Eighty seven per cent of retailers operating online in Britain are missing out on sales because smartphone users have a sub-par experience when visiting their websites.

This is according to a new study which identified a number of issues with the mobile shopping experience, focusing on page load speed and general performance.

Internet Retailing reports that a recently announced update implemented by Google means that the speed with which a site loads is more important than ever to securing a solid search rank. Yet researchers found that even big name brands are failing to offer compellingly quick safe shopping online to consumers on the move.

Google’s own investigations have revealed that half of web users will be dissatisfied if a site takes more than two seconds to load. Meanwhile a site will have to load in under four seconds to be considered amongst the top tier in terms of performance under the search giant’s latest ranking changes.

It is anticipated that web users will become even fussier about page load speed as mobile connectivity moves into the 5G era. This means that the pressure is on retailers to overhaul their ability to offer safe shopping online to customers who are harnessing portable devices rather than desktop PCs or laptops.

The study revealed that it takes a typical UK retail site around 11 seconds to load, which could see almost a third of customers give up and head elsewhere to make a purchase.

Just one per cent of the sites tested were found to load in four seconds or less, which reveals that there is a lot of work to do to bring the e-commerce experience up to scratch. For the time being, mobile users will have to put up with sluggish performance.