7 Ways to Speed up Magento Shopping Cart

If you want to make sure that the people who visit your website convert to paying customers, it’s important to speed up your Magento shopping cart as much as possible. The faster your cart loads for customers, the more successful you will be. There are a lot of different things that can slow down Magento, but they can almost always be reversed. In this article you will learn how to enhance the shopping cart for your online store so you can maximize your revenue for years into the future.

  1. Make sure you’re using the latest version

Although it may seem a little bit simple, you will need to make certain that you are currently using the most recent version of Magento. If you find that the version you are using is outdated, it is crucial that you upgrade immediately. The fact is that using an older version of this shopping cart platform can cause all sorts of problems for you and your customers. Upgrading to the latest version doesn’t take long and it’s well worth it.

  1. Switch to a faster Web Host

If you find that Magento is really starting to lag on your website, it could be due to your current web host. It might be a good idea to start looking into going with a new host optimised for Magento that will be able to suit your needs much better. A lot of people outgrow their web host as their website expands, and it’s essential to re-evaluate your hosting options at this point. Take the time to find a web host that can provide you with all of the bandwidth you could possibly need.

  1. Take advantage of Caching

It’s also a good idea to think about taking full advantage of in-browser caching. By allowing for Gzip compression and other things, you can potentially speed up your online shopping cart in a very noticeable way. This doesn’t take much time and it’s extremely simple.

  1. Start using Flat Catalogue

By activating flat catalogue for your products and entire categories, you could enhance the overall performance of Magento quite a bit. This is something that a lot of people don’t even take into consideration, but it can be quite effective. All you need to do is go to Stores>Configuration>Catalogue. This process is pretty self-explanatory, and it can make a huge difference when it comes to how your shopping cart behaves for customers.

  1. Optimize the images you use

One of the more common reasons that Magento and websites in general tend to run a lot slower than they should is because of bulky uncompressed images. Make sure that you compress all of the images that you put onto your website so that you don’t run the risk of having your visitors leave as soon as they click the link to your store. There are lots of software options to choose from for compressing images, such as Photoshop. Take some time to find a good image editor so you can quickly and easily compress your images before adding them to your site.

  1. Turn on Compilation

The compilation feature in Magento can be extremely useful when you are trying to speed it up as much as possible. Some people who have done this claim that they saw a remarkable improvement in performance, so it’s certainly worth a try. Go to “System”, “Tools” and then “Compilation” to switch on this feature.

  1. Tidy up the Database

There is a good chance that the logs in whichever version of Magento you are using could do with some tidying up. By doing this you could seriously expand your database, which in turn will benefit your visitors/customers a lot. You have the option of taking it down to 2 weeks so you can conserve a significant amount of space.

Final Thoughts

Magento is a very useful tool for online merchants, but it can become quite slow if you don’t follow these tips. With so many different ways to improve the performance of this shopping cart platform, it is difficult for you to not be successful. By doing even a couple of the things recommended in this profile, you should see a majorly positive change in the way Magento performs. When you take the time to fine tune this platform and get it up to maximum speed, you will most likely notice an increase in your site’s conversion rate. These are some very basic but useful tips you will need to keep in mind.