Optimize Image Sizes and Formats
Odd, isn’t it - how fast online shopping can start to feel like dragging your feet through wet sand when images take too long to load. And yet, most shoppers haven’t the foggiest about what’s gone wrong until it’s too late. A few seconds too long, and they’ve wandered off into the digital wilderness, never to be seen again.
There’s nothing more frustrating than clicking onto an item you desperately want (need. ) - only for a pixelated mess of colour blocks to appear, very slowly and very obviously. Or worse still, absolutely nothing happens.
Feels a bit like you’re back in Year 7 waiting for dial-up to work its magic. Good thing we know better now than to try and upload images with large file sizes to an ecommerce platform. So why do some business owners make such rookie errors. Well, perhaps they’re stuck in the cycle of constantly uploading, re-uploading, or changing product images.
Images are non-negotiable when selling online and the sharper they are, the easier they are on the eye - for us humans as well as Google’s bots crawling your site for SEO-related information. If someone is searching for ‘green silk button down shirt’ you’d be wise to have a picture of just that instead of some stock image you found on Shutterstock for free last minute. Not only will having the right image bring more traffic but also the size and quality will determine whether people stick around or not. It pays off to optimise your image sizes and formats so that people find what they’re looking for without delay or confusion.
Oh and another thing - certain formats work better with different kinds of content so maybe steer clear of PNGs for heavy high-quality files unless absolutely necessary. In this ever-changing world it seems like we’re constantly needing content but at what cost.
Leverage Browser Caching
There’s something a bit magical about going to a website and it opens almost before you even finish pressing enter. Sometimes it’s because you’re lucky enough to have high-speed internet, but more often than not, it’s simply because the website has remembered you, in the form of browser caching. Browser caching is similar to your memory; it stores information so that it’s readily available when you need it.
In this case, it stores files and data from websites that you frequent so that they are able to load faster. This doesn’t just reduce load time, but it also makes the experience of returning to a website more seamless for the user. This ease of use could make the difference between a returning customer and someone who opts to shop somewhere else.
It doesn’t hurt that browser caching can be quite cost-effective for e-commerce platforms in terms of reducing server load and bandwidth costs. It’s fairly easy to enable browser caching on your own e-commerce platform too. This means that businesses of all sizes can benefit from this tool, whether they are small and just starting out or established and large. And if you care about SEO (I hope you do), faster page loading times can mean better rankings, which leads to better discoverability.
Minimize HTTP Requests
Everyone’s always banging on about first impressions. And it’s not any different in the eCommerce world. People have grown rather impatient thanks to social media and the need to scroll endlessly for instant gratification.
So, if your online store takes more than a couple of seconds to load, there’s a good chance they’ll make up their mind about your brand before they can even see what you’re offering. When you’re working with eCommerce platforms, loading times are crucial.
It appears that many people leave websites if they take too long to load, and that’s lost revenue for you. Optimising your website’s performance is sort of like giving it a shot of adrenaline so it can work faster and meet your customers’ needs instantly. One effective way to do this is by limiting HTTP requests.
That’s all the times your customers’ browsers ask your website for files or data - images, videos, scripts, stylesheets, you name it - in order to display your website. By minimising these HTTP requests, you’re reducing the number of files that need to be loaded. What this means for you is faster loading times and improved performance.
You can do this by reducing the number of resources that need to be loaded - merging CSS files, scripts, etc - or by using image sprites or inline images when appropriate. But really, it all comes down to using fewer files and combining them wherever you can. Another thing to consider is that while there are several ways to optimise your website for performance, minimising HTTP requests may not always work for you. It’s a quick fix but could do with being combined with other techniques so you can get the most out of your website.
It’s something worth trying so you don’t end up losing out on potential customers simply because your website took too long to load and they didn’t want to wait around.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
It always makes me slightly nervous when websites take too long to load - and it seems like this is a fairly common problem. The trick is not just making sure the website loads quickly for one person or in one part of the world, but that all users get a consistent, reliable experience. This is where something called a content delivery network comes in.
A CDN, as it's called in the tech world, is basically a set of servers located across the globe. Now instead of loading up your ecommerce platform from a single server which might be quite far from your user, the CDN uses servers located close to the user to deliver content. This ensures that websites can load faster no matter where in the world they're being accessed from - and that's not all.
CDNs are generally also designed to deal with large surges in traffic so you don't have to worry about your website crashing if things get too busy on certain days. The good thing is pretty much that most ecommerce platforms support third party integration with CDNs - which makes it easy for you to add this feature on and configure it without much hassle. You can use some of the more popular CDNs like Cloudflare or Akamai for fairly affordable rates - but there are others in the market as well if you're looking for more specialised options. I would say that it's important to know what your business needs and who your target audience is before you make this decision.
Speed does matter but there's only so much you can do by optimising just your website. Using a CDN can sometimes really change things up for you by improving speed, allowing for scalability, and even making your website more reliable for users. And maybe most importantly, it's going to make it easier for customers around the world to access your website, increasing potential sales.
There may be initial costs involved but it's probably worth it when you weigh out the long term gains.
Implement Lazy Loading Techniques
Don’t you love it when things appear out of nowhere. There’s nothing quite like a magic trick that takes you completely by surprise. It seems like it seems lazy loading technology is trying to capture some of that wonder and weave it into your website - and in doing so, improve the speed of your site. Now, the way this works is by ‘appearing’ images only as your customer scrolls down the page.
In a way, the magic trick isn’t really a trick at all - but rather just a clever way of delaying an action until it’s actually needed. Sort of. This tactic significantly cuts down on load time for your pages and helps boost site performance - which, in turn, means happier customers who have a better shopping experience. There are many e-commerce platforms that use this technology now and for good reason.
It’s an easy solution that improves efficiency with minimal effort on your part. Not all lazy loading plugins are often created equal though, so make sure you take the time to pick one that best suits your requirements. I do sometimes worry about things appearing out of nowhere though.
You know how those surprise popups can get annoying. I guess as long as it’s just images, then we’re safe.
Choose the Right Hosting Solution
There appears to be a bit of a misconception floating about that hosting, like underwear, is all much of a muchness. But let me assure you that it really is not. The difference between the right hosting platform and the wrong one can be seismic - particularly for eCommerce platforms where speed is sort of so critical to keeping customers engaged and closing transactions.
After all, we know just how high bounce rates soar when customers have to wait even a few extra seconds for a site to load. The moment your customer has to wait too long for your site to load, you’re probably looking at a lost sale - one that you could have had if only you’d been using the right hosting platform. People are now used to being able to have their demands met instantly - and a mere second’s delay in website loading can trigger them to abandon their cart. You can’t fix bad hosting with plugins or fancy code.
I mean sure - some performance plugins can help manage caching and image optimisation but the reality is that bad hosting is going to slow things down regardless of the measures you put in place. By the same token, picking a good hosting solution means you don’t need as many performance plugins and they won’t do as much anyway - so there’s really no upside to picking cheap or bad hosting.
The right host will be reliable, fast, and scalable for when your business grows. But they will also make your life easier with 24/7 support, flexible payment plans, and features that allow you to manage your business more efficiently from anywhere you like. All in all, it makes sense to prioritise finding the best host out there even if it costs a bit more than the other options on the market because it can make an enormous difference for both your business and your customers.