A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is a network of geographically distributed servers that store and deliver the content of your online store from the location closest to your customers. Imagine warehouses spread all over the world: rather than shipping all your products from a single central warehouse, you store your goods in several regional warehouses to speed up deliveries.
For your e-commerce site, this technology considerably improves page loading speed, optimizes conversions and boosts customer satisfaction. Every second saved in loading time can have a direct impact on your sales and search engine rankings.
Definition of a CDN
A CDN works like a network of “mirrors” of your website, strategically installed in different parts of the world. When a Parisian customer visits your online store, the content is delivered from a European server rather than from your main server, perhaps in the USA or Asia.
This geographical proximity transforms the browsing experience. Your product images load instantly, your pages are displayed without delay, and your customers can navigate smoothly through your catalog. The CDN automatically stores your static content such as images, style sheets and scripts on its globally distributed servers.
How does a CDN work for your online store?
The principle is simple but effective. When you activate a CDN on your e-commerce site, it automatically analyzes and copies your content to its edge servers. These servers, located in data centers close to your customers, become the new distribution points for your content.
The CDN also intelligently manages the caching of your content. Your product sheets, images and resources are temporarily stored on these regional servers, reducing the load on your origin server and considerably speeding up display for all your visitors.
The concrete benefits of a CDN for e-commerce
Improved conversions and SEO
The impact of a CDN on your sales is measurable and immediate. Studies show that a 0.1-second improvement in loading time can increase your conversions by 8.4%. For a store generating 1,000 orders a month, that’s potentially 84 extra sales every month.
Google includes loading speed in its ranking criteria, particularly since the introduction of Core Web Vitals. A site optimized by a CDN naturally improves its position in search results, generating more organic traffic and reducing your customer acquisition costs.
Peak traffic management
During events such as Black Friday or sales, your site experiences significant traffic peaks that can slow it down or render it inaccessible. The CDN automatically distributes this load across its network of servers, maintaining your performance even during your most critical periods.
This stability protects your revenues at crucial times in your business. While a competitor’s site may crash under load, yours continues to perform flawlessly, capturing disappointed customers from the competition.
Product image optimization
Modern CDNs automatically optimize your product images by converting them to high-performance formats such as WebP or AVIF. This intelligent compression reduces the size of your files by up to 80% without any visible loss of quality, drastically speeding up the display of your catalogs.
For a fashion boutique with thousands of product photos, this optimization transforms the browsing experience. Your customers can quickly browse your catalog, compare items and finalize their purchases without the frustration of loading times.
The main CDN providers in 2025
Cloudflare dominates the market with over 40% share, and offers a generous free plan including unlimited CDN and basic protection. Its €20/month Pro package adds image optimization and an advanced firewall, perfect for growing stores.
AWS CloudFront makes its mark in the enterprise environment with deep integration to Amazon services. Google Cloud CDN leverages Google’s global infrastructure for exceptional performance, particularly in Asia-Pacific.
For tight budgets, BunnyCDN democratizes access, with rates starting at 0.01 euro per gigabyte and no minimum charge, enabling small stores to benefit from this premium technology.
How to integrate a CDN into your e-commerce site
CDN integration on PrestaShop is done natively via the advanced performance settings. Simply add the URL of your CDN in the “Media server” field to automatically activate the distribution of your static content.
For WordPress and WooCommerce, free plugins like CDN Enabler simplify installation in just a few clicks. The official Cloudflare plugin offers the most advanced integration with e-commerce-specific optimizations.
Initial configuration usually takes 15 to 30 minutes. Results are immediately visible, with speed improvements often spectacular within the first hour of activation.