Slow page loading times on commercial websites are causing people to discard an average of five and a half transactions each year.

A survey by Zeus Technology and Hostway, revealed that over two thousand people had lost patience with a badly operating website within the last 12 months.

The study also showed that 82 per cent of customers who had become frustrated online, were less likely from purchasing items from the same organisation, and also from its physical shop.

The UK retail industry was worth £38 billion last year, with many businesses missing out on a chunk of this prize as consumers wasted an average of two and a half days in the year, just waiting for pages to refresh.

46 per cent of respondents said that this was their biggest gripe, when visiting problem websites.