Why is the Shopify checkout process slow?

bobbymoore93
Tourist
9 0 2

Hi All,

Not sure if anyone can assist? We are getting a lot of reports from our customers that when they go onto the checkout page it's really slow and doesn't load. 

The rest of the website is fine (I assume the checkout page is based on a different server).

Does the different plans speed up the checkout pages?

Regards, 

Replies 28 (28)

JoesIdeas
Shopify Expert
2195 201 587

There's usually nothing you can do for the checkout page (you can't access the code even unless you're on Shopify Plus).

Couple things I would do:

1) Ask for details from the customer. It's hard to debug "the checkout page it's really slow and doesn't load". Customers aren't trained testers so that's understandable, but I would follow up to get details like:

  • What part of the checkout process was slow? (example: cart page, shipping information, payment, etc)
  • What was the last action you took before you ran into problems?
  • Can you send a screenshot?
  • Did refreshing the page solve the issue?
  • Can you repeat the exact steps to trigger the issue, so we can reproduce?

2) Once you have the detailed information, you can contact Shopify support to report the issue. Since you can't control checkout area, this is more their responsibility.

3) Keep in mind terms vary by the person. For example, some people call it the "checkout" when they're actually on the "cart" page.

If the problem is on the cart page (either with the loading of the cart page, or the transition to checkout area after clicking cart), then you can hone in on the cart page and do your own testing to try and see what's the problem.

It's extra work for the customer, and they already had a poor user experience, so I would also offer a nice discount on their order when you make those extra requests, or send them a free gift. That's a cool move that can turn a poor experience into a raving fan.

• Creator of Order Automator (automate tagging, fulfillment, Amazon, notifications + more)
• Shopify developer for 10+ years, store owner for 7 years
• I also make guides like Shopify Automation Tips and How to Deal with Fraud / Chargebacks
JohnnyBarr
Visitor
1 0 1

I get lots of engagement and add to carts and most of my add to carts go to checkout and then the customer disappears after a while. I have tested my own checkout by going in and buying. I used both Wifi and Mobile Data and it seems to be super slow, almost pausing and 1 time not responding. Eventually, after some toying around it would get to the payment area of checkout and the payment would process pretty fast. It seems to me that it is my Shopify speed because my deals are good enough because my add to cart and continue to checkout rate is 11% but they are not able to buy fast enough or in some cases, at all. I have had a couple of people contact us trying to buy but the pages will not load. Our Google rating is 88. Please help, Shopify has to have a way to fix this or else I am going to get screwed over many times.

Nici1
Tourist
7 0 17

We experience exactly the same thing.
Shopify support always thinks everything is normal.
However, we have noticed a strong change that is unfortunately not taken seriously. When clicking on the checkout button from the shopping cart page, it takes at least 1-2 seconds for the page to start loading and then another 2-3 seconds for everything to load.
This has cost us a lot of conversions but shopify support remains of the opinion that this is normal and acceptable.

I have noticed that the response from the server is delayed for the first two requests. I think this is the cause of the whole delay. The first two requests have a combined time to first transmitted byte of over 1300ms in my tests. Recommended is 200-500ms ttfb.

If more people read this who have the same problem, please all comment here under the thread and contact support. If we become more people, maybe we will be taken seriously.

 

Another thing, if you use dynamic checkout buttons, there can be problems. We have heard from customers that they have had problems placing orders. After checking, we were able to determine the following:

If the express checkout button is in the default, then everything works.

When a preferred payment method such as Gpay is displayed, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.

If you click on "more payment options" you often get another error.

This only affects the express checkout on the product page and not the express checkout from the checkout page.

 

If you also have one of these problems, please comment here and contact support so that we are taken seriously. So far we only hear "this is normal" "this is the average".

elijahb
Visitor
1 0 3

We've been experiencing the same issue.

HEY SHOPIFY!!! STOP IGNORING AND DOWNPLAYING MAJOR ISSUES PLEASE

hausofzeros
Visitor
2 0 3

I know this doesn't offer a solution however after some testing we realized that the more payment options we have activated the slower the response time is between clicking "Check Out" and arriving to the actual check-out page. We noticed a significant reduction in speed when we activated the Amazon Pay button & Google Wallet Button.

alvintyc
Tourist
3 0 6

Indeed, we have also saw a very drastic drop in speed once clicking checkout which takes at least 5 secs for the page to load to shipping.

This needs to really be improved. It is quite a drastic difference when our pages are loading much faster and the customer may start to feel that something is wrong with the page.

laxus8
Visitor
1 0 3

I tested on mobile.
We've been experiencing the same issue.

DavidBraesch
Visitor
2 0 3

I am having the same issue, it is too slow and is ruining my conversions 

philvassil
Visitor
2 0 0

I'm experiencing the same thing..

I just finished my online store. Everything is working great - EXCEPT -  getting from the cart to the check out is super slow... 4-6 seconds.. I was loving shopify until now.. plz help.! 

Markwb
Shopify Partner
1 0 0

Hi Phil - can u confirm if your site has now sped up or was it intermittent ? we have some users that appear to experience this intermittently and others that dont have this issue.   how is your system performing now ?

philvassil
Visitor
2 0 0
Hi- The check out speed seems to be much better now. *under 3 seconds.
Thank you!
SarahA
Tourist
14 0 1

I am also having this issue--my shop is relatively new, and I have just started working with google ads and have noticed a big increase in customers adding to cart and abandoning checkout. When I check this myself it is VERY slow. I'm working on optimizing my store speed otherwise, which isn't terrible, and the checkout is much slower. Is there a fix for this now?

Blonde_mermaid
Tourist
4 0 0

Same! And of course Shopify support said it’s all good!

Were you able

to

solve this problem?

Zoe_Brooks1
Tourist
10 0 8

We are also experiencing this, when you click Proceed to Checkout from cart it takes about 5 seconds to load!

tnl_admin
Visitor
2 0 3

We are also experiencing this issue. I think it’s consistently reproducible if you clear your cache and then add a product to cart and click checkout. I’m sure this has cost us conversions. Our collection pages are lightning fast and then you attempt to checkout and get stuck for 5-7 seconds.

I’m over here trying to optimize my site with A/B tests, performance improvements etc., meanwhile the most egregious bug is hiding behind the checkout button.

I’m sure we’re not all using the same theme, but we are on blockshop FWIW.

We also have the additional checkout options enabled plus shop pay. 

Nici1
Tourist
7 0 17

Thank you for everyone who is participating here.
I have not even received a response from support for 6 days.

  • This is after I submitted everything requested.
  • Screenshots
  • Videos (from us and other shops).
  •  .har files (developer console records) both for when the checkout is working and when the checkout is delayed so they can compare

The only thing I get to hear is "it's not a shopify problem". When I refer to the thread here it's "we can't compare you to other shops".

Really a joke! Instead of addressing the problem, they try to sweep it under the table. Either they say "it's your theme" or "it's the apps" but they never accept that it's an infrastructure problem.

Please all contact support and refer to this thread. We need to increase the pressure to finally be taken seriously.


For all those who also want to send a .har file, here are the instructions https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204410413-Generating-a-HAR-file-for-troubleshooting

I also did speedtests on gtmetrix.com ,in the waterfall you can see that most of it is Shopify resources blocking the rendering.

Sharon_B
Pathfinder
104 1 36

I've also wondered this week if something isn't going on with checkout. I'm getting a lot of add to carts that go no further. Which is fairly unusual.

adamjson64
Visitor
1 0 1

I believe we're still losing sales to this issue. I was able to reproduce it again and it took about 15-20 seconds to load the checkout page. The bug seems intermittent, I'm wondering if it has to do with cache eviction when changes are made to the site. Is everyone else thats experiencing this issue making frequent changes to their site? I'm just trying to start isolating the issue and collecting evidence to go to support with.

yourwillandtest
New Member
4 0 0

Im also having this issue. Has anyone got any solutions to speed up the checkout process from the cart.

FilipposD
Shopify Partner
45 1 19

I'm not sure what can slow down the checkout page on every different store, but I suspect it's an asset that's blocking the page load. It could be a payment option's JS code, for example.

The first step is to open the Network tab in the DevTools and look at the waterfall column. It's an indication of how long these assets take.

I've seen 6 seconds to load even Shopify's own assets from their own CDN. And this varies with every device, internet connection etc.

A solution I can think of, is preload these assets even before the customer visits the checkout page. They would remain on the visitor's browser cache and be available during checkout load (someone mentioned this issue only on the 1st load).

When it comes to native preloading, you can't really do that without Shopify Plus.

And of course, that depends on what kind of asset we're talking about. Some of these might not allow caching. 

Nici1
Tourist
7 0 17

Shopify is aware of these problems, I have an open ticket with developer support team, they are working on the issue.

I found out that requests to "http://monorail-edge.shopifysvc.com/" are the cause of the delays and problems at least for us it is like this.

tnl_admin
Visitor
2 0 3

Until Shopify starts pre-seeding the cart cache after the cache has been invalidated, our workaround has been to add to cart and go to checkout after every single change we make to our store. This includes changes to product descriptions, inventory etc. Pretty much everything seems to trigger it.

This must be resulting in a lot of lost revenue for Shopify and all of its merchants alike. Imagine how often store edits are made and how slow the first checkout is after each edit. Multiple that over millions of transactions and I expect the lost revenue is significant.

inci
Visitor
1 0 0

Might shopify charge extra for faster checkout?

🙂

Seaholm1
Visitor
2 0 0

Our Checkout speed is very slow as well.  We are converting less that half of those that reach CHECKOUT.  Our over conversion percentage has plummeted.  We can't stay on Shopify if this continues.  If there are any developments let us know.

RobertMiddaugh
Visitor
2 0 0

I am also having this issue with my store. The cart to checkout speed is just atrocious. 

darklost
Visitor
3 0 0

we are also having this issue, at the beginning it was very far now from cart to checkout it is so slow, we are losing sales I'm sure. Don't know why shopify doesn't fix this.

CSWEETS1
Visitor
1 0 0

This is still an issue and I have a brand new store.

dpstod
Tourist
3 0 1

Same issues. Just had webshop optimized for speed, with great results, but checkout is frustratingly slow. I already dropped shop pay and the sales channel, speed increased slightly, but still performing very very bad.