Wix e-commerce is at the top as the fastest CMS, Magento lags behind

A recent study has revealed significant differences in site load times between different top content management systems (CMS), an often overlooked factor but vital to e-commerce success. The study, conducted by digital marketing agency Indago Digital, extensively examined over 30,000 websites and collected data as of March 2024 for both mobile and desktop use.

Wix Ecommerce emerged as the fastest CMS, with website load times averaging just over 5 seconds (5.24 seconds to be precise). This makes Wix a remarkable 43.75% faster than Magento, the slowest CMS studied, which took an average of 9.275 seconds to load.

“When choosing a CMS, most customers traditionally focus on factors such as whether it has the necessary functionality and integrations, whether it is intuitive and easy to use, or the quality of support available. Rarely do we see customers consider site speed as use a benchmark.” decisive in their CMS selection,” said Gary Nissim, Managing Director at Indago Digital.

Nissim emphasized the importance of site speed from a marketing perspective and indicated that it should be a crucial factor when choosing a CMS. Fast websites contribute to better visibility in search engines, reduce Cost Per Click (CPCs) on paid channels and significantly improve conversions.

A study from The State of Online Retail highlights the impact of website load times on mobile conversion rates, suggesting they can drop by as much as 20% for every second of delay in page loading. This is significant considering that 70% of online purchases are made via mobile devices. Companies looking to foster customer loyalty would do well to consider site performance. Skilled finds that 79% of users are less likely to make a purchase on a site with slow load times.

Google’s introduction of Core Web Vitals into its ranking algorithms in May 2021 increased the importance of load time, interactivity, and visual stability. “Better performing websites correlate with higher rankings. This is evident from our research tools that search millions of websites,” said Peter Dimakidis, CTO of Indago Digital.

Retailers who ignore the consequences of slow loading times may unknowingly miss out on significant revenue. A theoretical online store with 10,000 visitors, a 1% conversion rate and an average order value of €100 could double its revenue from €10,000 to €22,000 by reducing the page load time from 9 seconds to 5 seconds, which results in a 1.2% increase in conversion rate.

To help companies improve the loading times of their websites, the study suggested five immediate actions: optimizing image files; reducing data transfers; improving site simplicity and loading consistency; Improve performance; and using robust third-party services for hosting, DNS, caching, and cybersecurity. The majority of CMS providers will have an app store where business owners can find apps to improve the speed of their site.

For the study, Indago Digital collected data from httparchive.org, examined 30,000 websites using popular CMS and monitored overall load time.