Published on July 9, 2025 Last Updated on August 1, 2025
Written by
Morgan Frank - Specialist in Page Speed
Shopify is a powerful and popular e-commerce platform, but like any platform, it’s susceptible to performance issues if not configured and used correctly. A slow Shopify store directly impacts your conversion rates, search engine rankings, and overall user experience. This guide focuses on three key areas for optimizing your Shopify store’s speed: theme optimization, app management, and Liquid tuning.
Because Shopify is a hosted platform, you have less control over the underlying server infrastructure than you would with a self-hosted solution (like WooCommerce). This makes it even more important to optimize the aspects you can control: your theme, your apps, and your Liquid code.
Before we dive into specific techniques, let’s review the key takeaways:
Key Takeaways
Theme Choice is Paramount: Your Shopify theme is the foundation of your store’s design and performance. Choose a lightweight, well-coded, and performance-optimized theme.
Apps Can Be Major Bottlenecks: Be extremely selective about the apps you install. Each app adds extra code JavaScript, CSS, and Liquid) that can slow down your store.
Optimize Images: Use Shopify’s built-in image optimization features or a dedicated image optimization app.
Lazy Loading: Enable lazy loading for images and other resources to improve initial page load times.
Minify CSS and JavaScript: Reduce the size of your CSS and JavaScript files.
Leverage Browser Caching: Ensure your store is configured to take advantage of browser caching.
Use a CDN: Shopify uses a built-in CDN, which is generally very good.
Monitor and Test Regularly: Use performance testing tools (like PageSpeed Insights and Shopify’s Online Store Speed report) to track your progress and identify areas for improvement.
Optimize Liquid Code: While you have limited control over Shopify’s core Liquid code, you can optimize your own custom Liquid code and theme settings.
Prefetching and Preloading:
1. Theme Optimization: Choosing a Fast Foundation
Your Shopify theme is the single most important factor affecting your store’s design and performance. Themes vary wildly in terms of their code quality, features, and optimization. A poorly coded or bloated theme can cripple your store’s speed, no matter what other optimizations you implement.
Here’s how to choose and optimize your Shopify theme:
Prioritize Speed When Choosing a Theme:
Read Reviews: Look for reviews that specifically mention performance.
Test Demo Sites: Use page speed testing tools (like PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest, and GTmetrix) to test the performance of the theme’s demo sites. Don’t just rely on the theme developer’s claims.
Look for “Lightweight” or “Performance-Optimized” Themes: Some theme developers specifically focus on creating fast and efficient themes.
Avoid Themes with Excessive Features: Many themes come packed with features you might not need (sliders, animations, complex layouts). These features often add unnecessary code and slow down your store. Choose a theme with a clean, minimalist design and only the features you actually need.
Keep Your Theme Updated: Theme developers often release updates that include performance improvements and bug fixes. Make sure you’re using the latest version of your theme.
Customize Carefully: When customizing your theme, be mindful of the performance impact of your changes. Avoid adding unnecessary code or large images.
Use Shopify’s Theme Editor Wisely: Shopify’s theme editor allows you to make changes to your theme’s code. If you’re not comfortable with code, be very careful about making changes here. It’s easy to accidentally break your theme or introduce performance problems.
Mobile First: Check whether it’s mobile friendly.
2. App Management: Less is More
Shopify apps can add valuable functionality to your store, but they can also be a major source of performance problems. Each app you install adds extra code (JavaScript, CSS, and often Liquid) that needs to be loaded and executed. Too many apps, or poorly coded apps, can significantly slow down your store.
Here’s how to manage your Shopify apps for optimal performance:
Be Extremely Selective: Before installing any app, ask yourself:
Is this app absolutely essential for my store’s functionality?
Is there a built-in Shopify feature that can do the same thing?
Are there alternative apps that are known to be more lightweight and performant?
Read Reviews (Focus on Performance): Pay close attention to reviews that mention the app’s impact on page speed.
Test App Performance: After installing an app, test your store’s performance using page speed testing tools. If you see a significant slowdown, consider removing the app or finding a more efficient alternative.
Regularly Audit Your Apps: Periodically review your installed apps and remove any that you’re no longer using or that are not essential. Deactivate and uninstall them completely.
Avoid Redundant Apps: Don’t install multiple apps that do the same thing. Choose the best one and stick with it.
Consider Alternatives:
3. Liquid Tuning: Optimizing Shopify’s Templating Language
Shopify uses a templating language called Liquid to generate the HTML of your store’s pages. While you don’t have full control over Shopify’s core Liquid code, you do have control over the Liquid code in your theme and any custom Liquid code you add. Optimizing your Liquid code can improve your store’s rendering speed.
Here are some tips for Liquid tuning:
Avoid Unnecessary Loops and Conditions: Loops (for loops) and conditional statements (if/else statements) in Liquid can be slow if they’re not used efficiently. Minimize their use whenever possible.
Use Efficient Filters: Liquid filters are used to modify data. Some filters are more efficient than others. Use the most efficient filter for the job.
Cache Expensive Operations: If you have Liquid code that performs complex calculations or fetches data from external sources, consider caching the results using Shopify’s cache tag.
Minimize HTTP Requests: Avoid making unnecessary HTTP requests from your Liquid code (e.g., using the asset_url filter excessively).
Use Pagination Wisely: If you’re displaying a large number of products or collections, use pagination to avoid loading all the data at once.
Preload and Prefetch Resources: Use the preload and prefetch link relations to tell the browser to load critical resources early.
Avoid Nested loops:
Minimize Assigns:
General Optimization Techniques (That Still Apply)
Remember that all the general web performance optimization techniques we’ve discussed in previous sections also apply to Shopify stores:
Image Optimization: (As mentioned above, this is critical for e-commerce.)
Minification: Minify your CSS and JavaScript files Shopify often does this automatically, but you can use apps to further optimize).
Browser Caching: Shopify automatically sets caching headers, but you can often customize them further.
CDN: Shopify uses a built-in CDN, which is generally very good.
Lazy Loading: Enable lazy loading for images and other resources (many themes and apps offer this functionality).
Defer or Async JavaScript: Make sure your JavaScript is loaded asynchronously or deferred to prevent it from blocking rendering
Monitoring and Testing Your Shopify Store’s Speed
Shopify’s Online Store Speed Report: Shopify provides a built-in speed report that gives you an overview of your store’s performance and identifies areas for improvement. Access this report in your Shopify admin under “Online Store” → “Themes” → “Speed Report”.
WebPageTest: A powerful performance testing tool that allows you to test your store from different locations and with different connection speeds.
GTmetrix: Another popular performance testing tool.
Chrome DevTools: Use the Network and Performance panels in Chrome DevTools to analyze your store’s loading behavior in detail.
Conclusion
Optimizing your Shopify store’s page speed is an ongoing process that requires careful attention to your theme, your apps, and your Liquid code. By following the strategies outlined in this guide and regularly monitoring your store’s performance, you can create a fast, efficient, and user-friendly shopping experience that will help you convert more visitors into customers and boost your sales. Don’t underestimate the impact of even small performance improvements – in the world of e-commerce, every millisecond counts.
Determined to change that, he built RapidLoad — a smart, AI-driven tool that empowers site owners to dramatically improve speed scores, enhance user experience, and meet Google’s Core Web Vitals without needing to touch a single line of code.
