A member of our forum has added an excellent post on how to reduce bandwidth by optimizing product images and website code.

Here's the link:

Optimizing Images and Code To Reduce Bandwidth Forum Post

I use this tool to check my store's load time:
Site Report Card

This is something that every merchant should be cognizant of. Slow load times can kill your sales conversion rate.

Thanks to Modular Merchant for making this great post.

Hosted Cart Solutions vs. Do-It- Yourself (DIY) Shopping Carts

If you planning on launching an online store, you’ll need a shopping cart. When it comes to shopping cart solutions, you basically have two choices; a hosted shopping cart solution or using a do-it-yourself solution. How do you decide which type of solution to use for your online store? Here’s some pointers.

Hosted cart solutions provided you with everything you need to open an online store (minus a merchant account). This includes hosting, software, updated and security. Examples of hosted shopping carts include the following:

Modular Merchant offers a scalable hosted shopping cart solution and a flexible approach to serve merchant’s needs.

Here is a listing of some of Modular Merchant’s features:

Modular Merchant's Feature Chart (PDF)