When The Sak Brand Group decided it was time to refresh its online storefront, the team wasn’t looking for a simple facelift. After five years on a legacy Shopify 1.0 theme, they migrated to Shopify 2.0 — a move designed to unlock flexibility, scalability, and richer customer experiences. But one thing stayed constant: their reliance on Yottaa to ensure speed, control, and conversion gains.
Delivering a fast, seamless online experience isn’t just a best practice — it’s a mandate. Shoppers expect pages to load instantly and will abandon sites that don’t provide a stellar experience. Meanwhile, Google’s Core Web Vitals have raised the bar for what counts as “fast.” Simply upgrading the platform wasn’t enough.
Performance Gains That Stick
Many brands assume Shopify 2.0 automatically guarantees better site speed. The Sak knew better. They used the migration as a “platform rejuvenation,” auditing every third-party script, cutting over 100 unnecessary apps, and rethinking what technologies deserved to stay. Yottaa’s Audit Third-Party Tags capability made the process faster and more accurate than any manual review could have managed.
The results spoke for themselves. Despite the full cleanup, Yottaa’s optimization layer still delivered an immediate 29.5% speed improvement over the baseline theme, which grew to an average of 33.1% as the site stabilized. Even Google’s Largest Contentful Paint score — a key Core Web Vitals metric — improved by 64%, dropping from 8.85 seconds to just 2.71 seconds. 
Beyond Speed: Control and Confidence
Yottaa’s Application Sequencing gave The Sak finer control over when and how apps load. Non-essential tools like review widgets could be deferred until shoppers were engaged, while mission-critical content appeared first. This meant better speed without compromising the rich experiences today’s customers expect.
Post-launch, Yottaa’s monitoring and diagnostics also caught potential performance issues early. For instance, when image-loading problems threatened to drag down SEO scores, Yottaa flagged the exact elements causing delays, helping The Sak resolve the issue before rankings slipped.
Proof That Performance Drives Growth
The payoff wasn’t just technical — it was financial. Conversion rates increased across all major channels after launch. Jordan Katz, VP of eCommerce at The Sak, summed it up simply: “Milliseconds make millions. Our 33.1% speed boost isn’t abstract. It’s real dollars when you’re looking at conversion impact.”
For brands considering a move to Shopify 2.0, The Sak’s story is a reminder: platform upgrades are only part of the equation. True future readiness comes from pairing flexible infrastructure with proactive performance management.
Read the full case study to see how The Sak built a faster, more resilient storefront with Yottaa.
