Designing and building your Shopify store with the correct image sizes and formats as you go will simplify your site build in the long run instead of having to toggle back and forth, correcting everything once it’s already in place.
Shopify offers recommended image sizes for different sections of your online store, such as product images, collection images, slideshow images, banner images, and logo images. Using the recommended sizes ensures that your website looks professional and loads quickly. Optimizing your Shopify images by using the right dimensions and compressing them can help improve your website's performance and increase conversions.
By following the guidelines for Shopify image size, your store will be better liked by search engines, web browsers, and your site visitors because they will look better and load faster.
Image optimization is a simple process that doesn’t really require much effort, it just requires you to create a habit of optimizing images BEFORE you add them to your site.
There are many studies that can be found on the internet that repeatedly advise e-commerce store owners that having correctly sized product images and fast page loading time will dramatically increase the time visitors will spend on your website, which will then directly correlate to improved conversion rates.
As such, this means optimizing the visual shopping experience with high-quality and fast loading content is incredibly important.
So how can you showcase your product offerings in the best possible way? By optimizing your images, that's how.
In this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about optimizing your Shopify image sizes, choosing the best file formats to speed up page load time for your Shopify Store.
Why Is It Important To Optimize Image Sizes For Your Shopify Store?
It's common yet poor practice for many new store owners to focus on a fancy website with gimmicky content like carousels as the hero etc. than proper attention to fundamental SEO optimization practices like image size optimization and alt text tags. The last thing you want your visitors to see is the site taking a long time to load pages and for them to wonder when a page that's supposed to be there will make an appearance. This is a key reason visitors get frustrated and leave websites without progressing to a purchase.
It's vitally important to optimize Shopify image size for two key reasons:
Creates A Better User Experience (UX)
Improve page load speed and time increases trust levels with your customer
The longer it takes to load each page on your site, the more likely your visitors will consider your site to have a poor user experience and will leave and visit your competitor's website. By using larger images on your website, it will take longer for the server to load the page when a user gets to the page. In SEO terms, this is called "contentful paint" and the longer the contentful paint, the poorer the user experience. Smaller images will always load faster than larger ones.
Better mobile experience for your site visitors
The Shopify mobile image sizes and desktop image sizes are different. By improving your website performance for mobile devices, shoppers will feel more inclined to stay on your website longer, and as such, your conversion rate will improve.
Increases conversion rate which means more profit for you
A faster and smoother user shopping experience (ux) for your visitors can lead to higher conversion rates, as a positive experience on your website will make customers more likely to complete their purchases.
Improves SEO For E-commerce Stores
Better search engine rankings to improve your organic traffic
Search engine rankings are linked to better user experiences and faster page load times, resulting in higher rankings in the search engine result pages (SERPs) and increased traffic to your site.
Guidelines For Shopify Image Sizes
The primary objective of image optimization is to balance image quality with file size. Images that are too large will look blurry and unprofessional, which causes issues with site load time and page speed. If too small, your images will look pixelated.
To ensure a seamless user experience on your Shopify website, it is essential to optimize your image sizes effectively. Striking the right balance between image quality and file size is crucial in maintaining a professional and visually appealing website.
Using larger images may seem tempting, as they can showcase product details more prominently. However, it's important to note that larger images contribute to slower page load times. This delay can negatively impact user experience, leading to visitors leaving your site for your competitors'.
General guidelines for Shopify Image Sizes as recommended by Shopify:
Image file size limit: 20 MB (megabytes)
Maximum image high resolution: 20 MP (megapixels)
Maximum image dimensions: 4472 x 4472 px
Product square images size: 2048 x 2048 px
It's important to note that Shopify will automatically compress your online store's images to ensure the best possible load times. However, getting them right to begin with, before you add them to Shopify, will help save having any issues down the track.
Shopify also has the ability to transform your images with crop and resize features for various screen resolutions. If traffic to your site mostly comes from mobile, square photos are the best option. All images would then be displayed responsively across various screen sizes.
In addition, to make your images appear to be the same size, particularly on pages where you have multiple images, like collection or product list pages, you need to use a consistent aspect ratio or height-to-width ratio.
Shopify Product Image Size
The best size for Shopify product image size is 2048 x 2048 px (pixels). Product photos for Shopify product pages are limited to 3 MB in size so as not to affect website load speed.
Having square images, which is a 1:1 aspect ratio, will help them display correctly no matter how much content there is around them.
Something to note here is that if you enable customers to be able to zoom images of your products, they will need to be at least 800 x 800 px. so the customers can zoom without seeing poor quality, pixelated, blurry images.
Shopify Collection Image Sizes
Shopify collection images can be added when creating the collection or added afterward by editing the collection. For Shopify collection image size, use the correct 1:1 square aspect ratio to prevent them from being cropped.
While the maximum image size of the collection page can be no more than 4472 x 4472 px and 20 MB, the recommended size is 1024 x 1024 px.
Since the images are generally shown side by side in a collection list, displaying any of them as different sizes would make the page look disorganized and unprofessional.
Shopify Image Sizes For The Background
The most common size for the background is 1920 x 1080 px with an aspect ratio of 16:9, and this will present your background the best it can on both desktop and mobile. The size of your file should be a max of 3 MB to minimize the effect on page load time. The maximum size of a background is 2500 x 1406 px.
With Shopify, the background images are automatically optimized for a variety of screen sizes. However, if the images are too big, some sections may be cut off, particularly on smaller screens, or if you have any text on the edges of your images, it may not be displayed on mobile devices.
Shopify Image Sizes For The Hero Image Or Banner
The hero image should be a maximum of 1600 x 900 px with a 16:9 aspect ratio to ensure its sharp resolution when viewed on full screen. The maximum file size is 10MB.
Shopify themes are responsive, which means the hero image size will change depending on the screen sizes. As such, leave space around the outside of your image to account for portions that may be cut off.
Something to be mindful of here is that the image with text overlay size varies for different devices and screen sizes. Try to avoid adding text and a call to action (CTA) directly onto the hero image. Instead, overlay any text and call-to-action buttons to the front of your image and adjust to suit across all devices.
The Dawn theme, which is the default theme when you first setup Shopify, has a hero banner image height that can be customized between small, medium, and large. While there are no specific dimensions, it is recommended to use 1600 x 900 px for desktop and 800 x 800 px for mobile.
Shopify Image Sizes For Banners
Banner images are a little more complex than most of the other images, as they are dependent on what and where they are being shown to the visitor. The most common type of banner is for ads, and Google has some recommendations on banner image sizes.
Remember though, that the image which looks good on a desktop does not always look as good on a mobile device. As such, it’s worth checking how your Shopify image sizes will be displayed before going live.
Shopify Image Sizes For Slideshows
The best Shopify slideshow image size is 1920 x 1080 px.
Slideshows inherently slow a page's load speed, increasing the load time, and as such, impacting on the user experience. Although it may be tempting to use slideshows for a wow factor, the truth is that more than 80% of your site visitors will not stop to look at the second slide, and 90% will not stop long enough to see a third slide if you have one. The best solution here, in my opinion, is to leave out slideshows altogether.
Shopify Image Sizes For Blog Posts
The ideal size for the blog feature image is 1920 x 1080 px, which is the standard 16:9 aspect ratio. The maximum size is 2240 x 1260 px and a file size of 3 MB, but ideally, should be smaller if possible without compromising quality.
However, these dimensions aren’t set in stone, as the image sizes will depend on your themes specific requirements. A lot also depends on how much screen you want your blog image to take up. This changes depending on the number of blog posts you wish to have across the screen and is set in the desktop and mobile settings of the blog page setup.
It’s also important to consider the image’s width because if your image is too small for the screen, Shopify will stretch it out to make it fit the space. The end result will be an image that looks pixelated and unprofessional.
Shopify Image Sizes For Logos
Logo size is important because if a logo is smaller than the required size of the logo container, it will stretch and become blurry, out of proportion at best, and at worst, illegible. At the same time, Shopify automatically compressing a larger image than needed will degrade its quality too. Choosing the right logo size before you add it to Shopify will most certainly make your brand look more professional.
Shopify recommends the logo should be a maximum of 250 x 250 px. The file size can be a maximum of 1 MB, but ideally, should be smaller if possible without compromising its quality.
The best place to design and create your logo, if you want to do it yourself, is to go to www.canva.com. There you will find a range of templates and ideas to use. Pay a small fee for the subscription, and cancel it as soon as your done if you no longer need the tool.
Best Image File Formats For Shopify
The next thing to consider when optimizing Shopify image types is the file format.
Shopify automatically detects which file type is supported by your browser and then displays the image in the most suitable format.
For example, images are automatically converted to WebP or AVIF when supported by a browser, but to JPG as a secondary selection if they are not supported by the browser.
Following is a list of common types of images:
JPEG (JPG) File Format
Jpeg images are the most common digital file format. It is a widely supported format and allows for a small file size and great color range. Its compression abilities allow for a good balance between file size and image quality.
The JPEG format is extensively utilized for storing digital images as it offers compression. It is the most prevalent image format across various platforms such as digital cameras, operating systems, and the internet. JPG images can be compressed at a ratio of 10:1 without sacrificing important details, resulting in smaller file sizes that facilitate easier sharing and storage of images. The level of compression in a JPG file can be adjusted according to the user's preference, ranging from minimal to maximum compression. This format is particularly well-suited for photographs and lifelike paintings.
It is ideal for photographs and images with complex colors.
It allows for faster page load times without a noticeable loss in image quality.
Good file format for products, banners, slideshows, blog posts, collections and general pages.
PNG File Format
The PNG file format was created to improve the GIF format by removing the 256 color limitation, as it has the capacity to handle 16 million colors. It's a widely accepted file format, and its upsides are that you can reduce file size without a noticeable impact on image quality, and it supports transparency, for example, transparent backgrounds.
PNG stands for Portable Network Graphic and is a type of raster image file. It is widely used by web designers due to its capability to handle graphics with transparent or semi-transparent backgrounds. The file format is not protected by a patent, which means that you can open a PNG file using any image editing software without requiring a license.
PNG files, which use the .png extension, can handle 16 million colours — which definitely sets them apart from most file types.
The downsides are that the file sizes can be large to accommodate the lossless compression, and the file format is not a universally compatible as the JPEG format.
It is ideal for graphics and icons with simple colors without gradients, and for where transparency is needed.
As such, it is perfect for logos and icons.
GIF File Format
GIF is another common file format. GIF files are useful for inserting images within content and for basic illustrations or graphics.
The acronym GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. GIF is a format for raster files that are primarily used on the Internet and are suitable for relatively simple images. Each file has the capability to display up to 8 bits per pixel and can include a palette of 256 indexed colors. Additionally, GIF files enable the combination of images or frames, resulting in rudimentary animations.
Gif offers smaller file sizes by compressing and reducing images to only 256 colors. This file format has essentially been replaced by PNG file formats, however it is still used for animation, as it is the only file format that supports it, and is universally recognized by browsers.
TIFF File Format
TIFF file format is a lossless compression format similar to PNG, and is widely supported by a range of applications. It offers high quality resolution, and multiple images and pages can be saved in a single file. The downside is that the file size is usually very large to accommodate these features.
Several other file formats are also available to use, but not all browsers support them. Ideally, and to keep your processes simple for your Shopify image sizes, you should consider using JPEG format for images with an abundance of color, and PNG format for simple images.
How To Optimize Your Shopify Image Sizes?
Now you know the value of optimizing your images, the recommended Shopify image sizes, and image formats for your store, it’s time to bring everything you have learned together to optimize your images and create an amazing, responsive website.
Shopify undertakes a lot to optimize your store images as part of the system:
Shopify’s CDN: Image files are duplicated and distributed across servers all over the world, and each store visitor sees a picture presented from the server closest to them.
Automatic file compression: File size is automatically optimized when you upload your files to Shopify. Visitors to your site will get served the most suitably sized image based on the device they are using and their connection speed. While in most cases the quality change isn't noticeable to the human eye, it will have a positive effect of speeding up page load time.
Automatically file format conversion: Shopify automatically determines which file formats are supported and sends the best option.
Despite this, it's best practice to optimize your images to their most relevant specific size BEFORE you add them to your store by using free tools like Microsoft Paint, or Shopify's Image Resizer. If you are looking at more advanced tools like Photoshop, just make sure you resize your images at the end of your design work, saving them in the right file format and size for the task they are for.
Should you need any more help, just ask us, or go to the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Community.
Use The Best Website Images For Your Business
Having images on your Shopify store for different screen sizes is essential for making your websites pages look interesting to your visitors, and improving the ranking of your site on search engine results pages (SERPs). The size of your images matters. Too big, and you risk your website page load speed slowing too much; too small, and you risk a poor user experience.
In this article, we have shown the various recommendations for Shopify image sizes depending on where they are to be placed on your site, so you can avoid the slow page load speed and poor user experience. Instead of trying to remember all the different sizes, be sure to bookmark this article so you can refer back when you need to upload images.
In conclusion, you will no doubt agree to the importance of correctly managing your Shopify image sizes in presenting the best possible design to your visitors, all as part of the ongoing strategy to engage with your visitors in a professional and well-presented manner, to hopefully turn these visitors into customers, and ultimately customers into advocates for your business. Best Of Luck.
Comments