diff --git a/src/zarr/codecs/sharding.py b/src/zarr/codecs/sharding.py
index 85162c2f74..9f26bc57b1 100644
--- a/src/zarr/codecs/sharding.py
+++ b/src/zarr/codecs/sharding.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-from collections.abc import Iterable, Mapping, MutableMapping
+from collections.abc import Iterable, Mapping, MutableMapping, Sequence
 from dataclasses import dataclass, replace
 from enum import Enum
 from functools import lru_cache
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 from zarr.core.dtype.npy.int import UInt64
 from zarr.core.indexing import (
     BasicIndexer,
+    ChunkProjection,
     SelectorTuple,
     _morton_order,
     _morton_order_keys,
@@ -574,21 +575,26 @@ async def _encode_partial_single(
         chunks_per_shard = self._get_chunks_per_shard(shard_spec)
         chunk_spec = self._get_chunk_spec(shard_spec)
 
-        shard_reader = await self._load_full_shard_maybe(
-            byte_getter=byte_setter,
-            prototype=chunk_spec.prototype,
-            chunks_per_shard=chunks_per_shard,
-        )
-        shard_reader = shard_reader or _ShardReader.create_empty(chunks_per_shard)
-        # Use vectorized lookup for better performance
-        shard_dict = shard_reader.to_dict_vectorized(np.asarray(_morton_order(chunks_per_shard)))
-
         indexer = list(
             get_indexer(
                 selection, shape=shard_shape, chunk_grid=RegularChunkGrid(chunk_shape=chunk_shape)
             )
         )
 
+        if self._is_complete_shard_write(indexer, chunks_per_shard):
+            shard_dict = dict.fromkeys(morton_order_iter(chunks_per_shard))
+        else:
+            shard_reader = await self._load_full_shard_maybe(
+                byte_getter=byte_setter,
+                prototype=chunk_spec.prototype,
+                chunks_per_shard=chunks_per_shard,
+            )
+            shard_reader = shard_reader or _ShardReader.create_empty(chunks_per_shard)
+            # Use vectorized lookup for better performance
+            shard_dict = shard_reader.to_dict_vectorized(
+                np.asarray(_morton_order(chunks_per_shard))
+            )
+
         await self.codec_pipeline.write(
             [
                 (
@@ -661,6 +667,16 @@ def _is_total_shard(
             chunk_coords in all_chunk_coords for chunk_coords in c_order_iter(chunks_per_shard)
         )
 
+    def _is_complete_shard_write(
+        self,
+        indexed_chunks: Sequence[ChunkProjection],
+        chunks_per_shard: tuple[int, ...],
+    ) -> bool:
+        all_chunk_coords = {chunk_coords for chunk_coords, *_ in indexed_chunks}
+        return self._is_total_shard(all_chunk_coords, chunks_per_shard) and all(
+            is_complete_chunk for *_, is_complete_chunk in indexed_chunks
+        )
+
     async def _decode_shard_index(
         self, index_bytes: Buffer, chunks_per_shard: tuple[int, ...]
     ) -> _ShardIndex:
diff --git a/tests/test_array.py b/tests/test_array.py
index 5b85c6ba1d..8ea79b5f10 100644
--- a/tests/test_array.py
+++ b/tests/test_array.py
@@ -2259,9 +2259,34 @@ def test_create_array_with_data_num_gets(
         data = zarr.zeros(shape, dtype="int64")
 
     zarr.create_array(store, data=data, chunks=chunk_shape, shards=shard_shape, fill_value=-1)  # type: ignore[arg-type]
-    # one get for the metadata and one per shard.
-    # Note: we don't actually need one get per shard, but this is the current behavior
-    assert store.counter["get"] == 1 + num_shards
+    # One get for the metadata; full-shard writes should not read shard payloads.
+    assert store.counter["get"] == 1
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("selection", "expected_gets"),
+    [(slice(None), 0), (slice(1, 9), 1)],
+)
+def test_shard_write_num_gets(selection: slice, expected_gets: int) -> None:
+    """
+    Test that partial-shard writes read the existing data and full-shard writes don't.
+    """
+    store = LoggingStore(store=MemoryStore())
+    arr = zarr.create_array(
+        store,
+        shape=(10,),
+        chunks=(1,),
+        shards=(10,),
+        dtype="int64",
+        fill_value=-1,
+    )
+    arr[:] = 0
+
+    store.counter.clear()
+
+    arr[selection] = 1
+
+    assert store.counter["get"] == expected_gets
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("config", [{}, {"write_empty_chunks": True}, {"order": "C"}])