How Speed Optimization Transformed FightGear UK's Shopify Store
When it comes to eCommerce performance, speed isn't a luxury , it's a conversion lever.
For FightGear UK, a slow mobile experience was undermining user trust, increasing bounce rates, and weakening their conversion funnel. Our goal at OptiExperts was to bring every key page — Homepage, Collection, and Product Page , well within Core Web Vitals thresholds.
Why Speed Matters
Users expect instant feedback. If your site takes too long to load or shifts unexpectedly, you're already losing sales. Slow First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) reduce perceived performance. High Total Blocking Time (TBT) delays interactivity. Poor Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) breaks trust. A bad Speed Index reflects inefficient rendering.
All of this adds up — and it adds friction to your buyer journey.
What We Did
We conducted a full front-end audit and implemented several performance enhancements:
- Deferred non-critical JavaScript to reduce main-thread blocking
- Minified and lazy-loaded assets, including images and fonts
- Converted media to next-gen formats (WebP)
- Prioritized above-the-fold content to improve FCP and LCP
- Reduced layout shift by reserving space for dynamic elements
- Cleaned up render paths and reduced long tasks
The Results
🏠 Homepage
Performance Score: 58 → 99 ✅
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCP | 4.6 s | 1.4 s | 3.2 s faster |
| LCP | 8.5 s | 1.5 s | 7.0 s faster |
| TBT | 230 ms | 0 ms | Fully eliminated |
| Speed Index | 5.5 s | 2.7 s | 2.8 s faster |
| CLS | 0.001 | 0.003 | Still stable |
🛍️ Collection Page
Performance Score: 63 → 86 📈
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCP | 2.1 s | 1.5 s | 0.6 s faster |
| LCP | 3.5 s | 2.9 s | 0.6 s faster |
| TBT | 810 ms | 250 ms | 69% reduction |
| Speed Index | 7.0 s | 5.4 s | 1.6 s faster |
| CLS | 0.038 | 0.034 | Reduced |
🥊 Product Page (PDP)
Performance Score: 58 → 98 🚀
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCP | 6.1 s | 1.4 s | 4.7 s faster |
| LCP | 9.4 s | 1.8 s | 7.6 s faster |
| TBT | 110 ms | 90 ms | 18% reduction |
| Speed Index | 6.9 s | 3.3 s | 3.6 s faster |
| CLS | 0 | 0 | Perfectly stable |
📈 SEO Impact
The client wasn’t running paid ads — their goal was to grow through organic traffic alone.
But when a site loads slowly, it’s unlikely to show up in top search results. That’s where our optimization work played a pivotal role.
Once we brought FightGear UK’s store performance up to Core Web Vitals standards, their site began ranking naturally. The faster load times, reduced blocking, and layout stability all contributed to improved SEO signals — leading to better visibility, higher impressions, and increased organic sessions.
Speed didn’t just improve UX. It brought real, rankable SEO gains.
💡 Recommendations for Store Owners
Here’s what Shopify brands can implement to improve speed:
- Defer and lazy-load non-critical JS
- Serve images using WebP or AVIF
- Inline critical CSS and delay unused styles
- Reserve fixed dimensions for all media to avoid CLS
- Use font-display: swap to eliminate font render delays
- Keep main-thread work under 50ms per task
🔧 Ready to Improve Your Store’s Speed?
Speed is now a baseline expectation — not a bonus. If you're not optimized for mobile performance, you're losing revenue and rankings.