The challenge
The brand’s creative was strong, but mobile shoppers bounced before the hero image finished. Checkout asked for fields the payment provider already collected. Ads looked expensive because the site leaked intent.
What we did
- Compressed and lazy-loaded the image pipeline; served modern formats at the edge.
- Enabled edge caching for catalog and PDP assets on Cloudflare.
- Trimmed checkout to essentials and preserved cart UTMs through payment.
- Set a weekly Core Web Vitals check in the owner’s Friday report.
The results
6.4s → 1.9s
Mobile load time+24%
Conversion rate−31%
Bounce rateConversion rose 24% with no catalog change. Bounce fell as PDP content appeared in time for the scroll. Ad efficiency improved because the same traffic bought more often.
What made it work
- For D2C, speed is a merchandising decision, not an IT ticket.
- Checkout friction compounds every paid click.
- Measure load time beside ROAS or you misread the ads.
“Same products. Faster site. More sales.”
— D2C e-commerce brand, UAE (anonymised)
Reference
Client name withheld by default. A reference call is available once mutual NDAs are in place — mention this case study on the contact page.