Site speed and app bloat on Shopify

Scripts before first paint

A reviews widget, a popup, a bundle app and a chat bubble each add a script tag, and many of them load before the page draws. Each second of Largest Contentful Paint past 2.5 s costs conversion on that page, and on 4G the seconds add up. The scan measures each script’s time and attributes the delay to the app responsible.

Apps that do nothing, and apps that do the same thing

The scan matches script signatures for the common Shopify apps and then looks for what each one renders across every page a logged-out crawl can reach. An app whose signature is present and whose widget never appears is installed and doing nothing, and is still charging you. Two reviews apps, two popups or two upsell apps are one job done twice, with both scripts on every page.

Apps whose only surface is behind a login, a later click or the thank-you page are named as unchecked, never claimed.

The rest of the weight

More than 1.5 MB of JavaScript or more than 25 third-party domains, images above the fold with no responsive sizes, web fonts without display swap, and console errors on the product and cart pages are each a store-wide check with the list of files behind it.

The checks that look for this

The free scan runs these on your own pages, desktop and mobile, and shows each finding with its evidence. Each check has its own page saying how to see the problem without installing anything.

What Liftable does about it today

What is live today. Liftable finds the opportunity and our founding-team programme implements and measures the first fix with you. Automated testing is not live on any merchant’s store yet.

• Recommendation for your developerP1 · S5 · S4 · S6

  A recommendation with the change written out for your developer. Liftable never edits theme code, live or otherwise.

• Fix ticketS1 · S2 · S3 · P9 · C5

  A fix ticket to the app’s support or to your developer, with the script time the scan measured. Liftable does not change or uninstall the app.

• Available now the scan, the evidence, the drafts, the approval
• With the founding team implementing and measuring the first fix
• Coming automated tests on a merchant’s store

What you get

• The apps the scan detected on your store, with the script time each one cost on the pages it loads on.
• The apps that render nothing anywhere the crawl could reach, and the pairs doing one job twice.
• A fix ticket per finding, addressed to the app’s support or your developer, that re-checks itself against the next scan.
• Load time per product page, mobile and desktop, with the slowest scripts named.

Who it is for

A good fit

• Stores that have been live for a few years and have accumulated apps.
• Teams who want one list of what to remove, with a measured reason for each line.

Not the right tool

• Stores that want Liftable to switch apps off. It does not: an app embed cannot be held back for one arm of a test, so the audit is advice you act on in your own admin.

Questions