Bench 14: Speed and mobile conversion
Most small-store traffic arrives on a phone, on a connection the owner never tests. Core Web Vitals in plain terms, and the mobile frictions that cost orders.
The bench guide
Working guides on this bench
Speed and mobile conversion Browsing on Mobile: Lists, Filters and the Long Scroll Mobile browsing is a thumb, a short screen and a long list. Make lists scannable, filters usable without a tutorial, sorting honest, and the product's key facts visible before the tap. Speed and mobile conversion Core Web Vitals in Plain Language: Three Numbers That Matter Largest Contentful Paint is how fast the main thing appears, Interaction to Next Paint is how fast the page answers a tap, Cumulative Layout Shift is how much the page jumps around. What each measures, what good is, and what to fix first. Speed and mobile conversion Images: The Biggest Speed Win on Most Stores Product and hero images are usually the heaviest thing a store sends a phone. Right-sizing, compression, modern formats and honest loading order routinely transform field data without touching the design. Speed and mobile conversion Lite Versions and AMP: A Verdict for Small Stores A separate lite site or an AMP version promises speed by maintaining less. For most small stores the promise inverts: two versions to keep honest, a weaker offer, and speed your main site could have had anyway. One responsive site, properly lightened, wins. Speed and mobile conversion Measuring Speed With Field Data, Not Hope Field data is what real visitors experienced over the last 28 days; lab data is a controlled rehearsal. Use field data to judge, lab data to fix, and your own mid-range phone to sanity-check both. Speed and mobile conversion Mobile Layout: Thumb Zones, Type Sizes and Tap Targets A phone page is operated by a thumb, often one-handed, at arm's length from the eyes. Place the buying actions in the thumb's easy reach, set type to be read, and make every target big enough to hit first time. Speed and mobile conversion Paying on a Phone: Wallets, Autofill and Fewer Keystrokes Every keystroke at checkout is a chance to leave. Wallets and express payment collapse the form into a confirmation, clean autofill fills what remains, and the right keyboards make the rest as short as physics allows. Speed and mobile conversion Pricing the Cost of Slow Pages From Your Own Numbers Do not borrow industry delay statistics. Build the estimate from your traffic, your step rates and a stated, modest assumption, labelled as an illustration, so the business can size speed work against every other use of the same hours. Speed and mobile conversion Sticky Bars and Mobile Chrome: Help or Screen Theft Sticky buy bars, promo ribbons, chat bubbles, cookie notices and app banners all rent the same small screen, permanently. Audit the stack, keep at most what earns its rent, and never let furniture cover the decision. Speed and mobile conversion The Third-Party Script Budget: Every Tag Pays Rent Chat, reviews, popups, personalisation, analytics variants and pixels each add weight and delay. Put scripts on a budget: inventory them, price their load, keep the ones whose job is worth their rent, and remove the trials nobody cancelled. Speed and mobile conversion Theme Speed on Shopify and WordPress: What You Control On hosted and semi-hosted platforms the theme sets the speed floor and apps or plugins tax it. You control theme choice, app count, fonts and image habits. Work those levers and judge themes on field-shaped evidence, not demos.