Earlier this year, in the month of June 2021, Shopify online store 2.0 was launched at the Unify event. The launch was well received, as it entirely revamped the store experience by introducing a new set of developer tools. With Shopify 2.0, everyone can now establish, personalize, scale, and monetize their business on Shopify.
However, one of the major concerns for the store owners has remained to be the site speed. This is because customers are more likely to abandon a slow-loading eCommerce website. In fact, each second’s delay reduces customer satisfaction by 16% on average. So, how does Shopify 2.0 help in site speed optimization? Let us find out more about this further in this article.
We have compiled this quick guide to help you understand the various features that help to improve the page speed, and the overall Shopify store performance!
Shopify’s Liquid Code To The Rescue!
Before the launch of Online Store 2.0, the most common suggestion for how to improve the website performance was to reduce the number of Shopify apps and third-party code which takes time to load. However, with the new store in play, Shopify Apps no longer have to face these performance issues. This is because, before the update, the only way to change how your website looked or behaved was through JavaScript. And JavaScript was a performance killer because it runs on your device, slowing it down as the page loads.
However, with the launch of Online Store 2.0, apps can now use Shopify’s Liquid code to add themselves to your website. The liquid code runs on Shopify’s servers, which means your visitors will not have to face heavy coding which slows down their devices. This is a major feature, which makes a marginal improvement in page speed optimization.
New Dawn Theme Is Set To Make All The Difference
Another exciting feature of the Online Store 2.0 was the new Dawn Theme. For better understanding, Shopify themes are the codes and files which power the Shopify website. The new Dawn theme includes not only the updates needed to utilize the Online Store 2.0 but also has been attuned for performance according to Shopify.
Dawn proves to be a significant improvement in terms of speed over its predecessors. It is expected to be 35% faster in all areas and has advanced features which make editing faster.
New Developer Tools for the Win!
The new developer tools released by Shopify for Online Store 2.0 will help the Shopify theme developers to figure out why the code they are writing is likely to slow down their website. This is a great change because ultimately its the developer who is responsible for the optimum performance of the website Below are some new tools to help developers create more performant themes are:
- Theme Check
This tool checks the theme code which the developers write to ensure it does not have any performance issues, besides detecting other coding issues. It is more like a spell checker for codes.
- Shopify Lighthouse CI
It is a performance-checking tool that runs prior to the developer deploying a theme to a Shopify store. It is more like a gatekeeper to ensure that the new updates to a theme pass the threshold of performance, or else it rejects the same. This way the developer can make sure that the website does not slow down when they push out new updates.
Key Takeaways
Website performance and page speed optimization are some of the biggest concerns for ecommerce brands. This is because reducing the page load time by even a few seconds can reduce the bounce rate by 32%, which in turn helps to increase the revenue. And the new announcements from Shopify 2.0 is sure to make improvement in the site speed, making it more responsive.
At Kloc Technologies, we have an experienced team of developers who can help you make the most of the new features announced by Shopify. So get in touch with us today to know more!
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