Shopify store speed isn’t just nice to have, it drives conversions. Slow stores frustrate visitors, increase bounce rates and leave revenue on the table.
So what actually counts as a “good” shopify store speed? And what’s the average shopify store speed?
In this article, we’ll break down the importance of your store’s speed, how to check your store’s speed and finally what’s considered a good shopify store speed so you know what you should aim for. Whether you’re just getting started or already running a high-traffic store, these insights will help you understand where your site stands and how you can improve it.
Understanding Shopify Store Speed
What Is Shopify Store Speed?
Shopify store speed refers to how quickly your online store loads and responds when a user visits. This includes the time it takes for your homepage, product pages, collection pages, and cart to become fully usable across different devices including computers, tablets and mobile phones.
It’s typically measured using metrics like:
- First Contentful Paint (FCP) - when something first appears on screen
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - when the main content finishes loading
- Time to Interactive (TTI) - when the page becomes responsive
- Total Blocking Time (TBT) - delays in interactivity
Importance of Store Speed in E-commerce
Store speed in e-commerce is an incredibly important factor for conversion rates, bounce rates, and user experience. Having a good shopify store speed improves user experience and causes less frustration which in turn, leads to less bounces and more purchases.
How to Check Shopify Store Speed
Before discussing what’s a good speed, let’s break down how you can actually check your store’s speed using online tools.
Step-by-Step Guide to Checking Speed
Here’s a simple, step by step guide on how to check your store’s speed:
1. First, head over to pagespeed.web.dev and enter your store’s URL.
2. Next, click on analyse and it will start testing your store’s speed.
3. Shortly afterwards, you should see a report with some metrics. You can switch between desktop and mobile at the top of the screen.
4. Lastly, you’re going to want to compare your metrics against the benchmarks we’ll be providing later in this article.
Tools for Testing Shopify Store Speed
There’s a few tools you can use to check your store’s speed. The guide above uses pagespeed insights which is made by Google so it’s a very trusted source of truth for your speed.
Here’s a few different options you may to try:
Analyzing Your Speed Results
To actually analyze your speed results, you can check the colour of each metric and get a good indication on how it’s doing. As expected, green means good so if all of your metrics are green, you’re likely doing a good job.
Orange means not good but also not terrible. You should still aim to improve your orange metrics as much as you can.
Lastly, red indicates a poor result that you’re going to want to remedy immediately. If you want tips on how you can directly improve all of your stores metrics, check out our guide -> How to Speed Up My Shopify Store: 10 Essential Tips for 2025
What Is Considered a Good Shopify Store Speed?
Now that we’ve covered why speed matters and how to check your store’s speed, let’s dive into the average shopify store speed and some benchmarks for optimal performance.
Average Shopify Store Speed
Here are some performance metrics for the average shopify store from Go Fish Digital.
- First Contentful Paint: 3.8 seconds
- Time To Interactive: 22.1 seconds
- Total Page Size: 4.41 MB
- Total Image Assets: 2.1 MB
- Requests: 171
Benchmarks for Optimal Performance
Heres are some benchmarks for optimal performance based on our extensive experience:
- First Contentful Paint - 1.8s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 2.5s
- Time to Interactive - 3.8s
- Total Blocking Time - less than 200ms (0.2s)
Ideally, your shopify store’s speed is at or below these metrics to be considered fast by modern standards.
Factors Affecting Your Shopify Store Speed
Now that we’ve covered benchmarks to aim for, here are some factors that affect your store’s speed and the performance metrics mentioned earlier.
Images and Media Optimisation
Images and media optimisation is one of the largest factors that impacts your store’s speed. Poorly optimized media slows your store down significantly and impacts metrics like your FCP, LCP, and event time to interactive (TTI).
Check out our detailed guide on image optimisation if you’re looking to improve yours - Unlock Your Stores Potential with the Best Image Optimizer for Shopify
Theme choice impact on Speed
Your theme choice also impacts your store’s speed. Choosing a bloated, feature heavy theme is generally slower than lighter, more optimized shopify themes.
This is because excessive CSS and JS code negatively impacts page load speed since it has to be fetched and processed every time a user loads the website.
If you want to use a lightweight, performant theme, check out our guide -> Discover the Fastest Shopify Themes to Transform Your Online Business
Third-party Apps and Their Effects
The apps you have installed on your store also impact your performance. Each app you install will load additional code on your store, which will slow down your store.
Does this mean you shouldn’t use any apps?
Not at all, but be wise and efficient with which apps you decide to use.
Expert Insights on Improving Shopify Store Speed
Improving your Shopify store’s speed isn’t just about running a few tests and installing an app, it takes real expertise and experience. In this section, we’ve gathered insights from industry experts and developers who work on Shopify stores every day, including the team at Futuremerce, where we specialize in optimizing store performance through clean code, smart UX, and tailored development strategies.
Tips from Industry Professionals
These expert tips will help you understand what truly moves the needle when it comes to site speed in 2025.
1. Use a minimal, well-built theme as a foundation
Many themes are bloated out-of-the-box. At Futuremerce, we often start with a lightweight framework like Dawn and build custom sections to minimize overhead.
2. Run regular speed audits and tests to ensure your speed is up to date
Tools like pagespeed insights are free to use and give you actionable metrics that you can use to improve your store’s speed. Running these tests regularly, especially if your store is updated frequently, can help you tackle performance issues as they arise.
3. Consolidate CSS and JavaScript Where Possible
Shopify themes often have scattered scripts and styles. Bundle them thoughtfully to reduce the number of requests and improve Time to First Byte (TTFB).
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Some common mistakes to avoid when optimizing your store speed include:
Choosing a bloated and overbuilt theme
Many popular Shopify themes are packed with features most brands don’t use. Start with a minimal base and build only what you need.
Optimising for speed without considering UX
Stripping down everything for speed—like removing all animations or preloading too little—can hurt usability and perceived brand quality. Always balance performance with experience.
Minifying or Compressing Files Without Testing
Blindly compressing or minifying JavaScript and CSS can break interactive features if not tested properly. Always test theme updates in a staging environment or duplicate theme.
To prevent this issue, read our detailed guide on minifying JS and CSS files -> How to Minify JavaScript and CSS in Shopify for Faster Load Times
Not Benchmarking Before and After Changes
Making performance changes without tracking their impact makes it hard to know what’s working. Always benchmark speed metrics before optimizing - Futuremerce does this on every project.
Conclusion
Recap of Key Takeaways
Speed directly impacts conversions — a slow Shopify store frustrates users, increases bounce rates, and leaves revenue on the table.
The average Shopify store is far from ideal, with metrics like First Contentful Paint at 3.8s and Time to Interactive at 22.1s.
To meet modern performance standards, aim for these optimal benchmarks:
- First Contentful Paint (FCP): 1.8s
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.5s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 3.8s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): under 200ms (0.2s)
Use tools like PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix, and Pingdom to measure your store’s performance—then compare against the benchmarks.
Your theme choice, media files, and third-party apps all heavily affect your store’s speed.
Implement expert-backed tips from Futuremerce, like starting with a minimal theme, consolidating scripts, and running regular audits.
Avoid common mistakes: don’t over-optimize at the cost of UX, never skip benchmarking, and always test changes before going live.
Want a Faster Store Without the Guesswork?
At Futuremerce, we specialize in helping Shopify brands improve site speed through clean code, smart theme architecture, and deep performance audits. If you’re ready to stop losing sales to slow load times, check out our Speed Optimisation Service and see how we can help you hit the benchmarks that matter.
