I audited a Shopify store last month. The homepage was 22MB. Product images averaged 4MB each. Page load: 8.2 seconds.
The conversion rate was 1.1%.
What I Found
The product photos were straight out of a DSLR — 6000x4000 pixels displayed in 300x200 containers. The browser was downloading and resizing every single image in real time.
The Fix
Lossless compression on every product image. Same visual quality. Average file size went from 4MB to 400KB. Page load: 2.1 seconds.
Two weeks later, the conversion rate was 1.3% — an 18% increase. Lighthouse went from 35 to 92.
What I Use
compress2png.com handles lossless PNG compression in the browser. No upload, no server processing, no privacy concerns.
Quick win: Run Lighthouse before and after compressing your images. The performance score jump alone is worth showing clients.
What page weight horrors have you found during audits?
