Indian Mobile Websites Score Low on Speed, Finds Google-Accenture Study

Compared to other Asia-Pacific mobile sites, those from India fall behind on speed and therefore run the risk of poor conversions, a new study has warned.

Indian mobile websites, however, score high on product and mobile page design and 'findability', according to the Google-commissioned study from Accenture Interactive.

The study benchmarked over 110 Indian mobile websites across three verticals - financial services, retail and commerce, and travel. 

The researchers found that 86 percent of Indian consumers are likely to make purchases on mobile sites that have made search and purchase processes seamless. 

If not, brands face 20 percent drop in conversions for every second of delay in mobile page load-time and 53 percent consumers leave a mobile site that takes longer than three seconds to load.

"Smartphones are a catalyst for consumers to research and carry out commerce online today. It's up to marketers to prioritise a seamless mobile web experience to retain consumers with content and speed," Vikas Agnihotri, Country Director - Sales, Google India said in a statement this week. 

"Brands must counter the top three barriers of slow speed, slow server times and lack of caching policy, to build a strong connection with their consumers, improve conversions and build stickiness," Agnihotri added. 

The study reviewed over 720 most visited mobile sites across 15 countries in Asia-Pacific. Websites were rated based on 80 user experience best practice guidelines, as well as their speed. 

Individualising how brands can increase site speed, the study recommended lightening the website by compressing textual and image assets and identifying and removing backend performance bottlenecks among others.