A slow store costs sales. Shoppers leave, and Google uses page experience as a ranking signal. The good news: most Shopify speed problems come from a short list of usual suspects. Here are the seven we see most often, and what to do about each.
1. Too many apps
Every app you install can add scripts to every page — even pages where it does nothing. Audit your apps, remove the ones you no longer use, and check whether a small piece of custom code could replace three overlapping apps.
2. Huge, unoptimised images
Uploading a 4000px hero image and letting the browser shrink it is one of the most common causes of a slow homepage. Serve appropriately sized images, use modern formats, and lazy-load anything below the fold.
3. Carousels and sliders
Auto-playing hero sliders load several large images at once and rarely lift conversion. A single strong hero almost always loads faster and sells better.
4. Third-party scripts
Chat widgets, reviews, analytics and pixels each add weight. Keep what earns its place, load non-critical scripts after the page is interactive, and remove anything you're not actually using.
5. Render-blocking fonts
Custom fonts are worth it, but load them well: preload the key weights, use font-display: swap, and don't ship ten weights when you use two.
6. A heavy theme
Some marketplace themes bundle features for every possible store. If you use a fraction of them, all that unused code still ships. A lean, custom-built theme only loads what your store needs.
7. No measurement
You can't fix what you don't measure. Track Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) on real pages, fix the biggest offender first, and re-measure. Speed work is iterative, not a one-time switch.
Where to start
If you only do one thing this week: audit your apps and optimise your homepage images. Those two fixes move the needle most, for the least effort. If you'd rather have it handled, we tune Shopify performance as part of our growth work.