6 Ways Magento Stores Can Speed Up Without Sacrificing UX

Magento continues to be a go-to platform for online stores thanks to its ecommerce features and customisation options. Nowadays, more than 670 million websites are currently using Magento as their ecommerce platform, including big-name retailers such as Kurt Geiger, Nike, and Ford.

Although Magento is a powerful platform that offers great benefits to businesses, site speed can be compromised if the website is not well optimised. There are a range of commonly made mistakes that can severely hinder the way sites load – driving customers away if not addressed.

In this article, we will discuss six of the most effective ways to speed up page load times and improve functionality without sacrificing UX.

How Slow Loading Speed Can Impact UX

The speed at which a website loads can have a notable impact on the success of an ecommerce site – in fact, 70% of consumers say that page speed impacts their purchasing decisions. If people are browsing an online store and the site is loading slower than they expect, it can be a frustrating experience that can steer them away.

Studies have shown that if a site doesn’t load within 5 seconds, 74% of users will abandon the site. This can drastically increase bounce rates and leave shoppers looking elsewhere for what they need, potentially impacting brand reputation if they see the poor load times as a reflection on the store as a whole.

As well as impacting the user experience, slow load speeds can also impact search engine optimisation (SEO) rankings. Search engines see both poor page load times and high bounce rates as poor signs of user experience. This will result in the pages being ranked lower, reducing visibility when it comes to organic traffic.

6 Ways to Increase The Speed of Magento Stores

With slow site loading speeds having the potential to hinder an ecommerce site’s overall performance, changes need to be made.

Here are six ways that Magento store owners can improve page speed without compromising UX:

1. Choose a high-speed hosting provider

The provider that is used to host a Magento store can be the difference between a fast-running site that allows users to browse with ease and a slow-loading site that leaves users clicking off the site completely.

Magento has many features that increase hosting requirements compared to other CMS platforms. Finding a provider that offers high-speed Magento hosting will take the pressure off by keeping the site running smoothly, reducing delays and increasing server response times.

A popular option for Magento stores is cloud-based hosting as it manages resources across multiple servers, preventing downtime since other servers can take over if there is an issue. It also suits different business sizes and needs as resources can be increased and decreased as needed. This can be particularly useful during peak seasons, such as Christmas, when store traffic sees a big increase.

2. Clean up the database

Ecommerce sites run on Magento use database logs containing data on user sessions, queries, cart data, errors, and more. These databases quickly grow in size and require a substantial amount of storage space. Over time, this can result in delays in page load speed.

These databases should be cleaned up on a regular basis to ensure they don’t interfere with the UX.

By logging into the admin panel, clicking ‘System’ on the navigation bar, going to the ‘Configuration’ section, clicking ‘Advanced’, then ‘System’, and then ‘Log’, the following screen will appear:

(Image source: Amasty)

At this stage, automated log cleaning can be setup. The frequency of this process can be chosen and then any issues will be emailed to the chosen moderator to ensure they are addressed promptly.

3. Enable full page cache

Magento 2 uses full page cache – a function that shows site users a pre-rendered version to speed up page load times. This is especially useful for the most commonly accessed pages, such as the home page, category pages, and seasonal landing pages.

Magento stores should ensure that full page cache is enabled as it can create a much more efficient UX for regular shoppers. Since the HTML will have been stored in cache, it prevents the page from needing to load from scratch every time the user arrives at the site.

To enable full page cache, access to the Magento admin panel is needed. From here, go to ‘Stores’, click ‘Configuration’, ‘Advanced’, ‘System’, and then ‘Full Page Cache’.

4. Optimise images

Images are often one of the primary causes of a slow ecommerce site. Since every product page is likely to have a carousel of imagery to show off the item being sold, it can take much longer to load the page.

All images across a website should be compressed to reduce the size of the file and speed up the load time.

Tools like TinyPNG can be used to do this without sacrificing the quality of the image, maintaining the exact same UX. To see where improvements are made, their analyser feature can be used to produce a custom report based on the performance of each web page.

(Image source: TinyPNG)

Another way to optimise images is to implement the Lazy Loading extension in Magento 2. This can speed up page load time by only displaying the images when the user is on the relevant part of the page. This way, the initial load time is sped up and the user is less likely to bounce.  

5. Review third-party extensions

One of the greatest features of using Magento as an ecommerce website is the range of third-party extensions that add extra functionalities. However, these extensions can also lead to slower page times if not managed properly.

Some third-party extensions may be written in a way that uses more code than needed or may clash with existing extensions. These issues can result in the site being slower to load and it can be tricky to see where the problem lies.

One way to see whether third-party extensions are slowing down a site is to turn off each one one by one. By removing an extension and clearing the cache, any differences in site speed can be noticed and acted on.

By regularly reviewing extensions and removing any that may be hindering overall UX, an ecommerce business can ensure its Magento site is only using extensions with effective functionality.

6. Simplify the checkout process

If a customer is ready to make a purchase but is deterred by a lengthy or confusing checkout process, this can be a huge downfall from a business perspective.

To optimise the checkout process to reduce the number of abandoned carts, steps should be carried out to identify where shoppers are dropping off and see what can be done to improve it.

One of the key reasons a shopper may choose to abandon their cart and look elsewhere is if they are required to make an account in order to make a purchase. Since this can be timely, it can be a deterrent.

In the admin panel of Magento, go to the ‘Checkout Options’ by clicking ‘Stores’, ‘Configuration’, ‘Sales’, and ‘Checkout’. Once here, there is the option to allow guest checkout, meaning shoppers can complete their purchase without having to create an account that they don’t want to create.

(Image source: Hostinger)

Prioritising Page Speed for Magento Stores

A fast website speed is no longer a benefit, but a must-have. If a shopper is facing slow page load times every time they click on a product page or try to browse a collection, they are much more likely to leave the site and contribute to a growing bounce rate.

Instead of losing customers and impacting SEO rankings, ecommerce businesses need to be taking steps to optimise their Magento site and maintain a strong UX.

By choosing a high-speed hosting provider, optimising images, enabling full page cache, cleaning up database logs, reviewing third-party extensions, and simplifying the checkout process, page times will continue to see improvements that contribute to an overall more positive online shopping experience.