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Case study · E-commerce website performance
Making a 7,000-Product WooCommerce Shop Fast on Mobile
A large specialist catalogue made quick on a phone without a redesign, lost features or downtime.
An established UK specialist retailer sells vintage, antique and modern equipment to collectors and enthusiasts through a large WooCommerce shop. The catalogue runs to more than 7,000 products across over 700 categories, and the shop sells globally, with regular buyers across the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan and Europe as well as the UK.
The hosting was already well configured, yet the homepage scored 55 on Google’s mobile speed test, and real visitors were seeing the page jump as it loaded.
Discuss your website’s speed- Environment
- WordPress and WooCommerce with Cloudflare, CDN and object caching
- Catalogue
- 7,000+ products, 700+ categories
- Requirement
- Faster mobile pages without disrupting trading
- Approach
- Measure, fix the biggest delays, verify every step
The challenge
A fast server, but a heavy page
The server responded in 0.3 seconds, so hosting wasn’t the problem. The delay was in what each page asked a phone to download and process.
- 6.9 MB to download for a single homepage visit, including 4.2 MB of oversized images.
- 4.1 seconds of render-blocking CSS and JavaScript from around 40 files.
- Category images sent at full size to every screen, phones included.
- A payment toolkit downloading twice on pages with no payment button.
- The page jumping as the slider appeared, failing Google’s layout-stability measure for real visitors.
- SEO gaps, including a missing homepage description.
The groundwork
Moving to our cloud platform, then tuning the server
We moved the shop onto our managed cloud hosting in December 2025, then spent the following months tuning the server. Because the platform is ours, we could investigate and adjust it directly, test each change and roll it back if needed.
- Profiled the site to see which plugins, database queries and processes were using time on each page request.
- Tuned the server so the site’s code and data stay ready in memory.
- Planned a staged set of caching rules, tested at each step, so pages are served from close to each visitor without breaking baskets, accounts or checkout.
- Measured every change with our in-house testing tool, developed for high-availability websites. Returning visitors’ pages now finish loading in around half a second.
What we changed
Improvements in the theme and settings, not a rebuild
Every change was made to the existing shop, one area at a time, with a route back.
Sized for each screen
Phones download phone-sized images rather than full originals, and the first image on screen is requested first.
Checked, not assumed
We measured the files actually delivered and kept the original format wherever the new one would have been larger.
Unused styles removed
The homepage now uses one small set of the styles it needs instead of 31 stylesheets.
Scripts loaded when needed
Tracking and popups wait for the visitor’s first interaction. Payment scripts load only on product, basket and checkout pages.
No layout shift
Space is reserved for the slider, so content no longer jumps while the page loads.
Delivery approach
Measure first, then fix what is actually slowing the page
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01
Measure
Record Google PageSpeed and real-visitor data, and inspect what the live page downloads.
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02
Prioritise
Start with the changes that remove the most delay: images and render-blocking files.
-
03
Change
Make reversible changes in the theme and settings, one area at a time.
-
04
Verify
Check the live page, image sizes and every caching layer after each change.
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05
Protect
Test menu, basket, checkout, payments, cookie consent and forms before signing off.
The result
A faster, steadier shop with no downtime
The homepage’s Google mobile speed score rose from 55 to 81, and SEO and Best Practices both reached 100. Render-blocking requests went from 4.1 seconds to none, and blocking time and layout shift both fell to zero.
Real-visitor data was already good for loading speed, and Google’s 28-day figures are expected to pass all three Core Web Vitals once the layout fix is reflected.
55 → 81
Google mobile speed score
5.9 s → 1.5 s
First content on screen
9× faster
Server response for real visitors
58% less
Data downloaded per homepage visit
Why it matters
Speed affects sales, search and advertising
More visitors buying
A Google-commissioned study by Deloitte and the digital agency 55 found that a 0.1-second improvement in mobile speed lifted retail conversions by 8.4%.
Better placed in search
Google says Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems. Where competitors offer similar products, a faster and more stable site has the edge.
Better value from ads
Google Ads notes that page speed can be the difference between someone bouncing or buying.
Sources: Milliseconds Make Millions (web.dev) · Google Search Central: page experience · Google Ads Help: Quality Score
Is your website slow on mobile?
Digital Flair can measure where the time goes, fix the delays that matter and show you the before-and-after results.
Call 0333 444 0283 or ask for a free speed check.