Optimizing Magento E-Commerce Sites for Increased Sales and Customer satisfaction

Copyright © 2014 ZeroLag www.ZeroLag.com

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

Copyright © 2014 ZeroLag – 2 – www.ZeroLag.com

Optimizing Magento E-commerce Sites for Increased Sales and Customer Satisfaction A ZeroLag White Paper

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 capa-

bilities, 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.

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 admin-

istrative functionality, including

order tracking, merchandising

and marketing capabilities,

content management, and

much more.



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.

• 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 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 cost-

effective hosting providers for

businesses of all sizes utilizing

the Magento e-commerce

platform.

“ZeroLag is well equipped to be able to support any global merchant.”

- Annette Merriman,

Magento, an eBay Inc. company



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 spe-

cialized 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

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 admin-

istrators 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] http://tomrobertshaw.net/2013/03/

feb-2013-ecommerce-survey/

26%

26% of the top 35,000 e-commerce sites

use Magento



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 EditionThe 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 functionalityThe 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.

• Huge selection of themes and extensionsThe 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 supportMagento is the most widely used e-commerce platform. Its

popularity has spawned both professional (paid) and communi-

ty-based (free) support systems to help you through challenges

that may arise.

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



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 dis-

satisfied with a web site’s performance won’t return to that site

again. [4]

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.

Visitors expect web pages to load in 2 seconds or less.

How fast does your site load?

Check it out for free at http://www.webpagetest.org

[4] Speed Is a Killer - Why Decreas-

ing Page Load Time Can Drastically

Increase Conversions. http://blog.

kissmetrics.com/speed-is-a-killer/



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.

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. http://search-

enginewatch.com/article/2064113/

Case-Study-Impact-of-Code-Cleanup-on-

Site-Traffic





[19] The Economics of E-Loyalty. Har-

vard Business School. http://hbswk.

hbs.edu/archive/1590.html

[9] How Long Are Web Users Willing

to Wait? http://cba.unl.edu/research/

articles/548/download.pdf

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.



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.

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 well-

designed 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. http://www.

forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/08/19/am-

azon-com-goes-down-loses-66240-per-minute/

Amazon.com lost 2 million in revenue during a 30-minute outage, or about $66,240 per minute [20]



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.

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. http://dyn.

com/blog/infographic-how-downtime-fi-

nancially-impacts-top-ecommerce-web-

sites/

In 2010, the average top 500 e-commerce site experienced 804 minutes of downtime amounting to $800,099 in lost revenue and technical expenses.



What you can do to increase performance, reliability, and customer satisfaction

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

• 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 1.13 http://www.magentocom-

merce.com/knowledge-base/entry/

ee113-performance-and-scalabili-

ty-white-paper#Section_1

[14] How to Decide? Magento En-

terprise vs. Community. http://www.

customerparadigm.com/magento-enter-

prise-vs-magento-community/

Why it matters

40% of visitors will abandon a site that hasn’t loaded in three seconds or less.

79% who are dis-satisfied with a web site’s performance won’t return to that site again.



2. Implement best practices for site performance

There are dozens of variables which influence web site per-

formance. 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.

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 KeepAliveActivating 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.

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?

[17] State of the union: Ecommerce Page

Speed & Web Performance, Spring

2013. Radware.

[15] How To Achieve a 2 Second Page

Load with a Magento eCommerce Store,

http://blog.maxcdn.com/how-to-achieve-

a-2-second-page-load-with-a-magento-

ecommerce-store/



[16] Even Faster Web Sites: Per-

formance Best Practices for Web

Developers. O’Reilly Media. (ISBN

0596522304)

Enable GZip compressionThe 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-com-

pression process is invisible to site visitors; all they see is snap-

pier-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.

Implement FastCGIFastCGI 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. Dis-

tributions 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 per-

formance improvement is worthwhile. Another option is selecting

a hosting provider which offers a LAMP stack that is already

optimized specifically for Magento.

The average load time for pages without compression is about 25% higher than pages with compressed content.



[18] Salary.com. Systems Administra-

tor III, Los Angeles. http://salary.com

[6] 5 Simple Ways to Tune your LAMP

Application. http://www.ibm.com/

developerworks/library/os-5way-

stunelamp/

[7] Tips for Optimizing Your LAMP

Stack Linux Server. http://invisibleze-

ro.net/tips-for-optimizing-lamp-stack-

linux-server/

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:

Updating the Linux kernelAside from performance benefits, keeping the Linux kernel up to

date is critical to help prevent security breaches.

Implementing PHP (opcode) cachingPage 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 databaseDatabase 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 MySQLProperly optimizing MySQL and/or replacing it with a high-per-

formance alternative can increase site performance by up to 65%. [7]

Qualified Linux sysadmins are costly, with median compensation nearing $100,000 in some markets.



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.

Server hardware configurationMagento 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 con-

figuration 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 per-

formance of your web site, and maximizing the return on your

financial investment.





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.

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



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.

LAMP stack tuningWhen 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.

Network and Internet infrastructureA 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 monitoringA 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 admin-

istrator, 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.



Look for a hosting provider that has support personnel located directly at their data center.

Be wary of companies that utilize offshore or outsourced call centers to answer tech support calls.

Physical facilityThe 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 com-

partmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access controls.

24/7/365 on-site supportThe 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.

100% uptimeA 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 99.999%.

Providing 100% or even “five nines” reliability requires technology, infra-

structure 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.



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 com-

bination 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 sub-

standard 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.

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Phone: 1- 877-937-6524

Copyright 2014, ZeroLag Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Learn more about what our hosting services can do for your Magento

e-commerce site by visiting ZeroLag.com or calling us at 877-937-6524.

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