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Across both marketing and management‐information‐system disciplines, download time has been identified as an important factor for on‐line business success. This research is intended to clarify counterintuitive findings generated from previous research and Web‐based experimentation. Here the roles of several factors, including download time, on the overall evaluation of an e‐retailer are explored. With an experimental design, the article explores the impact of 5‐, 30‐, and 45‐second download delays on attitude toward an e‐retailer. Consistent with prior works, findings from both a main study and replication study indicate that objective download delay is not a critical determinant of attitude toward an e‐retailer. However, findings show there are other direct and indirect delay effects, including those resulting from perceived retailer control of delay, that impact Web‐system success. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.