Riverbed: Poor website performance is a make-or-break deal for consumers

Cyber Monday 2012 is in full swing already with tons of retailers offering mega-discount deals on their websites today. That has the potential to drive traffic up considerably, which in turn could hamper site performance.

If the website performance and experience is so bad, many consumers might be turned off from the brand for good, based on a new survey from networking specialists Riverbed.

See also: Tips for safer online shopping this Cyber Monday

Specifically, Riverbed warned that an underperforming website equals loss of customers and revenue. Here are some highlights from the report:

• 89 percent of U.S. adults would stop shopping at a website because of poor website experiences.
• 79 percent percent of those surveyed said that overall website experience is absolutely essential or important when choosing a site to shop.
• 36 percent of participants report they often encounter difficulties including slow load times, site fails and navigation difficult when shopping online.
• 44 percent of online shoppers have had to cancel an online order mid-way through the checkout process because the site was too slow.
• 84 percent of respondents will specifically revisit a brand online based on their website shopping experience.

Nevertheless, Riverbed assured that there are ways to overcome the challenges of a poor-performing site -- even at the last minute. Experts from Equinix and VMware also recently offered tips and advice about how to maintain cloud infrastructures for the holiday shopping season.

For reference, Riverbed's study was conducted by Harris Interactive, which surveyed 2,397 American adults age 18 and older between October 29 and 31.

Charts via Riverbed