What's the biggest factor that improved your Shopify store speed?

Motivation
1

I’ve been researching store performance and noticed merchants often get different results from speed optimization efforts.

What change had the biggest impact on your store’s loading speed and user experience?

Was it image optimization, app cleanup, theme changes, or something else?

2

For me the biggest single win wasn’t image optimization, it was cutting apps that inject render-blocking scripts on every page. A lot of stores carry eight to ten apps where two or three do nothing useful anymore but still load JS sitewide, including on pages where they’re never used. Removing or scoping those usually beats another round of image compression.

After that it’s the theme’s above-the-fold work: lazy-load everything below the hero, but make sure the hero image itself is NOT lazy-loaded, that’s a really common mistake that tanks LCP. Images matter, but they’re rarely the thing holding a store back once you’ve done the obvious first pass. How many apps are installed on the store you’re looking at?

3

Also added some suggestions @WebsiteDeveloper

Store Speed Optimization is a very common concern for merchants… but I will recommend you. If it creates a problem for website conversion and traffic.. then move on to it; otherwise, take a call smartly for save your time and money…

https://pagespeed.web.dev/ - Simple audit, you store and fix all possible issues - because a lot of factors depend on the store - speed optimization

4

Hi @WebsiteDeveloper ,
In my experience, app cleanup usually delivers the biggest improvement. Many stores accumulate apps over time, and even after uninstalling them, leftover scripts can continue affecting performance.

Other optimizations that often have a noticeable impact include:

  • Compressing and properly sizing images.
  • Replacing heavy apps with lighter alternatives or native Shopify features.
  • Reducing third-party scripts (chat widgets, tracking tools, popups, etc.).
  • Optimizing the homepage by limiting large sections and excessive animations.
  • Upgrading to a well-optimized Online Store 2.0 theme.

While image optimization helps, app and script reduction tends to provide the most significant gains in both loading speed and overall user experience. I’d be interested to hear what has worked best for other merchants.

5

Cutting unnecessary apps that load scripts sitewide gave me the biggest speed boost. Also, lazy-load images below the hero but keep the hero image loading normally. Optimizing or switching to a lightweight theme helps too.