Ghost code removal and theme rebuild for a standing desk retailer

Stand Steady sells standing desks and ergonomic accessories on Shopify Plus. When I ran the initial audit, the store had 300 HTTP requests loading on the homepage — 3.82MB total, PageSpeed F(49%), YSlow F(48%).

The waterfall told the story clearly. A mega-menu app had been removed, but the scripts were still there — dozens of files named mega-menu-28722... returning 404 errors on every single page load. The browser was dutifully requesting files that no longer existed, waiting for responses that would never come, on every visit. Alongside that: PageFly, Smile.io (170KB+ JavaScript bundle), a sticky add-to-cart bar loading its own asset stack, Klaviyo loading twice, Hotjar, SearchAnise, and Reviews.io — all running in parallel.

The store was also managing two separate storefronts with no connection between them, creating a disjointed experience for customers moving between the main site and the sister brand.

The ghost code came out first. I ran a search through the theme files and removed all remnants of the uninstalled mega-menu app — the script references, the CSS calls, the dead asset requests. That alone eliminated a significant portion of the 404 cascade.

I then rebuilt the core site sections with streamlined code, reducing the overall request count and page weight. Asset loading was restructured so critical styles and scripts loaded in the right order — blocking resources moved out of the render path, deferred where they didn't need to block.

For the multi-storefront requirement, I implemented a native multi-domain bar connecting Stand Steady's main store with its sister site. No app dependency — the bar renders from theme code and updates via the Shopify Customizer.

Custom product page tabs were added to surface specification details, customer reviews, and warranty information in a structured layout, reducing the cognitive load of dense product description blocks.

• Ghost code removal — uninstalled mega-menu app remnants
• Core section rebuild with optimised asset loading
• Critical CSS restructure to unblock render path
• Custom product page tab component
• Native multi-domain navigation bar (no app dependency)
• Custom theme aligned to brand aesthetics

The before state is documented via GTmetrix (April 2020): 300 requests, 3.82MB, F(49%)/F(48%), fully loaded 32.5s. An after GTmetrix report is not available for this engagement. Performance improvement was observed and reported by the client, but I can't put a verified number on it here.