WooCommerce has several characteristics that contribute to its success as an eCommerce platform, but one of the most crucial is its cache.
A cache is a method of storing data so that it may be rapidly and readily retrieved. When a website has a cache, it can load quicker since the data is already saved and ready to be used.
The official WooCommerce plugin has been downloaded 161,908,802 times and counting from WordPress.org. WooCommerce is used by 5,106,506 active websites.
WooCommerce has its own cache, known as the object cache. The object cache saves data in memory so that it may be rapidly retrieved.
The object cache differs from other caches in that it may store data for both your website’s front end and back end. This implies that your website will load quicker for both logged-in and non-logged-in users.
What Is Caching, Exactly?
Simply put, caching is when a website is “saved,” making it faster for the user to load than if every part of the page had to be loaded individually.
When a website is cached, its assets are already loaded and may be provided more quickly than if the page had to be “built” each time it was requested.
What Effect Does Cache Have on WooCommerce?
Best cache for WooCommerce such as WP Rocket do not cache logged-in users by default, but what happens when one does cache logged-in users and the site is not configured properly?
Has anyone come across any of these?
- Customers seeing the account data of other customers?
- Customers with unidentified products in their shopping carts who insist they did not add them?
- Customers expressing dissatisfaction with seeing someone else’s address at the checkout?
- Then one has WooCommerce caching configured improperly!
However, it is critical to understand the risks involved.
- Customers are losing faith.
- Potential data security issues
- It is the obligation of the store owner to guarantee that the store is safe and that all legal compliances are followed.
Why is It Necessary to Explicitly Configure WooCommerce Caching?
When a website caches material, it is no longer dynamic; the content is preserved and subsequently provided to visitors in exactly the same way each and every time.
This implies that caching their checkout page will never show the consumer their proper shopping basket.
WooCommerce is dynamic, and one must guarantee that dynamic pages are not cached.
How Does One Enable WooCommerce Caching?
When using the best cache for WooCommerce, like W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, or WP Fastest Cache, users need to perform the following:
Step 1: Disable the caching plugin for WooCommerce pages.
Excluding pages is rather simple with most WooCommerce cache plugins; simply go to your caching plugin settings, look for the exclude option, and exclude the following pages:
- Cart
- Checkout
- My Account
- Products
The examples above are the major dynamic pages provided by WooCommerce, where the content varies depending on who is viewing the page.
Nothing has to be done if WP Rocket is used (WP Rocket excludes all WooCommerce pages by default).
Furthermore, since WooCommerce 1.4.2, WooCommerce has set the DONOTCACHEPAGE constant, which implies that theoretically, the pages do not need to be excluded from your caching solution.
However, if the caching plugin does not support the DONOTCACHEPAGE constant, it must be excluded. Most cache plugins, if they have them, clearly state WooCommerce compatibility.
Step 2: Disable caching for WooCommerce sessions.
This step will differ based on the WooCommerce caching plugin used; most caching plugins do not include database caching.
However, some do, and in those cases, “_wc session_” must be excluded from caching.
This is done automatically in W3 Total Cache and can be accessed under wp-admin > Performance > Database Cache:
Step 3: Disable WooCommerce cookie caching.
Has one ever added some products to the cart to test the cache, then cleared the cart, reloaded the page, and the goods were still in the cart?
Not only is it upsetting and perplexing for users, but it also breeds suspicion on the site, and potential buyers will eventually abandon it.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution: prevent WooCommerce cookies from being cached.
There are now four WooCommerce cookies that should be excluded from the cache:
- WooCommerce cart hash — Handles the helpers that decide whether the cart should be updated or refreshed. It is critical to exclude things from caching in order for the cart to represent the proper items.
- WooCommerce items in cart — Another utility that assists WooCommerce in determining what data should be in the cart. It is critical to exclude things from caching in order for the cart to represent the proper items.
- WordPress WooCommerce session — This cookie holds a unique code for the visitor, assigned to each customer, and it assists WooCommerce in finding the shopping cart data for each customer in the database. It is critical that you remove this from the shopping basket once again.
- WooCommerce recently viewed — This cooking powers the recently viewed widget, and once again, this cooking must be excluded from caching to guarantee the recently viewed widget appears correctly for each and every visitor.
Whether or not to minify
WooCommerce itself advises against minifying JavaScript. But if one doesn’t minify, they miss out on possible performance gains.
Instead, we advise continuing to minify JavaScript while leaving the WooCommerce scripts out of the process.
The Recommended WordPress Caching Plugins for WooCommerce
- WP Rocket: This is a powerful caching plugin that offers easy-to-use features like page caching, browser caching, and lazy loading to improve website speed and performance.
- Cache Enabler: This is a lightweight caching plugin that offers simple and effective page caching for your WooCommerce site. It’s designed for faster loading times and improved website performance.
- WP Fastest Cache: This plugin is another popular choice that offers a variety of caching options, including minification, GZIP compression, and browser caching, to help speed up your WooCommerce site.
- W3 Total Cache: This plugin is one of the most popular and feature-rich caching plugins available. It offers a variety of caching methods, including page caching, object caching, and database caching, and is designed to optimize the performance of WooCommerce sites.
- WP Super Cache: This caching plugin is designed to generate static HTML files for your WooCommerce site, which are served to visitors instead of the heavier PHP scripts. It offers easy configuration options and can help reduce the load on your web server.
- Autoptimize: This plugin optimizes your website’s HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files for faster load times. It also offers options for image optimization and lazy loading.
- NitroPack: This is a premium caching and optimization plugin that uses artificial intelligence to optimize your website for speed and performance. It includes features like image compression, lazy loading, and content delivery network (CDN) integration.
- Hummingbird: This is a comprehensive caching and optimization plugin that includes features like page caching, browser caching, GZIP compression, and image optimization. It also includes a range of website analysis and monitoring tools.
- Swift Performance Lite: This caching plugin offers a range of performance optimization features, including image optimization, database optimization, and lazy loading. It’s designed to be user-friendly and easy to set up.
The best load speeds that today’s users and search engines demand are provided by cache plugins, so online businesses should absolutely utilize them on WooCommerce websites.
Conclusion
The rationale for caching the WooCommerce website is straightforward. However, the mechanisms behind such caching are frequently very complex for the ordinary WordPress user.
As a result, if one looks into the settings of a WooCommerce caching plugin, one might not know how to tell if it’s any good.
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