Shopify and Shopify Plus speed optimization is crucial for improving SEO rankings, enhancing user experience, and increasing conversions. A slow store can lead to higher bounce rates and lower sales, negatively impacting your revenue. In this guide, we’ll explore effective strategies for Shopify and Shopify Plus speed optimization. Implementing the right Shopify and Shopify Plus speed optimization techniques will improve SEO, user experience, and conversion rates.
By following these best practices, your Shopify and Shopify Plus speed optimizationefforts will result in faster loading speeds and better customer retention.
Step 1: Measure the Speed of Your Shopify and Shopify Plus Stores
To see where your store is bottlenecked, audit its existing performance before optimizing it.
Best Speed Testing Tools:
- Google PageSpeed Insights – Analyzes Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS).
- GTmetrix – Provides a detailed speed performance report.
- Shopify Admin > Online Store > Speed Score – Shopify’s built-in speed analysis tool.
👉 Pro Tip: Always test on both desktop and mobile to get a full performance overview.
Step 2: Optimize Images for Shopify & Shopify Plus Speed Optimization
1. Use WebP Format Instead of PNG/JPEG
- WebP images are 30% smaller than PNG/JPEG while maintaining high quality.
- Shopify automatically converts images to WebP, but you can manually optimize them.
Convert product-image.png -quality 80 product-image.webp.
convert product-image.png -quality 80 product-image.webp
2. Enable Lazy Loading
Lazy loading defers when our images are loaded, improving the render time of our first page.
- Lazy load is enabled on Shopify Dawn theme out of the box.
- Older theme, add this to theme. liquid.
<img src=”image.jpg” loading=”lazy” alt=”Product Image”>
💡 Tip: Don’t lazy load the images that are visible above the fold (like banners).
Step 3 : Improve Speed In Shopify Liquid Code
Shopify themes are built with Liquid & if not optimized, it can make your page rendering slower.
1. Resuce Unnecessary Loops
Liquid for loops load more data than needed, imposing more work on the server.
Bad Practice:
{% for product in collections.all.products %}
<p>{{ product.title }}</p>
{% endfor %}
Optimized Code:
{% for product in collections[‘featured’].products limit:6 %}
{{ product.title }}
{% endfor %}
2. Activate Predictive Caching for Shopify Plus
- Shopify Plus users, in particular, are able to turn on predictive caching that preloads pages to increase speed.
- Shopify Plus employs a Turbo Mode that pre-loads pages according to usage patterns.
Use preloading of the assets so it does not wait for the assets to be loaded.
< link rel=”preload” href=”{{ ‘theme.js’ | asset_url }}”>
💡 Tip: If you are on Shopify Plus, you can enable Fastly’s CDN for better caching as well.
Step 4: Minify JavaScript and CSS in Shopify and Shopify Plus
Minifying JS and CSS — to the opening small code — reduces file sizes, thus improving load speed.
1. Use Built-in Minification by Shopify
Shopify works with minified assets by default, along with further decreasing the file size of exported files.
Use Terser.js to minify JavaScript:
terser theme.js -o theme.min.js –compress –mangle
Use CSSNano to minify CSS:
cssnano theme.css theme.min.css
2. Defer JavaScript to Reduce Blocking
Bad Practice (Stop JavaScript):
<script src=”theme.js”></script>
Optimized Code (Deferred Loading):
<script src=”theme.js” defer></script>
💡 Tip: Shopify Plus merchants have the option to use checkout scripts to prevent slow checkout performance.
Step 5: Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus Speed Optimization with CDN and Caching
Cloudflare CDN under Birds eye view for Shopify and Shopify Plus users benefit from Cloudflare CDN but you can still be more caching optimising.
1. Enable Browser Caching for Shopify Assets
The second one is our caching headers for static files and images.
Add this to .htaccess:
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/webp “access plus 1 year”
</IfModule>
2. Reduce Redirects in Shopify
- Too many redirects increase page load times.
- Navigate to Shopify Admin > Navigation > Redirects and delete redirects that are not necessary.
👉 Pro Tip: Shopify Plus users can use Liquid redirects instead of JavaScript-based redirects for better speed.
Shopify and Shopify Plus Speed Optimization Checklist Conclusion
- Check Speed with PageSpeed Insights & GTmetrix.
- WebP image conversion and lazy loading.
- Infinite Liquid loops & enable predictive caching (Shopify Plus).
- Minify JavaScript, CSS, and delete unused scripts.
- Leverage Shopify’s CDN and caching Mechanisms.
By following these steps, you can improve your Shopify and Shopify Plus store Speed by 30-40% !
Need Help with Shopify Speed Optimization? If you want expert guidance on Shopify store optimization or custom theme development, contact us today! And Improve Your Shopify Store Speed Now!
