Product Optimisation | Load Speeds & Performance

Product Optimisation | Load Speeds & Performance

Why do I need to optimise my products?

LOAD TIMES AND PERFORMANCE CAN AFFECT CONVERSION RATES!

Fast loading / responsive products will offer a better user experience over slow loading / unresponsive products. Therefore, product optimisation should always be a consideration when creating new products, as the setup can have direct implications on both load times and performance. These affects can be exaggerated when the products are used in retail environments (eg on a kiosk) that may have poor internet connections and want to minimise customer waiting times - or on mobile / tablet devices that only have 3G / 4G connections.

Take a look at the statistics behind this!: How Page Load Times Affects Conversion Rates

Please be aware that this article will presume product setup knowledge and familiarity with the platform.

This article is primarily aimed at Fulfillers creating Blank products, although parts are still relevant for Virtual Products. If you are a Retailer / Brand / Self fulfiller looking to optimise artwork files, then please see our Academy course on Merchandising Your Products >>

How can I optimise my products?

There are 2 main contributing factors that have a direct impact on load times and performance;

  1. File formatting and file size of images uploaded against your product.
  2. Product Complexity and volume of features
The general rule is, the larger the files and more complex the product is, the more the browser has to load and process within the iframe. The smaller the file sizes, the better the load times as there is less data to process. Lets focus on each of these points;


1. FILE FORMATTING AND FILE SIZES
Contributing elements are images used as ASPECTS, MASKS, and PLACEHOLDERS. Therefore, each of these image files should be formatted based on the following recommended guidelines, and be compressed or optimised towards best performance. 

A) ASPECTS: These are used to represent the on-screen product preview. As such, they are loaded when the i-frame loads, so file size (in kb) and canvas size (in pixels) are very important factors. This becomes critical for products with multiple aspects and options eg a garment in multiple colours, or a storybook with multiple pages.

For an in depth look at Aspects, please see our User Guide >>

The recommended format for Aspect images is:
  1. 800x800 pixels
  2. 72dpi
  3. PNG or JPEG
  4. Under 1mb - Ideally less than 500 kb
 This formatting offers a good balance for performance and preview quality. Anything larger than this can lead to performance implications on mobile / tablet devices.
If you want to upload more elaborate images/lifestyle shots as a preview (which is recommended), then best thing to do is to amend the quality settings and/or compress them. Photoshop offers quality settings when saving jpegs that allows you to lower the preview quality and the file size. In most cases setting to 8-9 will reduce the file size without compromising preview quality.

Free software such as https://tinypng.com/ can also be used to compress image files. In most cases this will reduce the file size by 50-60%

Here is an example of an image being run through TinyPNG:







B) MASK FORMATTING: Aspect Masks can be used to control personalisation visibility in the preview. There are other areas on a product where masks can be uploaded with the intention of affecting print artwork. If not formatted correctly, this can lead to unnecessarily large files.

The recommended format for Aspect Masks is:
  1. 800x800 pixels
  2. 72dpi
  3. PNG only
  4. Black shape on transparent background
  5. Ideally under 100kb - tinyPNG.com can be used to compress these files.
The example below highlights the difference in file size that can occur if masks are used that don't conform to the recommended format. Here is a preview mask comparison in standard format vs coloured - although it's not a huge file it's still over 4x the size:



If you are utilising Custom Image Area masks or Print Masks to control the shape of user uploaded images / print artwork, then these masks need to be print resolution - so are typically much larger is size vs an Aspect Mask. In these instances, failing to conform to the formatting guidelines can significantly affect file size.

The recommended format for Custom Image Masks or Print Masks is:
  1. Print size in mm
  2. Print resolution (match the dpi of the print area)
  3. PNG only
  4. Black shape on transparent background
  5. Ideally under 500kb - tinyPNG.com can be used to compress these files.
Here we can see recommended format vs a poorly formatted mask to highlight how significant the file difference can potentially be:


 

C) PLACEHOLDER IMAGES: In some scenario's, placeholder images are used to achieve specific results on a product. Sometimes, these placeholder Images are needed for inclusion in the delivered artwork file when an order is placed - meaning that these are print resolution files and consequently have large file sizes.

The platform now has improved optimisation to cater for this automatically. Placeholder images added via the platform will automatically create a smaller version of the image for the purposes of the preview, whilst still maintaining the full resolution file for artwork generation. This avoids any negative performance hit on initial load times. 
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to recent IOS updates, compatibility checks have highlighted that IOS devices will not load design elements set as placeholders that are 2MB or greater

For general best practice, we recommend that you avoid using direct upload for placeholder images for purposes of delivering artwork unless strictly necessary - in which case the performance should be tested. The best alternatives would be to upload your artwork to Artwork menu against the Print Area.


2. PRODUCT COMPLEXITY & VOLUME OF FEATURES

Complicated product configurations can have performance implications and lead to products being unresponsive / 'laggy'. Usually, this is a result of a large volume of design elements and customisation options on a single product. The general Rule of Thumb is; more functionality = more to process. Don't add elements unnecessarily - keep products as simple as they can be based on what you want to offer. 

Generally a simpler, more guided user journey will lead to better conversion rates than products will a plethora of customisation options.

Things to consider are:

  • Volume of Text Areas
  • Volume of Image Areas
    • Volume of Placeholders
  • Volume of Colour Areas and any associated sync functionality / intricacy and size of custom masks
  • High volume of synchronised features.

The more interactive elements that you have, the more information there is to process when the end user personalises the product. The platform is feature rich, but it is important to control what features are used to ensure best performance and improve the user experience.

Note on Apps: Some products will require complex configurations that are unavoidable, eg a multi page story book with dynamic shuffle text personalisation on each page. In these scenarios it is important to test in multiple standard apps to ensure best performance.

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