Slow pages cost conversions. Before debating micro-optimizations, fix the big rocks: uncompressed heroes, missing lazy loading, render-blocking third-party scripts, and unbounded product gallery payloads. Most stores we audit leave money on the table here long before “framework choice” matters.
Speed is a feature—especially on mobile checkout.
A checklist that ships in one sprint
- Compress and size-serve hero and PDP imagery (WebP/AVIF where supported)
- Defer non-critical analytics and chat widgets until after interaction
- Lazy-load below-the-fold media and third-party reviews
- Preconnect payment and CDN origins used on checkout
- Eliminate layout shift from late-loading banners and fonts
Budgets beat vibes
Set a performance budget. Measure LCP on your worst category pages and on the cart. If LCP is dominated by an autoplay slider, ask whether the marketing win is worth the bytes—especially on mid-range Android devices your customers actually use.
Caching and continuous guardrails
Caching strategy matters as much as code. Cache fragmentable category content, put static assets on a CDN, and stop refetching identical payloads on every navigation. Then monitor real-user metrics—not only lab scores—and block merges that regress LCP or INP. Performance is a release discipline, not a one-off project.
