Is your Web presence viable and profitable? In a 2001 study of 8,600 Web-using households, Forrester Research found that 67% of users cited ease of use and 59% cited download speed as reasons for continuing to return to websites. In another 2001 study, by Zona Research: The average Web user will click to another website if a page takes more than eight seconds to download. Slow-loading abandonment cost online businesses and estimated $4.35 billion annually in lost revenue. One website studied dropped abandonment rate from 30% to 7% by reducing download time by one second per page. Of all the websites studied, 84% had pages that downloaded too slowly. When office-supply retailer Staples.com redesigned it's web site in May 2000, measured results included: 31% Decrease in rate of exit from the Home Page 45% Decrease in rate of exit from Catalog Pages 67% Increase in number of Repeat Customers 80% Increase in unique Daily Visitors in the 2000 holiday season, compared to 40% (average) for all e-commerce sites. (Source: MediaMetrix)