New testing by Zynovo, a third party Magento system integrator has revealed that Enterprise Edition 1.14.1 is Magento’s fastest, most CPU efficient version to date. The new version of Magento Enterprise was designed to deliver a faster and better shopping experience to customers, whilst at the same time allowing merchants to keep control over the cost of operations. Here we take a look at some of its key site performance improvements.

Better application server response times

The benchmark testing, which was carried out by Zynovo revealed that Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14.1 provides much better server response times compared to earlier versions of the software. Tests showed a 38-44% faster homepage, 48% faster simple product pages and 27-47% faster checkout pages.

With speed playing such a crucial role in user experience and SEO, it’s good to know that Enterprise Edition 1.14.1 is one fast-loading piece of software.

The faster application server response times allow merchants to provide customers with a faster shopping experience. The quicker it is for customers to buy products online, the more likely they are to do so, thus improving conversion rates and sales.

The fact that 47% of consumers expect an eCommerce page to load in two second or less and 40% of shoppers will wait no more than three second before abandoning a site, proves that speed matters. Believe it or not, just a 1 second improvement in page response times can increase conversions by 7%!

Superior application server CPU utilisation

Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14.1 was also found to provide superior application server CPU utilisation compared to earlier versions. The tests revealed that it was 43% lower than EE 1.14.0, 37% lower than EE 1.13.1 and 39% lower than EE 1.12.1.

The improved CPU utilisation can help to save merchants money, as it means they can handle a greater volume of web traffic using their current hosting infrastructure, preventing the need for expensive upgrades.

Another benefit is that they have more options and flexibility when it comes to planning their on-going site infrastructure needs.

By utilising Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14.1 and PHP 5.5 merchants can deliver a better shopping experience to customers.

Best performing PHP version

Finally, the tests showed that PHP 5.5 is the best performing PHP version on Enterprise Edition 1.14.1. The tests found that PHP 5.5 with OPcache has 34-53% faster application response times than earlier versions of PHP without OPcache. They also found that PHP 5.5 with OPcache has over a 47% lower application server CPU utilisation than all other versions of PHP.

PHP improvements have been linked to increasing conversion rates, as it allows merchants to offer customers better site performance. Merchants can also benefit from hosting infrastructure cost savings by upgrading from earlier versions of PHP.

By taking advantage of the site performance improvements provided by Enterprise 1.14.1 and PHP 5.5, merchants can continue to offer optimal shopping experiences that meet their customers’ needs and requirements. In turn, merchants can expect to see increases in conversions, which ultimately generate more profit for their businesses.

Conclusion

Today online shoppers have increasingly high expectations of eCommerce websites, therefore making it essential that merchants do everything they can to offer the best possible user experience.

The easiest way for Magento merchants to do this is to upgrade to the latest version of Enterprise. This is something our team of Magento experts are more than happy to help you with. Simply get in touch to find out more about the services we offer.