In the dynamic realm of e-commerce, selecting the right experience optimization platform (EOP) is essential for achieving success. But, how do you assess the impact on your website performance and unleash its full potential on your site?
We’re here to guide you with key questions to ask experimentation and personalization solutions you’re assessing, specifically designed to help you evaluate performance – so buckle up and continue reading to unlock new levels of success!
Bonus audio resource: Curious to know more about what AB Tasty does to address performance and optimize customer experience? Listen to this insightful discussion between Léo, one of our product managers, and Margaret, our product marketing manager. In this chat, Léo explains what AB Tasty specifically does to improve performance for our customers. Want to know even more? Check out Léo’s in-depth blog post.
#1: Does the platform offer 99.9% uptime and availability?
Downtime can be a nightmare for your business. Make sure the EOP is known for its reliability and high uptime. Although it might not sound like a big deal, the difference between 99.5% uptime and 99.9% uptime is huge. With 99.9% uptime, you can expect less than 9 hours of downtime annually, vs. 99.5% which can mean nearly 2 full days of downtime in a year. It’s crucial to choose a platform that can keep your website accessible to customers as often as possible, ensuring a seamless shopping experience around the clock and more revenue for your business.
#2. Does the platform prioritize website speed and load time?
It goes without saying that in the fast-paced online world, speed matters. Does the EOP offer features that prioritize website load time? Look for optimization techniques such as caching, image compression and code optimization to ensure quick and smooth page loading. A snappy website keeps customers engaged and drives conversions.
#3. Does the platform provide a comprehensive performance center?
Acting on detailed performance data ensures your website is always giving users the best experience. Does the EOP offer comprehensive insights into reducing the tag or campaign weight for optimal performance and user experience? Your EOP should have a performance center that guides you to campaign optimization, including ways to reduce tag weight, identify heavy or old campaigns you can delete, or targeting verification.
#4. Do the performance metrics they’re showing you come from sites that are active?
Some EOPs might show you performance metrics that include sites that aren’t actually active. An inactive site has a much lighter tag weight than an active site, which makes their performance metrics look much better than they actually are. Always ask the EOP if their metrics are from active sites to ensure you’re seeing the most accurate representation of what you can expect if you go with them.
#5. Are they regularly adding new features to enhance performance?
To stay ahead in the rapidly evolving digital ecosystem, it’s imperative that your EOP consistently adds new features to optimize performance. With regular updates like these, you can ensure you’re meeting user expectations, addressing emerging challenges, enhancing performance metrics, and keeping an edge on the competition.
Take, for example, dynamic imports. Using dynamic imports has a huge advantage. When we were using a monolithic approach, as some EOPs are still doing, removing a semi-colon in one campaign and pushing this change to production meant that all visitors would have to download the full package again, even though only one character over tens of thousands had changed. With dynamic imports, all visitors redownload the new version of the campaign – and that’s it. Simple.
#6. Can the platform handle spikes in web traffic?
E-commerce sites often face surges in traffic during peak periods or promotional events like Black Friday. How does the EOP handle increased web traffic without compromising performance? Look for platforms with content delivery networks (CDNs) that handle load balancing and scalability to ensure your website remains stable and accessible during high-demand periods.
#7. Does the platform have both server-side and client-side offers?
Having both server-side and client-side EOPs is crucial for e-commerce companies, especially given how much e-commerce is happening on mobile and apps. Server-side optimizes performance with zero flicker and seamless mobile experience, while client-side enhances user experience and puts the power of experimentation and personalization into the hands of marketers, freeing up developer time. Utilizing both platforms enables holistic optimization and consistent experiences, drives business growth, and leads to more satisfied customers.
#8. What level of local customer support and documentation does the platform offer?
Technical support and comprehensive documentation are vital for a smooth experience with your platform. What kind of reliable customer support channels does the EOP provide? Look for platforms that offer timely assistance in your locality and language, and extensive documentation, empowering you to resolve issues and make the most of your platform’s features. Review P2P sites like G2 to understand what EOPs consistently offer the best service.
#9. Is the platform scalable and adaptable to future needs?
As your e-commerce business grows, your optimization needs may change. To what degree is the EOP scalable and flexible enough to accommodate future requirements without affecting performance? Does the platform have well-known medium and large client brands with high traffic demands? Choose a platform that can adapt to evolving business goals and easily incorporate new features. This ensures the platform remains aligned with your growing needs.
#10. Can you test out the tag for yourself?
Tags should be easy to implement. You want to make sure that the one you go with is compatible with your system. While industry reports can give you an idea of what you can expect, they aren’t representative of your site. The best way to tell is to test it for yourself on your site. This lets you see if what the EOP says is actually what you get. It can also give you an idea of implementation, use, accuracy, reliability and confidence. Finally, it lets you see if there may be any issues that could arise and gives the EOP a chance to address them immediately.
Evaluate the Performance of EOPs to unlock your potential
By asking these key questions, you can begin to evaluate the performance of experience optimization platforms and ensure you select one that helps you unlock your potential. Focus on uptime, speed, traffic handling, mobile optimization, integration capabilities, support, and scalability – and ensure the EOP has an answer for every one of these questions, with proof to back it up. This way, you’ll be able to make an informed decision and optimize your ecommerce site for a seamless user experience, driving higher conversions and business growth.
Go through the checklist below, whether you have an EOP already in place, or are looking to start your EOP journey, and ask providers what they offer:
☑️ Does the platform offer 99.9% uptime and availability?
☑️ How does the platform prioritize website speed and load time?
☑️ What does the platform’s performance center look like?
☑️ How does the platform handle spikes in traffic?
☑️ Does the platform offer both server-side and client-side optimization?
☑️ Does the platform integrate with the tools and systems that you already use?
☑️ What level of support and documentation does the platform offer?
☑️ Is the platform scalable and adaptable to your future business needs?
