Martin Michálek in Ecommerce Bridge: Speed isn’t a 2005 Topic, How Fast Are Local E-Shops and How to Handle Hosting?

You might be thinking, “Website speed? Haven’t we been addressing this for 20 years?” And you’re right, it’s been a topic for a long time. Yet paradoxically, it’s more important today than ever. Why? Because while our connections have become faster, websites have grown heavier and user expectations have skyrocketed.

The numbers don’t lie: the difference between a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 2 seconds and 4 seconds can translate into 6× higher conversions. In today’s article, we’ll delve into the current state of web speed in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, determine when a site is fast enough, and most importantly, what to do if your e-shop is lagging.

Website Speed Isn’t a 2005 Topic#

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The impact of speed on e-shop sales can be dramatic.

• The conversion difference between an LCP of 2 seconds vs. 4 seconds is 6× higher.
• It’s not a solved issue but a persistent problem with a direct impact on revenue.

What’s changed since the “good old days”?

• The internet is faster, hardware more powerful.
• Yet, a performance inequality gap has emerged, where low-end device performance isn’t improving as quickly as the latest iPhones.
• JS frameworks complicate the relationship between User Experience (UX) and Developer Experience (DX).
• Growing user demands for instant availability.

How Do We Stand with Speed in the Czech Republic and Slovakia?#

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We’re not doing badly, but there’s definitely room for improvement. A good indicator is the RTT (Round Trip Time) metric and connection latency.

• Czech Republic: 10th/70 in the world (87 ms), the same as Germany.
• Slovakia: 14th/70 (95 ms).
• For comparison, the Netherlands has just 63 ms.

LCP on mobiles and real loading speed:

• Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia have an average of 1.9 seconds.
• The overall average for all countries is 2.2 seconds.

Unsure what to track? Google’s Core Web Vitals determine what’s fast.

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – when the main content loads.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – how much the page jumps.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP) – the speed of response to a click.

Which Websites Are the Fastest in the Czech Republic and Slovakia?#

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Benchmark comparisons of the fastest e-shops.

• iWant.cz has an LCP of 0.93 seconds (the fastest among larger Czech e-shops).
• Brloh.sk (also from Smarty) has an LCP of 0.78 seconds (one of the fastest in Slovakia).

At PageSpeed.ONE, we annually announce the Fastest E-Shop of the Year.

Why Does Each Web Page Load at Different Speeds?#

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Have you noticed some subpages load quickly while others crawl? It’s normal and has several causes. On the web’s side:

• Different page content (images, scripts, database queries).
• Shared hosting where performance fluctuates with the load of other pages.

On the user’s side:

• Different connections (4G vs. WiFi vs. fiber).
• Different devices (old vs. new phone).
• Geographical location.

Recommended measurements:

• PLUS monitoring measures entry pages in detail once a day.
• CrUX data from users for the entire domain.

Do I Need a Server in Every Country?#

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If you have an e-shop for multiple countries in the CEE region, you might be dealing with having a server in the Czech Republic but selling to Hungary and Croatia. Is it a problem?

• A good frontend and CDN often outweigh geographical distance.
• CDN distributes static content (images, CSS, JS) closer to users.
• Frontend optimization can be more important than a local server.
• VS hosting provides servers in various countries.
• Our clients Trenýrkárna, 11teamsports are successful international e-shops with servers in the Czech Republic.

How to Recognize Good Hosting?#

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Switching a project from one hosting provider to another and seeing a dramatic speed increase is rare today. The type of hosting has a greater impact on speed.

• Shared hosting is cheap but performance fluctuates with other websites. Not recommended.
• VPS offers greater control and more stable performance.
• A dedicated server ensures maximum performance.
• VS hosting is the recommended solution for e-shops.

How to spot a hosting problem?

• Test the speed of other websites on the same hosting.
• If all are slow, the issue is in the infrastructure.

What to Do If I Have a Slow E-Shop?#

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Your developer says it’s the hosting. The hosting says it’s bad code. How do you resolve this as a manager?

• You need data from monitoring. Without data, you’re just guessing.
• A poor Time to First Byte (TTFB) metric points to backend/hosting issues.
• The difference between TTFB and LCP indicates frontend issues.

What About Box Solutions?#

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Shoptet is a great example of a boxed solution with a solid foundation.

• It has excellent backend and a resolved TTFB metric.
• Be cautious with custom frontend modifications; custom code can slow it down.
• Limited server access, but optimization opportunities exist.

Recommendations for boxed solutions:

• Focus on frontend optimization within limits.
• Minimize custom scripts and extensions.
• Utilize the platform’s built-in optimizations.
• Test speed after every change.

Website speed is not a one-time task but a continuous process, much like SEO or marketing.

Web Speed Checklist for E-Commerce#

• Get speed monitoring. If you don’t measure, you don’t know.
• Optimize TTFB, a metric related to backend and hosting.
• Implement WebP images, a modern format that saves data.
• Optimized web fonts ensure fast font loading.
• Brotli compression is better than standard Gzip.
• Use lazy loading – gradual content loading.
• Be cautious with third-party scripts, each external code slows down the web.

You can find the full interview along with more detailed text on the EcommerceBridge.sk website.

Need help with your e-shop’s speed? Contact* _PageSpeed.cz*.

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