Performance Retainer

How do I keep my Shopify Plus store fast after an overhaul?

Store performance degrades over time. New apps get added. Marketing teams install tracking scripts. Shopify releases updates that change how theme code renders. A Performance Retainer gives you a monthly review of what's been added, what's drifted, and what needs to come out before it compounds into a problem. Same measurement standards as the initial audit, so you always have a documented baseline.

Let's talk about a retainer →

FROM $1,000/MONTH. Rate confirmed after baseline audit. Confirmed before work begins.

What does a Shopify Plus Performance Retainer include each month?

Ongoing work, defined scope. Every engagement month includes the following.

  • Monthly app stack reviewWhat's accumulating, what can go, and what's creating performance risk.
  • Core Web Vitals monitoring and regression alertsLCP, TBT, and CLS tracked monthly. I flag regressions before they affect revenue.
  • Native architecture support — Liquid, Metaobjects, FunctionsOngoing builds and replacements using Shopify’s own platform features, not new subscriptions.
  • Priority access for urgent interventionsWhen something breaks or a deadline moves, your work goes to the front of the queue.
  • AI-generated code reviewShopify’s own tools generate sections fast without architectural context. I audit what they added each quarter before it compounds.

How does a Shopify Plus Performance Retainer engagement work?

Every retainer begins with a baseline measurement. What happens after is consistent and predictable.

  1. Month 1

    Baseline audit

    Script inventory, app map, LCP trace confirmed. Starting measurement locked in before any changes are made.

  2. Months 2–3

    Removal and replacement

    Ghost code elimination. Native replacements for the highest-value apps. Performance re-measured after each change.

  3. Quarterly

    Monitoring, maintenance, and AI code review

    Findings report. Regression alerts. Priority queue for new interventions. Core Web Vitals tracked every month. AI-generated code audited every quarter.

Verified result
BEFORE 37.3s
AFTER 1.5s

Ghost scripts from 5 uninstalled apps removed. 194 HTTP requests eliminated. Fully loaded time: 37.3s → 1.5s. GTmetrix verified, April–June 2020. This is what the retainer prevents from recurring.

Consumer Electronics Retailer — DTC accessories, Shopify Plus

How do I know if my Shopify Plus store needs a performance retainer?

If your team regularly installs apps to test tools, runs marketing pixels that inject third-party scripts, or if multiple people have theme edit access, the store will accumulate bloat between major projects. A retainer is the right fit if you want a documented monthly checkpoint rather than waiting until performance has degraded enough to warrant another overhaul. If changes are infrequent and access is locked down, a quarterly check-in may be sufficient. That's worth discussing before committing to a monthly engagement.

The cleanup holds when there’s a checkpoint.

If your store has been through a cleanup or migration and you want to keep the performance from drifting, this is the conversation to have. The retainer is scoped per store — I won't propose a rate until I know what's actually in the stack.

Let’s talk about a retainer →