Count the expensive dimensions, not only products
Variations, attributes, term relationships, custom fields, languages and price lists often matter more than the headline product count. A catalog of 20,000 simple products can be easier than a smaller catalog with hundreds of variations and layered business rules.
Search and filtering deserve their own architecture
Complex faceted filters can generate expensive database work. Measure query shape, indexes and cacheability. For very demanding catalogs, a dedicated search/indexing layer may be justified—but only after profiling.
Imports should be incremental
Rebuilding every product on every ERP sync wastes resources and increases lock contention. Use stable external identifiers, change timestamps or event-based updates so only changed records are processed.
Administrative performance is part of the system
Catalog teams spend time in product lists, bulk actions and imports. A storefront benchmark can look healthy while wp-admin becomes unusable. Include editorial and operational tasks in performance testing.
- Profile catalog queries with realistic filters
- Measure variation/metadata volume
- Use incremental synchronization
- Avoid unnecessary full re-indexing
- Test wp-admin operations
- Plan cache invalidation deliberately