In today’s world, most of our lives are connected to the Internet. Almost all of our activities can be carried out online. And all these actions are so automated that any hitch or a broken user-path begins to annoy consumers. That is why developers, programmers, and designers understand the importance of the interface and speed of websites and applications. It is especially true in the area of eCommerce. Let’s look at more information about these features and capabilities and how to increase competitiveness without sacrificing functionality and interface quality.
An overview of eCommerce project speed
Nowadays, the vast majority of goods are viewed and ordered online, and this has become increasingly popular as people no longer have to physically visit stores or drive around looking for a specific product or service, which may not even be available at that time or location. While eCommerce certainly offers many advantages over traditional shopping methods, it does come with a few potential drawbacks that should be considered.
An unoptimized website or slow loading times can cause potential buyers to quickly leave your website, without even knowing if you have what they’re looking for. According to HubSpot statistics, a staggering 93% of visitors abandon sites due to slow eCommerce loading speed. On the other hand, a loading time of 2 seconds is considered the norm, and even a delay of just 1 or 2 seconds can reduce the percentage of sales by up to 50%.
The success of your project heavily relies on having a competent development team, as the interface, design, and convenience they provide are just as important as the final product. However, as previously mentioned, the site’s loading speed is also of equal importance. By implementing a phased approach to creating your portal, you can conduct eCommerce project testing to ensure that the site is properly optimized. To achieve this, staff augmentation can be a strategic solution, bringing in specialized skills to enhance your team and address these issues efficiently. It’s unfortunate to see how many businesses waste precious resources, money, and time due to minor delays in their site’s performance.
How does page speed affect eCommerce?
Page loading is a complete drawing of all site elements, such as text, pictures, videos, links, etc., and its speed is the time for which this process occurs. Spend extra time and test website speed for eCommerce on different online platforms. So the sooner this process ends, the more satisfied customers will be, and their purchases are guaranteed on your portal. Everyone wants to see the list of goods for shopping as quickly as possible and not stare at a black screen while waiting.
In addition, the page load speed on eCommerce site is a crucial indicator of the platform’s overall performance, as slow or malfunctioning sites can be a major turn-off for potential buyers. These factors can significantly impact a buyer’s willingness to make a purchase, which is why it’s important to ensure that the site is optimized for speed and user satisfaction. The more satisfied a buyer is with their experience on the site, the greater the chances of conversion and repeat business.
Ways to improve an eCommerce projects performance and speed
And yet, how to optimize site speed eCommerce for your already finished project? You can easily experience updates or a high volume of visits to your portal, so it’s essential to know how to fix it.
Hosting choice
It is more complicated than it looks because on days with high traffic or sales, your site may stop functioning or experience slow loading speeds, which can cause inconvenience to users. Many popular brands have shared their painful experiences of losing up to $100,000 within just one hour of downtime. To avoid this problem, you need to study your site’s bandwidth and memory limits and anticipate the traffic and influx of users during peak periods. You can also seek help from your hosting provider to prepare for sudden spikes in traffic and optimize your site’s speed.
Performance
There are several options for people to purchase PCs and smartphones online. If you are selling these products you need a strategy to analyze the market and your platform performance to know why purchases on another device suffer. To do this, you can test the site on a PC and phone, optimize the main problems and see how the percentage of conversions changes. It would help if you balance the speed and convenience of the portal for maximum effect.
Image
Photos, videos, and backgrounds often take up a significant portion of a page’s weight, which can cause the browser to load slowly and impact the overall performance of the site. One potential solution is to compress images without losing quality or reducing their number. However, it’s important to remember that visuals play a crucial role in representing the identity and brand of your platform. Alternatively, you can use sprites to combine images into a single file, which can limit the number of requests made to the server and improve the loading speed of your site.
Correct network
You can use a Content Distribution Network (CDN) to speed up your site. These are servers that reduce the load due to their presence around the world. You only work on one router but use local servers for your site visitors, which speeds up the process. With more and more online stores starting to operate in different countries, you need to stay on top too.
Script blocking
Another option to improve your site’s speed and performance is to fix the code. For instance, removing scripts that block the parser can help speed up the loading process. Browsers use HTML parsing to display the site to the buyer, and scripts can interrupt this process, causing the browser to pause and slow down the loading speed of the site.
Pop-up windows
Pop-up windows can be helpful as they allow the client to view the desired product without having to go to a separate page. However, they can also be a hindrance as they may cause the client to misclick or misunderstand the offer, resulting in slower device performance. It’s important to strike a balance and use pop-up windows sparingly to avoid disrupting the user experience.
Miniatures
It is a popular move in e-commerce. It’s possible to have a carousel of the hottest products, but this slows down the site because the browser has to scale down the original image, which takes extra time. To solve the problem, you can use different online platforms that change the image size settings through the browser to suit your requirements without losing quality.
Video use
Video content has become ubiquitous on the internet, but it can also put a strain on your eCommerce portal. It is important to consider how you will embed videos and to use the appropriate code. The standard code will automatically load the video for the user, even if they haven’t clicked on the play button, and it may not adjust the format for different devices. This can be inconvenient for users. Instead, you can use Lite embed code, which will only load the video after the user clicks on a pop-up thumbnail. This solution can help alleviate the strain on your portal and improve user experience.
Economy code
You can also minify your code. Google provides a minification feature that removes poorly coded lines of code from your website without compromising functionality. This will also make your site load faster and help clean up your code.Depending on the type of your sales activity, you can choose the most appropriate ways to improve eCommerce website speed and convenience.
