[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/legendary-whitetails-boosts-site-performance-200\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/legendary-whitetails-boosts-site-performance-200\/","headline":"Legendary Whitetails Boosts Site Performance 200%","name":"Legendary Whitetails Boosts Site Performance 200%","description":"The Situation Founded in 1999, Legendary Whitetails is a family-owned retailer offering unique casual apparel, gifts and gear for whitetail...","datePublished":"2013-05-03","dateModified":"2018-10-24","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/#Person","name":"Hector Agosto","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Legendary Whitetails","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","url":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","width":522,"height":226}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/1200x1500-orangebuck-e1431525225949.jpg","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/1200x1500-orangebuck-e1431525225949.jpg","height":723,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/legendary-whitetails-boosts-site-performance-200\/","about":["News"],"wordCount":1006,"keywords":["News"],"articleBody":"The SituationFounded in 1999, Legendary Whitetails is a family-owned retailer offering unique casual apparel, gifts and gear for whitetail hunters and their families. While shoppers can place orders via the retailer\u2019s catalog, the company\u2019s web site is its primary order-taking vehicle. In fact, with no physical locations, Legendary Whitetails relies on its web site as its storefront. Consumers can choose from about 350 products represented by 4,000 unique SKUs on the site. January through September, the site attracts 60,000-70,000 visitors per month on average. During the holiday and hunting season \u2013 October through December \u2013 traffic spikes to more than 300,000 visitors per month.The ChallengeLegendary Whitetails is always seeking ways to improve the site experience because it knows this leaves a lasting impression on shoppers. In 2010, it replaced the legacy order management and web platform it had outgrown with the MICROS-Retail Open Commerce Platform. Before making the switch, the retailer had problems handling peak traffic and simultaneous site visitors. Through performance monitoring and shopper feedback, the company was aware that site performance was sluggish. According to Ryan Johnson, eCommerce Manager for Legendary Whitetails, \u201cWe can\u2019t afford being down for even a few hours during our peak season because it\u2019s such an important time for our company.\u201d Knowing it couldn\u2019t sustain the company\u2019s growth on its current platform, the retailer migrated to a more advanced ecommerce solution, and then sought a way to ensure optimal site performance.The GoalsLegendary Whitetails needed to meet three key requirements to support its objectives:Enhance site performance. The retailer couldn\u2019t afford to disappoint shoppers orlose online sales due to a sluggish site.Scale on demand. Legendary Whitetails needed to flawlessly handle traffic spikesassociated with holiday shopping and promotions.Maximize value of ecommerce investment. The company wanted to realize thefull value of its investment in the MICROS-Retail Open Commerce Platform platformby ensuring optimal site performance.Going with the Industry LeaderThe retailer contemplated paying for a load test to gauge site performance. Instead, it opted for the Akamai Dynamic Site Accelerator (DSA) Secure solution. \u201cWe went with Akamai DSA Secure because we know Akamai is the industry leader. Plus the choice allowed us to put our money toward a solution that immediately benefited our customers,\u201d explains Johnson. In spite of operating with a small IT department, Legendary Whitetails was quickly up and running on DSA Secure. \u201cWe were under pressure to go live quickly in time for the holiday season so we didn\u2019t lose sales,\u201d says Johnson. The retailer appreciated that integration between the MICROS and Akamai platforms was seamless. \u201cEverything went smoothly and we experienced no downtime,\u201d continues Johnson. Increasing Page Views and Conversion Rates Legendary Whitetails selected DSA Secure to deliver all of its dynamic content and images. And it realized tremendous benefits as a result. For one, it offloaded 72% of its dynamic content, resulting in overall site performance improvement of nearly 200% on average. It also accelerated the delivery of dynamic content by 180%. These improvements made it possible to support 40,000 site visitors and over 650,000 page views on Cyber Monday 2012 \u2013 the most traffic yet for the company. By reducing load on the retailer\u2019s servers, DSA Secure allowed shoppers to navigate through the site faster than before. The retailer experienced a 12% increase in page views while maintaining an 8-minute on-site average. \u201cShoppers are spending the same amount of time on our site but are engaging more with our brand. And the improved customer experience has without a doubt helped our conversion rates and boosted sales,\u201d says Johnson.Extracting Full Value from Marketing InvestmentsAccording to Johnson, Akamai helped Legendary Whitetails take full advantage of the sophisticated merchandising opportunities, content management system and great image serving capabilities enabled by the MICROS platform. \u201cWe mail millions of catalogs a year and run numerous promotions in an effort to drive traffic to our site. With Akamai in place, we can dream up any promotion, handle any amount of traffic, and see a full return on our marketing investments,\u201d concludes Johnson.About Legendary WhitetailsLegendary Whitetails\u00ae is proud to offer unique casual apparel, gifts and gear for whitetail hunters and their families. We live the hunting lifestyle ourselves, and you\u2019ll see it reflected in the details and in the high quality standards of all our products. At Legendary Whitetails\u00ae, we share your love for the outdoors. Our commitment to design unique merchandise that reflects your passion is equaled only by our resolve to provide quality and service that exceeds your expectations. Around here hunting is not a season, but a lifestyle. Visit us at www.deergear.com and join our HUGE hunting community on Facebook, Twitter @deergear, Google +, and community.deergear.com.About AkamaiAkamai\u00ae is the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere. At the core of the Company\u2019s solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform\u2122 providing extensive reach, coupled with unmatched reliability, security, visibility and expertise. Akamai removes the complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24\/7 consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud. To learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @ Akamai on Twitter."},{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Legendary Whitetail's Blog"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/legendary-whitetails-boosts-site-performance-200\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Legendary Whitetails Boosts Site Performance 200%"}}]}]