Optimizing Magento E-commerce Sites for Increased Sales and Customer Satisfaction. Maximize e-commerce performance with the right hosting solution

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1 Optimizing Magento E-commerce Sites for Increased Sales and Customer Satisfaction Maximize e-commerce performance with the right hosting solution Copyright 2014 ZeroLag

2 Summary of key findings: An e-commerce web site s performance, measured technically, financially, and by customer satisfaction, is based on its ability to merchandise products effectively, present information quickly, transact orders efficiently, and provide an enjoyable user experience. Magento has the potential to fulfill all of these requirements. However, it is a resource-intensive application, and when deployed in an inadequate hosting environment, will likely fail to meet user expectations and business objectives. Magento is a superior e-commerce platform Magento is the leading platform for e-commerce web sites It offers a full suite of tools to create an intuitive consumer shopping experience, while providing powerful administrative functionality, including order tracking, merchandising and marketing capabilities, content management, and much more. Magento is the leading platform for e-commerce web sites. It offers a full suite of tools to create an intuitive consumer shopping experience, while providing powerful administrative functionality, including order tracking, merchandising and marketing capabilities, content management, and much more. Magento is highly scalable, easily supporting e-commerce operations of any size, from a few dozen products to major sites with 1+ million SKUs. Unlike some competing platforms, it was built specifically for e-commerce and allows users to easily manage their online stores, interact with customers, and oversee logistics. Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 2

3 Infrastructure quality contributes to e-commerce effectiveness Although choosing Magento as your e-commerce platform is a great first step towards building a successful online store, it is imperative to select fast, reliable, and secure hosting infrastructure. Magento is particularly demanding on server resources. A server configuration which provides good performance with any number of popular web applications may perform quite poorly even for a small Magento site. And heavily trafficked Magento sites require multiple server clusters with load balancing and other advanced techniques to deliver optimal performance. E-commerce site performance, reliability, and security have a measurable effect on sales, customer satisfaction, and repeat business. ZeroLag offers high-performance Magento hosting ZeroLag s Magento-optimized hosting solutions rank among the highest in reliability, security and speed. We are one of the most costeffective hosting providers for businesses of all sizes utilizing the Magento e-commerce platform. Site speed affects sales Slower sites decrease conversion rates and result in higher bounce and cart abandonment rates. Site downtime can be costly Unreliable sites encourage consumers to shop elsewhere; your direct competitors will benefit most. Security breaches destroy consumer trust Theft of customer credit card or personal data by hackers and fraudsters can lead to significant financial liabilities for online merchants and a loss of consumer confidence. ZeroLag is well equipped to be able to support any global merchant. - Annette Merriman, Magento, an ebay Inc. company Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 3

4 The right hosting provider can help you meet your business objectives Deploying and managing a high-performance hosting environment optimized for the Magento platform requires specialized know-how and experience. Key tasks include choosing the proper server hardware configuration, provisioning single servers or multiple server clusters, customizing the LAMP stack for maximum performance and stability, and continually monitoring and tuning hosting and network infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted performance and availability. Only a hosting provider that has made a deep commitment to the Magento platform will have the expert personnel and other resources necessary to meet these requirements. Optimizing your Magento site for increased sales and customer satisfaction 26% 26% of the top 35,000 e-commerce sites use Magento The business effectiveness of your Magento e-commerce site is dependent in large part on its functionality, speed, reliability, and security. By optimizing these factors, you can enhance the customer experience, increase conversion rates, and maximize revenue. Magento can help you achieve the best possible results Magento is the most widely used e-commerce platform, supporting 26% of the nearly 35,000 e-commerce sites in the Alexa Top 1 Million. Among Alexa Top 100,000 sites, of the 1,632 e-stores detected, 28.6% use Magento. [2] Magento s popularity stems in part from its powerful features, robust functionality, and intuitive interface for both administrators and online shoppers. The Magento platform is built on a foundation of open source technology and was specifically created with e-commerce in mind. [2] feb-2013-ecommerce-survey/ Copyright 2013 ZeroLag 4

5 Magento: key features and benefits Free Community Edition Because Magento is created on open source technology, it is available in a free Community Edition that anyone can use without licensing costs. Advanced Enterprise Edition The competitively priced Enterprise Edition provides more advanced capabilities specifically designed to support more sophisticated e-commerce operations, including: its high-performance architecture for larger databases advanced marketing capabilities content staging and merging professional technical support provided directly by Magento And more... E-commerce features and functionality The platform includes a wide range of useful e-commerce features and functions out of the box such as catalog management, a streamlined product browsing interface, logistics management, easy payment integration, and much more. Gearing up for success Adopting a best-of-breed e-commerce platform like Magento is only part of the formula for e-commerce success. It s equally important to deploy Magento within a high-performance hosting environment and implement best practices for site speed, stability, and security. How site speed impacts sales and customer satisfaction Huge selection of themes and extensions The Magento Connect Marketplace and other outlets offer thousands of themes and extensions that allow e-commerce operators to create a professional-quality online store with a high degree of customization. Professional- and community-based support Magento is the most widely used e-commerce platform. Its popularity has spawned both professional (paid) and community-based (free) support systems to help you through challenges that may arise. Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 5

6 How site speed impacts sales and customer satisfaction Modern online shoppers expect web pages to load quickly. One recent survey found that about half of web users are unsatisfied if the site doesn t load in under two seconds. These expectations can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and revenue. 40% of visitors will abandon a site that hasn t loaded in three seconds or less, and 79% who are dissatisfied with a web site s performance won t return to that site again. [4] Visitors expect web pages to load in 2 seconds or less. How fast does your site load? Check it out for free at Slow sites sell less The impact of site speed on conversion rates is well documented. Several studies have revealed that all other factors being equal, slow e-commerce sites generate fewer sales and are less likely to result in repeat customers. Visitors expect pages to load in two seconds or less. A one-second delay reduces conversions by 7%. Even seemingly tolerable delays can add up to substantial lost revenue. For example, a site which sells $10,000 per day can lose as much as $250,000 annually for every extra second of page load delay. [4] Obviously, small changes in site speed can have a huge influence on e-commerce business results. [4] Speed Is a Killer - Why Decreasing Page Load Time Can Drastically Increase Conversions. kissmetrics.com/speed-is-a-killer/ Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 6

7 Site speed affects search engine rankings Conversion rate isn t the only metric impacted by site speed. Google has used page load speed since 2010 as an integral component of its algorithm which determines page rankings. Although Google has stated that speed isn t the largest factor in page rankings, anecdotal evidence suggests the influence can be quite significant. One popular site reported a 40% improvement in organic search referrals after correcting site speed issues. [8] Slow sites erode customer satisfaction Slow sites are difficult to use and cause frustration. This has a measurable impact on the way customers feel about your site, and your brand. At ten seconds, visitors begin to feel they must engage in another activity, like opening a new browser tab, dramatically increasing the risk of losing them entirely. One second of page loading time is the threshold at which a visitor s thoughts are interrupted. That means if a page load takes much more than just one second, your potential customers notice the delay and start thinking about something else. Every additional second of page load time causes 16% fewer customers to report a satisfactory experience with the site. [4] With one respected study showing that a 5% increase in customer retention rate yields a 25% to 95% improvement in profits, what do you consider to be an acceptable amount of less than satisfied customers? [19] At ten seconds, visitors begin to feel they must engage in another activity, like opening a new browser tab, dramatically increasing the risk of losing them entirely. [9] [8] Case Study: Impact of Code Cleanup on Site Traffic. Case-Study-Impact-of-Code-Cleanup-on- Site-Traffic [4] Speed Is a Killer - Why Decreasing Page Load Time Can Drastically Increase Conversions. kissmetrics.com/speed-is-a-killer/ [19] The Economics of E-Loyalty. Harvard Business School. hbs.edu/archive/1590.html [9] How Long Are Web Users Willing to Wait? articles/548/download.pdf Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 7

8 What downtime means for e-commerce sites Your e-commerce site s reliability can be an important factor in determining its profitability. The more time your web site is down, the fewer sales it will make, and the more frustrating it is for your customers. Amazon.com lost 2 million in revenue during a 30-minute outage, or about $66,240 per minute [20] IT infrastructure influences e-commerce site reliability Web site downtime is usually caused by one of the following factors: Web application instability, errors, freezes, or crashes Component, network, or power failures Cyberthreats Natural disasters Scheduled maintenance and other planned downtime Most of these causes can be prevented or mitigated by a welldesigned hosting environment. With the right hardware and software, networking, security, and physical facility in place, you can minimize the risk of downtime. [20] Amazon.com Goes Down. forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/08/19/amazon-com-goes-down-loses per-minute/ Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 8

9 The financial costs of downtime In 2010, the average top 500 e-commerce site experienced 804 minutes of downtime amounting to $800,099 in lost revenue and technical expenses. [11] Even much smaller e-commerce sites can absorb staggering losses due to downtime, particularly as outages are most likely to occur during periods of peak demand such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With some sites seeing up to 100 times their normal daily traffic during these peak online shopping periods, the financial cost of downtime can be devastating to a small business. In 2010, the average top 500 e-commerce site experienced 804 minutes of downtime amounting to $800,099 in lost revenue and technical expenses. The impact of downtime on customer experience Aside from directly affecting short-term revenue, downtime can have long term effects on consumer trust and brand reputation. Your direct competitor benefits most from your site s downtime, as your would-be customers look for alternative places to shop online. And after your customer has had a good experience with your competitor, they are even less likely to visit your web site in the future. [11 How Downtime Financially Impacts Top Ecommerce Websites. com/blog/infographic-how-downtime-financially-impacts-top-ecommerce-websites/ Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 9

10 What you can do to increase performance, reliability, and customer satisfaction Why it matters There are several steps you can take to improve your Magento site: 1. Use Magento Enterprise Edition Magento Enterprise Edition is extensively optimized for improved speed and scalability. [13] The latest version of Enterprise Edition features a high-performance architecture that results in faster web sites and an improved customer experience. Performance enhancements include: Advanced full-page caching; not available in Community Edition 40% of visitors will abandon a site that hasn t loaded in three seconds or less. 79% who are dissatisfied with a web site s performance won t return to that site again. Up to 65% improvement in page load times [13] Reduced server load equates to 31% improvement in page views per day supported on the same hardware configuration [13] Significantly faster indexing for catalogs of all sizes, and new incremental indexing Up to 80% faster than Community Edition [14] Faster, more streamlined checkout flow enables customers to complete transactions more quickly 35% performance improvement [13] These advanced performance features and many others add up to huge site speed increases that will be seen and felt by every customer visiting your online store. Migrating from Community Edition to Enterprise Edition has resulted in real-world site speed gains of up to 30X! [14] [13] Benchmarking Magento Enterprise Edition ee113-performance-and-scalability-white-paper#section_1 [14] How to Decide? Magento Enterprise vs. Community. customerparadigm.com/magento-enterprise-vs-magento-community/ Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 10

11 2. Implement best practices for site performance There are dozens of variables which influence web site performance. However, four important techniques which potentially have the greatest benefit should be seriously considered by all Magento web site operators and developers. It s not a coincidence that more than 75% of the top 100 retail sites use one or more of these techniques to speed up their sites. [17] Use a content delivery network (CDN) A CDN is a distributed network of servers located in multiple data centers, typically worldwide. Frequently accessed static content on the web site is stored in the CDN, and is automatically served to site visitors from the content delivery network instead of the web site itself. The CDN determines which of its servers can deliver the content fastest to the visitor. The net result is web pages that load much faster, and reduced demand on the web site server. Additional benefits of CDN include enhanced resilience against distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. Why it matters Every additional second of page load time causes 16% fewer customers to report a satisfactory experience with the site. A 5% increase in customer retention rate yields a 25% to 95% improvement in profits. What do you consider to be an acceptable amount of less than satisfied customers? Most major CDN providers offer tools that make it fast and easy to activate CDN functionality for Magento sites. The speed increases can be dramatic, with some Magento sites seeing a 50% reduction in page load times. [15] Turn on KeepAlive Activating KeepAlive also called HTTP persistent connections allows the web server to use a single TCP connection to a visitor s web browser to send and receive multiple HTTP requests and responses. Otherwise, the conversation is dropped after the request or response is sent, requiring another connection to be established the next time information is to be passed between the server and browser. Enabling the web server s KeepAlive capability has a number of benefits. But most importantly, it reduces latency eliminating handshaking overhead on subsequent requests which results in faster-loading web pages for visitors. [17] State of the union: Ecommerce Page Speed & Web Performance, Spring Radware. [15] How To Achieve a 2 Second Page Load with a Magento ecommerce Store, Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 11

12 Enable GZip compression The Apache webserver and competing alternatives have the built-in ability to compress HTML and CSS files before sending them across the Internet. Web browsers automatically de-compress these files when displaying a page. This compression/de-compression process is invisible to site visitors; all they see is snappier-loading web pages. According to Google s data, the average load time for pages with uncompressed content is about 25% higher than pages with compressed content. [16] File compression is activated by making changes to the.htaccess file on the web server. This modification should be performed and tested by an experienced Linux system administrator. The average load time for pages without compression is about 25% higher than pages with compressed content. Implement FastCGI FastCGI is a protocol which reduces web server overhead by permitting the server to handle more traffic simultaneously. Instead of creating a new process for each request, FastCGI uses persistent processes that can handle multiple requests. The protocol also facilitates reuse of server resources, creating additional efficiencies. FastCGI can be implemented through several methods. Distributions of the Apache web server include mod_fcgid, or enhanced alternatives such as PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) are available. Modifying an integral component of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack that is the foundation of your Magento server requires expert know-how, but the performance improvement is worthwhile. Another option is selecting a hosting provider which offers a LAMP stack that is already optimized specifically for Magento. [16] Even Faster Web Sites: Performance Best Practices for Web Developers. O Reilly Media. (ISBN ) Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 12

13 3. Tune the LAMP stack Magento requires adjustments to the LAMP stack to yield maximum performance. Running Magento on a generic LAMP stack that is otherwise well suited for general web applications can produce disappointing to unacceptable results with Magento. Unfortunately, properly setting up and maintaining the LAMP stack requires an expert Linux system administrator. Qualified sysadmins are in high demand and command generous salaries; in some markets, median compensation approaches $100,000. [18] Examples of just a few of LAMP optimizations include: Qualified Linux sysadmins are costly, with median compensation nearing $100,000 in some markets. Updating the Linux kernel Aside from performance benefits, keeping the Linux kernel up to date is critical to help prevent security breaches. Implementing PHP (opcode) caching Page loading can be accelerated by caching compiled PHP code in server RAM instead of compiling source code for every request. Caching can boost response speed by as much as 100%. [6] Clean up and speed up the database Database queries can have a significant effect on site performance. Carefully crafting index tables and/or keeping the database on a fast, separate server will provide significant performance gains. Optimize MySQL Properly optimizing MySQL and/or replacing it with a high-performance alternative can increase site performance by up to 65%. [7] [18] Salary.com. Systems Administrator III, Los Angeles. [6] 5 Simple Ways to Tune your LAMP Application. developerworks/library/os-5waystunelamp/ [7] Tips for Optimizing Your LAMP Stack Linux Server. Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 13

14 4. Utilize a fully Magento-optimized hosting environment A large majority of Internet users - 73% according to one study - says they ve recently encountered an e-commerce site that was noticeably slow. [4] Obviously, developing and managing a fast e-commerce site isn t easy, or every company would have one. And it can be particularly challenging to make Magento perform at its best. You wouldn t seriously consider hiring a developer that didn t have proven Magento expertise. Likewise, when selecting a hosting provider, the best strategy is to utilize a company which has the specialized knowledge and resources required to offer a hosting environment that s designed for Magento. Why it matters Small changes in page loading speed have huge impact. What s your number? Look up your average daily sales to see how much a 1-second delay in page load time might cost you. Server hardware configuration Magento scales efficiently to support very small to very large web sites. A quality hosting provider will work with you to understand your business needs, projected web site traffic and transactions, plus other parameters in order to determine the correct server configuration for your site. Be wary of providers who attempt to slot you into pre-configured packages or plans without conducting extensive discovery. Hosting providers should standardize on servers and supporting equipment from leading manufacturers, such as Dell, Cisco, and F5 Networks. They will also keep an ample supply of spare components on-hand to perform rapid hardware replacement in the event of failure. All components in the hosting environment should be maintained at N+1 redundancy, meaning that every component has at least one independent backup component. Magento can be run on hosting platforms ranging from shared multi-tenant environments, to complex multiple-server clusters with separate web, database, and payment bridge servers. Selecting the optimum infrastructure is critical to ensuring fast, reliable performance of your web site, and maximizing the return on your financial investment. Average daily sales Lost annual revenue $500 $12,500 $750 $18,750 $1,000 $25,000 $1,500 $37,500 $2,000 $50,000 $2,500 $62,500 $3,000 $75,000 $3,500 $87,500 $4,000 $100,000 $4,500 $112,500 $5,000 $125,000 $7,500 $187,500 $10,000 $250,000 [4] Speed Is a Killer - Why Decreasing Page Load Time Can Drastically Increase Conversions. kissmetrics.com/speed-is-a-killer/ Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 14

15 Optimizing Magento E-commerce Sites for Increased Sales and Customer Satisfaction LAMP stack tuning When you choose a Magento hosting specialist, you benefit from thousands of man-hours spent developing a fast and stable LAMP stack which has been specifically optimized for Magento. More importantly, the LAMP stack requires ongoing monitoring, patching, testing, and tuning to continually maintain a fast, reliable, and secure environment for your Magento site. Leading Magento hosting providers are well versed in advanced optimization techniques, including implementation of services such as MySQL alternatives, Memcached, Varnish, Solr, PageSpeed (mod_pagespeed) and other enhancements which can help wring peak performance from your web site. When you choose a Magento hosting specialist, you benefit from thousands of man-hours spent developing a fast and stable LAMP stack which has been specifically optimized for Magento. Network and Internet infrastructure A high-performance Magento server can t fulfill its mission if it can t respond to requests from web site visitors without excessive network and Internet lag. Insist on a hosting provider which offers state-of-the-art connectivity, including Gigabit Ethernet to your server(s), at least 1 Gbps (burstable) Internet bandwidth, a 10GB network backbone,, and connections to multiple Internet backbones for redundancy. Look for leading Internet access providers such as AboveNet, GTT, and Hurricane Electric. Security and monitoring A quality hosting provider should utilize an intrusion detection system (IDS) to monitor system and network activity for cyberthreats such as hacking or distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. These systems report any suspicious activity to a security administrator, who can take appropriate steps to neutralize the threat. The hosting provider should also offer advanced security measures such as managed firewall services, for organizations that have more rigorous security requirements. Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 15

16 Physical facility The hosting provider should maintain your Magento server solution in a data center that meets Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) standards (TIA-942) for Tier 4 data centers. This standard includes stringent requirements for dual power supplies (primary and backup) for IT equipment and HVAC systems, fully redundant subsystems, and compartmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access controls. Look for a hosting provider that has support personnel located directly at their data center. 24/7/365 on-site support The ability to reach a live human being when you need technical support is a must-have. But even more important, that individual needs to be qualified and available to render immediate aid when requested. Look for a hosting provider that has support personnel located directly at their data center. Providing high-quality tech support can be costly, and many hosting providers try to cut corners in this area. Be wary of companies that utilize call centers especially offshore or outsourced operations to answer tech support calls. When your site is down, time is money. Each minute of delay in restoring your site has a measurable impact on your bottom line. You must be able to reach a technician who is located steps away from your server, and who knows how to take immediate action to restore services. Be wary of companies that utilize offshore or outsourced call centers to answer tech support calls. 100% uptime A few decimal places of uptime is the difference between nearly 9 hours of downtime per year at 99.9% to about 5 minutes per year at %. Providing 100% or even five nines reliability requires technology, infrastructure redundancy, and expertise that most hosting providers just don t have to offer. This level of reliability doesn t happen by accident; it has to be designed into the hosting company s business, and requires significant investment to achieve and maintain. A hosting company s service level agreement (SLA) tells you how confident they are in their ability to deliver as promised. If a fast and reliable web site is mission-critical for your company, be sure to select a hosting provider that s worthy of your confidence. Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 16

17 Conclusion Since its introduction in 2007, Magento has become the most popular e-commerce platform, changing the online shopping landscape in the process. Magento puts an unparalleled combination of flexibility, power, and affordability within reach of any company that wants to sell online. But the capabilities of the platform come with a cost. Magento makes exacting demands on the hosting environment and can deliver disappointing results if not provided with the right server configuration. Any shortcomings in hosting infrastructure will have a measurable impact on the business performance of a Magento e-commerce site. While on-premises, public cloud, or generic shared or dedicated hosting environments may appear to be viable options for hosting a Magento web site, in most cases, these environments will yield substandard performance and prevent maximum return on investment in e-commerce operations. Instead, a fully managed hosting environment that is carefully optimized for Magento is the best choice for most companies using the Magento platform for mission-critical e-commerce. Copyright 2014 ZeroLag 17

18 Get fast, reliable Magento e-commerce hosting from ZeroLag If your company is ready to optimize your Magento site with faster, more reliable and secure hosting, ZeroLag can help. Our competitively priced hosting solutions were rated the most reliable by NetCraft and rank among the fastest and most secure available. Learn more about what our hosting services can do for your Magento e-commerce site by visiting ZeroLag.com or calling us at CONTACT US Corporate HQ Ventura Blvd. Suite #730 Sherman Oaks, CA Mailing/Billing Address: 289 S. Robertson Blvd Box #441 Beverly Hills, CA Phone: Copyright 2014, ZeroLag Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.