Shopify 2.0 Upgrade, Page Speed Optimisation & Ongoing Technical Support

Client: Stylish Hound

Industry: Pet Accessories & Products — E-Commerce

Location: Australia

Website: Visit Live Site →

Platform: Shopify (upgraded to Shopify 2.0)

Services Delivered:

• Shopify 2.0 Upgrade
• Page Speed Optimisation
• Ongoing Technical Support

Engagement Type: Ongoing Retainer — 2 Years

Stylish Hound is a popular Australian dog accessories brand offering an extensive product range — walk gear (harnesses, leashes, collars), training pouches, toys, travel, home, swim, and apparel. With a large catalog, active customer base, and strong visual brand identity, their Shopify store needed to perform well technically to keep pace with their growth.

What They Needed:

• An upgrade from their legacy Shopify theme to Shopify 2.0 to unlock modern platform capabilities
• Page speed improvements to deliver a faster experience for shoppers — particularly on mobile
• A reliable ongoing technical support partner to resolve issues and keep the store running smoothly day to day

Their store carried significant product complexity — multiple categories, bundle products, gift-with-purchase mechanics, personalisation options, and shipping protection features. Keeping everything working reliably required consistent technical attention.

What We Did:

Shopify 2.0 introduced significant platform improvements over legacy themes — including sections everywhere, improved app integrations, better performance foundations, and a more flexible storefront editor. Migrating an established store with existing customisations, apps, and design required careful execution.

Upgrade Process:

Audit & Planning:

• Full audit of existing theme customisations and features
• Inventory of all installed apps and integrations
• Identification of features needing recreation in 2.0 architecture
• Mapping of custom code requiring migration

Theme Migration:

• New Shopify 2.0 compatible theme selected and configured
• Existing brand design and layout recreated in 2.0 framework
• Custom sections rebuilt using Shopify 2.0 section schema
• All existing page templates migrated (homepage, collection, product, cart)

Feature Recreation:

• Gift with purchase mechanics preserved
• Shipping protection feature maintained
• Free treats / tiered cart rewards maintained
• Bundle and save functionality
• Personalisation (custom name) feature
• Training tool quiz page
• Resource centre page
• Navigation structure (mega menu with category images)

Testing & Launch:

• Full QA across desktop and mobile
• Cart and checkout flow testing
• App compatibility verification
• Staged launch with monitoring

Outcome:

• Store successfully running on Shopify 2.0
• All existing features and customisations preserved
• Improved theme editor flexibility for the client’s team
• Better foundation for performance and future development

What We Did:

A fast-loading store matters for both conversion rates and search engine visibility. With a product-rich catalog and high-quality imagery, Stylish Hound’s store needed targeted performance work to load quickly — especially on mobile connections.

Performance Audit:

• Google PageSpeed Insights analysis (mobile and desktop)
• Core Web Vitals assessment (LCP, FID/INP, CLS)
• Identification of specific performance bottlenecks
• Third-party app script impact analysis

Optimisations Implemented:

Image Optimisation:

• Image compression across product and collection imagery
• WebP format implementation
• Lazy loading for below-fold images
• Correct image sizing to avoid oversized assets

Code Optimisation:

• Removal of unused CSS
• JavaScript deferral and minification
• Render-blocking resource reduction
• Third-party script loading optimisation (load order and deferral)

Theme-Level Improvements:

• Liquid code optimisation (reduced unnecessary template rendering)
• Reduced DOM size on key pages
• Font loading optimisation (font-display: swap)
• Preloading of critical assets

App Script Management:

• Audit of installed apps contributing to page weight
• Deferred loading of non-critical app scripts
• Removal of redundant app code left from uninstalled apps

Outcome:

• Measurable improvement in PageSpeed scores on mobile and desktop
• Improved Core Web Vitals across key pages
• Faster time to first contentful paint
• Lighter overall page weight

What We Do Every Month:

For the past 2 years we have been Stylish Hound’s technical support partner — handling the day-to-day issues and ongoing upkeep that keep a busy e-commerce store running without disruption.

Regular Support Activities:

Shopify & Theme Maintenance:

• Theme updates and compatibility checks
• Shopify platform change monitoring
• Post-update testing and issue resolution
• Liquid template fixes and adjustments

App & Integration Management:

• App conflict identification and resolution
• New app integration support
• App script performance monitoring
• Removal of redundant app code

Bug Fixes & Troubleshooting:

• Display issues across devices and browsers
• Cart and checkout flow issues
• Mobile-specific layout fixes
• Form and functionality errors

Store Updates Support:

• New collection and page setup assistance
• Banner and promotional section updates
• Navigation updates for new product categories
• Metafield and product data support

Performance Monitoring:

• Ongoing Core Web Vitals monitoring
• Page speed regression checks after updates
• Alert and response for performance drops

Day-to-Day Communication:

• Responsive support for technical queries from the Stylish Hound team
• Clear communication on issue status and resolution
• Proactive flagging of potential issues