The Fastest Czech E-shop: Hornbach, 3v1, and T-shock

At the outset of this case study, several questions arose. Which Czech e-shop is the fastest? Can large e-shops be fast enough? And how do we measure this?

We thought that if anyone could find out, it would probably be us, the speed consulting team at PageSpeed.ONE. (Okay, our friends at Marketing Miner helped us too, indeed.)

Looking for answers?

• Hornbach leads the race as the fastest Czech e-shop among the most-visited hundred, while 3v1 takes the lead among the top 500.
• Some large e-shops showcase excellent metrics, evident in their user experience. So yes, e-shops can be fast. Even the big ones.
• With public data from Google (Chrome UX Report) and a bit of our expertise, calculating the fastest e-shop becomes quite straightforward.

We can’t wait to show you the details in this article. But first, let’s ask a crucial question: why is speed important for e-shops?

Speed Brings Conversions and More Visitors to E-shops#

Website speed matters. E-shop speed matters even more. A faster e-shop can deliver:

• A higher conversion rate, as shown in numerous case studies.
• More visitors from Google since speed is one of the ranking signals.
• Lower advertising costs, thanks to Google's speed assessments.

The human mind recognizes instant interface responses in mere hundreds of milliseconds. Most websites today can’t meet this during loading or interface interaction, but every enhancement counts and can reflect in vital indicators.

We also have some measurements from major players that demonstrate the impact of speed:

1. For every tenth of a second an e-shop speeds up, conversions grow by 8%. (Deloitte)
2. Each second shaved off homepage load time increases conversions by 2%. (Walmart)
3. Meet Web Vitals? The likelihood of page abandonment drops by 24%. (Google)

Speed's Impact on Conversions#

The connection between web speed and conversion rate is a fact we observe in practical case studies. Websites like WPOStats collect them.

At PageSpeed.ONE, however, we know the relationship between speed and conversions varies for each website, linked to different speed metrics.

For our e-commerce clients, conversion correlations often align with the LCP metric:

The graph shows the correlation between the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP, orange) and the conversion rate on the website (blue).

It’s clear that users with LCP around 1.5 seconds made the most conversions, achieving about 6%. The median is 2.172 seconds, where the conversion rate drops by half.

Other e-shops show correlations with additional metrics linked to LCP (preceding it), such as Start Render, TTFB (backend), or FCP.

In all cases, it’s about correlation, not causation. Speed's impact can't be isolated from other factors like marketing, product offerings, promotions, competitor activities, and more. Yet, we're convinced speed plays a crucial role in this mix.

Why have a fast website? Read more reasons why speed matters.

Why Seek the Fastest E-shop#

We often hear that e-shops can't be fast. They contain lots of graphics, products, features, a large database, big images, analytics, and tracking scripts...

There’s a common belief that only corporate presentations and small websites can be fast. We say that’s not true. Even e-shops can be beautifully built and optimized.

The rules to meet Core Web Vitals metrics aren't complicated. It just requires alerting team members, educating them, and monitoring adherence to these rules.

Our study aims to highlight positive examples, showing that e-shops can be fast, impacting their conversion rates.

Previously, a similar case study by Jindřich Fáborský measured the speed of Czech e-shops. Reshoper strives to help Czech e-shops, focusing on their speed performance.

The Fastest Czech E-shop#

Our study is based on data about estimated traffic from Marketing Miner, a Czech SEO tool. Thanks to Filip Podstavec for the collaboration!

Which website excels in Core Web Vitals metrics collected from real users? We focused on the Top 100 and Top 500 most-visited Czech e-shops. Here are the results.

Top 10 Fastest Mobile E-shops from the Top 100 by Visits#

This is our main category. Mobile devices account for a significant portion of e-shop traffic, and here we selected the 100 most well-known brands.

	E-shop Name	PageSpeed.ONE Score
1.	hornbach.cz	0.5409
2.	trhknih.cz	0.5655
3.	xiaomicesko.cz	0.57765
4.	sportovniautodoplnky.cz	0.5841
5.	odkarla.cz	0.59865
6.	hodinky-365.cz	0.61575
7.	oriondomacipotreby.cz	0.6219
8.	bonami.cz	0.6699
9.	svet-svitidel.cz	0.6753
10.	zalando.cz	0.7053

In the royal category of the hundred largest e-shops on mobile, Hornbach.cz claims the throne as the fastest website. Second place goes to the relatively new TrhKnih.cz, and third to XiamiCesko.cz. Congratulations to the creators of all three websites!

Among more recognized brands in the top ten, we see names like Bonami and Zalando. We’re also pleased to see our client Svet-Svitidel.cz in the ninth spot.

Top 10 Fastest Desktop E-shops from the Top 100 by Visits#

On desktop, the rankings remain the same at the top:

	E-shop Name	PageSpeed.ONE Score
1.	hornbach.cz	0.3519
2.	trhknih.cz	0.38595
3.	xiaomicesko.cz	0.41435
4.	odkarla.cz	0.45435
5.	bonami.cz	0.46125
6.	sportovniautodoplnky.cz	0.46555
7.	hodinky-365.cz	0.47715
8.	czc.cz	0.47765
9.	sneakergallery.cz	0.51025
10.	oriondomacipotreby.cz	0.51875

Congratulations again to the creators of Hornbach.cz, TrhKnih.cz, and XiamiCesko.cz. Among more familiar brands, CZC.cz made it into the top ten.

Complete Table for the top 100 Czech e-shops.

Top 10 Fastest Mobile E-shops from the Top 500 by Visits#

To be fairer, we also took the top 500 most-visited e-shops from Marketing Miner data:

	E-shop Name	PageSpeed.ONE Score
1.	3v1trivjednom.cz	0.3548
2.	spoilercentrum.cz	0.41295
3.	zahradnictvikrulichovi.cz	0.4717
4.	nejlevnejsipneu.cz	0.486
5.	prosikulky.cz	0.4887
6.	motokramek.cz	0.4915
7.	poshme.cz	0.5208
8.	kupkolo.cz	0.52815
9.	hadex.cz	0.53985
10.	hornbach.cz	0.5409

The category of the top five hundred websites on mobile is led by the e-shop 3v1trivjednom.cz, built on a solution from Shoptet. Second place goes to SpoilerCentrum.cz and third to the flower shop ZahradnictviKrulichovi.cz. Congratulations.

Incidentally, Shoptet's client's placement proves that a very fast website can be built on this solution. However, our experience shows that Shoptet's inherent speed is often unfortunately compromised by poor custom design implementation.

Among more recognized brands in the top ten, we see NejlevnejsiPneu.cz and again Hornbach.cz.

Top 10 Fastest Desktop E-shops from the Top 500 by Visits#

Here we found the fastest e-shop in our categories when we look at the "PageSpeed.ONE score":

	E-shop Name	PageSpeed.ONE Score
1.	t-shock.eu	0.17415
2.	spoilercentrum.cz	0.2457
3.	levnestavebniny.cz	0.3075
4.	3v1trivjednom.cz	0.32455
5.	hornbach.cz	0.3519
6.	nejlevnejsipneu.cz	0.3596
7.	gigacomputer.cz	0.36855
8.	motokramek.cz	0.36875
9.	painguru.cz	0.37835
10.	prosikulky.cz	0.38315

In the category of the top five hundred websites on desktop, e-shop t-shock.eu triumphs with the lowest "PageSpeed.ONE score".

Second place, just like on mobile, goes to SpoilerCentrum.cz, and LevneStavebniny.cz takes third. Congratulations to the developers and owners of the winning e-shops.

Among the top ten, we also see GigaComputer.cz and, once again, NejlevnejsiPneu.cz and Hornbach.cz.

Complete Table of the top 500 fastest Czech e-shops.

How Did We Measure?#

In collaboration with Marketing Miner, we prepared a list of the largest and most-visited e-shops. We downloaded speed data from Google for users, added weights for individual metrics, and ranked everything.

We didn't have to search long for metrics. We chose a set of Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS, and the new INP).

We utilized data from the Chrome UX Report. It's a database of user experience quality data collected by the Chrome browser.

• LCP - Largest Contentful Paint (How fast does it load?)
• FID - First Input Delay (Does it respond quickly?)
• CLS - Cumulative Layout Shift (Is it visually stable?)
• INP - Interaction to Next Paint (a new metric soon replacing FID)

In the "PageSpeed.ONE score", individual metrics have the following weight:

• LCP: 45%
• FID: 15%
• CLS: 25%
• INP: 15%

Why these weights? We largely mirror the weights within the Lighthouse Score, another metric by Google. Additionally, we've included the modern INP metric, which shows JavaScript performance better than FID.

Interaction to Next Paint (INP)#

We deliberately included the new INP metric. Although still considered experimental, Google has already announced its inclusion in Core Web Vitals. Around March 2024, the now unsatisfactory FID (First Input Delay) metric will be replaced.

This change will affect a range of websites because INP is a much more accurate and stricter metric. It’s time to start considering the INP metric.

Mobile measurements are crucial, as our experience shows 70 - 90% of traffic on e-shops comes from mobile devices.

The Winner is Hornbach.cz#

The fastest e-shop is Hornbach.cz. It won in the most crucial category of the Top 100 most-visited websites on both mobile and desktop. It also consistently ranked in the top ten in the Top 500 category. We chose it as the winner because it truly is a complex and large e-shop.

Now, for inspiration, let's highlight some well-executed technical aspects that led to its top position in our study.

1. The site boasts an excellent TTFB (Time To First Byte), backend speed
   The average time to load the first byte is 0.3 seconds. Google's recommendation is under 0.8 seconds, but many Czech e-shops exceed one second. This advantage reflects in other metrics.
2. Correct use of lazy loading
   Hornbach.cz uses native lazyload for images, widely supported by all major browsers. It's advisable to apply the loading="lazy" attribute to all images on the page, except for the LCP element image, which should not have this attribute to load as soon as possible.
3. Properly structured and served CSS styles
   The site features well-prepared CSS groups, divided by pages and components (header, footer, variables, etc.). As a result, unnecessary styles that aren’t needed on the current page aren't downloaded. CSS files are blocking resources and should be as small as possible. Footer styles are cleverly deferred and start downloading only after the LCP image on the page begins loading.
4. Good image handling
   Images are well optimized in terms of both data and physical size. The <picture> element with appropriate srcsets and sizes is used. For the largest banner images on the homepage, the WebP format is used, widely supported today, and recommended for all website images. SVGs are also correctly minimized.
5. Correct text compression settings
   Even the most optimized code is large if text compression isn’t enabled and properly configured on the server. Choosing and enabling the right level is particularly important. Hornbach.cz uses reliable Gzip compression for HTML (level 5), CSS (7), JS (8), and SVG (9) files. Compression levels are correctly chosen with server performance in mind.

Where do we see opportunities for improvement at Hornbach’s website? There's always room for improvement:

1. Prioritize downloading the LCP element even more using priority hints or preload.
2. More consistently use WebP and AVIF images.
3. Fully implement image lazyloading, which is occasionally missing.
4. Simplify the complex serving of image variants (srcset and sizes).

What to say in conclusion? We don't know about you, but we are thrilled with the study results.

Congratulations to the winners, the creators of Hornbach.cz!

Special recognition goes to the creators of 3v1trivjednom.cz and t-shock.eu, the fastest among the top 500 websites on mobile and desktop.

It has been shown that even large e-shops, as well as those built on solutions like Shoptet, can be technically brilliant. They can be fast and provide operators with conversions and satisfied users.

Need help with your e-shop's speed? Contact us.

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