CDNetworks has rolled out automated cloud image optimization and integrated CDN for ecommerce websites that rely on high quality product images to engage and entice customers.
CDNetworks Cloud Image Optimization allows image-intensive websites to automatically and dynamically optimize image performance, enabling a fast and seamless user experience regardless of whether they are accessing the website via desktop, tablet, or mobile phone.
North American e-retailer Blinds to Go has used CDNetworks Dynamic Web Acceleration and Cloud Image Optimization to decrease image download times and accelerate website speeds, all of which contribute to a positive shopping experience and translate into higher conversion rates. High quality images are crucial for retailers because they allow customers to see product details and usage scenarios in vivid detail. Deploying these high resolution images is necessary but also slows a website down, which can in turn cause shoppers to become disinterested and look elsewhere.
After adopting CDNetworks cloud image optimization, Blinds to Go saw immediate gains in website speeds overall and an added 50 to 80 percent reduction in download speed on desktops and mobile, in particular.
“We realize the importance of a good user experience,” said Govind Kanara, IT Project Leader, Blinds to Go. “Our online customers not only want a clear picture of the product, they also want an efficient experience with the website. Our two-pronged approach of employing a CDN and optimizing images enhances the user experience, thus increasing conversions from browsing to purchasing.”
Because Cloud Image Optimization is integrated with CDNetworks, no engineering is required and images can be stored in a local data center or in CDNetworks’ Cloud Storage. It features scalability, allowing users to adjust the height and width parameters of a given image, cropping functions to excise excess image data, and a quality parameter that allows users to specify image quality. Face detection cropping and entropy cropping respectively crop out image data around faces and interesting areas in order to reduce image size without sacrificing important visual information.  The images can also be watermarked with an image and alpha value, rotated, sharpened, filtered, and auto-formatted, providing a highly customizable approach to image optimization, which can serve a diverse array of image-intensive websites and e-retailers.
Cloud Image Optimization supports jpeg, png. webp, gif, tiff, and bnp image formats.