How to Speed Up a Shopify Store? (Proven Tips to Improve Load Time)

Often, even a few seconds’ delay on an online store means the customer may not purchase your product. Bad performance can hurt conversions, customer trust, and search visibility for your Shopify store.

Slow speeds on your Shopify website may be due to heavy theme codes, oversized images, too many apps and scripts, unoptimized product pages, etc. But here’s the good news–you can solve most of these issues in no time, without a full redesign.

In this blog, we look at the best strategies for Shopify speed optimization and the tools that will be helpful. But first, let’s check out a few potential reasons behind the slow Shopify speed.

Why Speed Matters for a Shopify Store

Speed directly impacts how shoppers experience your Shopify store–and how likely they are to buy your products. A fast site feels reliable, loads products instantly, and quickly moves the customers from browsing to checkout. Here are the reasons in detail.

Boosts Search Visibility

One of the key factors in Google’s search algorithm, as well as other search engines, is page speed. So if your store isn’t fast and responsive, there will be a significant impact on the search visibility and rankings.

Reduces Bounce Rates

Since there are several eCommerce websites available, if a Shopify store takes too long to load, the customers will switch to an alternative. So good performance will effectively reduce the bounce rates.

Builds Trust & Loyalty

A fast, smooth-running website will help make the shopping experience better, making the store look more professional and trustworthy. Customers will more likely purchase from you and even return for more.

Increases Conversions & Revenue

Slow website speeds (even 1 or 2-second delays) frustrate users, reducing the chances of conversion; faster stores tend to turn more casual visitors into paying customers.

So a good Shopify store must be well-optimized for speed and performance. But how do you optimize before knowing what’s causing the slow speeds?

What’s Causing the Slow Shopify Speeds?

Slow Shopify performance usually comes down to a mix of heavy assets, bloated code, and too many external requests. Here’s a look at the most common causes.

• Too Many Apps & Scripts: Each app can add extra code, tracking scripts, and API calls that increase page load time.
• Excessive Third-party Integrations: Live chat, analytics, review widgets, and marketing tools often load from external servers. It delays the page rendering.
• Large Product Pages: Too many variants, long descriptions, huge media galleries, and multiple widgets can overload product pages.
• Heavy or Unoptimized Images: Large product images, banners, and sliders slow down the load times. That is especially true for mobile networks.
• Poorly Coded Theme: Some themes tend to load unnecessary CSS/JS scripts site-wide. That means features that you will never use. It makes the pages heavier than necessary.
• Too Many Fonts & Animations: Make sure you don’t use too many custom fonts, large icon libraries, and fancy animations. It adds extra requests and increases the rendering time.
• No Lazy Loading for Images: If your store loads every image at once rather than loading them as the user scrolls, it may slow down the visible screen.
• Broken Links & Redirects: Extra redirects and outdated or broken links create unnecessary load steps and impact overall performance.

If any of these issues exist on your Shopify store, it’s going to affect the speed, performance, and responsiveness. So identifying these issues is the first step toward a faster, higher-converting store. For that, you can opt for our eCommerce consulting services.

Best Strategies for Shopify Speed Optimization

After you have identified the cause of your Shopify store performance issues, one of the following strategies will be helpful.

Optimize Images & Other Media

Large, unoptimized images are a major contributor to slow-loading Shopify stores. So optimize the images without sacrificing quality. Opt for modern formats like WebP, and lazy-load media to reduce file sizes and speed up page rendering. Faster media loading improves user experience and boosts Core Web Vitals scores, which directly impacts SEO rankings.

Based on where the image will be displayed on the website, Shopify recommends some standard image sizes. Like 1920px for banners, 1200px for main content, and 400-800px for thumbnails. As for the file size, anything bigger than 20MB would cause slow speeds on your Shopify website.

To Do’s

• Compress images: Use tools like TinyPNG, ShortPixel, or Shopify’s built-in compression.
• Convert to WebP: Replace JPEG/PNG with WebP for smaller file sizes.
• Enable lazy loading: Defer off-screen images to load only when needed.
• Specify image dimensions: Set width/height attributes to prevent layout shifts.
• Use SVG for icons/logos: Scalable vectors load faster than raster images.

Enable Browser Caching

Browser caching stores static files (like CSS, JavaScript, and images) on a visitor’s device, so they don’t have to reload them on subsequent visits. This drastically cuts load times for returning customers, improving user experience and reducing server strain. A well-configured cache policy can shave seconds off page loads.

To Do’s

• Set cache expiration headers: Configure .htaccess or Shopify’s CDN settings.
• Leverage Shopify’s built-in caching: Ensure it’s enabled in your theme settings.
• Cache static assets: Store CSS, JS, and fonts locally for repeat visits.
• Exclude dynamic content: Avoid caching cart/checkout pages.
• Test caching efficiency: Use GTmetrix or PageSpeed Insights to verify.

Minimize HTTP Requests

Every element on a webpage (images, scripts, stylesheets) requires an HTTP request. The more requests, the slower the page loads. Combining files, using CSS sprites, and reducing unnecessary scripts streamlines requests. That means faster rendering and better performance.

To Do’s

• Combine CSS/JS files: Merge multiple files into one where possible.
• Use CSS sprites: Combine small icons into a single image file.
• Limit third-party scripts: Remove unused tracking pixels/widgets.
• Defer non-critical JavaScript: Load scripts after page rendering.
• Simplify design elements: Reduce unnecessary decorative assets.

Optimize the Site Code

Bloated, unminified code slows down your store. Minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript removes unnecessary characters (like whitespace and comments), while deferring non-critical scripts ensures faster initial page loads. Clean, efficient code means quicker execution and smoother browsing.

To Do’s

• Minify HTML, CSS, and JS: Use tools like UglifyJS or Shopify apps.
• Remove unused code: Delete deprecated plugins, styles, and scripts.
• Defer render-blocking scripts: Load non-essential JS after page load.
• Avoid inline CSS/JS: Move them to external files for better caching.
• Use efficient selectors: Optimize CSS to reduce style recalculation.

Enable Gzip Compression

Gzip compresses text-based files (HTML, CSS, JS) before sending them to the browser, reducing file sizes by up to 70%. Smaller files transfer faster, cutting load times significantly. Most servers support Gzip—enabling it is a quick win for speed optimization.

To Do’s

• Check server support: Verify if your host enables Gzip by default.
• Enable via .htaccess (if self-hosted): Add compression rules.
• Use Shopify’s CDN: Automatically applies compression for hosted stores.
• Test compression: Use tools like GIDNetwork’s GIDGzipTest.
• Compress API responses: Ensure JSON/API endpoints use Gzip.

Choose a Lightweight Shopify Theme

You can also optimize the current theme for better performance. Try disabling any functionality that is not needed in your theme. Also, avoid using JavaScript code snippets wherever possible; and if you really need to use it, make sure to avoid namespace collisions.

Another way to navigate around theme issues is consulting with professionals for a custom theme. (The eCommerce experts at BrainSpate can develop one customized to your store.)

To Do’s

• Audit theme speed: Test demo stores with PageSpeed Insights.
• Avoid feature-heavy themes: Prioritize lightweight, minimal designs.
• Remove unused sections/blocks: Disable unnecessary dynamic content.
• Optimize theme assets: Compress images/fonts bundled with the theme.
• Check for updates: Ensure your theme is optimized for the latest Shopify OS.

Leverage CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A CDN distributes your store’s static content across multiple global servers, delivering files from the nearest location to the user. So setting up CDN can help reduce latency, speeds up load times for international visitors, and eases server load, critical for scaling traffic.

To Do’s

• Use Shopify’s built-in CDN: Automatically serves assets globally.
• Enable third-party CDN (if needed): Cloudflare, Fastly, or BunnyCDN.
• Cache static content: Ensure images, CSS, and JS are CDN-optimized.
• Set proper TTL (Time-to-Live): Balance freshness and cache efficiency.
• Monitor CDN performance: Check for latency improvements globally.

Implement Above-the-Fold Content Loading

Prioritizing visible content (above-the-fold) ensures users see key elements first while non-critical resources load later. Techniques like lazy loading images and asynchronous script loading improve perceived speed and engagement.

To Do’s

• Prioritize critical CSS: Inline key styles for faster rendering.
• Lazy load images/videos: Load only what’s visible on screen first.
• Defer non-essential JS: Push analytics/social scripts to the footer.
• Optimize hero sections: Ensure banners and headlines load instantly.
• Test Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Aim for under 2.5 seconds.

Optimize the Site Fonts

Custom fonts can slow down pages if not loaded efficiently. Limit font variants, use font-display: swap; to prevent render-blocking, and host fonts locally when possible. Faster font loading keeps text visible without delays.

To Do’s

• Limit font families/weights: Stick to 2-3 max to reduce requests.
• Use font-display: swap: Prevents invisible text during loading.
• Host fonts locally: Avoid external Google Fonts delays.
• Preload key fonts: Load essential typefaces early in rendering.
• Subset fonts if possible: Remove unused characters to reduce size.

Remove Unnecessary Shopify Apps

Every Shopify app adds different scripts and background requests to your website. They are running in the background even when the app’s features aren’t actively used. Over time, these additional assets (albeit unused) increase the page load times. They also slow down the critical elements like product images, clickable buttons (like Add-to-Cart), and the checkout flow.

So you need to remove unused or overlapping Shopify apps to reduce the third-party requests. It will clean up the store and load only the essentials, meaning smoother interactions and better performance.

To Do’s

• Audit installed apps monthly: Identify the apps that are no longer offering any essential functionalities.
• Remove apps, don’t disable them: Disabling the apps may still leave some scripts behind.
• Delete any leftover app code: After deleting the app, clean up the unused snippets in the theme files.
• Replace multiple apps with one: See if one app can take care of multiple features; it will reduce script overload.
• Test speed after each removal: Measure the store performance after every deletion to see if there is an impact.

Minimize Redirects

Excessive redirects create additional HTTP requests, increasing load times. Audit your store for unnecessary redirects (especially broken links) and eliminate them where possible. A streamlined URL structure keeps navigation fast and seamless.

To Do’s

• Audit broken links: Fix or remove 404s/301s causing chains.
• Avoid unnecessary redirects: Directly link to final URLs.
• Use Shopify’s URL management: Ensure clean, short permalinks.
• Check third-party app links: Some apps add hidden redirects.
• Monitor redirect performance: Use Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.

Each of these actionable steps contributes to a faster, more efficient Shopify store, improving UX, search rankings, and conversions.

To ensure the best results with these strategies, consult with our professional Shopify development company. We analyze the website and decide what will work best in which scenario.

Best Tools to Audit Shopify Store Speed

A slow store kills the customer experience, meaning lower conversions and search rankings. While you know what the common issues are and how to fix them, how do you diagnose performance bottlenecks? Well, for that, you can use the following tools.

Shopify’s Built-in Report

Albeit basic, Shopify offers a report showing the store’s speed and performance. You get a quick performance snapshot, highlighting key metrics like load time and Core Web Vitals. While not as detailed as third-party tools, it’s tailored for Shopify’s infrastructure. That makes it ideal for merchants who want a no-fuss, platform-specific assessment.

Use it to track improvements after optimizations and compare performance across different themes.

PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights analyzes your store’s mobile and desktop performance. Then it gives a score from 0-100 based on Core Web Vitals. You get actionable fixes for issues like render-blocking resources, image optimization, and JavaScript delays.

Since it reflects Google’s ranking priorities, optimizing based on its recommendations can directly boost SEO.

GTmetrix

GTmetrix combines Google Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights with real-world testing from global servers. Its waterfall chart breaks down each element’s load time. That helps pinpoint bottlenecks—like slow third-party scripts or unoptimized images.

The fully loaded time metric is especially useful for benchmarking before/after optimizations.

Pingdom

Pingdom’s speed test (tools.pingdom.com) measures load times from multiple global locations, making it ideal for stores with international traffic.

Its performance grade highlights issues like excessive requests or large files, while the content size breakdown helps identify bloated pages. The uptime monitoring feature is a bonus for spotting outages.

Each tool offers unique insights. Hire dedicated Shopify developers to combine multiple tools to combine and to ensure a more comprehensive audit of the store’s performance.

How to Troubleshoot Slow Loading Pages in a Shopify Store?

Let’s say you know all the potential issues and have the necessary tools to understand their impact. Then here is an approach to identify what’s slowing down your Shopify store.

Start With Shopify’s Speed Report

First off, open Shopify’s built-in report to understand where your store stands in terms of overall performance trends. It can help you analyze the three key factors of Core Web Vitals (CWV) for your store. That includes Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP).

Test Pages With Performance Audit Tools

Then, use tools like PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse to analyze the key pages of your store (like home, categories, products, checkout, etc.). It will help identify the render-blocking scripts, large assets, and Core web Vital issues.

Compare Desktop vs Mobile Performance

Often, mobile performance is slower than desktop performance for some websites. So you need to check for any layout shifts, oversized images, and any unnecessary scripts that may be impacting the slower mobile networks.

Identify Heavy Apps & Third-party Scripts

See if any apps are adding heavy JS scripts across the website. Some of the most common performance bottlenecks are live chat widgets, tracking pixels for analytics, reviews, and popups.

Analyze the Theme Code

Audit and inspect the theme files for unused sections, excessive CSS/JS, and script loading on every page–even when not required. (Take help from pro developers if you don’t understand the scripts.)

Check Image & Media Load

Review the product images, banners, and site images as well as the image formats. Large hero banners and product galleries are frequent culprits of bad performance. See if you can implement lazy loading on your Shopify website.

Monitor Network Requests

You can use browser DevTools to analyze the requests received on page loads. See which ones take the longest to respond.

Test After Every Change

Make sure to test the Shopify store after every single optimization. That way, it will be easier to trace the improvements and avoid introducing new performance bottlenecks.

This approach will help isolate the issues and ensure your optimization efforts deliver measurable results.

Let’s Summarize

A fast Shopify store isn’t just a technical win—it’s a competitive edge. Every second shaved off your load time translates to happier customers and higher conversions. From optimizing images to streamlining code, the fixes are actionable, often low-cost, and deliver measurable results.

Remember, speed optimization isn’t a one-time task. Regular audits, mindful app choices, and staying updated with Shopify’s evolving best practices will keep your store running smoothly.

So, want help with improving the speed of your Shopify store? Then connect with us today!

FAQs on Shopify Speed Optimization