Cache for Browsing

Scale for Selling

February 2014

Is your site costing you more money than it’s making?

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Sophisticated caching can help deliver an eCommerce site that is fast for browsing.

Dynamic scaling can help capture more revenue when browsers become buyers.

A poor performing site treats customers browsing your site the same as if they are buying from your site.

Slowly

Do You Know Who Your Serious Customers Are vs. the Window Shoppers?

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95% of traffic to web-sites is read-only

Most visitors to your site are window-shopping.

They’re checking out:

• your products

• pricing

• shipping costs

Window Shoppers May Eventually Turn into Serious Shoppers

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Improving the speed and performance of your site can help the window-shopper and

the buyer.

A 1-second delay in page load time equals 11% fewer page views, 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and 7% loss in conversions

Cache for Faster Response Time

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Define the average time between requests for any given

page

Consider:

• How long can a page live in cache without impacting the

customer experience

• Length of time that allows a page to remain dynamic and

fresh

We recommend setting cache for 5-10 seconds. After the cache has

expired, the page will be refreshed from the application server.

Cache for Faster Browsing

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Categorize different page types

Consider:

• Identifying read-only, popular pages that experience a high

volume of repeat visit

• Identifying pages where customers will click buy

We recommend caching all catalogue, read-only, static page

(assets). This will move traffic demands from the application to the

caching tier, improving the experience of both your window-shoppers

and the serious buyer.

Cache for Improved Customer Experience

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Identify the pages that have infrequent repeat visits

Consider:

• How caching may expire for pages that have infrequent

repeat visits, resulting in requests hitting the application

server.

We recommend analyzing traffic to determine where visitors go within

the site then pre-warm the cache based off that analysis.

Scale for Selling

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Scaling for unpredictable, spikey traffic to your site

Consider:

• How you can detect window shoppers vs. serious shoppers

• How you can ensure transaction-based activity goes

straight to the application server.

We recommend marrying a caching tier with an application scaling

tier. If your site experiences a spike in checkout volume, an

application that can dynamically scale can help your site capture new

revenue.

Cache for browsing; Scale for Selling

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Prepare your eCommerce platform for caching by: 1. Identifying static components (i.e. images, scripts, html pages)

2. Determining the time frame when pages should be refreshed

3. Identifying pages that experience frequent repeat visits

4. Identifying common traffic patterns to ensure traffic from buying

customer is sent to the application server

5. Identifying assets that should not be cached (i.e. a Twitter feed)

Remember: Caching alone is insufficient to deliver a fast and

responsive eCommerce site. Sophisticated caching + dynamic

scaling can transform a poor performing site into a revenue capturing

site.