Shopify total image payload and the Core Web Vitals
34.8% of audited sites (2,870) transfer 1 to 3 MB of images and 15.1% exceed 3 MB. Sites staying under 350 KB pass LCP at 98% (1.1s median), compared with 94% (1.4s median) above 3 MB.
13.9% of Shopify sites use under 350 KB of images total image payload, and 98% of those sites have a good LCP, against 97% of all Shopify sites.
LCP pass rate
Sites with under 350 KB of images total image payload have a good LCP most often: 98%, against 97% of all Shopify sites. Sites with over 3 MB of images image payload have it least often, at 94%.
Total image payload usage
350 KB to 1 MB of images is the most used: 36.2% of Shopify sites. Under 350 KB of images is 13.9% of Shopify sites.
The four LCP phases
Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between under 350 KB of images and over 3 MB of images sits in resource load delay: 547 ms median for under 350 KB of images against 707 ms for over 3 MB of images. Overall median field LCP is 1.1s for under 350 KB of images (TTFB 296 ms, load delay 547 ms, load duration 152 ms, render delay 217 ms) versus 1.4s for over 3 MB of images.
Total image payload per framework
On jQuery, 36% of sites use 1 MB to 3 MB of images total image payload, and 95% of jQuery sites have a good LCP, against 97% of all sites. On Vue, 39% of sites use 1 MB to 3 MB of images, and 97% of Vue sites have a good LCP.
Vue 933 sites1 MB to 3 MB 39%350 KB to 1 MB 30%Over 3 MB 22%97%
jQuery 3,153 sites1 MB to 3 MB 36%350 KB to 1 MB 35%Over 3 MB 17%Under 350 KB 11%95%Total image payload or the framework
Does the framework explain the total image payload difference?
On jQuery, 97% of sites with under 350 KB of images total image payload have a good LCP, against 96% of jQuery sites with 350 KB to 1 MB of images. Within jQuery, sites with under 350 KB of images and 350 KB to 1 MB of images have a good LCP about equally often. On Vue, 97% of sites with 350 KB to 1 MB of images total image payload have a good LCP, against 98% of Vue sites with 1 MB to 3 MB of images. Within Vue, sites with 350 KB to 1 MB of images and 1 MB to 3 MB of images have a good LCP about equally often.
How total image weight competes with the hero paint
Even when off-screen images are lazy-loaded, oversized carousels, unresized product grids, and CSS background images compete for cellular bandwidth during initial viewport load. Across 1,150 sites (13.9%) under 350 KB of images, 98% pass field LCP at a 1.1s median, whereas the 15.1% (1,243) exceeding 3 MB drop to 94% good LCP (1.4s median).
Understanding total image payload
Keep total image transfer under 1 MB on initial load by serving AVIF or WebP, matching srcset widths to rendered layout slots, and lazy-loading off-screen media. Across all audited sites, 13.9% stay under 350 KB (98% good LCP, 1.1s median) versus 15.1% above 3 MB (94% good LCP, 1.4s median).
By Arjen Karel · 8,246 crawled Shopify sites (3,818 with desktop Chrome field data, October 2026). How we measured.