CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK: A MUST-HAVE FOR

ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES

Presented by IT Delight | 2022

WHAT’S A CDN?
CDN,
short for the content distribution
network, is a system of servers located
worldwide that all contain a copy of the
site’s content. When you enable CDN
on your website and a user comes to it,
they’ll automatically access the website
via the closest server. For instance,
users in Texas will receive the content
via the server nearest to Texas, while
users in Paris will receive it via the
server closest to them.
IS IT THE SAME AS WEB
HOSTING?
The short answer is no; CDN doesn’t host content
and can’t substitute the proper web hosting. But it
does help cache content at the network edge, which
leads to improved website performance.
Many sites go for CDN services because, with
traditional hosting, they can’t cover all their
needs. This technology utilizes caching to reduce
hosting bandwidth, prevents service
interruptions, and strengthens security; CDN
becomes a necessary tool that solves some of the
major problems that come with traditional
hosting.
HOW DOES IT Let’s imagine that the traditional content delivery method (where
everything comes from one source) is a stream of water. It isn’t
WORK FOR THE limitless and has a certain width. Meaning that you get only as much
ECOMMERCE water as the flow can deliver.
If you want to fill up a pool, it depends on many factors. For
INDUSTRY? instance, if the stream is located far away from the pool, it will take
some time to fill it up.
And you also have to clean the pool after every time you use it (just
like incognito browsers do); you have to spend loads of time again
when you want to use it.

How to make the process less tedious and effortful? Find several
sources of water to use at once.
And that’s how CDN works. It provides eCommerce sites with
multiple servers to store their content, which increases page speed.
Because no customers will want to wait too long for the page to
load, they will simply go to your competitors.
 Now let’s talk about what is in it for you.
WHAT ARE THE
BENEFITS OF CDN FOR CDNs are used by many companies, startups, and big
companies.
ECOMMERCE
BUSINESSES? Each company has a different gain from it, whether
it’s the most fitting way to reduce bandwidth or
increase audience reach.

We are here to discuss how CDNs help eCommerce

businesses specifically and their benefits for online
stores.
PAGE SPEED & If you expect your website to deliver content fast, CDN is the way
to go. Let’s imagine an eCommerce store that needs to quickly turn
CONVERSION users who stumble upon their website into customers and increase
BOOST sales. If there are any delays in page load times, it would eventually
lead to drop-offs, customers abandoning the web page and going for
the competitor’s websites.

Meanwhile, with a CDN, an online store can deliver content much

faster due to caching content on the servers that are geographically
closest to the end-users. The content can include such things as
HTML code, images, dynamic content, etc.
STRONGER It’s not the primary goal of CDN to strengthen security, but it’s a
solid side benefit. With CDNs, server overloads are less likely
SECURITY because they distribute content across various servers. Additionally,
they become another firewall against cyber attacks that are based
on sending traffic spikes to key servers.

Particularly, it’s helpful in cases of DDoS attacks. These attacks

consist of a large volume of requests targeted at significant DNS
servers. If the attack is successful, the servers go down along with
the website. It results in economic losses and reputation damage and
leads to more attacks. Meanwhile, CDNs serve as a DDoS protection
and migration platform because they equally distribute the traffic
load between multiple servers and protect data centers.
 In the highly competitive market, business owners are under
BETTER VIEWING
pressure to ensure high content availability on their websites.
EXPERIENCE However, servers might crash if the traffic is too high, making the
content unavailable for users.

This is especially important for businesses that provide video or

audio content to a lot of users worldwide. For these companies, the
traffic load is expected to reach as many as millions of requests per
second, especially if the content is relevant or trendy. If the origin
server can’t cope with such load, its failure will result in poor user
experience, damaged reputation, and unsatisfied customers.

With CDN, all that traffic will be spread equally among the network
of servers, allowing online businesses to enhance their content
availability no matter the load. And even if one of the servers goes
down, others can pick up the traffic without interrupting the service.
Some of the CDNs even have a load balancing feature, which
redirects users and requests if the traffic is picking up. In this way,
the websites have 100% availability 24/7.
REDUCED With CDN technology, you pay once for a single service provider
rather than spending money on infrastructure and separate service
COSTS providers around the world.

With global CDN, you get access to a single platform and can use it
to manage all of the separate operations in multiple locations for a
reasonable price.

Thus, you can provide your customers with top-notch services even
while having a tight budget.
ANALYTICS CDNs not only deliver your content quickly and efficiently but also
provide you with analytical data that can help you discover the
strengths and weaknesses of your store. For example, some CDNs
not only offer real-time load statistics but also can optimize capacity
per customer, show the most active regions, and report the viewing
details back to you.

Why is such information important? Once the CDN has been

activated, usage logs are no longer relevant. As such, info analytics
provided by the CDN is extremely important, especially for
developers who use that data to optimize websites in the future.
Besides, in-depth reports and analytics will always come in handy,
whether utilized for performance increase, enhanced user
experience, or increased sales and conversion rates.
Most of CDN’s benefits are tied around the fact that it boosts site speed. Let’s
talk about why site speed is crucial for eCommerce businesses.
IMPRESSIVE Every user expects the websites to load quickly, between 2 and 5
seconds. First impressions are crucial for online businesses, and
USER speed plays a key role in how users perceive online stores.
EXPERIENCE
If the website loads quickly, it’s considered more reliable and
professional, while slow websites annoy users and lead to high
bounce rates.

In fact, most of the users bounce and immediately go for faster

competitors who meet their requirements. Once the negative
impression has been set, changing the audience’s opinion is hard.

According to statistics, 40% of people leave the site completely if it

takes more than three seconds to load. If you want to offer an
immersive user experience, consider that your store should load
quickly every time it is opened.
SEO RANKINGS Google, as well as other search engines, consider speed as one of
the primary factors for every product on the web.

In fact, Matt Cutts, one of the former leaders of the company,

claimed that fast load speed is among the top positive ranking
factors.

At the same time, you should not compromise content quality or

relevancy for the sake of load times.

If you want your online store to rank well on search engines, you
need to ensure that the web pages are optimized enough to load
faster.

With high rankings, you also get traffic growth, which is a significant
factor for online businesses.
CONVERSIONS As we’ve already mentioned, Google and other search engines rank
lower websites with low page load speed. What are more, users
either stop returning to such sites or bounce when the page takes
too long to load. You lose both potential customers and revenue.

Just imagine: only a one-second delay results in a 7% reduction in

conversion. For instance, if an online store makes $50,000 per day,
even a one-second delay can create a $1.28 million loss of revenue
yearly.

Fast websites are a must for successful eCommerce businesses.

They don’t only result in a positive user experience but also lead to
lasting impressions among the target audience. As a result,
optimizing page load speed should be among the top priorities for
business owners and their teams of developers and testers. And it’s
essential to keep this in mind through every stage of the
development cycle.
WHY DO ECOMMERCE
STORES RELY ON CDN?
WHY DO CDNs are used not only by the eCommerce industry businesses but
also by many other industries and businesses, such as catalyzing
ECOMMERCE video, games, voice, mobile content, and so on.
STORES RELY
Specifically, websites that store videos and/or other big media files
ON CDN usually use CDNs.

Basically, CDNs are a must for providing quick access to web

content. Without CDN, users would be loading files from across the
globe instead of accessing them through nearby servers.

Regarding eCommerce stores, particularly, they utilize CDNs

because they allow access to customers anywhere in the world
without interruptions and delays. The global audience is the focus of
most eCommerce stores that offer online content to customers.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The question of whether you should use a CDN or not depends on the needs of your company. It will pay off
if you have a popular website with high traffic and enough resources. In return for the cost, you will get a
faster website and an additional layer of security.

The main benefit of CDN for eCommerce stores is its ability to reduce page load times, which leads to other
benefits, such as increased conversion rates, sales, and a wider target audience.

If you have questions left about content delivery networks and how they work, don’t hesitate to contact our
team and learn more about everything you need to know to lead eCommerce businesses.

For more information on this topic, you can follow the link Content Delivery Network: A Must-Have For
eCommerce Businesses
 Contacts

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