How to Speed Up Your Shopify Store for Better Performance?

Table of Contents

• Why is Your Shopify Store Slow? Factors Affecting Performance
• How to Check Your Shopify Store Performance & Speed?
• Best Ways to Improve Shopify Store Performance & Speed
• Shopify Store Performance Case Study: Speed Optimisation for Australian Clothing Store
• Conclusion
• How WP Creative Helps You Improve Shopify Store Performance & Speed?

Let’s be clear. Website speed is crucial for anyone running a website or an eCommerce store. No one waits more than two seconds for your website to load. If your site doesn’t load, they’ll leave. Period.

Most people use Shopify because it’s easy and no-code. But the mistake they make is ignoring performance. They build a nice-looking store but don’t think about speed. And when the speed drops, the sales drop too. Simple as that.

Since I have been developing websites for a living, I get this question all the time: “How do we improve our Shopify store performance?” Especially for stores using the pre-built themes or those with heavy app integrations.

And on a regular basis I am seeing the queries increasing all the time. That’s exactly why I made this article.

I’ve listed every tip I usually share with clients. If you follow this checklist properly, your site speed will improve gradually, especially if it is on Shopify.

I’ve also mentioned what parameters to focus on. Things like ideal KPIs, what to compress, and where to clean up and what to discard.

Follow the basics of Shopify speed optimisation, and your store will perform better by itself.

Why is Your Shopify Store Slow? Factors Affecting Performance

Before we start with the optimisation tips, it’s important to understand why the Shopify store becomes slow. There are many factors that can cause this issue. These are:

1. Unoptimised Images

One of the first things that slows down a Shopify store is images that are too large or not compressed. If you’re uploading high-resolution images without resizing them, your site will take longer to load. Always make sure your images are properly optimised before adding them to your store.

2. Too Many Heavy Apps

Sometimes you install multiple apps to test things out, but forget to remove them later. Each app adds scripts that keep running in the background. Even if you’re not actively using an app, it might still affect your store’s performance.

3. Theme and Customisation Issues

The theme you’re using might be heavy by default, or maybe you’ve added customisations that aren’t done properly. If the code is messy or bloated, it affects how fast your store loads. You might not notice it right away, but it builds up over time and slows everything down.

4. Outdated or Bad Code Structure

Sometimes the code used in the theme or apps is outdated or poorly structured. This creates a lot of unnecessary processing in the background, and browsers take longer to handle it. If your site feels slow even after you’ve optimised images and apps, it could be the underlying code causing issues.

5. Cache Is Not the Issue (Usually)

You might think caching is the problem, but Shopify already uses server-level caching on all its stores. So unless you’re using a third-party CDN wrong or loading external scripts, caching isn’t usually the issue on Shopify.

6. Content and Plan Mismatch

Another thing that slows down your store is the content setup and the Shopify plan you’re on. If your store has a lot of traffic or heavy content and you’re still using a basic plan, it might be time to upgrade. Also, old content structures or outdated methods can create unnecessary delays in page load.

7. Too Many Third-Party Scripts

This is a big one. Tools like live chat, pop-ups, tracking tools, or other third-party features all run scripts in the background. If these scripts are loaded in the header, they delay the rest of the site from loading. The browser prioritises those scripts before showing your actual content. This slows down the entire user experience.

8. Too Many Requests Are Being Made to the Server

Another reason your Shopify store might be slow is that too many requests are being sent to the server. This often happens when you have auto-scripting or automated processes running in the background, like inventory syncing or third-party integrations. But it can also be caused by problems you’re not aware of.

Sometimes, a website might be hacked or misused in a way that keeps sending repeated requests to the server. When there’s a flood of these requests, the server gets overwhelmed and your website slows down or fails to load properly.

Read More: WooCommerce vs Shopify

How to Check Your Shopify Store Performance & Speed?

Let’s explore some ways to measure the performance of your Shopify store and determine if it is performing well or needs improvement. There are several tools you can use to check key metrics, including the ones provided by Google for performance optimisation. Let’s go over them quickly. To start, you can use the tools listed below:

Pingdom

Pingdom is one of the oldest tools available on the market. It is simple to use and measures your website’s performance, including performance grade, total site size, and the time it takes to load the page, which is the number of seconds it takes for the server to respond. Additionally, it highlights poor web vitals such as First Input Delay (FID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These metrics help you understand what needs improvement on your website. Pingdom also provides recommendations that you can use to directly enhance your site’s performance.

Pingdom provides a comprehensive analysis of your entire website, identifying which images, scripts, data, or graphs are taking up excessive space and affecting the loading time. All this data is clearly shared with users, allowing them to pinpoint areas or assets that are impacting speed and how they can be improved.

At the same time, Pingdom also provides suggestions or recommendations directly related to the server side or the website’s backend, which help reduce the number of requests being made to the server. By following these recommendations properly, the website can regain its speed and improve the overall quality and speed of the page.

Read More: Convert Shopify Theme to WordPress

GTMetrix

Next, we have GTMetrix. GTMetrix is one of the most reputable speed-checking platforms available online. It evaluates websites based on its own parameters, including the structure of the website and the grade it assigns. That’s the first aspect. Additionally, it checks for Core Web Vitals, which include CLS, LCP, and Time-to-First-Byte (TTFB). These are the basic parameters it uses to assess any website, and the grade is usually A, B, C, or D, depending on the total score the website has achieved. A score within the range of 90 to 100 is considered very good. A score between 80 and 90 would be a B grade, and anything below 80 is usually not recommended because it indicates a slow website.

GTmetrix also highlights the top issues on your website with different ratings, indicating whether the issue priority is low, medium, or high. This allows you to directly address the necessary actions. You can view the screen to see detailed page information and the issues with varying priorities, such as whether a CDN needs to be included, if the payload is excessive, if the DOM size is too large or small, and how these issues should be resolved. These are some of the aspects it typically evaluates.

Another important point about GTMetrix is that you can actually see the browser timing. When you select a browser for testing the website, you can view the specific browser used, the total time it took, and the KPIs, including core web vitals such as First Paint, DOM Load, Time to First Byte, and the total duration of the website’s load time. These insights allow you to optimise the website in real-time to ensure it performs well across different browsers.

Read More: How to Set Up Shopify Order Tracking for Australian Customers

Best Ways to Improve Shopify Store Performance & Speed

Let’s learn how we can improve Shopify site speed with simple steps below.

1. Use a Lightweight Theme

First, you will need to go to the Shopify store and select a theme that you think works best for you. Once the theme is installed on your website, you will need to test the performance of the store. Ensure that you already have the necessary assets, such as product listings and images, available on the website so that you can thoroughly check the theme’s performance.

2. Compress and Resize Images

Shopify, by default, has an image resizer that you can use to resize images. You can use this tool directly for your images on Shopify, such as product images, banners, or anything else that you want to add to your Shopify store. Everything can be resized directly using this particular image resizer. If you don’t want to use that, there are many other tools available that can help you resize images effectively.

3. Minimise Number of Apps

This one is quite obvious. If you have numerous apps or plan to use many apps on your Shopify store, avoid doing so. Minimise the number of apps you use, as this will automatically enhance your page performance by reducing the number of scripts running in the background. Instead, if you need a specific feature, try to find something pre-built within the Shopify framework.

4. Use Shopify’s Built-In Features First

Shopify offers numerous pre-built features that you can directly use, such as SEO tools and analytics and reporting features available within Shopify. Product reviews are provided by default within the framework. Additionally, Shopify offers customer emails, which cannot be used for email marketing, but it’s another feature available to users. Furthermore, shipping and delivery options are integrated, and blog management is also available by default in Shopify, eliminating the need to create a separate CMS framework. These are some of the features that Shopify offers by default, so you do not have to rely on additional apps to use them.

Pre-built Shopify features that you can use are:

• Discounts & Promotions
• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Shopify Email
• Shipping & Delivery Settings
• Product Variants & Inventory Management

5. Defer Unused JavaScript

An important aspect that helps improve Shopify store performance is deferring JavaScript. Many apps often run in the background that you don’t necessarily need immediately. Most of these involve scripting or JavaScript. Identify those scripts that aren’t essential at the initial loading of the website and defer them until they are needed. For example, if you have multiple scripts but only need one, such as the main theme.js, to load first, defer the others and prioritise this script at the very top.

<script src="https://cdn.reviewsapp.com/widget.js"></script>

<script src="https://cdn.livechat.com/chat.js"></script>

<script src="main-theme.js"></script>

You will change these to:

<script src="main-theme.js"></script>

<!-- Defer unused scripts -->

<script src="https://cdn.reviewsapp.com/widget.js" defer></script>

<script src="https://cdn.livechat.com/chat.js" defer></script>

This way the deferred scripts will only load when the website has essentially loaded, improving performance and reducing bottlenecks.

6. Lazy Load Images and Videos

Another important point to improve the performance of the Shopify store is to add lazy loading to images and videos. So this can be done usually by adding lazy loading as a script so that the browser only loads the image or the video when it is near the user’s view. This way the store will load as is by default and the images and the videos which usually burn and overburden the store will load when they are needed.

Example of Lazy loading images and videos will be:

Before:

<img src="product-image.jpg" alt="Product Image">

After adding Lazy Loading:

<img src="product-image.jpg" alt="Product Image" loading="lazy">

7. Reduce Redirect Chains

One of the best ways to improve performance of a Shopify store is to reduce redirect chains. Redirect chains take time to redirect the user. This means that the user has to spend more time waiting for the website to load. Reducing the number of redirect chains can help improve site performance, especially on an ecommerce store made on Shopify where every second is important for the user.

Example of bad redirect chains

• http://example.com → 301 redirect to https://example.com
• https://example.com → 301 redirect to https://www.example.com
• https://www.example.com → 200 OK (final destination)

Example of good redirect:

http://example.com → 301 redirect to https://www.example.com

8. Use System Fonts or Optimised Web Fonts

One of the best ways to improve site performance on your Shopify store is to use system fonts. System fonts are those that are installed by default on your system. Whether you are using a MacBook, Chromebook, Windows, or any other system, or even a mobile device like Android or iPhone, if you do not have anything else, you will still have the system fonts available by default. So if you are creating a website, make sure that the fonts you use are the system fonts that people have on their operating systems. This will reduce the load time by default, and they will have a better user experience on your website.

A few examples of system fonts are:

font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif;

9. Using a CDN for Speed and Deliverability

Another great way to improve the performance of your Shopify store is by using a global CDN, which enhances both speed and deliverability. Shopify provides this by default through cdn.shopify.com, which automatically hosts your images, assets, and files. It also optimises them for performance, using Gzip and Brotli compression. This setup is fast, SEO-friendly, and helps ensure a smooth experience for users across the globe.

Read More: How to Transfer Webflow Site to Another Account

Note: Shopify CDN is enabled by default and you can check if by pasting your website link on the https://cdn.shopify.com/ website.

10. Reduce Third Party Script

Another important way to improve the performance of your Shopify store is to use a minimal number of scripts. One way to achieve this is by using a Tag Manager. There are many Tag Managers available, but I personally use Google Tag Manager because it can store all the tags you want to add to your website, whether in the header section or even in the footer section. You can simply add all of them to your Google Tag Manager. Once all the tags are added, you can integrate Google Tag Manager directly into your website. This ensures that all tags run as needed, without overburdening the website.

11. Use Browser Cache to Improve Site Speed

One of the greatest benefits of any website with cache enabled is that the browser stores the cache, allowing it to retain that cache when the person revisits the website. Typically, around 50% of your visitors will be returning visitors. To decrease the load time for them, you can instruct the browser to keep your website’s data. This reduces the load on the server and improves performance for those visitors, as they will be able to load your website’s assets, including logos and images, directly from the browser. This significantly enhances the site’s speed.

You can do this either from the .htaccess file in Apache server or on Nginx server you can use the following code to keep the data on the browser for at least 1 year.

location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js|woff|woff2|pdf)$ {
  expires 1y;
  add_header Cache-Control "public";
}

12. Minimise or Wrap JavaScript Requests

One reason websites are slow is that the scripts are making numerous requests to the server. To minimise these requests, you can either wrap them up or defer them for later. This approach allows you to load the initial part of the website or the front page efficiently. You can achieve this by aggregating these JavaScript files or deferring them.

13. Avoid Animated GIFs

Animations are speed killers. If you have a lot of animations or heavy animations on the pages, they are going to reduce site speed. You can improve site performance by letting go of these animations or converting them to low-sized GIF or Lottie files that can auto-load after the website layout has loaded.

Read More: Expert Roundup: Webflow or WordPress?

Shopify Store Performance Case Study: Speed Optimisation for Australian Clothing Store

Location: Australia

An Australian eco-friendly clothing store faced slow page load times due to excessive JavaScript requests, unoptimised images, and third-party app integrations. We reduced server requests by disabling non-essential scripts and replacing heavy apps, improving site speed by 30%. We also optimised the site theme by minifying CSS, combining JavaScript files, and deferring non-critical scripts, which improved load times by 40%. Additionally, we compressed and converted images to WebP format and implemented lazy loading, boosting image load speed by 50%. As a result, page load time was halved, bounce rate dropped by 20%, and conversion rate increased by 15%.

Conclusion

Optimising your Shopify store’s speed is crucial for enhancing user experience and boosting conversion rates.

By focusing on key areas such as compressing images, minimising third-party apps, and utilising Shopify’s built-in features, you can significantly reduce load times and improve your site’s performance.

Implementing techniques like lazy loading, deferring unused JavaScript, and leveraging browser caching can further enhance the speed and reliability of your online store.

Ultimately, a fast-loading Shopify store not only keeps visitors engaged but also positively impacts your SEO rankings, giving you a competitive advantage in the ecommerce market.

Regularly monitoring your site’s performance with tools like Pingdom and GTMetrix ensures that you stay on top of any issues and maintain optimal speed. By following these strategies, you can ensure that your Shopify store runs efficiently, providing a seamless shopping experience for your customers.

Want to go beyond speed? Our Shopify SEO guide walks you through everything you need to rank higher.

How WP Creative Helps You Improve Shopify Store Performance & Speed?

At WP Creative, we’re not just another dev team. We’re a leading Shopify development agency in Australia, trusted by eCommerce brands who care about performance and results. Our team of expert Shopify developers combines deep technical expertise with smart optimisation strategies to help your Shopify store load faster, rank higher, and sell more.

Whether you need a full performance audit, theme clean-up, Shopify SEO services, seamless Shopify migration or ongoing support, we’re here to help you grow with confidence.

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