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10 Tips to Prepare Your eCommerce Site for the Holiday Shopping Rush

Sven Hammar

The holiday shopping rush is soon upon us and the only thing we can be certain of is that online shopping of gifts will continue to increase. But also that many e-customers will be disappointed with their online shopping experiences. Response time is money.

With this in mind, here are my top ten tips for e-commerce success this holiday season:

1. Time is money

Even during periods with high traffic, the response time (i.e. the time it takes for a web page to fully load) should not exceed three seconds. E-shoppers are not the most patient bunch. If the site is slow, the customer will look for the desired product somewehere else: your competitors. A slow response means losing conversions, revenues and Google rankings. Analyze how your e-commerce platform performs compared to the competitors: is it faster or slower? How much money are you losing due to long response times and a corresponding weak conversion rate?

2. Optimize images and videos

High-resolution images and videos might make you think that your website is modern and edgy ... but they increase response times. So put vanity aside and reduce the amount of high-resolution images and videos on your site – for the sake of revenues. If you still want the bulky images, then invest in systems that can handle short response times despite high-resolution content. Use a CDN/accelerator service to speed up the delivery of rich content such as images and videos to customers.

3. Load test your site

Perform load tests to verify the site's performance during various load levels. Measure performance during normal variations in traffic. Test the site frequently before, during and after peak season to ensure the availability of reliable information about the site's normal performance. Testing companies can load test web or mobile applications, simulate peak loads, and validate non-functional demands, such as maximum three second response time for 90 percent of the users during peak load (10,000 users per minute).

4. Damage control: test your peak load

Without tests it is almost imposible to foresee what will happen at peak loads, e.g. Christmas commerce. Components that function flawlessly at regular loads may all of a sudden become bottlenecks. A "damage control" is a test that shows what it takes for the site to crash and what the course of events looks like. A damage control ensures that the website comes up and running again – even at full load. A specialized supplier of testing services can give you advice on how to avoid getting stuck with sites that slow down or crash even if the traffic increases drastically.

5. Cache static content

Cache as much static content as possible in the browser. If the page content does not change, customers will not have to download it again from the network the next time they hit the page. This is a cost-effective way to speed up web traffic and gain performance improvements.

6. Use queuing techniques

Queuing techniques are commonplace in service industries like retail. And it can be used to manage customers in virtual stores as well. Only allow as many customers into your web store that it can safely accommodate (i.e. that it is tested for) and block all traffic above this volume. It not, all users will get poor response times and the site might cease to function for all users. It is better to serve the customers who are already in the virtual store and let the others receive a polite error message or wait a little longer.

7. Be careful with third party content

Sure, it is nice to be able to link Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Many e-traders do it and see it as something completely natural. But third party material is seldom optimized. You lose control over part of your website and take the risk of slowing it down.

8. Develop Campaign sites

Create separate and simpler websites that load quicker for temporary campaigns, events and product launches.

9. Balance the loads

Check that load sharing is working properly. Load sharing distributes loads from different users onto underlying systems in an even way. However, sometimes there might be erros due to reconfigurations et al. Therefore you must verify that the load sharing really functions properly and that the underlying servers receive an even load.

10. Use KPI to manage conversion

Finally: use existing analytical tools to identify which business processes your customers carry out on your website, and optimize them for the best possible performance. With tools like Google Analytics it is possible to see where the visitors start and which routes they take on your website. You can also see when the conversion rate is affected by slow response times. Back to my first tip: time is money and speed is always good – use KPI to manage your efforts for improved conversion and higher revenues.

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10 Tips to Prepare Your eCommerce Site for the Holiday Shopping Rush

Sven Hammar

The holiday shopping rush is soon upon us and the only thing we can be certain of is that online shopping of gifts will continue to increase. But also that many e-customers will be disappointed with their online shopping experiences. Response time is money.

With this in mind, here are my top ten tips for e-commerce success this holiday season:

1. Time is money

Even during periods with high traffic, the response time (i.e. the time it takes for a web page to fully load) should not exceed three seconds. E-shoppers are not the most patient bunch. If the site is slow, the customer will look for the desired product somewehere else: your competitors. A slow response means losing conversions, revenues and Google rankings. Analyze how your e-commerce platform performs compared to the competitors: is it faster or slower? How much money are you losing due to long response times and a corresponding weak conversion rate?

2. Optimize images and videos

High-resolution images and videos might make you think that your website is modern and edgy ... but they increase response times. So put vanity aside and reduce the amount of high-resolution images and videos on your site – for the sake of revenues. If you still want the bulky images, then invest in systems that can handle short response times despite high-resolution content. Use a CDN/accelerator service to speed up the delivery of rich content such as images and videos to customers.

3. Load test your site

Perform load tests to verify the site's performance during various load levels. Measure performance during normal variations in traffic. Test the site frequently before, during and after peak season to ensure the availability of reliable information about the site's normal performance. Testing companies can load test web or mobile applications, simulate peak loads, and validate non-functional demands, such as maximum three second response time for 90 percent of the users during peak load (10,000 users per minute).

4. Damage control: test your peak load

Without tests it is almost imposible to foresee what will happen at peak loads, e.g. Christmas commerce. Components that function flawlessly at regular loads may all of a sudden become bottlenecks. A "damage control" is a test that shows what it takes for the site to crash and what the course of events looks like. A damage control ensures that the website comes up and running again – even at full load. A specialized supplier of testing services can give you advice on how to avoid getting stuck with sites that slow down or crash even if the traffic increases drastically.

5. Cache static content

Cache as much static content as possible in the browser. If the page content does not change, customers will not have to download it again from the network the next time they hit the page. This is a cost-effective way to speed up web traffic and gain performance improvements.

6. Use queuing techniques

Queuing techniques are commonplace in service industries like retail. And it can be used to manage customers in virtual stores as well. Only allow as many customers into your web store that it can safely accommodate (i.e. that it is tested for) and block all traffic above this volume. It not, all users will get poor response times and the site might cease to function for all users. It is better to serve the customers who are already in the virtual store and let the others receive a polite error message or wait a little longer.

7. Be careful with third party content

Sure, it is nice to be able to link Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Many e-traders do it and see it as something completely natural. But third party material is seldom optimized. You lose control over part of your website and take the risk of slowing it down.

8. Develop Campaign sites

Create separate and simpler websites that load quicker for temporary campaigns, events and product launches.

9. Balance the loads

Check that load sharing is working properly. Load sharing distributes loads from different users onto underlying systems in an even way. However, sometimes there might be erros due to reconfigurations et al. Therefore you must verify that the load sharing really functions properly and that the underlying servers receive an even load.

10. Use KPI to manage conversion

Finally: use existing analytical tools to identify which business processes your customers carry out on your website, and optimize them for the best possible performance. With tools like Google Analytics it is possible to see where the visitors start and which routes they take on your website. You can also see when the conversion rate is affected by slow response times. Back to my first tip: time is money and speed is always good – use KPI to manage your efforts for improved conversion and higher revenues.

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E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

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The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

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The pressure on IT teams has never been greater. As data environments grow increasingly complex, resource shortages are emerging as a major obstacle for IT leaders striving to meet the demands of modern infrastructure management ... According to DataStrike's newly released 2025 Data Infrastructure Survey Report, more than half (54%) of IT leaders cite resource limitations as a top challenge, highlighting a growing trend toward outsourcing as a solution ...

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Gartner revealed its top strategic predictions for 2025 and beyond. Gartner's top predictions explore how generative AI (GenAI) is affecting areas where most would assume only humans can have lasting impact ...

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating across the telecoms industry, with 88% of fixed broadband service providers now investigating or trialing AI automation to enhance their fixed broadband services, according to new research from Incognito Software Systems and Omdia ...

 

AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

Imagine a future where software, once a complex obstacle, becomes a natural extension of daily workflow — an intuitive, seamless experience that maximizes productivity and efficiency. This future is no longer a distant vision but a reality being crafted by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ...

Enterprise data sprawl already challenges companies' ability to protect and back up their data. Much of this information is never fully secured, leaving organizations vulnerable. Now, as GenAI platforms emerge as yet another environment where enterprise data is consumed, transformed, and created, this fragmentation is set to intensify ...

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OpenTelemetry (OTel) has revolutionized the way we approach observability by standardizing the collection of telemetry data ... Here are five myths — and truths — to help elevate your OTel integration by harnessing the untapped power of logs ...