Nine Ways to Make Sure Your Ecommerce Website is Ready for Increased Traffic

While increasing the number of visitors to your site is always the goal of any e-commerce business, that goal can quickly become overwhelming if your site isn't set up properly beforehand. As your e-commerce business and customer base grows, a sudden increase in traffic or just a gradual increase in buyers over time can lead to slower load times, unprepared customer service agents, irritated customers and even a total website crash.

To prevent this situation from happening, it is essential to take steps in advance to prepare yourself and your site for increased traffic. Here, nine members of the Young Entrepreneur Council each share a step you can take to ensure your online store can handle an increasing number of visitors and buyers and why this strategy is so effective.

1. Guarantee accurate data in real time

Ensuring your inventory data is accurate and in real time can have a major impact on your e-commerce business. Displaying accurate data is important to customers, so if they feel like the website isn't updating properly, be prepared to see lower conversion rates. - Jordan Edelson, Aperitif Mobile LLC

2. Get a reliable and scalable web host

This solution is essential to ensure that an e-commerce site can handle the increase in visitors and buyers. With a robust hosting platform in place, your site will be able to handle increased traffic without crashing or slowing down. The loading speed of a website is essential to retain customers and ensure a positive shopping experience. Along with a reliable hosting provider, having a scalable hosting solution means your site can grow with your business. As your traffic grows, you can easily add more resources to meet the additional demand. This allows you to keep your site running smoothly and avoid any potential disruption caused by high volume traffic spikes. - Tonika Bruce, Head of Nicely, Inc.

3. Provide alternative payment methods

One of the most frustrating things for motivated shoppers is reaching the checkout page and not being able to pay for the order. With multiple payment methods, and especially financing options, you'll be able to capture more sales that might otherwise turn into abandoned carts at the very last stage. Often this isn't the customer's fault either, as it could be a problem with your payment processor or their bank, but if they can use other payment methods, there's a better chance that he finds a way to complete his order with you instead of giving up and going with a competitor. - Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep Mattress