Speed is table stakes in commerce. Customers tell us that after switching to Shopify, their online stores are faster and higher converting.
And now, we've got proof in hard numbers: not only are Shopify stores the fastest in the world, but site speed also has a huge impact on conversion.
Nearly 200,000 publicly available data points prove that Shopify stores render up to 2.4x faster and 1.8x faster on average than stores on other platforms.
Why did Shopify come out on top? Our development philosophy. We absorb complexity for our customers, enabling them to focus more time on business-changing ideas. To do this, we're constantly investing in cutting-edge infrastructure to give brands a unique edge.
Where did we get the data? Google aggregates website speed data from real users and presents it publicly as part of a widely recognized set of benchmarks called Core Web Vitals. Anyone can retrieve this data for any website on the internet via an API or by visiting this page owned by Google.
Here are a few additional highlights from this analysis:
- Shopify’s site speed is 1.2 seconds on average, while competitors average 2.17 seconds.
- Shopify has the fastest server speed in commerce, up to 3.9x faster and on average 2.8x faster.
- 93% of businesses on Shopify have a fast store, more than any other major commerce platform.
This means that you can increase your site speed by leveraging Shopify’s infrastructure. Remember, every millisecond counts.
Site speed is evaluated based on several benchmarks
So, how do we know that Shopify sites are faster than the competition?
Google uses a set of metrics called Core Web Vitals (CWV) to measure a website’s user experience. We focused on the following CWV benchmarks. These are objective, industry-standard measures of good website performance:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB), which we refer to as server speed. Google defines TTFB as the time it takes for the first byte to appear after a request is made by a browser.
- First Contentful Paint (FCP), which we refer to as site speed. Google defines FCP as the time it takes for the very first pixels to be rendered to the customer’s browser.
We used FCP over Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). FCP and TTFB give customers their first (and often, clearest) indication that a site is loading—a true measure of how fast a commerce platform is by default. While LCP is an important component of CWV, it’s also impacted by factors such as a slow theme and third-party plugins, which are just two of a long list of downsides of using it as a benchmark for site speed.
Shopify’s server infrastructure keeps brands at the bleeding edge of innovation
Building a fast website is easier said than done. Fixing a website that’s slow is an even bigger challenge, especially as technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
Although many tech leaders would love to replace their legacy systems with homegrown solutions, server infrastructure is also getting more expensive. BLS data shows that cloud services are projected to make up 14.2% of total information technology (IT) spending worldwide by 2024, up from 9.1% of spending in 2020.
In response, enterprises are relying on Shopify to handle all of their infrastructure needs. Here are just two ways Shopify has invested in the cloud to help our customers stay close to their customers.
- Constant investments to modernize our cloud infrastructure: We expanded our fleet of Google Cloud servers to locations across Europe, which makes sites render closer to users and keeps businesses closer to their customers. We also use a Cloudflare CDN on top of it, which has over 300 locations.
- Relationships with industry partners: We’re always experimenting in concert with our partners to make Shopify websites faster. Recently, we’ve begun working with Google Chrome to implement Speculation Rules across our sites.
We're proud of how our investments have made Shopify sites the fastest in the world. While amazing, we're not stopping there. We're continuing to push the envelope for our customers, constantly innovating and delivering improvements that keep our infrastructure at the cutting edge. In our Winter 2024 Editions, we announced over 100 new foundational product updates to help enterprises elevate their business. And this summer, we're unveiling over 150 new features.
A small site speed improvement creates a massive lift to conversion
I’ve unpacked some of the technical infrastructure that makes Shopify sites the fastest in commerce. But the research shows that site speed also has a direct impact on conversion.
Through analysis of Shopify data, research, and experiments, we found that even a half-second improvement in site speed can increase your conversion rate. We see examples of this time and time again when brands switch to Shopify. For instance, Molekule saw a 75% device conversion rate and 10% increase in traffic after migrating.
“With Shopify now managing the ecommerce complexities for us, our team is fully dedicated to solving technical challenges, fostering product innovation, and delivering exceptional value to our customers through the Molekule app.”
Shopify’s ongoing commitment to innovation
We’re proud of the work we’ve done to empower brands to build fast sites and increase revenue quickly. At the same time, we know we’re just getting started.
As your customers continue to evolve, Shopify is paying attention to every detail—even those millisecond improvements that can make all the difference. Our job is to stay ahead of the trends and give you the website infrastructure and speed your business needs today and years into the future.
Visit Shopify.com/SiteSpeed to learn more about this data and get an audit of your site speed.
