Shopify Theme Management
Standing Out From the Crowd
eCommerce businesses want to stand out amongst the competition in the digital market. Whether it be functionality, visuals, or site structure, merchants are always looking create an experience that is both enjoyable for their customers and unique to their brand. As one of the most widely used eCommerce platforms, Shopify constantly looks for ways to enhance the user experience and allow for merchants to custom tailor their site to their specific needs through Shopify themes.
What is a Shopify Theme?
One of Shopify’s key offerings on their platform is the “Theme Management System” that is included with the Online Store Channel. Shopify themes are relatively similar in structure to other CMS platform themes–in that they consist of a collection of template files that control all the aspects of how your store looks, feels, and interacts. However, the ways in which merchants can use a Shopify theme differs from any other eCommerce platform. Shopify themes can be fully managed via the Theme Customizer, which allows you to adjust your storefront with robust standardized controls that will always display consistently across Shopify stores.
Shopify makes it simple for users. When you’re customizing a theme within your store, all your changes appear as a live preview and are autosaved as you go. However, this draft view is only visible to you in the Shopify Admin panel until you opt to save. (Pictured above)
Similarly, changes made can also easily be undone/redone with back and forward buttons until you exit the Theme Customizer. (Pictured above)
Theme drafting doesn’t stop with your store’s published theme either. You can install and test multiple themes on the same store, each of which will still have full access to the Theme Customizer. This allows you to preview your store with all its live data without directly impacting your published theme.
Where Can I Find These Themes?
Similar to many other content management systems, there are a variety of places to acquire Shopify themes for your online store. The Shopify team creates and supports a handful of high-quality free themes that can be installed with a single click. They also manage the “Theme Store” that’s accessible directly from the Shopify Admin and hosts a wide variety of paid and free themes to choose from. Third-party marketplaces such as the EnvatoMarket also have paid themes to choose from that cover a wide variety of genres. If your online store has unique requirements, another option is to collaborate with an agency that’s part of the Shopify Plus Partner Program to create a custom storefront experience. While this may take more time than picking a theme off the shelf, it can provide an experience that’s tailored specifically to your brand voice and customer needs.
That all sounds great, how does it apply to my store?
Let’s say you want to run a themed sale on your store that sells gift cards and candy assortments during the week leading up to Valentine’s Day. Once you make a copy of your published theme and add some Valentine’s Day styled images and colors, you can save all these changes in the theme and wait to publish until your Valentine’s promotion begins. To take it one step further, by time enabling your discounts and theme switch before your email campaign is sent, your customers will be greeted with a cohesive themed experience that matches your email. This is just one example of how you can use Shopify’s variety of theme management tools.
