It is widely accepted that fast-loading pages improve the user experience and eBay work very hard on ensuring their pages load as fast as possible.
Just recently eBay rolled out an eBay Motors upgrade which rendered pages twice as fast as the old implementation.
Speed as perceived by the end user is driven by multiple factors, including how fast results are returned and how long it takes a browser to display the content.
If a page is taking too long to load, a user (and potential buyer) will typically abandon the operation, look elsewhere and search less.
If you only use features offered by eBay, such as their image hosting, templates, plain descriptions, etc. you'll be getting the best speed available.
However if you use external image hosting, custom templates or HTML and scripts in descriptions, etc. the impact on page load times could be considerable.
The rise of mobile devices used by eBay users also increases the need for fast load times as 89% of mobile users expect a website to load on their mobile phone in 5 seconds or less!
Transaction conversion rates have been shown to increase by 74% when page load time improves from 8 to 2 seconds.
Clean HTML Descriptions
Keeping your listing descriptions clean and as concise as possible will not only improve page load times but reduce user confusion when reading about your item.
Removing unnecessary elements in the description will create a simpler structure and make it much more manageable.
When cleaning or reviewing HTML look for embedded or inline styles, unnecessary selectors, elements which have no need for special styling, old code or commented-out code.
Test have shown that even an extra 10kb of unneccessary HTML code can increase page load times by 4.8%.
Clean Images
Probably the biggest mistake eBay sellers make when self-hosting their images is with size and format.
Exporting JPGs using Photoshop’s "Save for Web" option at 75% instead of 50% increased page load time by 15%.
Using JPGs at 50% instead of PNGs increased page load time by 10%.
Take the time to resize your images to a smaller size and you'll ensure much improved loading times. You should also use the GIF, PNG and JPEG formats based on the type of the image you need.
JPEG: Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This format was created for photographs and fine art-work. You should use JPEG images whenever you are displaying a photo or a true-color image. Notice that if you are using compression to reduce the file size you should use a 50% compression rate for optimal results.
GIF: Stands for Graphics Interchange Format. The GIF format is connected with the history of the Internet, mainly because of its small size. JPEG images support millions of colors while GIF ones will integrate a maximum of 256 colors. You should use this format for flat-color images like logos, buttons or text images. GIF is also the format of choice for animated images.
PNG: Stands for Portable Network Graphics. The PNG format was created specifically for the Internet, with the objective of replacing GIF images. The main advantage of PNG images over GIF ones is that they support 24-bit colors and alpha transparency. You should use the PNG format for simple images that require more than 256 colors.
Custom Third-Party eBay Templates
Many eBay sellers use custom third-party templates on their shop and listings and in many circumstances they have been shown to increase sales and user engagement.
However, too often sellers don't review the template implementation for speed, usability and mobile device support.
When working with a third-party template developer make sure you discuss how your content relates to the design, how users will navigate through the pages and how you will measure the success of each page.
You should also check page load time, custom gallery or image load times, major conversion rates (or other measures of success) on heavy pages and how pages appear on mobile devices at regular intervals to ensure the third-party's hosting and coding are sufficient.
If you find large or unexpected spikes in page load time or major changes to conversion rates, contact the third-party and see what you can optimise and clean on pages until it improves.
Conclusion
Page load time can not only make or break conversion rates and impact your sales, it is an excellent indicator of the health of your eBay listings, so keep on top of everything and keep your pages, images and templates clean and fast.
