Eliminating The Spinner: HeadSpin Application Performance Index (HAPI) Identifies Top-Performing Apps During COVID-19

HAPI Examines Performance of the Most Popular Apps Powering Contactless Commerce; Finds Top Performers Take Two Seconds or Less to Load

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#ApplicationTesting—HeadSpin, the leading Digital Experience Intelligence company, today announced the HeadSpin Application Performance Index (HAPI), a new industry benchmark measuring the relative latency and performance of leading applications by category. Leveraging proprietary data, HeadSpin identified the best-performing contactless shopping, restaurant ordering and food delivery apps in COVID-19-impacted cities in the U.S., and those in need of improvement. Applications selected for analysis in the report include Target, Amazon, Walmart, Burger King, Grubhub, Uber Eats and more.

The HeadSpin Application Performance Index (HAPI) measures Total Spinner Time (TST), a unique user-centric metric defined as the total amount of time a user spends waiting for an app to present readable, viewable, or usable content, and calculates the metric by running hundreds of tests per application across a variety of Android and iOS devices, geographies, and carrier networks. In addition to the measurement and ranking, HeadSpin’s Performance Insights, powered by the company’s proprietary AI, identify opportunities for application providers to improve connected experiences.

HeadSpin’s inaugural HAPI Report measures the performance of the top shopping, restaurant, and food delivery apps, as determined by the most popular mobile applications in the U.S. by total downloads and weekly active users during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights from the report include:

• The Best Apps Excel at Launch – The best contactless commerce apps took under two seconds to load, and load times of under two second was indicative of strong TST scores. However, on average, all contactless commerce apps took 4.1 seconds to load. According to Google/SOASTA research, as load times progress from one to five seconds, bounce rates increase by 90%.
• Search is Strong for Retail, Mostly – The top retail apps averaged a search time of 2.4 seconds. However, this average was negatively impacted by some of the largest retailers, including Walmart and Amazon, who featured slow search times. Meanwhile, the Shop app from Shopify excelled across all metrics and was 5.5x faster than Amazon in returning search results.

A full analysis of the most popular contactless commerce apps, as well as unique AI-based insights and recommendations for improvement, are available here. Further reports examining other industries will be published on the HeadSpin Intelligence Hub website in the coming months. With this, businesses can see where they stand compared to others in their industry in terms of crucial performance metrics and get actionable insights for delivering their best user experience ever.

“Organizations have quickly stepped up to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly shifting their business models to contactless commerce in order to deliver the goods and services people need in a manner in which they feel safe and comfortable,” said Manish Lachwani, CEO and Co-Founder, HeadSpin. “Research has found that even a one-second delay in mobile load times can reduce conversion rates by up to 20%. In this unprecedented time when both businesses and consumers are more dependent on digital commerce than ever before, no one can afford slow apps that do not deliver usable content in a timely manner.”

The COVID-19 situation has also demonstrated that some enterprises are more equipped to deal with changes in the macroeconomic climate than others.

“Developers who focus on driving end-to-end digital experience assurance with a clear understanding of the top line goal are the ones who have thrived in the current situation,” added Jeena James, VP of Developer Products, HeadSpin. “They use robust platform solutions to measure and identify underperforming areas and develop solutions to reduce latency at all user touchpoints. These top performers test build-over-build to prevent regressions early and continuously monitor performance over time, yielding strong TST scores and successful critical user journeys.”

HeadSpin’s Global Device Infrastructure allows end-to-end testing and monitoring in over 160 locations and 100 countries across approximately 1,000 unique carrier and broadband networks, worldwide. The company’s proprietary AI technology analyzes and prioritizes the core issues impacting critical user journeys. Using computer vision techniques to quantify blank screens, time to interact, loading time, loading or buffering animations, and content quality, HeadSpin’s AI models can automatically diagnose server-side issues whether they arise from infrastructure deployment issues, poor performance, or API errors. HeadSpin customers include Microsoft, Google, Uber, PWC, ESPN, LinkedIn, eBay, Visa, Verizon, and more.

For more information visit www.headspin.io and visit HeadSpin’s blog, or follow HeadSpin on Twitter (@headspin_io) and LinkedIn.

About HeadSpin

HeadSpin offers the leading Digital Experience Intelligence solution that utilizes automation, AI, and analytics to unify end-to-end testing, performance optimization, and experience monitoring. HeadSpin’s global device infrastructure – with thousands of real, SIM-enabled devices running in hundreds of locations on real networks in real-world conditions – empowers development, QA, operations, and product teams to deliver flawless digital experiences across all delivery channels. Find out why HeadSpin is trusted by some of the largest enterprises in the world at https://www.headspin.io and follow us on Twitter (@headspin_io) and LinkedIn.

Contacts

Will Clark

fama PR for HeadSpin

P: 617-986-5039

E: headspin@famapr.com