The impact of website performance on business sales

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to investigate the financial implications of website performance on restaurant visitor traffic. It is crucial to address the current challenges faced by the restaurant industry, such as decreasing diner numbers due to rising prices, which can have a negative impact on the financial results of companies. Recognizing the significance of maximizing profitability, especially for small businesses operating in a highly competitive industry, we sought to explore the potential of website performance as a driver of increased visitor traffic and daily menu sales. We conducted a two-month field experiment in which we measured morning website visits and daily lunch menu sales for a restaurant with a slower website and one with a quicker website. However, we did not find any statistically significant increase in visits to the restaurant as a result of improving the website’s speed. We conclude that there may be other ways to improve daily menu sales beyond website speed. The restaurant industry is highly competitive, and small businesses in particular need to carefully consider how to allocate their resources in order to maximize profitability. The results of our study suggest that investing in website redesign as a means of increasing visitor traffic may not be the most effective tactic for small restaurants. Our research highlights the importance of conducting experiments and gathering data to inform decision making, as it can help small businesses in the restaurant industry to make more informed choices about how to allocate their resources. By understanding the factors that do and do not impact sales, small restaurants can make more informed decisions and achieve their business goals.

Full text

10.2478/qf-2024-0007
Abstract In this study, we aimed to invesgate the nancial implicaons of website performance on res-
taurant visitor trac. It is crucial to address the current challenges faced by the restaurant indus-
try, such as decreasing diner numbers due to rising prices, which can have a negave impact on
the nancial results of companies. Recognizing the signicance of maximizing protability, espe-
cially for small businesses operang in a highly compeve industry, we sought to explore the
potenal of website performance as a driver of increased visitor trac and daily menu sales. We
conducted a two-month eld experiment in which we measured morning website visits and daily
lunch menu sales for a restaurant with a slower website and one with a quicker website. Howev-
er, we did not nd any stascally signicant increase in visits to the restaurant as a result of
improving the website's speed. We conclude that there may be other ways to improve daily
menu sales beyond website speed. The restaurant industry is highly compeve, and small busi-
nesses in parcular need to carefully consider how to allocate their resources in order to maxim-
ize protability. The results of our study suggest that invesng in website redesign as a means of
increasing visitor trac may not be the most eecve tacc for small restaurants. Our research
highlights the importance of conducng experiments and gathering data to inform decision mak-
ing, as it can help small businesses in the restaurant industry to make more informed choices
about how to allocate their resources. By understanding the factors that do and do not impact
sales, small restaurants can make more informed decisions and achieve their business goals.
JEL classicaon: M21, G30, M31
Keywords: Decision Making, Experiment, Restaurant Industry, Sales, Website Performance
Received: 06.12.2023 Accepted: 11.03.2024
Cite this:
Ikášová T. & Klepek M. (2024). The impact of website performance on business sales. Financial Internet Quarterly 20(1), pp. 81-91.
© 2024 Tereza Ikášová and Martin Klepek, published by Sciendo. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
1 School of Business Administraon in Karvina, Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic, e-mail: ikasova@opf.slu.cz, hps://orcid.org/0000-0002-
9639-5574.
2 School of Business Administraon in Karvina, Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic, e-mail: klepek@opf.slu.cz, hps://orcid.org/0000-0003-
4058-156X.

ular must carefully consider how to allocate their re-
sources to maximize protability. If there is a correla-
on between site speed and the number of lunches
sold, this would be a simple change that businesses
could apply to generate more prot.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows:
a review of the literature and theorecal background is
available in the chapters Role of a Website in Restau-
rant Business and Website Speed. The methods used
for the research are described in the Methods chapter.
The results of the research are presented in the Results
chapter. The Conclusions chapter summarizes the nd-
ings of the study and includes a discussion of its limita-
ons.
The restaurant industry is one of the most tradi-
onal and oldest industries. It has become an integral
part of supporng the tourism industry, as travelers
increasingly head to certain desnaons specically for
food (Daries-Ramon et al., 2019; Miranda et al., 2015).
Internet innovaons have inuenced the develop-
ment of the restaurant industry. Restaurants have be-
come increasingly aware of the power of the web and
are an ideal example of a web services market that
benets from the internet. Indeed, the Internet has
become the fastest growing adversing mechanism in
the restaurant industry and provides signicant market
potenal (Kim et al., 2012). Simultaneously, it serves as
an eecve method for distribung goods and infor-
maon services (Daries-Ramon et al., 2019). Indeed,
informaon search plays an important role in the con-
sumer's choice of restaurant, and in the decision of
which restaurant to choose for their visit (Yilmaz
& Gültekin, 2016).
Corporate websites are an important space for
corporate self-presentaon (Hacioglu, 2019). These
websites normally include informaon about the prod-
ucts the company oers, contact informaon and job
vacancies (Torrington et al., 2017). In the case of res-
taurants, oering menus or current lunch menus is also
an essenal part of the website (Brewer & Sebby,
2021).
Restaurant websites are considered one of the
most important informaon sources (Yilmaz & Gülte-
kin, 2016). The advantage of websites is that they are
universally accessible and necessary informaon can be
placed on them (Kim et al., 2012). The fundamental
point of the prosperity of a website is its level of usabil-
ity (Taimouri et al., 2019).
Visitors can form a posive or negave opinion
about the restaurant by vising the website. They can
also induce the consumer to physically visit the restau-
The issue of page load speed holds signicant -
nancial implicaons for businesses and web designers
alike. Ensuring a fast website is crucial for any business
owner, as it is widely known that users have lile pa-
ence for slow-loading sites. This arcle will explore
the nancial aspects of page load speed by highlighng
research that illustrates its impact on conversions. No-
tably, a majority of these studies focus on the
e-commerce sector, further underscoring the nancial
signicance of opmizing website performance. How-
ever, the queson is: What impact can site speed have
in a tradional business like the restaurant industry?
Today, it is standard for almost every business to have
a website or, at the very least, a presence on social
media networks. Similarly, restaurants post their cur-
rent lunch menus on the aforemenoned channels. In
the following study, we focused on websites. The inves-
gaon aims to analyze the nancial implicaons of
website performance on restaurant visitor trac. It is
crucial to invesgate the current challenges faced by
the restaurant industry, such as decreasing diner num-
bers due to rising prices, which can have a negave
impact on the nancial results of companies. Recogniz-
ing the signicance of maximizing protability, especial-
ly for small businesses operang in a highly compeve
industry, we aimed to explore the potenal of website
performance as a driver of increased visitor trac and
daily menu sales. This study will focus on a single res-
taurant and ulize internal nancial and business data
to explore the relaonship between website perfor-
mance and lunch menu sales. By examining how im-
provements in web loading speed can potenally inu-
ence customer behavior and purchasing decisions, val-
uable insights can be gained regarding the nancial
implicaons for the restaurant industry in the Czech
Republic.
As part of the study, a two-month experiment will
be conducted to measure morning visits to the restau-
rant website and daily lunch menu sales. Measure-
ments will be taken during normal operaon and again
aer a month, aer the site has been sped up. The
measurements will use Google Analycs to further ex-
plain visitor behavior on the website. Google Analycs
is a service that provides insight into site visitors and
provides tools to understand the user journey. The da-
ta collected will be compared to actual sales. The study
will look at whether speeding up the website has an
impact on the number of lunches sold in the restau-
rant.
Our movaon in this research is to nd out
whether restaurants' investments in speeding up and
redesigning their websites will pay o, and whether
their sales will increase. Aer all, the restaurant indus-
try is highly compeve, and small businesses in parc-

computaonal needs of the website (Basalla et al.,
2021). This implies that even if a web page is opmized
to load quickly by the operator, it may sll load slowly
for the user. For example, because the user does not
have a fast enough connecon.
Basalla et al. (2021) argue that even small changes
in latency can have a signicant impact on website us-
age. This will also be the subject of the planned experi-
ment, as only a small change will be made, and we will
observe how it aects sales.
How familiar a visitor is with a website may also
have an impact on the results of studies looking at
website speed (Basalla et al., 2021). If a rst-me visi-
tor accesses a website, their reacon may be dierent
from that of a visitor who accesses the website regular-
ly and is already familiar with it.
The increased use of mobile devices is a signicant
technological development. Surprisingly, the dier-
ences between mobile and nonmobile users in terms of
latency sensivity have not yet been sciencally ana-
lysed. Especially since mobile users are known to be-
have dierently and websites are commonly designed
specically for mobile devices (Basalla et al., 2021).
Another factor that can enter into the rang is
whether the user is in a hurry. If a user is in a hurry,
there will be a greater chance that they will leave the
site when it is slow to load than if they have the me
and space to browse the site (Basalla et al., 2021).
Waing online is also associated with lack of trust
and a negave atude towards the brand. However,
waing does not always involve negave emoonal
reacons, especially when waing is followed by suc-
cessful compleon of the task at hand. The reacon to
delay may be resignaon and acceptance of a certain
delay (Ryan et al., 2015).
The restaurant industry is highly compeve, and
small businesses in parcular need to carefully consider
how to allocate their resources in order to maximize
protability. The restaurant industry in the Czech Re-
public is facing signicant changes in consumer behav-
ior due to rising food prices. Recent data from food
voucher card payments reveals that Czechs are acvely
cung down on lunch expenses in response to the rap-
id increase in food prices. The average spending on
lunch during this period was CZK 160.20, marking
a 10.1% increase compared to the previous year. How-
ever, this rise in spending does not match the pace of
food price inaon, which has surged by 23.5% year-on
-year.
Moreover, data from the Czech Stascal Oce
(CSO) and the Ticket Restaurant Card Index, indicates
a growing trend of people opng for cheaper meals
rant. It is also for this reason that many restaurants
have created websites to inform and aract consumers
(Yilmaz & Gültekin, 2016). However, if a restaurant's
website lacks the informaon consumers are seeking or
is dicult to navigate, it's likely that consumers will
overlook it. In such cases, they may turn to alternave
sources or competors for the informaon they need,
potenally resulng in lost business opportunies for
the restaurant (Rosalin et al., 2016). Therefore, in-
vesng in an eecve website that meets consumer
expectaons and provides relevant informaon can
yield nancial benets for restaurants by aracng and
retaining customers.
The speed of data processing and loading has al-
ways been an important issue in the context of the In-
ternet. Connuous advances in informaon and com-
municaon technologies (ICT) date back to the early
1980s. This has led to well-known transformaons in
how we acquire informaon and especially in terms of
speed (Aldammagh et al., 2021).
Page load speed reects the performance of
a website and has a signicant impact on user experi-
ence. At the same me, site speed is also one of the
factors invesgated by the authors in the context of
web quality assessment (Bosho, 2007; Buenadicha et
al., 2001).
This topic is becoming increasingly important be-
cause with the increasing amount of online resources,
web visitors are becoming less tolerant of slow loading
mes. This may result in the visitor preferring to
choose a dierent, faster website, as they will not have
paence (Nielsen, 2000; Kim & Lim, 2001; Yen et al.,
2007). Slow websites arouse frustraon in visitors,
which can negavely aect conversions on more than
just the corporate website (Bartuskova & Krejcar,
2015). The primary causes of slow websites are oen
pages that contain large images, ulize responsive de-
sign, and excessively employ JavaScript scripng lan-
guage (Bartuskova & Krejcar, 2015).
The me it takes for a page to load can be crucial
for user loyalty. If people access government websites,
they will stay on them, as they have no compeon.
However, for nongovernment sites, visitors leave if
they take longer than 3 seconds to load (Lanza et al.,
2022).
Amazon has found that every 100 ms of latency is
cosng them up to 1% of sales. Google has found that
0.5 seconds extra in the me it takes to generate
search results will reduce trac by up to 20%
(Gigaspaces, 2019). Furthermore, recognizing the im-
pact of loading mes on user loyalty is essenal for
businesses operang in compeve sectors, where
user retenon directly aects nancial outcomes.
Latency (page load speed) depends on the speed of
the Internet, the access device and soware, and the

The data from Table 1 provides insights into the
changing lunch prices in the Moravian-Silesian region
and Czechia over a specic period. These data points
highlight the substanal upward trend in lunch prices,
signaling the challenges faced by consumers in manag-
ing their food expenses. The signicant price increases
imply a potenal inuence on consumer behavior, as
individuals may start seeking cost-saving measures or
making adjustments in their lunch choices.
and vising more aordable restaurants. The propor-
on of restaurant diners has declined to the current
level of 53%. This trend of cost-cung in lunch expend-
itures is likely reinforced by the overall rising inaon
and increasing cost of living. Despite the intenons of
60% of companies to raise wages, a survey by Edenred
suggests that these wage increases are unlikely to fully
oset the impact of inaon.
Table 1: Development of the average spending per lunch in restaurants (CZK)
Dec.
2015
June
2020
June
2021
Jan.
2022
May
2022
June
2022
Price
increase
2020/2022
Price
increase
2021/2022
Moravian-Silesian region 194.6 125.6 134.9 146.2 153.1 157.4 25.3% 16.7%
Czechia 101.7 135.3 145.5 153.4 159.3 160.2 18.4% 10.1%
Source: Author’s own work.
data up unl 2020. On the other hand, it is clear from
the current data on food service sales that they fall
short of the results from the pre-Covid period. In com-
binaon with the nding that the nancial results of
restaurants, including the restaurant under study, have
been deteriorang in recent years, it is necessary to
adequately adjust markeng tools such as web commu-
nicaon.
The data suggests that restaurants experienced
varying performance over the six-year period from
2015 to 2020 (Figure 1). The company demonstrated
growth in turnover, with gures increasing from 332 in
2015 to 593 in 2019, indicang a posive trend in reve-
nue generaon. However, the net income exhibited
uctuaons, with losses recorded in 2015 and 2020,
and minimal protability in the remaining years. There-
fore, the insights provided are based on the available
Figure 1: Development of nancial results of the monitored restaurant in thous. CZK
Source: Source: Internal data from restaurant.

their hypotheses on theories from related elds rather
than aempng to create theories directly from their
discipline. They sacrice discovery for juscaon, alt-
hough the scienc method clearly requires aenon
to both.
Figure 2 presents the frequency of restaurant daily
website visits by hour for three months (June – August
2022). It demonstrates sharp increase from 6:00 with
most visits occurring at 11:00, followed by a small drop
and relavely stable trac from 14:00 to 20:00. Based
on this data, we conclude that visitors are likely access-
ing the website to view the daily lunch menu, which is
served from 11:00 to 14:00 or unl it is sold out.
In this study, we used real-world data observaon
instead of theory to form our hypothesis. For applied
scienc disciplines (i.e. sciences that express state-
ments about certain parts of reality, such as consum-
ers) empirical observaons are a key determinant in
the scienc pursuit of truth (Schurz, 2013, p. 23). The
theory rst or observaon rst approach to research
smulates essenal methodological debate. As Babin
et al. (2016) discuss, the lack of robust markeng theo-
ries is a consequence of the tendency of academics in
this eld to primarily use hypo-deducve research. Re-
searchers oen believe that reviewers will be more
comfortable with a strong theory, and therefore base
Figure 2: Total website visits during the day by hours
Source: Author’s own work.
higher than the current standard (Lanza et al., 2022).
On some devices it was more than 5 seconds to load
the page. Therefore, the number of website visitors
may be aected due to the inability to load all compo-
nents and provide complete informaon about the
daily menu. We observed that this measurement issue
with Google Analycs oen occurs when the script is
placed in the <head> secon or early in the <body>
secon of the website's HTML code. In our specic ex-
ample, the GA script was located in the <head> secon
of the page. We therefore set up the eld experiment
and made the website load faster. We did that by op-
mizing the size of the images on the server that are
displayed on the site and accelerated the loading of all
elements of the site from seconds to milliseconds
(depending on the device and operaonal system). We
were then able to see the dierence between a slow
and fast website. Website speed is our independent
variable and daily menu lunches sold the dependent
variable. Based on these assumpons we form the sec-
ond hypothesis.
From this spike in web trac, we can logically de-
duce that the number of morning website visits inu-
ence also physical visits in the restaurant which will
consequently inuence the number of daily lunches
sold. Therefore, we form the following hypothesis and
test our idea empirically:
H1: Number of morning visitors on the website inuen-
ces daily lunch menu sales.
The number of visitors was collected via the web-
site analycs tool Google Analycs (GA) and daily lunch
menu sales were provided by the restaurant manager
using an export from accounng soware. We assume
the website visits to be the independent variable and
number of sales is dependent since these events are
separated by me. Due to the temporal proximity in
which website visits precede visits to the restaurant
and only a small poron theorecally overlap, we do
not expect the opposite direcon of inuence.
Furthermore, the restaurant's website had poor
loading speed, with the loading me of all elements

ical constraints on the customers' dining choices. The
city center visitors likely include working inhabitants,
possibly seeking convenience and eciency during
their limited lunch breaks, making them more sensive
to website loading mes. In contrast, local visitors
might be less aected by this factor due to their prox-
imity and potenally dierent lunchme constraints.
This loyal customer base suggests that the local visitors
in both experimental periods were probably very simi-
lar in demographics and dining habits, providing a con-
sistent baseline for comparison. On the other hand, the
day-to-day behavior of our primary clientele is checking
the daily menu every morning, it means that the web-
site's loading me is a crical factor. These clients have
integrated the checking of the business’s daily menu
into their daily schedule, and any delay could dispro-
poronately aect their decision to visit the restaurant.
The analysis of relaonships was solved by the Tukey
test.
The Tukey test, also known as the Tukey's Honestly
Signicant Dierence (HSD) test, is a stascal analysis
method used to idenfy signicant dierences be-
tween mulple groups or treatments in an experiment.
In this methodology, the Tukey test was conducted
using MS Excel.
Using the formula, we compute the HSD stasc
for the Tukey test.
(1)
The mean squared error (MSE) can be obtained
from the Anova output, specically the MS error term.
In this context, "n" represents the number of items in
a single sample.
Since outliers can signicantly impact the results of
stascal analyses by skewing the data, we ran a Tukey
test in MS Excel on both daily page visits and daily
lunch menu sales to idenfy any outliers. We inserted
the data and calculated the rst and third quarles, as
well as the interquarle range and upper and lower
bounds. We then created a funcon to highlight any
outliers that were idened beyond these bounds.
Aer performing these steps, we found that there were
no outliers present in either the daily page visits or the
daily lunch menu sales data for the whole period as
well as for the two divided experimental periods. Thus,
we can proceed with further analysis without outlier
reducon. We then calculated data normality using MS
MS Excel. The skewness of the data was 0.08 for menus
and 0.15 for page visits, indicang a slight right skew.
While the skewness is not parcularly pronounced, this
suggests that the distribuon of the data is relavely
H2: When the page load me is reduced, the number of
daily menu lunches sold increases.
Field experiment is a data collecon strategy that
employs manipulaon and random assignment to in-
vesgate preferences and behaviors in naturally occur-
ring contexts (Baldassarri & Abascal, 2017). To be spe-
cic, we used natural eld experiment which is the
same as a framed eld experiment but where the envi-
ronment is one where the subjects naturally undertake
the tasks and where the subjects do not know that they
are in an experiment (Harrison & List, 2004). The ad-
vantage of real behavior data over survey data is that it
overcomes errors associated with customer memory
and event recall (Lee et al., 2000; Nenycz-Thiel et al.,
2013). Employing realisc experimental designs and
measuring actual behavior are important and benecial
for consumer research (Morales et al., 2017). We have
used pre-experimental design also known as the
‘before and aer’ or ‘pre- and post-test’ design
(Marsden & Torgerson, 2012). In this case it was impos-
sible to run the control group since the website users
cannot be tracked and paired with the consequenal
restaurant visit.
Our data covers the period from September 1st,
2022 to November 4th, 2022. The experiment with the
website update was conducted in two phases: the page
was slow from September 1st to September 30th, and
then updated for improved loading speed from Octo-
ber 5th to November 4th. On some Mondays during both
periods, the restaurant was closed for maintenance
and cost-saving purposes due to high energy prices.
However, both periods had the same number of days
covered.
Before we move on to results, we provide more
details about the experimental seng to allow compar-
ison with future replicaons. The daily lunch menu con-
sists of a soup and allows the selecon of one main
dish from three opons. The restaurant's oor manage-
ment team uploads the menu for the following week to
a subpage called "Daily Menu" on the restaurant's web-
site every Sunday. The weekly menu is also posted on
the restaurant's social media accounts (Facebook and
Instagram) on the rst day of the week when the menu
is served. No addional adversing is used to promote
the menu nor addional content reposng. The restau-
rant is in the residenal area on the outskirts of
a 53 000 inhabitants city. No compeon is in the radi-
us of 2 kilometers. The main mode of transportaon for
accessing the daily menu at the restaurant is by car.
The restaurant is visited primarily by people from the
city center during lunchme, but a small proporon is
also local people who visit on foot. However, it is gen-
erally inconvenient for customers to leave the restau-
rant once they have entered, as the alternave dining
opons may be located too far away. This creates phys-
*MSE
Tq n
=

buon has fewer and less extreme outliers compared
to a normal distribuon. It is generally accepted that
skewness values of less than |0.5| are considered small
(Field, 2013).
symmetrical but may contain a slightly higher number
of values on the right side of the distribuon compared
to the le. In the case of a kurtosis value of -0.45 for
menus and -0.37 for page visits, the data are aer
than a normal distribuon. This means that the distri-
Figure 3: Total and average page visits in morning by hour
Source: Author’s own work.
the tendency to visit the restaurant page mostly in the
morning hours. Figure 4 shows total and morning page
visits in observed period. Both variables correlate at
signicance level 0.01.
During the me period under invesgaon, we ob-
served a spike in page visit data, similar to one which
movated our hypotheses (Figure 2). As shown in Fig-
ure 3, the most popular hour for page visits was 11:00
by both total and average page visits. We thus conrm
Figure 4: Total and morning page visits in period
Source: Author’s own work.

that there is correlaon (H1: r > 0). The correlaon co-
ecient of r = 0.06 suggests slight correlaon between
the two variables. By calculang t-stascs (0.38) we
can match the p-value (0.70) with signicance level
α and accept the null hypothesis. In conclusion, there is
not sucient evidence to conrm a relaonship betwe-
en daily lunch menu sales and morning website visits.
From Figure 5 it possible to see with the naked eye
that these variables are not related. Nevertheless, we
perform a quick stascal evaluaon of the hypothesis.
For our rst hypothesis: Number of morning visitors on
the website inuences daily lunch menu sales. The pro-
cess is as follows. We set the null hypothesis, that there
is no correlaon (H0: r = 0) and alternave hypothesis
Figure 5: Daily lunch menu sales and page visits in morning hours
Source: Author’s own work.
ence between the means of the before and aer peri-
ods. Interesngly, the measured dierence is in oppo-
site direcons. The higher the speed for the website,
the lower the number of daily lunch menu sales.
Figure 6 visually presents the results. During the
pre-intervenon period, there were fewer morning
visits to the website, a trend not aributable to chang-
es in website loading speed but likely inuenced by
other factors. Addionally, prior to the intervenon,
lunch menu sales were higher compared to aer we
reduced the website loading me. These ndings sug-
gest a complex interplay of variables impacng website
trac and lunch menu sales.
We can now proceed to our second hypothesis,
which suggests that a decrease in page load me leads
to an increase in the number of daily lunch menus sold.
To determine whether this dierence is causal, we con-
ducted a t-test to compare the means of the before
and aer periods. The null hypothesis for this test was
that there was no dierence in means (H0: m1 = m2),
while the alternave hypothesis was that there was
a dierence (H1: m1 ≠ m2). The P-value (0.04) for the
test was lower than alpha (0.05), indicang that there
is a stascally signicant dierence between the two
data sets. Therefore, we reject the null hypothesis and
conclude that there is a stascally signicant dier-

site can also have negave eects on the long-term
brand image and reputaon of the business. Therefore,
it is important for restaurants to nd a balance in their
investment in website design and speed.
The literature search found that many authors
claimed that site speed maers and can even aect
loyalty, user experience and other feelings that are
connected to the subsequent sales (Nielsen, 2000; Kim
& Lim, 2001; Yen et al., 2007). But the vast majority of
these arcles described the e-commerce environment.
There is almost no detailed informaon available on
the impact of web speed on consumer behaviour in the
real physical world.
Every study has its own set of limitaons and con-
straints, and this study is no dierent. One of the main
limitaons of this study is the limited me frame of the
data collecon, which was only two months long, with
one month serving as the before period and the other
serving as the aer period. Habits play a role in the
selecon of a restaurant for lunch and those are
formed over an extended period of me. Some eect
of page speed improvement thus can be spoed be-
yond the observed period. However, there is also an
immediate eect expected. As a result of habits, peo-
ple have a repertoire of brands in almost all categories
from which they buy. So being one of the restaurants in
a customer’s repertoire is a sign of loyalty and people
habitually select the restaurant from me to me. But
having a habit does not mean vising the restaurant
without knowing what is on the daily menu (see: Figure
2). Being in a repertoire means the restaurant is in the
room when the decision is made. But in this repertoire,
there will sll be a decision and evaluaon of the alter-
naves each day. If the restaurant has a slow website,
this could lead many customers not to wait and check
The data highlights the nancial challenges faced
by the restaurant industry, as consumers are acvely
seeking ways to save on lunch expenses in response to
the steep rise in food prices. Restaurants need to adapt
to this changing consumer behavior by oering more
aordable meal opons and ensuring compeveness
in the market. In this study, the aim was to invesgate
the nancial implicaons of website performance on
restaurant visitor trac. Based on our ndings, it ap-
pears that restaurant website trac is not signicantly
related to daily lunch menu sales. This suggests that
factors other than website trac may be more im-
portant in driving restaurants visits. Addionally, we
found that lunch menu sales during the rst period of
our observaons (the before period) were not signi-
cantly dierent from those in the second period (the
aer period) during which we took steps to speed up
the website. Overall, these results suggest that website
performance may not be a major factor in driving lunch
menu sales, at least in the context of this study.
In today's digital age, people rely more and more
on online informaon when making dining choices, and
it is therefore crucial for restaurants to consider their
website design and speed in order to eecvely reach
and aract potenal customers. On the other hand, it
is important for small businesses, to carefully consider
their limited resources when making nancial decisions
in this regard. While some business consultants may
recommend invesng in website design and speed to
increase sales, it is important to recognize that what
works for e-commerce businesses may not necessarily
apply to the restaurant industry. While invesng too
much in website design and speed may not yield signi-
cant increases in sales, a poorly designed or slow web-
Figure 6: Before and aer period daily results
Source: Author’s own work.

may impact the generalizability of our ndings and
should be taken into consideraon when interpreng
the results of the study.
Further research is needed to fully understand the
factors that inuence lunch menu sales and to idenfy
potenal strategies for increasing restaurant sales.
Planned research will explore the more detailed rela-
onship between web loading speed and restaurant
daily menu sales. Results from other restaurant busi-
nesses will be included so that dierences can be ob-
served. Also, the research will be longitudinal to see
how results change over a longer me scale. We will
also include in future research the impact of social me-
dia and observaon of web trac when promong
special oers.
The publicaon of this paper was nancially sup-
ported by the Student grant compeon of Silesian
University in Opava SGS/20/2022 within the project:
"Factors inuencing conversions on the corporate web-
site". The support is gratefully acknowledged.
other restaurants where they can nd the daily menu
quickly. If they are sased with the rst oer, they
select it and do not come back to the slower page.
Moreover, there has been no control group due to
dicult access to sensive commercial sales data. This
problem could be solved by analyzing data from anoth-
er local restaurant to control for any extraneous varia-
bles. The economic situaon in central Europe at the
me of the study was also a potenal limitaon, as
uctuaons in gas and electricity prices may have
aected consumers' willingness to visit restaurants.
However, data from daily website visits showed higher
interest in restaurant website content (Figure 2). Fur-
ther, our assumpon that users in the control month
were not seeing the daily menu quickly enough to stay
on the page unl it loaded all the content cannot be
fully supported by evidence. The nal limitaon of this
study is that we may not have been able to suciently
speed up the website. Even aer the website update,
some users may sll perceive the speed as being slow
and leave the website before seeing the content, which
could potenally impact our ndings. These limitaons
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