How to improve mobile performance on Shopify store? 10 tactics

In this fast-paced world, it is very important to deliver a fast, smooth and an optimized mobile experience to the users of your Shopify store in order to draw and retain customers. With more and more shoppers viewing and making purchases using the handheld devices, it is extremely important to ensure that the store created on Shopify has to be mobile friendly. Here is a simple guide on ten techniques to enhance the mobile performance of a Shopify store. These tips include everything – be it budget or ideas or designs or templates or even the process of signing in. 

1. Pick a Responsive Theme

The easiest way and foremost thinking when aiming at optimization of a mobile performance of a particular Shopify store is to let’s say begin with a mobile responsive theme. Shopify has numerous themes to choose yet not all of them are made mobile compliant. A good responsive theme will respond to the screen size and re-arrange the contents without compromising on the ease of access. This is how you should do it: 

• Use free and paid templates available in Shopify which are optimized for mobile. These templates are usually pre-optimized for small screen usage and also optimized for speed. 

• Do not use themes that have a lot of features because they may be appealing in the computer view but may cause your site to lag in mobile view. 

• Employing a Custom Mobile theme design goes a long way in enhancing the mobile usability of the shopify store designs without engaging in complicated coding. 

2. Adjusting Images and Media for Each Device

If images and media files are large, they may affect loading speed on your mobile site. So as to enhance loading speed and ensure users have an excellent experience: 

• Reduce image size through use of tools like TinyPNG or image compression capabilities present on Shopify. 

• Choose the Correct File Type, i.e. print images in JPEG and use web images in both JPG and WebP( but this one is the best at low weight). 

• Make use of images on demand for the users, that is, implement lazy loading of images. 

This approach is useful not only in speeding up the processes but also it helps in cutting down the operational expenses incurred from movement of big data, especially for the users who are on mobile networks. 

3. Cut Down on Applications or any Other Third-Party Integration

The apps in the Shopify app store extend the functionality of the store, however, each app comes with a cost of reduced page load speeds. Too many unnecessary apps risk adding excess JavaScript and CSS which makes businesses become slow on mobile. These are the steps to take: 

•  Make sure that you periodically check the list of the apps that you have and remove any that you do not use on a regular basis. 

• Instead of having multiple individual apps, try to find one app that contains all necessary features. 

Reducing the use of apps can save on mobile performance on a Shopify store because it can lower the pressure on the server hence increasing the speed. 

4. Improve the Login Procedure in your Store

In case you have a Shopify store that requires customers to log in, an optimized login process will most definitely improve the experience of maneuvering the store on mobile device. Below are some suggestions on how to enhance mobile performance on the login of a Shopify store: 

• This is one of the fastest login option available on mobile enhances user’s experience and therefore should be provided. (social log in google, facebook narrative) 

• Minimize the login form by eliminating any extra fields that are not necessary 

• Provide the option of enabling autofill so that typing is not excessively relied on. 

A simplified login process can reduce the time taken for mobile users to get into their accounts. 

5. Implement the Use of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Well as a mobile device goes, most weighted out web-pages are known to be within no time loading devices. Google has this technology for those who own stores and are aiming at making their websites more efficient: 

• Get an entering app of AMP or rather include its functionality on your theme; this is aimed at putting the load time on a relatively shorter time. 

• Expand the use of AMP technology to product pages or news articles which are usually accessed by numerous visitors and hence require loading speed. 

This might help enhance the mobile user experience on ready-to-use themes for Shopify stores because templates for AMP ready themes are optimized for short loading time. 

6. Streamline the Mobile Navigation experience

A well-structured simple navigation is a necessity for any users of a mobile device in order to make locating the products easy. Very detailed menus can discourage and even frustrate the users. Below are some navigation techniques: 

•  A sticky header which disappears when not needed should be applicable even when scrolling. 

• Use category sections with drop down or pop-up menus that can be used on mobiles to organize items and collections effectively. 

• Decrease the number of menu items available for selection to avoid confusion 

This will also go a long way in enhancing the mobile performance on Shopify store design since there will be no extensive loadings of several different navigation pages. 

7. Allow Browser Caching

By keeping certain parts of your site, such as images and CSS files, on the user’s device, browser caching can save time and data for the returning users. To allow caching: 

• Collaborate with your developer or take advantage of the caching abilities offered by Shopify to enable caching settings. 

• Assign a time after which cached files will no longer be valid in order to ensure the returning users does not have to wait long to load the pages. 

One of the practical strategies to raise the mobile speed of your Shopify store for returning clients is enabling browser caching. 

8. Minify Code and Limit Active Redirects

Most of the Shopify themes come in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code which at times can be very extensive in nature. Reducing the amount of code by minifying it and limiting the number of redirects greatly helps in the mobile speed. 

• Use a minification tool or app to Minify CSS and JavaScript. 

• Eliminate extra code or merge CSS and JavaScript files where applicable. 

• Do not use multiple redirects unless it is necessary because every redirect incurs an additional waiting period. 

On the other hand, adding value to the visual design of the Shopify store for enhancing its mobile performance entails optimization of code. Optimizing the code will enable faster loading especially on mobile connections. 

9. Content Delivery Network (CDN) usage

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) provides globally a system of servers that share the content of your store. In other words, this also makes Shopify store mobile performance more efficient because the nearest server provides the content thereby reducing the time taken to load. 

• Even though Using a CDN is part of the shopify service, check its deployment. 

• Make sure that all media, including pictures, are uploaded using the CDN to cut down the usage time across all areas. 

CDNs are convenient especially for people with eCommerce sites situated in different geography or a many mobile users. 

10. Make Sure to Conduct Tests and Assess the Mobile Performance on a Regular Basis

Testing and monitoring are key in sustaining mobile performance and enhancing it even further. Here are several tools and strategies: 

• Utilize either Google PageSpeed Insights or the Performance section in the admin panel of Shopify in order to monitor the speed and receive remarks. 

• Examine the Google Analytics to evaluate the mobile users and identify areas for improvements. 

• Change elements and perform A/B testing so that you don’t make changes that do not work. 

Regular testing allows you to monitor your mobile performance as there may be changes in content or design that can affect speed, user experience and more. 

  

Improving mobile performance for a Shopify store is a balance of applying appropriate templates, minimizing weighty media expenses, fine-tuning designs, and easing the login experience. Implementing those ten tactics that include theme selection all the way to performance-testing will ensure that mobile commerce shopify place or consumers may place orders quickly movable and gratefully. All the intensive work devoted to improving mobile performance pays off in increased user satisfaction and lower rates of abandonment and improved conversions.