by 
The ecommerce market is speeding into 2015 at a rapid pace, but is your website fast enough to keep up?
When it comes to site loading speed, never keep your customers waiting or they’ll simply go elsewhere. Have you ever given up on a purchase simply because the queue was too long? Well, it’s no different online.
Here are a few things to look out for:
Aesthetics. Your site might look as pretty as a Christmas tree, but how useful is that if the customer never actually makes it there? Aesthetics are important, but don’t go overboard because they’ll kill your loading speed. Also, Google will hate you (bye-bye page ranking).
Streamline. Every website app or plug-in that your web design guy convinced you that you need, adds crucial seconds to your loading time, especially when it comes to your shopping cart. Remember that not everyone has high speed internet, so try to keep your shopping cart and shopping section as streamlined as you possibly can. The last thing your customer wants to see is a white page with that ominous ‘connecting to server’ hovering in the lower left hand side of the browser, while your website struggle to load up that latest plug-in.
Your Merchant. Whilst it sounds good in theory to have your own credit card processing system on your checkout, it’s one of those things where you really get what you pay for. If you’re a small to medium business, you really should look at having a payment processing system like PayPal to handle your payments. They take a cut of all your transactions, but what you get is a top level service with none of the server worries that come with managing your own. If you are set on using your own, you need to make sure that you’re hosting your site design and your web developer are all the very best that you can afford. You only find out you’ve been cutting corners when your shopping cart goes down on Black Friday or your super cheap web developer has screwed up your shopping system so badly that every item that doesn’t cost $5 dollars suddenly reads as ‘free’ (true story).