Study Finds Ad Stacks Are Costing Retailers Holiday Profits
benefits of their tracker ecosystems to not only create a better online shopping experience for consumers, but to also improve their bottom line,” said Jeremy Tillman, president of Ghostery. “While trackers can be valuable, retailers must ask themselves — at what cost? Businesses often focus solely on the benefits of trackers, but fail to consider the hidden costs that come with them.”
Additionally, the Ghostery study finds that piggybacking trackers contribute to poor performance. These trackers are not implemented directly, but instead through other trackers and might be unknown to a retailer. According to the company, piggybacked trackers slow down web sites and put consumer privacy at risk.
A case study with Sears, which had the highest number of trackers and tracker requests, was used as an example in Ghostery’s report providing insights into delays caused by post-load trackers. These trackers are unique in design as they will not send a request until after a page is finished loading. As reported by Ghostery, the effects of post-load trackers include delayed scrolling and slow-to-respond forms which the company has found to create an overall negative experience for online consumers.
When looking at types of trackers with the biggest impact on web site performance, Ghostery says that each “major offender” does serve a variety of purposes, including advertising and functionality, making it a retailer’s responsibility to recognize “hidden costs” when utilizing trackers.