Tips to Boost Speed of Shopify Website

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms. It is the third most popular eCommerce platform in current usage. For anyone looking to succeed with an online store, a Shopify site is a great help. However, like every other website, a Shopify site needs to be optimized for high page load speeds. A slow Shopify site will repel users and severely hamper traffic, revenue potential, and credibility.

This article will take readers through a list of Shopify speed optimization tactics. Implement them to offer customers the best possible user experience.

How Speed affects the User Experience of a Shopify Site

Nearly 70% of consumers state that page speed influences their decisions to buy from an online retailer. Website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each extra second of load time (in the first five seconds).

As the numbers depict, high page load speed is essential to proving a high-quality user experience. A Shopify website could feature the most tantalizing or useful products, and be highly intuitive and aesthetically pleasing. However, if the page does not load fast enough, users will not stick around long enough to see the site design or scroll through the products.

Naturally, optimizing a Shopify site for high page load speed is a major priority. Without doing so, Shopify sites will miss out on traffic and lose revenue. It will also end up ranking low on Google search results, as page speed is a direct ranking factor, as emphasized by Google’s Algorithm Speed Update.

Why do you need Speed Optimization for your Shopify website?

The importance of testing and optimizing a website’s speed and performance has only increased over the years. As we laid out in numbers on bounce rate and conversion rates in a previous section, it’s clear why tech businesses are focused on it. 

Here are some reasons why you should consider improving your website speed:

• ECommerce Growth: For online retailers, website speed and performance directly impact sales and revenue. 
• User Experience (UX): Slow website speeds can frustrate users, leading to a decrease in user satisfaction and engagement. A smooth, responsive user experience can encourage users to stay on your site longer, interact more with your content, and be more likely to convert (for example, make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, etc.).
• Conversion Rates: Slow websites can have a direct impact on conversion rates. So if your website is an online store or relies on user conversions for revenue, optimizing your website’s speed is crucial.
• Mobile Internet Use: The use of mobile devices for internet browsing has grown exponentially. Mobile users often have different connectivity and speed conditions, making speed and performance optimization even more crucial.
• SEO Ranking: Search engines, like Google, consider site speed as a ranking factor. Faster websites are more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), resulting in more visibility and traffic. 
• Scalability: As your ECommerce business grows, you will have more users, more page views, and more content. If your Shopify website is already slow, growth will only exacerbate the problem. Optimizing your website’s speed ensures that as you grow and scale, your website can handle the increased traffic and content.
• Competitive Advantage: A faster website can give you a competitive advantage. If your website is faster than your competitors’, you’re more likely to retain and attract users. In the online world, where users can go from one site to another in seconds, speed can be a key differentiator.

Reasons That Can Slow Down Your Shopify Site

Some of the reasons that can slow down your Shopify website can be the following:

1. Heavy or Unoptimized Images: Large, uncompressed or high-resolution images can significantly increase page load times and can lead to slow site performance.
2. Excessive Use of Apps and Plugins: Installing too many Shopify apps or plugins can clutter your site with unnecessary scripts and code, impacting load times.
3. Unoptimized Theme Code: A poorly coded or overly complex theme can introduce inefficiencies and slow down your site. Customizations and third-party themes can sometimes add unnecessary bloat.
4. Inefficient Liquid Code: Shopify’s templating language, Liquid, if not used efficiently, can slow down page rendering. Complex or poorly optimized Liquid code can increase server processing time.
5. Large Number of HTTP Requests: Each element on a page (images, scripts, stylesheets) requires an HTTP request. A high number of requests can slow down the page load time.
6. Unoptimized External Resources: Including external resources such as fonts, ads, or analytics scripts from multiple sources can introduce delays if those resources are slow to load.
7. Lack of Caching: Not implementing proper caching mechanisms can lead to slower load times, as each visit may require the server to process all data from scratch.
8. Inefficient Database Queries: Complex or inefficient queries to Shopify’s database can cause delays in retrieving and displaying content.
9. High Product Variant Count: Stores with a large number of product variants or options can experience slower load times due to the increased complexity in rendering these options.
10. Redirect Chains: Multiple redirects from one URL to another can add unnecessary delays in loading pages, impacting overall site speed.

15 Tips to Speed Up Shopify Site

Optimizing your Shopify store for speed is crucial for enhancing user experience and boosting your store’s performance. Here are 15 key strategies to ensure your site loads quickly and efficiently:

• Tip 1: Compress Images Efficiently

Large image files can significantly slow down your site. Use tools like TinyPNG, JPEGmini, or Kraken.io to compress images without losing quality. Upload images in exact dimensions for each page to prevent unnecessary bloat, and consider 800×800 pixels for product images to balance quality and performance.

• Tip 2: Enable Browser Caching

Browser caching stores static files locally, reducing the need for repeated downloads. Configure caching settings through Shopify or your theme’s code to speed up load times for returning visitors.

• Tip 3: Minimize HTTP Requests

Fewer HTTP requests lead to faster load times. Combine CSS and JavaScript files where possible, and remove unnecessary plugins or third-party scripts to streamline your site’s performance.

• Tip 4: Choose a Fast and Reliable Theme

Select a Shopify theme optimized for speed. Avoid themes with excessive features that could slow down your site. Opt for lightweight, well-coded themes that prioritize performance.

• Tip 5: Optimize Your Code

Clean up and minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to reduce file sizes and improve loading speed. Use tools like UglifyJS for JavaScript and CSSNano for CSS to streamline your code.

• Tip 6: Leverage Shopify’s CDN

Shopify’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) distributes content across global servers, ensuring fast delivery of assets to users regardless of their location. Make sure your site is utilizing this CDN effectively.

• Tip 7: Enable Gzip Compression

Gzip compression reduces the size of your site’s files. Enable Gzip through your Shopify theme or app to compress files and enhance loading speeds.

• Tip 8: Optimize Your Checkout Process

A streamlined checkout process can reduce load times and minimize cart abandonment. Simplify the checkout steps, minimize form fields, and ensure your payment gateways are responsive.

• Tip 9: Prioritize Above-the-Fold Content

Ensure that critical content loads first. Optimize above-the-fold elements to load quickly while deferring non-essential components to improve perceived performance.

Check your Mobile Page Speed Score

• Tip 10: Utilize Shopify’s Built-in Speed Tools

Take advantage of Shopify’s speed analysis tools to regularly check your store’s performance. Act on recommendations from these tools to continually enhance your site’s speed.

• Tip 11: Optimize Fonts

Web fonts can be resource-heavy. Limit the use of font weights and styles, and apply font-display: swap to ensure text remains visible while fonts load.

• Tip 12: Minimize Redirects

Each redirect adds an additional HTTP request. Reduce the number of redirects and ensure URLs are direct to enhance load times.

• Tip 13: Monitor and Limit Third-Party Apps

Third-party apps can contribute to slow load times. Regularly review installed apps, uninstall those that are no longer needed, and limit app elements to essential pages only.

• Tip 14: Implement AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

Use AMP to speed up mobile loading times. Apps like Shop Sheriff, FireAMP, or RocketAmp can convert your pages to AMP, improving mobile performance and search rankings.

• Tip 15: Seek Professional Help for Advanced Issues

For complex performance issues like render-blocking JavaScript and CSS or extensive code optimization, consider hiring a Shopify developer. They can address advanced technical problems to further enhance your site’s speed.

Talk to an Expert

How to Test your Shopify Website’s Speed using SpeedLab?

If a slow Shopify site is a concern, then the points discussed in this article need to be implemented immediately. Once the optimization is complete, the site needs to be tested to ensure that it is as fast as expected.

The best way to do this is to use SpeedLab, a free tool by BrowserStack designed for website speed test.

BrowserStack SpeedLab is a one-stop platform where QA testers can test their website speed on a dedicated testing infrastructure.

Here’s a simple 3 step process to test your website loading speed using SpeedLab for Free:

Step 1. Choose your preferred device for testing on SpeedLab 

Step 2. Insert your website URL and select a browser for testing

Step 3. Click on “Get Free Report”

Once you’ve completed the testing process with the selected Browser, a detailed report will be generated that shows complete insights on key metrics such as mobile & desktop speed score, cross-browser compatibility, page load time, and many other factors.

Remember, users do not want to sit around and wait for a catalog or cart to load. They have multiple other sites to choose from, and they will exercise their right to choose if they encounter a slow website. Therefore, optimize the speed of your Shopify site, and watch the quality of user experience go right up.

Try SpeedLab for Free