Firstly, let's talk a little about what caching is.

It's a term banded around the internet quite often but ultimately what it comes down to is this:  Your browser (i.e. Chrome, Firefox) and the server which hosts the website, save files to be served up quickly at a future date.  This happens in a few different ways.

Browser caching

When Citrus-Lime eCommerce sends resources to the browser of your customers, it also sends pieces of data which allow the browser to save them.  Such resources include images, scripts and stylesheets. 

Then, when the customer visits the site again, instead of the server sending the file again, the browser asks "Has this file changed since your last visit?" and if the server responds with "No", the browser uses the saved file from the previous visit.  This vastly improves the load time of the website and it's particularly useful on pages which contain a lot of data (such as Find & Filter results pages). 

Citrus-Lime does not control Browser Cache.  This can be cleared using the functionality offered by the browser that you use.

Then there is Server Caching

Server caching is when a file which is used (or expected to be used) regularly is "built" ahead of time and saved conveniently for a later date.  This means a page which could take 10-15 seconds to load all of its resources actually takes more like 3-5 seconds, since all of the complicated calculations have been done ahead of time.

Server Cache is managed by Citrus-Lime. 

Server Cache Periods

We regenerate the cache on the Homepage, Find & Filter, and product pages every 60 seconds, if something has been updated on one of those pages.