Dive Brief:

• The Container Store is now using Yottaa’s software-as-a-service platform to increase performance and security of its website as the brick-and-mortar storage and organization solutions retailer continues to build up its e-commerce presence and exploit mobile shopping opportunities.

• The Container Store recently began an effort to optimize web performance and overall experience for online shoppers with an eye toward significantly increasing revenue from the desktop, tablet and mobile channels. As part of this initiative, the retailer also wanted to strengthen its web security posture.

• Yottaa’s eCommerce acceleration platform has several component offerings to help meet those needs, including InstantON, which speeds up loading time for site pages and content; Application Sequencing for managing third party scripts and optimizing images in response to visitor scrolling and clicking behavior; and Adaptive CDN, which adds patented software to traditional delivery architectures enabling real-time management, more efficient load balancing and traffic routing.

Dive Insight:

The companies said The Container Store evaluated multiple web acceleration offerings on the basis of in-depth performance benchmark testing before selecting Yottaa, and that web performance across desktop, tablet and mobile devices has dramatically improved since its platform was put to work.

Website performance can be especially problematic issuing when access sites via mobile devices, even when accessing sites designed for those devices, as Yottaa itself has pointed out in Retail Dive a few years ago. If retailers want to keep up with the online and mobile expectations of consumers, and make it as easy as possible for them to shop and close transactions once they have chosen to visit a retailer's e-commerce site, boosting site and page performance for any online shopper using any device is arguably one of the best investments they can make.

Things have not gone tremendously well for The Container Store in recent years, as it went public a few years ago just as the brick-and-mortar business started to sink a little deeper into a funk amid the rise of e-commerce. The retailer reported another sluggish quarter last month, and like many store operators has been staking its future on its ability to delivery omnichannel shopping experiences. Speeding up website performance may not solve all of The Container Store's challenges, but if it can help avoid giving online shoppers a reason to leave the site because it's too slow, that's at least a step in the right direction.

Website optimization is also a particular set of skills that many other brick-and-mortar players trying up their online game might be interested in right now. There are only so many seconds or half-second web sites can shave off of their loading times, but it only takes a second or two for a shopper to decide to turn elsewhere.