Setting customer loyalty in Singapore

Singapore has experienced a boom in mobile commerce in the last 3 years with no sign of slowing up. Companies are rushing to push out mobile strategies to expand their online reach to mobile devices with applications and mobile sites specifically tailored for smartphones and tablets.

However, due to this sharp change in strategy to increase revenue, the applications and web sites that get pushed out have not been optimized to an acceptable level.

Data from Compuware’s Gomez benchmark, shows that 4 out of 10 customers experience delayed page-loading issues, 70% of tablet users expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less and 33% of web users will not make a purchase from that company if they came across a problem on the website.

When these customers face a delay in page loading they are more inclined to quickly look to their competitors’ websites instead, resulting in a potential loss of revenue,

So why do companies pour millions of dollars into data analytics to understand consumer-buying patterns or focus on the aesthetic appeal of their site but ignore the simplest variable that make customers happy?

Load testing is not a new concept and many companies probably have used various testing tools prior to major releases with varying degrees of success.

Yet, we still see new web/mobile applications or newly launched web sites for which performance is not up to par with the customer demands.

SINGAPOREAN SHOPAHOLICS SOAR

Load testing becomes all the more important as the number of mobile shoppers in Singapore increases. A survey by the Mobile Marketing Association of Singapore revealed that there are now 7.8 million mobile phones here. It's not surprising considering that government figures in October 2012 showed that mobile penetration rate in Singapore is at an all time high of 150%.

With almost 90% of the population of Singapore owning a smartphone, mobile commerce here is set to grow for the next couple of years.

According to a Forrester survey, almost a million transactions took place on a mobile device in Singapore in 2011. Mobile commerce in Singapore is expected to increase to S$3 billion by 2015.

These numbers are projected to increase every year. If a company’s site or application cannot handle these expectations, web users will not hesitate to find one that can.


If you are sitting at the edge of your seat in desperation wondering what went wrong, below are three common mistakes companies can avoid in preparation for major traffic events.

1. LOAD TESTING – AN AFTERTHOUGHT
For
a load test exercise to be successful, you need a plan to address the questions that need to be answered and get the right stakeholders involved at key points in the process.

You can pull this together in a short time frame — but planning ahead ensures a greater likelihood of success – and is a lot less stressful.

2. KEY STAKEHOLDERS? WHO?
The second key mistake that occurs repeatedly is that load testing exercises move forward without the participation of all key stakeholders.

Key input such as web analytics, sales data and business growth projections are required to scale the load test properly, yet it is often unavailable.

Data from third parties is critical because they provide more functionality to your web site. Without their participation, a site may not be tested properly, denial of services may occur or bottlenecks that are found cannot be tied back to a specific root cause or action plan, wasting time and money.

3. TESTING WAS NOT CONDUCTED FROM THE END USER’S PERSPECTIVE 

The third common mistake is that the load test is not designed from the end-user perspective and, therefore, does not really prepare you for the real load of users.

All too often we see customers designing back-end tests when what they really want or need is a test that will ensure they can handle real-user traffic to meet real users’ experience requirements.


When preparing for a major traffic event, such as Christmas or Chinese New Year shopping season, it is critical to test from the end user’s perspective so that you know exactly what their experience is each step of the purchase.

Conclusion
For every organization, happy customers translate into a successful business.

Planning early and thoroughly, being sure to include the right stakeholders, and considering the way your users use your site creates a recipe for effective load testing.

Companies do not need to spend millions of dollars on consumer behavior if they cannot understand the fundamentals of what makes a happy customer. A delayed page loading time would risk the company a bad launch, brand damage and lost revenue.