How to Speed Up Shopify Checkout

Checkout speed might be the most underrated conversion factor in e-commerce.

Every additional second of checkout load time costs you approximately 7% in conversions. Not 0.7%,seven percent. On a store doing $2M/year, a 2-second improvement in checkout speed could be worth $140K+ in additional revenue.

And yet, I see stores adding badges, widgets, pop-ups, and custom scripts to checkout like it's free. It's not.

Why Checkout Speed Matters (More Than You Think)

When someone starts checkout, they're in buying mode. They've decided to purchase. Their credit card is out (or they're ready to one-click).

A slow checkout breaks that momentum. It gives people time to:

• Reconsider the purchase
• Get distracted (notification, doorbell, whatever)
• Worry something is wrong
• Comparison shop in another tab

Fast checkout maintains buying momentum. The transaction completes before doubt creeps in.

A home goods brand had a 4.1 second checkout load time. We got it to 1.9 seconds. Checkout completion rate went from 58% to 67%. Same checkout, same fields, same design, just faster.

How to Measure Checkout Speed

Before optimizing, measure your baseline.

Method 1: Google PageSpeed Insights

Enter your checkout URL directly (you'll need to have items in cart). Look at "Time to Interactive" metric.

Target: Under 2.5 seconds

Method 2: Chrome DevTools

1. Open checkout with items in cart
2. Open DevTools (F12)
3. Go to Network tab
4. Set throttling to "Fast 3G" (simulates mobile)
5. Hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R)
6. Look at "Load" time in the bottom bar

Target: Under 3 seconds on Fast 3G

Method 3: Real User Monitoring

GA4 can track page load times. Set up a custom event for checkout load time. This shows you what actual customers experience.

The Speed Killers (What's Slowing You Down)

1. Third-Party Scripts

This is the big one. Every script that loads external data adds latency.

Common culprits:

• Review badges (calling Yotpo/Judge.me in checkout)
• Trust badges that load from external CDNs
• Chat widgets (do you really need chat in checkout?)
• Conversion tracking pixels (some load slowly)
• Custom fonts from Google Fonts

A fashion brand had 23 external scripts loading in checkout. We reduced it to 7. Checkout time dropped from 5.2 seconds to 2.1 seconds.

How to fix:

• Audit checkout scripts in DevTools (Network tab, filter by "JS")
• Question every script: "Does this need to be in checkout?"
• Move non-essential scripts to confirmation page
• Use native Shopify features over third-party when possible

2. Unoptimized Images

Images load during checkout, logo, product thumbnails, trust badges.

Quick wins:

• Compress your logo (it doesn't need to be 500KB)
• Use WebP format where possible
• Resize images to actual display size (don't use a 1000px image at 100px)
• Lazy load non-essential images

One store's checkout logo was 1.2MB. They compressed it to 45KB with no visible quality loss. Checkout load improved by 0.8 seconds.

3. Custom Checkout.liquid Modifications

If you're on Shopify Plus and have customized checkout.liquid, check what you've added:

• Custom scripts
• External API calls
• Complex conditional logic
• Custom styling that loads external fonts

Even CSS can slow things down if it's calling external resources.

4. Too Many Payment Options

Yes, payment options are important. But each one adds some overhead:

• The icons need to load
• The APIs need to initialize
• More options = more visual complexity

If you have 10 different payment options, consider if all of them are actually used. Check your analytics, if a payment method is under 2% of orders, consider removing it.

5. Unoptimized Theme Code

Some themes have bloated checkout styling. Even if you're using Shopify's standard checkout, your theme's global styles might be loading.

Test in multiple themes. If checkout is significantly faster in Dawn (Shopify's default theme), your theme might be adding overhead.

Quick Wins (Do These First)

1. Enable Shop Pay and Express Checkout

Express checkout options bypass most of your checkout page. Someone clicking "Shop Pay" goes straight to confirmation, your slow checkout doesn't matter for them.

Turn on:

• Shop Pay
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• PayPal Express

These are native to Shopify and don't add load time.

2. Remove Chat from Checkout

Chat widgets are often the slowest thing on the page. Do people really need to chat during checkout?

If you must have chat available, use a simple "Need help? Email us" link instead of a live chat widget.

3. Compress and Optimize Your Logo

Your logo loads on every checkout page. Make it tiny:

• Export at exact display size
• Use PNG or WebP
• Compress aggressively
• Target under 50KB

4. Defer Non-Essential Scripts

Conversion tracking doesn't need to load before checkout is interactive. Use defer or async attributes to load scripts after the page is usable.

Example: \<script defer src="your-tracking-script.js"></script>\

5. Remove Unused Apps

Every app you've installed might be adding scripts to checkout. Audit your apps:

• Go through your installed apps
• Check which ones add checkout scripts
• Uninstall anything you're not actively using

Advanced Optimization (For Bigger Stores)

Server-Side Rendering

If you're on Shopify Plus with custom checkout development, use server-side rendering for any custom components. Client-side rendering adds load time.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Shopify uses a CDN by default, but if you're loading external resources, make sure they're served from a CDN close to your customers.

Preloading Key Resources

You can hint to browsers to start loading checkout resources before someone clicks checkout. Add preconnect and prefetch links to your cart page header:

• \<link rel="preconnect" href="https://cdn.shopify.com">\
• \<link rel="prefetch" href="/checkout">\

Removing Render-Blocking Resources

In DevTools, check which resources are render-blocking. Inline critical CSS if necessary. Defer non-critical stylesheets.

Testing Checkout Speed Improvements

When you make changes:

1. Test on mobile (most of your customers are mobile)
2. Test on throttled connections (Fast 3G simulation)
3. Test with real products in cart (not an empty checkout)
4. Measure before AND after
5. Give it time, don't draw conclusions from one day of data

Case Study: 2.3 Seconds Faster

A $10M apparel brand was struggling with checkout conversion. Their checkout took 4.8 seconds to load on mobile.

What we found:

• 340KB logo image (resized to 800px when displayed at 150px)
• Review widget loading in checkout
• 4 different trust badge services
• Chat widget
• Custom font loading from Google

What we changed:

• Compressed logo to 28KB
• Removed review widget from checkout (moved to product page)
• Consolidated to one trust badge
• Replaced chat with simple "Questions?" link
• Used system fonts instead of custom

Results:

• Checkout load time: 4.8s → 2.5s
• Checkout completion rate: 54% → 63%
• Estimated annual revenue impact: +$900K

The Speed Checklist

Run through this for your checkout:

Images

• [ ] Logo under 50KB
• [ ] Product thumbnails optimized
• [ ] No unnecessary decorative images
• [ ] All images properly sized

Scripts

• [ ] Removed non-essential scripts
• [ ] No chat widget in checkout
• [ ] Tracking scripts deferred
• [ ] No external APIs blocking render

Third-Party Services

• [ ] Minimized trust badges
• [ ] Review widgets removed from checkout
• [ ] Only essential payment options
• [ ] External fonts removed or preloaded

Monitoring

• [ ] Page speed baseline measured
• [ ] Set up speed monitoring in analytics
• [ ] Regular audits scheduled

The Reality

Most checkout optimization advice focuses on form fields and button colors. That stuff matters, a little.

Speed matters more. A 3-second checkout will outperform a 6-second checkout with perfectly optimized forms every time.

Start with speed. Measure your baseline. Remove anything that doesn't need to be there. Test on real mobile connections.

Then worry about form optimization. But speed first. Always speed first.