WordPress is the most popular Content Management System on the planet. It is no longer used solely as a blogging tool. It can instead power a wide range of websites, including eCommerce. In fact, the number of eCommerce websites built with WordPress is steadily increasing.
So, there are many people like you who ask, “how can we improve the speed of the WooCommerce website? In other words, how can WordPress eCommerce development be made faster? This article will provide an answer to this question as well as valuable tips for speeding up a WordPress eCommerce website.
Getting Started with WordPress eCommerce Website Optimization
A WordPress eCommerce website can be built and configured in a variety of ways. Of course, all of these methods rely on the use of a specific WordPress plugin. WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce solution for WordPress users in general. Obviously, the majority of optimization and speed-up techniques revolve around WordPress Ecommerce Development.
You must take certain common steps to speed up woo commerce website regardless of the WP plugin or extensions you use. But first, you should determine how slow your website is!
Speed Assessment
A good test for website speed and page load times should be performed in a neutral setting. As a result, you should use a remote server from multiple locations. This eliminates factors like browser caching and gives you an accurate picture of the page size, load times, waterfall, and so on.
In this regard, tools like Pingdom and GTmetrix are extremely useful. You can run it on your website's URL to see the results as well as areas for improvement.
You should run speed tests on your store's main page. If you're using WooCommerce, try running the tests on the shop page or on the individual product page.
When the test is finished, you will receive a report detailing exactly what is slowing down your WordPress eCommerce website. The following test can improve page load times.
Of course, the results will differ from one website to the next. However, it will give you a good idea of where your WordPress eCommerce development should be taking longer to load.
Now we return to the main topic: how can we accelerate our WordPress eCommerce website?
CDN and Hosting
It is common knowledge that you should choose a web hosting solution that is dependable, high-quality, and well-optimized for your WordPress eCommerce development. Unfortunately, the web hosting industry today is rife with hosts frequently offering subpar services. This can have a negative impact on the performance of your website. Regardless of the optimization methods you use, your WP eCommerce site may fail to load faster due to a slow and sluggish server.
That being said, never underestimate the value of a Content Delivery Network. No matter how good your web hosting is, a CDN can always improve and speed it up. If your eCommerce store has customers from all over the world or from different countries, a CDN is a must.
Image Optimization
Images are an essential part of any eCommerce store. To improve page load times, spend some time optimizing product images, thumbnails, and so on.
WordPress plugins such as TinyPNG can help you compress and optimize images as you upload them.
Another technique that can be used here is lazy image loading. Lazy loading means that images are not loaded until the user scrolls down to the section of the page where they are placed. Because the browser does not have to load all of the images at once, the overall page load time is not affected. WP plugins like BJ Lazy Load can help you do this right away.
Because the majority of your online shop's media content will be in the form of images, image optimization and lazy loading can be beneficial.
Making Use of a WordPress Caching Plugin
Caching has long been the most popular method for speeding up WordPress websites and blogs. This is also true for WordPress eCommerce development. You should think about using a reputable WordPress caching plugin. Some notable names are:
l WordPress Super Cache
l WP Quickest Cache
l Total Cache W3
Additionally, ensure that the plugin you choose is compatible with your WordPress eCommerce plugin. If you use WooCommerce, don't worry; most caching plugins are designed with WooCommerce stores in mind and are fully compatible with them. All other eCommerce WP plugins may require you to consult the plugin's documentation.
By compatibility, we mean that the caching plugin should detect what it needs to cache automatically (and what it should not). As an example, your WordPress caching plugin should never cache the Cart and Checkout pages. These pages must be generated based solely on the user's selection — no static copy can be served.
AJAX in a Shopping Cart
It is common practice to render shopping cart details using AJAX. Most WordPress eCommerce plugins, including WooCommerce, do the same thing. The following is how it works:
The user chooses a product and presses the "Add to Cart" button. The item has been added to the shopping cart. Following that, two values on the page are updated: the product's Add to Cart button displays "Added to Cart" or "Already in Cart" (or something similar), and the shopping cart widget (or button) displays the updated product count. What about the rest of the page? It has not been refreshed or changed.
This selective refresh is accomplished through the use of an AJAX call. The disadvantage of this feature is that an AJAX calls take time and always slow down page load time. So, whether or not the user adds a product to call (that is, whether or not the cart requires AJAX update), the libraries must still be loaded.
If you really want to improve performance here, you can disable AJAX calls (using a simple plugin like this one) and then have your eCommerce plugin redirect the user to the shopping cart when they add a product to the cart.
Conclusion
This brings us to the conclusion of this post. To speed up any WordPress eCommerce website, we've talked about how to avoid loading unnecessary scripts on eCommerce pages, optimize databases, use caching and CDNs, and so on. Our Professional WordPress Developers Are Here to Address All Your Web Development Needs.
What strategy or methods do you use to speed up a WordPress eCommerce website if you run or manage one? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
