Digital Desertion: Consumers Less Loyal to Brands After Poor Website, App Performance

Internet users are growing more demanding and less forgiving, according to the results of a consumer survey from Apica, the performance monitoring and testing experts. In a clear call to action for organizations around the world, Apica’s survey found that three-quarters of respondents expect websites and apps to perform faster than they did three years ago.

Apica conducted the survey among internet users in the U.K., U.S. and Sweden, to investigate changing attitudes towards a brand’s digital performance. The survey of 2,250 consumers reveals that nearly 40 percent of us won’t wait more than 10 seconds for a website to respond before navigating away. One in nine users (11 percent) won’t even give a site five seconds before moving onto another website.

The survey also found that digital disappointment affects brand loyalty, with 60 percent of consumers likely to be less loyal towards a brand if they experience poor website or app performance. Ten percent of participants said they would never return to an offending brand for goods or services.