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

You might be thinking: “Website speed? We’ve been dealing with this for 20 years!” And you’re right, we’ve been talking about it for ages. Yet, paradoxically, it’s more crucial today than ever before. Why? Because while our connections have sped up, websites have become increasingly demanding and user expectations have grown exponentially.

The numbers are relentless: the difference between a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 2 seconds and 4 seconds can mean a sixfold increase in conversions. In today’s article, we’ll explore the current state of web speed in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, determine when a site is sufficiently fast, and most importantly, what to do if your e-shop is lagging behind.

Website Speed Isn’t Just a 2005 Topic#

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

• The difference in conversions between an LCP of 2 seconds versus 4 seconds is sixfold.
• It’s not a resolved topic, but a persistent issue with direct impacts on revenue.

What has changed since the "good old days"?

• The internet is faster, hardware more potent.
• However, there’s a performance inequality gap where low-end devices don’t keep pace with the latest iPhones.
• JS frameworks complicate the relationship between User Experience (UX) and Developer Experience (DX).
• Growing user demands for immediate availability.

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

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

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

LCP on mobiles and actual loading speed:

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

Unsure what to monitor? Google’s Core Web Vitals determine what’s speedy.

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

Which Websites Are the Fastest in CZ and SK?#

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For 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 by Smarty) has an LCP of 0.78 seconds (one of the fastest in SK).

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

Why Does Each Web Page Load at Different Speeds?#

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Have you noticed that some subpages are fast while others are slow? It’s normal and has several causes. On the website's side:

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

On the users’ side:

• Different connections (4G vs WiFi vs fibre).
• Different devices (old vs new phones).
• Geographic 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 operate an e-shop across multiple CEE countries, you might worry about having a server in the Czech Republic but selling to Hungary and Croatia. Is this an issue?

• A good frontend and CDN often outweigh geographical distance.
• CDN distributes static content (images, CSS, JS) closer to users.
• Frontend optimisation can be more critical 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 Identify Good Hosting?#

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Switching a project from one hosting to another and seeing a leap in speed is rare these days. The type of hosting affects speed more.

• Shared hosting is cheap, but performance varies with other websites. We do not recommend it.
• VPS offers more control and stable performance.
• Dedicated server ensures maximum performance.
• VS hosting is a recommended solution for e-shops.

How to identify hosting issues?

• Test the speed of other sites on the same hosting.
• If all are slow, the problem lies in the infrastructure.

What to Do If Your E-Shop Is Slow?#

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Programmer says it’s the hosting. Hosting says it’s poor code. How to resolve this as a manager?

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

What About Boxed Solutions?#

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Shoptet is an excellent example of a boxed solution with a solid foundation.

• It has a great backend and resolved TTFB metric.
• Beware of custom frontend tweaks; custom code can slow it down.
• Limited server access, but optimisation opportunities exist.

Recommendations for boxed solutions:

• Focus on frontend optimisation within capabilities.
• Minimise custom scripts and extensions.
• Utilise the platform’s built-in optimisations.
• Test speed after every change.

Website speed isn’t a one-off task but a continuous process, like SEO or marketing.

Web Speed Checklist for E-Commerce#

• Get speed monitoring. If you don’t measure, you don’t know.
• Optimise TTFB; the metric relates to backend and hosting.
• Deploy WebP images; the modern format saves data.
• Optimised web fonts ensure fast font loading.
• Brotli compression is better than standard Gzip.
• Use lazy loading – gradual content loading.
• Watch out for third-party scripts; every external code slows down the site.

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

Need help with your e-shop's speed? Contact_ PageSpeed.ONE.

Tags:Web Performance