eCommerce Site optimizations?

[OCS]

Since we're running an online eCommerce developing company and hosting our managed clients on our WHM VPS, I would like to know what the most optimal settings are in regards to eCommerce stores.
In the past we experienced many problems with e.g. never ending sessions which caused problems with visitors and their carts, admins and order ID's.
I'm just looking for some idea's, suggestions and other user experience on this topic.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello @OCS,

Are you using a specific application for your stores (e.g. WordPress) or is this a script that's developed in-house?

Thank you.

 

[Anupam SG]

There are no single "optimal" settings for multiple eCommerce systems. The requirements of each application are different, e.g. Magento has a completely different set of requirements to run properly compared to Opencart or Wordpress. Even within these ecosystems, the requirements depend on number of products, customers, traffic etc. A WordPress store with 10 products is different from a WordPress store with 1000 products.

The only two options that can be recommended from cPanel/WHM perspective are

1. Enable content compression for all content served from the server. Users will need to enable it from their respective cPanel accounts.
2. Enable mod_pagespeed if you're using EasyApache. Before enabling it, suggest you to read about it since it can have some unexpected results:

modpagespeed.com/doc/

Caching of frequently used Database queries, Indexing & optimization of Databases is something that can be done at the user level, as so can be numerous different optimizations at application level.

 

[OCS]

Hello @OCS,

Are you using a specific application for your stores (e.g. WordPress) or is this a script that's developed in-house?

Thank you.

We're mainly working with the OpenCart platform.
I'm specifically interested in sessions for carts and user logins.

Like I said, we experienced some issues in the past with visitors and their carts. Sessions never seemed to be ending as I can login to my user account and come back 2 days later and still be logged in.
Same with carts.. Imo I think carts should be emptied after X time and never keep a users cart alive forever..

I know this is somewhat done in the php.ini settings with cookies and lifetime and session_delimiter. I just can't seem to find the ideal settings.

 

[Anupam SG]

The issues mentioned by you are very specific to Opencart. There is nothing in Cpanel/WHM which can tell the Opencart code to behave in a specific way. I know this because I have worked extensively with/on Opencart users in the last 5 years.

The cart is stored for Opencart for 1 hour before it is cleared, unless there has been a modification done to system/library/cart/cart.php file, either by a 3rd party module or through code change.

Sessions are dependant on unlimited number of factors, including how your browser is remembering cookies + there are php.ini entries in Opencart which can extend a session lifetime to eternity.

These issues are something a person familiar with Opencart will be able to address better after looking at your code.