We all have been turned off by websites that take forever for getting loaded. In this fast paced world, who has to time to sit back and wait for the slow websites to load? Loading time has a great impact on ecommerce. The websites that take much longer to get loaded lose their traffic that in turn affects their business. Quick loading time has been found as a key factor for loyalty of online clients. Most of these online consumers who are dissatisfied by a particular website are least interested in buying from the same website again. Some of them also form a bad impression about the physical stores of these online companies.

The basic reason behind the website with a lower traffic is lower loading process. Clients become impatient and prefer using the website that is user friendly rather than waiting for long. As we all are aware there is no dearth of websites that offer products in a particular niche. The cut throat competition increases the chances of losing prospective clients to the competitors. Online shoppers often get distracted if the page takes a longer time. A disappointing visit can lead to losing of prospective clients. For maintaining a good reputation among target audience, online companies should make sure that their websites load faster.

Consumers these days are looking forward to an engaging, secure and fast online shopping setting while shopping online. There is a direct relation between the website performance and revenues, so owners should make special efforts to rope in prospective consumers rather than losing the existing ones also. They should ensure that your website performs properly and loads faster to make a positive impact and allow shoppers to return to your website for shopping again.

As of week of 12/6/2009, the WM100 Benchmark compared the top industry leaders’ page load time, and the result of the top ten is:

10: craigslist.org                        1.65               1.24

If you long to have your customer loyalty, you will have to work towards it. Site content, usability and speed play a crucial role in attracting clients to a website. By investing some time in making improvements in functionality and site content, you can conveniently bolster overall image and brand of you company. Unless your clients are satisfied, they will no come back to you again. If you do not want your business to experience a downfall, it is necessary to match up with this fast paced age by enhancing your website. Do wait for your visitors to lose patience, look for ways to cut down on your website’s loading time.

Forrester Researcher and Gartner Group report that e-commerce

sites in the US alone are losing $1.1 to $1.3 billion in revenue annually to customer click-away caused by slow-loading websites.

A lot of times, graphics used on the web pages complicate table layouts and are culprits for slow loading website. Try to use limited graphics on your website. While using these graphics, make sure that you specify their dimensions. By including width and height of graphics in HTML code, you can make the website load much faster. The top of the web pages should have some catchy and interesting stuff. Even if one of the pages takes a little longer to load, it is wise to make its top interesting so that it grips the visitor’s attention while the page loads. If there are some irrelevant ads and meaningless graphics, visitors are likely to switch on to some other site before reviewing yours completely. Experts advise to have web pages load in less than 12 seconds in a 56k modem and include JavaScript which speeds the loading time and benefits indexing.

Web pages takes longer time to download if they are in a single layout. It is better to break the layout in small tables which will surely decrease the downloading time of your website.

Carrying out an ecommerce website successfully is not easy as there are a lot of pre-requisites. Before you move forward to the next step in e-business, prepare a checklist of what all things you need to do and what all requirements you are going to face in the coming time. There are different considerations like sales, payment and preliminary considerations that you need to fulfill.

According to U.S Census Bureau , U.S. retail e-commerce sales reached almost $127 billion in 2007, up from a revised $107 billion in 2006?an annual gain of 18.4 percent. Rapid growth in e-retail has been the norm. From 2002 to 2007, retail e-sales increased at an average annual growth rate of 23.1 percent, compared with

5.0 percent for total retail sales. You can see the complete report at http://www.census.gov/econ/estats/2007/2007reportfinal.pdf

Here is a look at what all you would need to know before you are set to go on with your business on the internet.

Prerequisite #1 - The preliminary considerations consist of information about marketing of the product. You need to know if your product already has a customer base or is it on the web to make a new clientele for your business. You should know that a website should be created only for the products that already have a few buyers so that you do not have to incur losses. This is also because if you have a credit card company accepting the payments for you, they would want you to have a minimum sale amount that needs to be processed. You may have to project the sales and how you are going to manage it.

Prerequisite #2 - The next decision that is the amount of stock you need and the amount of sales you can handle through your website. You will also have to make arrangements for returns and customer complaints and for that you will also have to hire staff so that your customers can have access to better customer service. If you expect your customers to come back to your website and make purchases again, you may give your customers an option to make an account.

Prerequisite #3 - Just like the customer account on your website, your merchant account too holds much importance. You need to know what kind of merchant account is best suited for your business and what will be the expenses associated with it. It is possible that you may need to have a paypal account so that the transactions can take place in an easy manner and you can receive payments securely. The products you sell may have some taxes that need to be paid. You will have to calculate those taxes and see if there are some other special taxes and issues that may affect your product sales.

Prerequisite #4 - The shipping considerations are also important as this shows your responsibility towards your customers. If you have an online business, customers will make purchases from you and you would have to ship the products to the specified addresses given by them. You will have to compare the different shipping companies like UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL to know which one suits your needs the best. There are various sites like http://www.shipwizz.comcom to compare shipping rates.

Prerequisite #5 - You have to make clear if you will go to drop off the products at the courier company or will the company people pick up the products from your company or home. As your products need to reach your customers safely, you will have to track the shipments. Other things that need to be put into your checklist for shipping are the need of labels, shipping discounts and cost involved in shipping.

Prerequisite #6 - There are product and design considerations for your products that you must address. There may be different types of products and variations in the same product and you will have to fix prices and accessories that need to be given with them. Discounts, services and packaging options are also to be decided upon. Make sure you consider all these prerequisites and give the right direction to your e-business.