Theme customization has real limits worth understanding upfront
Shopify’s theme architecture is powerful but has real boundaries, and a lot of ambitious custom design requests run into either performance tradeoffs or app-conflict issues that are not obvious until they are already built. Scoping what is realistically achievable within Shopify’s architecture before development starts avoids expensive rework later.
App stacking quietly slows down more stores than bad code does
It is easy to accumulate a dozen apps for reviews, upsells, and tracking, each adding its own script to every page load. Auditing what is actually installed, and what is still earning its keep, is often a bigger performance win than any individual development fix.
Checkout and post-purchase experience deserve as much attention as the storefront
Most Shopify optimization work focuses on the homepage and product pages, but checkout completion and post-purchase flows, order confirmation, upsells, review requests, directly affect revenue and repeat purchase rate, and get far less attention than they deserve.