Hosting

WordPress based sites do run quickly yet some WooCommerce platforms struggle on shared hosting environments. When operating a fairly small or simple web shop shared hosting can be effective and is certain a way to manage the overall costs of your ecommerce presence. In cases where the business is looking to promote more than 200 products or stock those with configurable options (known as variations in WooCommerce) a dedicated server environment is the recommendation.

Technologies

WordPress: WooCommerce is a plugin for the most popular CMS platform in the world:- WordPress. Keeping WordPress up to date is extremely important as being the most popular Open Source platform in the world brings with it a downside: public security vulnerabilities. WordPress as an organisation are quick to patch security issues, the issue faced by the business hosting a shop on WooCommerce is that all elements of the build must be kept as up to date as possible. This is essential across all fore Wordpress backend CMS functions, plugins and asscoaited systems of the technology.

PHP Version: WordPress use PHP behind the core CMS platform and offer satisfactory support for the latest technology. Curently WordPress offers official support for PHP 7.2 enabling all of the security benefits and speed that PHP 7.2 has to offer. It is inadvisable to upgrade in a production environment and as such the team of Wordpress Developers at Webshop Consulting conduct these upgrades in a testing or staging environment to iron out issues prior to deployment into production.

Due to the nature of WordPress being a plugin driven platform it is not always the case that every plugin supports the latest version of WordPress straight away. Incompatible plugins can cause the site to break and customers not be able to place or complete orders. The testing processes in place at Webshop Consulting will ensure a reduction in risk for the necessary upgrade.

Caching: Installation of full page caching is key to the effective operation of a WooCommerce store. Properly configured, cashing will dramatically increase the operational speed of your web-store. We have seen an improvement of WooCommerce page load speed from 10-11 seconds (!) reduced to just 1.8 seconds after installation and configuration of a caching module in the appropriate fashion.

SSL Encryption: Secure Socket Layer Encryption provides the users of your ecommerce site with the fundamental level of security required when making online transactions. The implementation of an SSL certificate ensures the encryption of the transactional data passing through your ecommerce system to keep your users' personal data as secure as possible. The commonly recognised green padlock in the URL address bar prove your site is secure and gives your users that piece of mind that their personal data and credit card information is transmitted in line with contemporary security standards. This level of encryption is also a starting point for ensure compliance with the GDPR regulations introduced in May 2018 across Europe and apply to any organisation, regardless of where they are based who wishes to trade with companies and individuals based in the EU.

Search Engine Optimisation is significantly damaged for ecommerce shops not utlising SSL - or indeed those who have an SSL Certificate installed which is damaged or not fit for purpose and is therefore not functioning appropriately - a major misstep for any retailer or business selling its products or services online. Appropriate certificates can be purchased for as little as £79.99 and our Project managers will ensure that the best solution to meet your requirements is sourced and implemented effectively.

Database: MySQL is the database where all your customers and orders will be stored. WooCommerce requires at least MySQL version 5.6, but does offer support for the latest version 5.7.

MySQL: The MySQL source code is open source & written in C and C++ and is compatible with all major operating systems. Employed across a range of business environments MySQL competes with the likes of Microsoft's SQL Server and Oracle and offers systems such as OpenCart a highly desirable level of stability and flexibility.

MariaDB: Since MariaDB is a branch of MySQL. The database structure and indexes of MariaDB are identical to MySQL. This allows you to switch from MySQL to MariaDB without having to alter your applications since the data and data structures will not need to change. MariaDB does however offers some feature differences which may be useful within certain implementations.

For more information on the technical environments employed by Webshop Consulting or to discuss upgrade projects which your existing system requires please contact the technical project management team here who will be happy to discuss your project requirements.