How to stop CX plug-ins killing your site’s performance on Black Friday

By Deri Jones, CEO, Tribe (formerly Scivism)

In a universe of commoditised products, experience is the final frontier for ecommerce. Customers want to experience personalised choices, AI-driven advice and to see what that product looks like in their front room before they splurge on a Black Friday bargain.

The most cost-effective way to achieve a diverse and innovative spread of content is through third-party plugins – but to what extent can you trust someone else’s code? And what happens when it goes wrong during peak trading?

Unfortunately, when it comes to plugins it’s not simply a case of integrate and forget. You can do that, but it would be very unwise indeed. As with any software, third-party solutions will most likely be updated, unsupported, and discontinued at some point during their lifetime and so they need careful ongoing management.

Even internet giants like Facebook frequently change their code and this means retailers’ web engineers need to go into the code and “re-hook” all of the integrations. It’s then necessary to thoroughly test how the plugin affects website performance and to ensure the updated version doesn’t trigger any unforeseen faults.

So, what’s actually at stake and what can go wrong? Here’s an inexhaustive run through the four top risks retailers expose themselves to when using third-party plugins.

1 Content control

By using third-party plugins, a retailer is effectively relinquishing control over how the script functions and how content is displayed on their website. Initially this may not be such a big deal as experienced retailers will go into this relationship with eyes wide open, carrying out due diligence. That’s not to say errors won’t be introduced as and when the app vendor updates their code, catching the retailer off guard.

2 Script delivery

One of the most efficient ways to deliver a plugin is to use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) or a high-performance server. Sometimes, however, vendors use different HTTP header values. Most customers won’t even notice these headers, but it is not uncommon to find that websites are slowed down or broken because of a delivery issue from third-party servers.

3 Cross domain issues

It’s quite possible for some shoppers to have browser security settings that block retail websites from downloading and displaying content from third-party plugins. This is no accident because cross-domain scripts and content are one of the common causes of web security breaches.

4 Plugin outages

Yes, plugin outages tend to be increasingly rare, but they still happen and when a customer is denied useful functionality only the most IT savvy will blame the third-party. More often than not, it’s the retailer’s hard-earned brand equity that is tarnished.

The key takeaway from all this certainly isn’t “don’t use third-party plugins”. Consumers want and need slick functionality that enriches and speeds up their path to purchase. Plugins are an essential ingredient in elevating customer experience and ensuring customers keep coming back. To deny them delightful plugin-driven content would be a massive own goal.

The point is that retailers are best advised to act with proportionate caution when integrating other people’s code into their e-commerce platform and subject it, along with the rest of their website, to a rigorous and ongoing testing regime.

It makes great sense to carry out a plugin audit across your all your e-commerce platforms to determine your level of exposure. Once you’ve done this, you can work systematically through your list, testing and addressing any issues. Return to your audit regularly and keep it up to date.

This regime should include testing all aspects from a customer’s view during the length of the buying journey. All too often retailers use unrealistic customer pathways when testing their websites. They routinely use entry points and links that are inaccessible to the public, effectively invalidating their testing regime. They also skew their test results by ignoring website customisation and personalisation – yes, they ignore plugins! 

When it comes to effective testing, realism is the key; recreating realistic end-to-end journeys including drop-off ratios, using real data from real events in their testing. There are lots of performance metrics out there, but customer experience should always be the number one goal for any retailer and plugins should be subjected to just the same level of testing, if not more.