There are 3 metrics to pay attention to when testing a website’s load time & performance:
First Contentful Paint (FCP) time: how long it takes for the first pixels to load
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) time: how long it takes for the largest image & text to load on the site. This is the most common way of measuring how long it takes for a site to be fully loaded for a visitor.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): this is a measure of how “stable” the website is when loading (i.e. do images load in and stay in place or do they shift up/down when loading in the website)
FCP, LCP, and CLS are the most common metrics used when measuring website loading speed and performance. Together, these 3 have a strong impact on conversion rate, organic ranking, paid marketing performance, and overall customer experience.
Here are the results of the audit:
FCP time
Passedon mobile devices
Passed on desktop devices
LCP time
Passedon mobile devices
Failedon desktop devices
CLS score
Failedon mobile devices
Failedon desktop devices
LCP time results
The recommended LCP time for ecommerce websites is <2.5 seconds.
The Sol de Janeiro website has an LCP time of 2.9 seconds on desktop.
CLS score
The recommended CLS score for ecommerce websites in <0.1.
The Sol de Janeiro website has a CLS score of 0.16 on mobile and 0.69 on desktop.
This means that the Sol de Janeiro website is taking too long to load and is randomly shifting around while loading - both of which hurt user experience.
This will cause a poor user experience, and has shown to have negative impacts on conversion rates, bounce rates, search ranking, and paid marketing performance.
Websites that meet the recommended CLS threshold of 0.1 see 24% less abandonment of page loads by users (
Ecommerce is a game of milliseconds. Online shoppers are impatient, and each additional second of website load time will negatively impact conversion rates. Every 0.1 second improvement in page load time will increase overall CVR by up to 8% (
The audit identified a handful of technical issues that are causing slow loading times and instability. However, there are optimizations that could fix both issues:
Loading time: compressing Javascript code to reduce execution time, deleting unused Javascript/CSS code.
Layout shift: Defining the size for images and videos, reserving space for dynamic content, optimizing website fonts, preloading code and images.
to help ecommerce companies maximize their conversion rate through proper site speed optimization. To date, we’ve helped more than a dozen Shopify sites increase their CVR by 20-50% through site speed optimization.
If you’d like to learn more about our site speed optimization services:
Explanation: First Contentful Paint (FCP) measures how long it takes for content to start appearing on a website. This is typically an empty box or plain text. It’s the first pixels rendered in for the site.
Optimal time for ecommerce sites is < 1.8 seconds.
Largest Contentful Paint: 2.5 seconds
Explanation: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for a website to display its biggest single content element. It's one of the most common ways to measure page load time.
Optimal time for ecommerce sites is < 2.5 seconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.16 seconds
Explanation: Cumulative Layout Shift is a measure of how “stable” your website it after it first renders. A website that has content shift down as more object load will have a higher score. Cumulative Layout Shift is one of the core ranking factors for Google.
Optime score for ecommerce sites is < 0.1.
Technical Issues
Reduce Javascript execution time / Reduce unused Javascript code
In short, this means that there is a substantial amount Javascript, HTML, and CSS code that is slowing down the site. There are four ways that Javascript code can accumulate on your site: when you connect a new Shopify app, when you use certain themes, when you use third-party scripts such as Facebook Pixel or Google Analytics, and if you have custom code on your site. The biggest culprit is Shopify apps. Each app “injects” a bit of code into your site. Even if the app is deleted, the code it injects stays behind. Over time, this code will slow down your site’s load time.
Minimize main-thread work
Main thread overload happens when too many tasks, like heavy JavaScript execution, complex CSS code, and third-party scripts, are processed simultaneously. This slows down the site’s load time. The best way to fix this is to delete unused Javascript, compress essential Javascript code, and remove unnecessary third party scripts.
Optimize Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
The LCP takes up a considerable amount of main thread resources when loading. As a result, it needs to be optimized through image compression, preloading important page elements, and eliminating unused CSS and Javascript files.
Reduce the impact of third-party code
Third-party scripts, such as ads, analytics, and social media widgets, can slow down your site. Delaying the firing of analytics, or deferring them from using the main thread, can improve performance.
Desktop Page Speed Audit
Results
First Contentful Paint: 1.6 seconds
Explanation: First Contentful Paint (FCP) measures how long it takes for content to start appearing on a website. This is typically an empty box or plain text. It’s the first pixels rendered in for the site.
Optimal time for ecommerce sites is < 1.8 seconds.
Largest Contentful Paint: 2.9 seconds
Explanation: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for a website to display its biggest single content element. It's one of the most common ways to measure page load time.
Optimal time for ecommerce sites is < 2.5 seconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.69
Explanation: Cumulative Layout Shift is a measure of how “stable” your website it after it first renders. A website that has content shift down as more object load will have a higher score. Cumulative Layout Shift is one of the core ranking factors for Google.
Optime score for ecommerce sites is < 0.1.
Technical Issues
Reduce Javascript execution time / Reduce unused Javascript code
In short, this means that there is a substantial amount Javascript, HTML, and CSS code that is slowing down the site. There are four ways that Javascript code can accumulate on your site: when you connect a new Shopify app, when you use certain themes, when you use third-party scripts such as Facebook Pixel or Google Analytics, and if you have custom code on your site. The biggest culprit is Shopify apps. Each app “injects” a bit of code into your site. Even if the app is deleted, the code it injects stays behind. Over time, this code will slow down your site’s load time.
Minimize main-thread work
Main thread overload happens when too many tasks, like heavy JavaScript execution, complex CSS code, and third-party scripts, are processed simultaneously. This slows down the site’s load time. The best way to fix this is to delete unused Javascript, compress essential Javascript code, and remove unnecessary third party scripts.
Optimize Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
The LCP takes up a considerable amount of main thread resources when loading. As a result, it needs to be optimized through image compression, preloading important page elements, and eliminating unused CSS and Javascript files.
Reduce the impact of third-party code
Third-party scripts, such as ads, analytics, and social media widgets, can slow down your site. Delaying the firing of analytics, or deferring them from using the main thread, can improve performance.
Ecommerce Site Speed Statistics
Anyone selling products on the internet should think about their website’s speed. It’s the biggest lever any ecommerce business can make to increase sales and revenue.
And the research backs it up:
Improving a website’s load time by 1 second can increase mobile conversion rate by up to 27% (
Let’s make it real with an example. Let’s say an ecommerce site get’s 100,000 visitors per month and has a 3% conversion rate.
If that site is optimized for speed, and see a 20% increase in conversion rates, it would go from 3000 sales/month to 3600 sales/month. At an AOV of $30, that’s an addition $20,000 per month in sales for every 100,000 visitors.