PrestaSlow PrestaShop store: cut load time by 2 seconds (and boost revenue)
One extra second of load time can reduce conversions by up to 7%. Here are the practical fixes, ranked by impact versus effort.
Speed drives conversions — it’s not just a technical nicety
Google measures Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) and uses them as ranking signals. Meanwhile, your visitors may leave before the product page even loads.
High-impact optimisations
Images (typical improvement: 1–2 s)
WebP/AVIF, correctly sized images, and loading="lazy" for all below-the-fold content.
Caching and compression
Smarty cache, CSS/JS combining, Brotli compression, and server-side caching (Redis or APCu).
Unnecessary modules
A typical audit uncovers 8–15 unused modules that load JavaScript and CSS on every page.
Database
Cleaning up the ps_connections, ps_guest, and ps_statssearch tables can free up several hundred MB and make queries twice as fast.
Hosting
PHP 8.2+, OPcache enabled, and NVMe storage: the essential foundation for any application-level optimisation.
Measure before and after
Without data, optimisation is just guesswork. We provide a before-and-after report covering all three Core Web Vitals metrics.
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