How to get a fast load time on your collection pages.
We all know that. We come to a collection page where the loading time is far too slow. The result is often the same - we slip on and find another place to shop. And it also happens even though we are in the perfect target group
It is not good!
So with a few changes, you can happily make the experience for your visitors MUCH better.
We've tested it for you
We have tested 50 different Shopify websites on their performance within 5 different criteria; the overall performance, website accessibility, Best Practices, SEO and how long it takes to interact with the entire collection page.
And the results are clear!
The biggest factor for poor performance is too large resolutions on images. The product images are simply uploaded too large for the website to load them all quickly enough and thereby provide a good experience for the customer.
And who cares to let their customers wait too long?
Let's take an example - Can you see the difference between the two pictures below?
With the eye, it can be hard to see where they differ, but in your load time, there is a world of difference. The image on the left is 344 KB, while the image on the right is 86 KB. It is a third load time you can save per. image on your collection pages.
And that time is significant for your visitors and thus also your conversion rate.
On the 50 shopify websites that we have tested, there were an average of 27 different products per. collection page, and if the images are not optimized, it gives a strong effect on load time - a negative effect!
See the graph below. It tells you what your load time is on non-optimized images.
But if you make sure to optimize your images on your product pages, the graph will look like this:
... What a difference!
2 easy steps to optimize your load time on your collection pages
1 - Compress your photos:
Compress your images to the lowest possible size without compromising image quality. We also do not want a poorly pixelated image, which becomes too blurry for it to live up to your standards.
The tool takes care of removing all the unnecessary that is in the image you upload, and a lot of time is saved for your visitors who will quickly see your products.
2 - Load only 4 images at a time on your collection pages:
Out of the 50 tests, it was crucial that the websites that only loaded 3-4 product images at a time had the best result. By scrolling further, the next 3-4 images were then loaded - with the same result.
This means that as a potential customer you do not waste time waiting for the pictures, and you can therefore quickly move on to the products you are interested in.
... It's good service!
Both at the small and large end of the scale, this very small initiative can really make a big difference to your load time. Just take a look at the graph below.
The graph compares the loading of resp. 20, 40, 60 and 80 products at one time compared to loading only 4 products at a time. The gray fields show the saving in load time.
Another factor that you should also note in relation to poor performance is unused JavaScript, which lies in the background without any benefit. On average, the 50 webshops that we tested can save a full 3.66 sec. at each loading by deleting unused JavaScript.
It's wild! 3.66 sec.!
Speed is one of the most important things when running a webshop, and therefore every millisecond counts for your visitors.
There may be unused third-party services lying around without you knowing it. And there may be apps that take up more space than you think, etc. Therefore, it can only be recommended that you crawl your website for places where you can save seconds.
