Site speed = ⬆️ Sales?

Happy Monday to our 8000+ Sellify Success Club Members!

Ada from Sellify Club here, with another issue of the Shopify newsletter designed to improve your store by 1% every week. 

Today’s edition is packed, so grab a coffee (or tea if you roll that way), as we delve in. 

What you’ll learn: 

• How fast are the top-earning Shopify stores?

• Slow site speed? How to stop losing out to faster stores

• How one fashion brand increased its store speed by 61%

• Cookies are crumbling: What’s your backup plan?

• 60-minute challenge: Improve your store speed

• What’s trending in ecommerce: Bamboo pajamas

Let’s talk about speed. 

Ecommerce urban legend has always had it that fast-loading stores earn more money. We all agree that many factors contribute to a store’s success beyond speed, so we decided to investigate the opposite question: are successful stores also fast? 

Using Pingdom, we tested 3 of the top-earning Shopify stores (according to Aftership) to see how quickly they loaded. Here’s what we found:

1. Good American. Estimated Revenue: >$1B. Load time: 3.95s

2. Bodybuilding.com. Estimated Revenue >$1B. Load time: 3.18s

3. Bareminerals.com. Estimated Revenue: >$501m. Load time: 2.37s

Average load time: 3.16s

From this test, it’s obvious that top brands consciously make an effort to keep load times as low as possible. Experts suggest that store owners should aim for a 2-3 second load time for optimal performance and SEO. In practice, the biggest stores appear to stay as close to 3 seconds load time as possible. 

🚄 Slow site speed? How to stop losing out to faster stores

Consensus from Google Search Console shows that page speed affects page rankings, so the faster your store loads, the happier your shoppers are and  the more likely it is to show up in search engine results. 

Now that we’ve agreed that fast-loading store is a no brainer, here’s how you can quickly improve your store’s speed 👇

1. Optimize Images. Compress your images using tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to reduce the file size of images without compromising quality. 

2. Minimize and Combine Files. Minify CSS and JavaScript, removing unnecessary characters (like spaces and comments) from your CSS and JavaScript files using tools such as UglifyJS or CSSNano.

3. Optimize Theme and Apps. Choose a lightweight, fast-loading theme, and only use essential apps, as each additional app can slow down your store. 

 4. Enable Browser Caching. Configure your store to leverage browser caching so that repeat visitors can load your store faster by reusing previously loaded resources.

This sounds like a long list - because it is. You can get this done by reaching out to the Shopify Partners Community to find an expert to get it done for you in days for $500 or less. 

Better still, you can download the free PluginSpeed Shopify app ($39 after the trial period) to do the heavy lifting in 6 hours or less. 

How a fashion store increased its speed by 61%

To test how easy (or difficult) it was to increase store speed, we put a store to the test and here are the results:

Site: HelloSouthKorea

Time taken: 5 minutes to install, optimization completed after 4 hours

Tools used: PluginSpeed

🍪 What’s your backup plan for the big cookie crumble?

Like a bad celebrity romance, rumors of Google’s disentanglement from cookies have been in and out of the media. Just this time, it’s finally happening. 

In January 2024, Google shifted from talk to action and began restricting the use of third-party cookies in phases. This means that as the phaseout continues, you will no longer be able to track your potential customers and market your offers to them. In other words, the days of “Hey, we noticed you were looking at [product]” are over. And if you’re not prepared, you will get crushed. 

So, what can you do to reach out into the future and protect your store’s revenue when it all kicks off?

1. Build your own ‘cookie system’ and level up email marketing. 

2. Leverage partnerships. 

3. Invest in privacy-focused technologies. 

⏰ 60-minute challenge time

What one thing can you do in 60-minutes or less to improve your sales by 1%?

This week, download the PluginSpeed app, and run a site speed test. Configure the app in 60 minutes or less and then test your site after. If your site speed improves by 1 second, keep the app. If it doesn’t, email support.

📈 What’s trending?

Bamboo Pajamas

Image credit: GoogleTrends

Crafted from eco-friendly bamboo viscose, these sleepwear items are renowned for their softness and breathability, ensuring comfort throughout the night. They come in a variety of styles, colors, and sizes to suit a diverse customer base. With options available at various price points, these pajamas are accessible to a broad range of consumers.

As a store owner, you can jump on this trend by:

• Testing similar eco-friendly sleepwear products that enhance comfort

• Exploring print-on-demand bamboo sleepwear pajamas in your niche

• Offering POD bamboo sleepwear pajamas to other sellers

Final Word

I'd like you to tell me one thing:

If the next newsletter addressed one challenge you face with your store, what would it cover?

This email address is manned - I'd love to hear from you!

Till next Monday.

~ Ada

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