’s 3rd Party Knowledge Base is a comprehensive repository of 3rd party data that grows with every page view, adding hundreds of millions of real shopper data points every day.
Through this knowledge base, Yottaa has deep visibility into site performance data from all the 3rd parties used by its customers. The Yottaa platform also detects site performance violations of individual 3rd parties. These violations are used to create Performance Impact Ratings (PIR). Using these PIRs, Yottaa assigned a color code of red, yellow, and green to each 3rd party evaluated in the index across the most frequently adopted eCommerce technology categories. Slower loading 3rd parties are labeled red, neutral are yellow, and faster loading technologies are green.
“The eCommerce Technology Index is an excellent resource for retailers looking to make informed, data-driven decisions on which 3rd parties to invest in,” said Andrew Leibowitz, Senior Vice President, Client Success, Astound Commerce. “With granular and aggregate visibility of 3rd party performance impact, usage data, and violations, eCommerce brands and 3rd party technology vendors alike can lean on this report to help guide improved digital experiences.”
“Fast website performance is no longer a “nice to have” metric, but a critical part of your shopper experience,” said Roman Fayzullin, Software Engineer, Gorgias. “When we found out our chat widget had started negatively impacting our customers’ Google Lighthouse scores — an important site performance metric — we immediately started searching for a solution. Live chat is a notoriously resource-intensive category, but we were able to cut our entry point bundle in half, resulting in reduced Lighthouse scores and an improved PIR score from Yellow to Green. Using the eCommerce Technology Index from YOTTAA helps technologies and brands understand the role they play in providing the best shopper experiences through optimal site performance.”
Below are some of the key findings from the 2022 eCommerce Technology Index:
- eCommerce is Officially a Grown-up – Brands and retailers have real expectations of their digital stores to contribute a significant share of overall seals and even an outsized share of growth. As a result, a thriving eCommerce technology ecosystem has emerged to deliver innovation across dozens of technology categories covering the entire shopper journey.
- Site Innovation Comes with a Price – Brands must weigh an important trade-off when it comes to 3rd party technologies: the promised experience or operations gains will come at a site performance cost. Understanding the potential page load delay from 3rd parties is central to this consideration. The eCommerce Technology Index enables brands to quickly determine the site speed impact for 3rd parties on their sites.
- The Value of 1 Second – The report findings show that 1 second slower page loads due to slow loading 3rd party technologies increase bounce rates by 12% and reduce conversion by nearly 6% on mobile. For 3rd parties that have a negative site performance impact, the promises of shopper experience gains are softened by slower page loads. On the other hand, those 3rd parties that deliver site performance improvements should be celebrated.
- Optimization is Key – When 3rd party eCommerce technologies are optimized and sequenced, brands can deploy any 3rd party regardless of site performance impact and still provide great digital experiences. For example, optimizing 3rd party performance helps improve page load times by 27%.
“Now more than ever, brands need to optimize digital experiences to better serve their customers and drive online revenue,” said Rich Stendardo, CEO of Yottaa. “The 2022 eCommerce Technology Index provides brands with valuable insight into how the 3rd party technologies they add to their sites impact shopper experience as well as conversion.”
Click here to download the 2022 eCommerce Technology Index. If you are attending eTail and would like to find out more about the 2022 eCommerce Technology Index, please visit Yottaa in booth 311 in the eTail expo hall.
About Yottaa
Leading brands such as 1 800 Contacts, Ann, Inc., Carter’s, J. Crew, Lands’ End, Ralph Lauren, and Samsonite rely on Yottaa to accelerate, optimize, and secure their eCommerce sites. By optimizing the loading of third-party eCommerce technologies, high resolution images, and other website elements, Yottaa enables online brands to deliver superior customer experiences, improve site performance up to 60%, and increase online conversion up to 20%. By controlling the execution of all 3rd parties and other services on their sites, Yottaa also enables brands to enhance their overall security posture, provide more secure shopper experiences, and ensure compliance with internal and external policies. To learn more about how Yottaa can optimize every page load on your eCommerce site and increase conversions, please visit www.yottaa.com or follow @yottaa on Twitter.
Media Contact
Tedd Rodman
617-239-9024
t.rodman@yottaa.com