The Site Performance Impact of eCommerce Third Parties
In 2023, when it comes to running a successful eCommerce site, third parties are nothing short than a necessity.
Third parties allow eCommerce sites to provide the functionality that modern shoppers have come to expect, including everything from personalization to live chat. The average eCommerce site has as many as 40-60 third-party technologies to control. Some have hundreds of them.
But while those same third parties offer a better and more enhanced customer experience, they also significantly impact page load times, which eCommerce sites cannot afford.
Fortunately, YOTTAA’s recently released 2023 eCommerce Technology Index Report is designed to highlight the site performance impact of all your third-party technologies.
Performance Impact Ratings (PIR)
One of the most eye-opening aspects of the Index Report revolves around the Performance Impact Ratings (PIR), which is how YOTTAA determines whether a third party has a positive or (in many cases) a negative impact on site performance.
Performance Impact Ratings measure the page load impact of third parties across eCommerce sites, assigning a red, yellow, or green color to each technology.
Green – A green color represents little or no performance impact
Yellow – A yellow color represents an inconsistent negative performance impact
Red – A red color represents a consistent negative impact on performance
In this year’s Index Report, red represented 17% of all third parties. Here are some of the most interesting takeaways from this year’s report.
Time to Last Byte
The average time to last byte was 692 milliseconds (ms), and the slowest load category was post purchase at 1298ms, while fastest load category was A/B testing at 409ms.
Performance Impact
The average performance impact was 88ms, while the most impactful category was image hosting at 377ms, and least impactful category was ad blocking at 11ms.
Time to Interactive
The average category delay was 1.58%, and the page with the most delays was image hosting at 5.64%, followed by UGC and customer reviews at 2.63 percent.
Largest Contentful Paint
The average impact on largest contentful paint was 82ms, and the most impact on largest contentful paint was image hosting at 335ms, followed by CMS at 172ms, and tag management at 128ms.
Violations Per Page
In terms of performance violations, the product detail pages were the biggest culprit, with a 2.5 violation rate, followed by home pages at 2.4 and category pages at 2.1.
Performance Impact Ratings by Category
One of the most fundamental ways to get a handle over your third parties is to treat them as you do your shoppers – by knowing your segments. A third party’s performance varies from app-to-app, just as the shoppers’ journey varies from site-to-site.
The differences between tech categories are typically determined by the technology’s requirements. Some collect data, such as web analytics, while others deliver content into the site, such as personalization. The best way to determine the impact of your third parties is to compare them against similar technology.
Of course, overall impact matters – it’s a pillar of success. However, a third party with far worse impact compared with other third parties might not deliver the investment you expect it to deliver.
Download the eCommerce Index Report Today
For much more insight that you can only find from YOTTAA, download the Index Report today and see how your third parties stack up against the competition. In addition to those third-party performance impact ratings, the Index Report also offers:
- How Slow Loading Third Parties Impact Site Speed
- Third Party Performance Movers
- The Most Adopted eCommerce Technologies
- Technology Category Breakouts
- Highest Offending eCommerce Technology Categories
- And Much More!