Study: Retailers leaving 'billions' on table due to poor website performance
Website performance – independent of brand size – is a key driver of e-commerce success.
That’s according to the 2025 Retail Website Performance Benchmark Report from internet performance marketing firm Catchpoint, which analyzed the National Retail Federation’s Top 50 Global Retailers ranking by testing performance using its Global Agent Network, made up of over 3,000 agents worldwide. Some of the world’s biggest retailers are leaving "billions on the table" because their websites are too slow or unstable, the report said.
One of the largest takeaways was that big revenue doesn’t equal speed, as some of the world’s top 10 retailers struggle with slow websites. For example, Walmart (#1 revenue, Score 68), Costco (#5 revenue, Score 66), and Seven & I (#8 revenue, Score 51) all lag in user experience rankings despite massive revenues.
Several smaller or mid-sized retailers are on par with, and even outperform, some of the world's largest retail players. Aldi (#4 revenue, #1 experience) achieves a perfect score of 100, while European retailer Action ($15B revenue) ranks #2 with a 99, and Ikea (#9 revenue, #3 experience) dramatically outperforms much larger competitors.
“Retailers are investing billions in digital transformation, but too many are blind to the performance gaps their customers actually feel,” said Mehdi Daoudi, CEO and co-founder of Catchpoint. “Your dashboards may be green, but if your shoppers are waiting 10 seconds on mobile in Tokyo or São Paulo, you’re losing trust, loyalty, and most importantly sales, especially headed into one of the busiest times of the year.”
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While Catchpoint Systems’ report found that while some brands offer seamless, responsive, and stable sites across geographies, many others struggle to meet even baseline user expectations. The largest cluster of retailers fell between the mid-60s and low-80s, indicating broad parity with distinct leaders.
Despite 91% of retailers maintaining near-perfect availability, a strong user experience is not guaranteed. More than a quarter of retailers scored under 66, indicating experience-level issues such as layout instability, slow rendering, or inconsistent performance across regions.
“Retail growth in 2025 will be won on the last mile of the internet,” said Dritan Suljoti, chief product and technology officer at Catchpoint. “Our data shows brands can’t rely on uptime and averages — customers feel the slowest path, not the best one. Leaders are measuring what shoppers actually experience and fixing it before it hits conversion.”
The full report from Catchpoint can be found here.
