Performance first on Shopify

About the event

I was lucky to be invited to speak at Shopify Unite 2022 in Melbourne. It was my first Unite, and I wanted to give theme developers practical techniques they could take back to their own projects.

The talk explored how to build performant Shopify themes, with a particular focus on carousels and the performance cost of the libraries often used to create them. I worked through code examples, including CSS scroll snapping, to show how developers could deliver those interactions with less JavaScript.

I also covered performance metrics, how to assess the effect of a change, and common misconceptions around testing tools. The aim was to connect small, useful improvements with a broader approach to theme optimisation.