If your website takes too long to load, you will lose customers. The most common cause of a slow website is uploading images that are too large.

Before you upload a new banner or product photo to your dashboard, you should always compress it using a free online optimizer like TinyPNG. This reduces the invisible data hidden inside the file, making it load instantly on your website while still looking crisp and professional.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Open a new tab in your web browser and go to tinypng.com. (This free tool works for JPG, PNG, and WebP image files).

2. Locate the image file on your computer that you want to upload to your store.

3. Click and drag your image file directly into the dotted box at the top of the TinyPNG website where it says “Drop your WebP, PNG or JPEG files here!”

4. The tool will automatically begin compressing the image. You will see a progress bar and a percentage showing exactly how much file size was saved.

5. Once it says Finished, click the green Download button next to your image (or click Download All if you uploaded multiple photos).

6. The newly compressed image will be saved to your computer’s “Downloads” folder.

7. Finally, return to your store’s dashboard. Navigate to Media > Add New, and upload this newly compressed version to your website instead of the original!

Pro-Tip: File Size vs. Image Dimensions Compression reduces the file weight (e.g., shrinking a 3MB file down to 300KB), but it does not crop the dimensions (e.g., width and height). If your original photo is 5000 pixels wide, you should use your computer’s built-in photo viewer (like Mac Preview or Windows Photos) to crop and resize the width to around 1200-1500 pixels before running it through TinyPNG!