Online store speed

Your online store speed is the time it takes the different pages in your store to load.

If your online store is down or isn't loading, then clear your browser's cache and cookies. If that doesn't resolve the issue, then checkShopify Statusto determine if there's an active issue that could be impacting your store.

In this section

• Online store speed report

• Improving your online store speed

Why is speed important?

Your online store’s speed impacts the shopping experience of your customers, your conversion rate, and your store's discoverability.

Experience and conversion

If your online store is fast, then a customer with a slow phone and poor mobile connection can have a positive buying experience. A slower store might not be as accessible or user-friendly.

When a user can't navigate your online store smoothly, or your pages load slowly, they're more likely toleave before they buy something. You can improve your customers' experience and yourconversion rateat the same time by focusing on your online store's speed.

Discoverability

搜索引擎s like Googleuse page speed as a ranking factor. If your online store pages are slow, then they might be ranked lower, even if your store is otherwiseoptimized for search engines.

Online store features vs. speed

Your online store is made up of a set of features, such as theme code, apps, images, videos, carousels, social media feeds, and analytics. These features can contribute to your overall customer experience and extend the capabilities of your online store.

Each feature you add to your online store needs network and hardware resources to function. Some features need more resources than others. Adding a new feature can have a noticeable effect on the speed of your online store.

When you consider adding a feature to your store, you should weigh the benefits of the feature against its impact to the speed of your store. You might need to make some speed tradeoffs to build a user experience that leads to more sales.

Ask yourself the following questions when considering features for your store:

• What will help customers make the decision to purchase from the store?

  For example, consider whether your customers would prefer a simple home page with links to detailed product pages, or a more powerful home page where they can quickly view and buy products.

• What functionality should exist at the top of the page to drive conversion?

  For example, branding elements, featured images, and a checkout cart are all features that can impact performance but increase conversion.

• What functionality can load later as customers scroll down the page?

  For example, analytics and product reviews don't need to be loaded immediately when a customer visits your store. You might need to consult your theme or app developers to understand if a feature is loading right away.

Explore your online store speed

You can learn how your store performs against industry standards and other Shopify stores like yours by viewing yourOnline store speedreport. This report also includes how your score has changed over time, and graphs events that might have impacted your speed score against your historical speed scores.Learn more about the report.

You can also explorefactors that impact your online store speedand how to address them.