A Complete Guide to HubSpot Themes
HubSpot CMS is a robust system to build and maintain websites. While it’s an amazing platform to have at your disposal,...
Leverage our extensive HubSpot development experience to build anything in HubSpot CMS.
Redesign a website with a theme, build a custom one, or migrate to HubSpot CMS
Automate workflows with apps, custom objects, HubSpot API integrations & CRM extensions
Get our Level Up HubSpot theme, or work with us to build a custom HubSpot theme
Build HubSpot Calculators & Interactive Conversion Tools
Make the most of Shopify themes. Connect with us to build a custom Shopify solution
Ensure website security audit with web and app vulnerability testing
In This Article
Updated: April 16, 2024
|
Published: May 7, 2021
Listen to the audio version
If you’re looking to learn more about Shopify themes for your ecommerce website, you’ve come to the right place.
Shopify is a leading ecommerce software that lets anyone create an online store to sell products. Shopify integrates with point-of-sale (POS) systems and other business tools for things like inventory management, shipping, SEO, multi-channel marketing, and reporting to essentially serve as a complete ecommerce platform. Building out the bones of the ecommerce website is the first step though, and that can require some technical know-how. Many business owners go with Shopify themes as a simple way to get started, but is that the right option for everyone?
Read on to learn about what Shopify themes are, why you may want to consider using one, and how to pick the right theme for your business.
Shopify themes are a set of pre-built templates, modules, and style settings that determine the look and feel of your website. There are off-the-shelf themes which are pre-designed, turnkey templates that allow you to easily customize built-in modules and create a beautiful ecommerce website. Off-the-shelf themes come in a range of free and paid options based on overall design and functionality. You can select from a variety of theme options that are best suited for the types of products you sell, your branding, by industry, or based on the kind of experience you want your customers to have while visiting your online store.
Then there are custom themes which can be created with the help of a developer. Custom themes can either be developed from scratch, or an existing off-the-shelf theme can be further customized to support more complex functionality or designs.
For business owners who want a plug-and-play option, Shopify themes couldn’t make things easier. But what can be gained from using Shopify themes really depends on the needs of your business and what your goals are.
There are several benefits to using Shopify themes including:
Themes can be modified using the theme editor from your Shopify admin, or you can switch out themes altogether without worrying about affecting other parts of your online store. Additionally, many off-the-shelf Shopify themes can be further customized and built out by working with a Shopify expert or developer.
It is also important to look ahead and think about the direction and growth of your business and consider whether Shopify themes can support you in that journey. Do you need custom functionality or features? Do you want a unique design or brand experience for your customers? Shopify themes offer baseline functionality for most online businesses, and higher-cost themes can offer more robust and dynamic performance.
There are some limitations of using Shopify themes as well, including:
Shopify Themes is where you can go to browse the available ecommerce website templates for your online business. You can explore over 70 themes and create search filters based on free or paid options, the number of products you have, layout style, navigation options, industry, and more. You also have the option to sort through themes based on price and popularity to help you find the right match.
The addition of the Shopify Apps Store makes it simple to install a variety of tools to help boost sales and maintain your online business.
Well, that depends.
There are many factors to consider:
If you already have established branding, a shortlist of product offerings, and your online business model is straightforward, going with an off-the-shelf Shopify theme may be a good option.
If you want to have complete control over the look and feel, visual storytelling, and performance of your online store, building your own theme could be the way to go. There are many Shopify theme developers and service providers out there who can support you in creating a custom theme from the ground up for your ecommerce website.
Another option is to go with a premium Shopify theme and customize on top of the available functionality with the help of a Shopify expert or developer. You can start with this Shopify expert discovery tool to determine the right path for you and find a trusted developer to partner with.
Well, yes and no.
Shopify themes are designed to easily allow merchants and business owners to quickly launch ecommerce websites using preset modules and templates. If you are happy with the preset modules and templates and don’t require any customizations for your product pages, informational pages, or other web pages, you don’t need to know how to code.
However, let’s say you want to build out a unique landing page for your website, but the off-the-shelf theme you chose doesn’t offer a webpage template that fits the requirements for your landing page idea. Or, you want certain layout changes or different options for functionality that the theme doesn’t readily support. At that point, some coding will be required for a custom theme or upgrades to an off-the-shelf theme.
There are Shopify theme development shops or individuals you can partner with to get started on building a custom Shopify theme. You can learn more about building custom themes or find expert developers to partner with.
Shopify themes give developers a major head start. Think of it this way: Similar to building a home, the theme is basically the foundation and framing that the developer could work off.
Shopify uses what’s called “Liquid” code to retrieve specific information from your Shopify store and uses that code to load dynamic content. Liquid is a templating engine that acts as the backbone of themes. Once a theme is installed, developers can edit existing code to make additional customizations, layout changes, template changes, and so on.
However, editing within the Shopify store is not recommended. With Shopify Theme Kit, developers can reuse code, maintain different versions of the code, and run their software development workflows.
There are several elements that can be customized in themes. You can modify fonts, color palettes, image sizes and placement, navigation placement, paddings, spacing, and more. Some off-the-shelf themes have unique ways images are displayed or some limitations with fonts, so it may be a good idea to explore premium themes in depth before committing to one to ensure all website elements come out looking the way you intend. However, an off-the-shelf theme is not recommended if the design or functionality for your ecommerce website is complex. In that case, building a custom theme would be the better option.
There really isn’t a “best theme” because it depends on the context. For example, if you require a complex design or robust functionality, building a custom theme would make sense. Similarly, if you have a more straightforward design and you don’t need a lot of customizations for your website, an off-the-shelf theme would work fine.
Picking the right theme for your ecommerce website can feel like a tall order, but it doesn’t have to be. The great thing about Shopify themes is there are many free options to choose from which allows you to test different ones to see if the styling and functionality is a good fit for your business. Or, if you already know exactly what you want your ecommerce website to look like, you can select a premium theme that offers that framework and build from there.
From a technical standpoint, there are three key considerations:
Keep in mind though, there are key elements for any ecommerce website that all themes should have. For example, all themes should have basic templates for a homepage, product pages, about us page, and blog (or content pages).
When browsing Shopify themes, be sure to view the demo to see how each theme looks and click around to check the functionality. Each theme offers up to three different styles that feature distinct designs and colorways. You can also check whether the theme is officially supported by Shopify, which determines whether Shopify or a third-party developer would be available to provide support to address any issues that may arise with the theme and how it behaves with your online store.
The prices vary for Shopify themes, ranging from free to $180 USD. The good news is the cost of the theme is only a one-time payment, so there are no recurring charges. Shopify makes it easy to go with a free theme first to see how that would work with your online store, and you can easily switch to a premium theme should the need arise.
In order to build a custom theme, one needs to find a reputable Shopify theme development store or individual to work with. Upwork or Shopify Experts is a good place to get started.
Some things to keep in mind when selecting a professional to work with include:
Dive into our blog to discover a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the world of email services.
HubSpot CMS is a robust system to build and maintain websites. While it’s an amazing platform to have at your disposal,...
HubSpot themes are collections of assets designed to enable flexible content editing. Introduced in June 2020 on the...
3 Useful Features of the New HubSpot CMS Hub In April 2020, the new HubSpot CMS Hub was introduced to the world....
According to a 2021 Stack Overflow survey, React is the most popular web framework. Because of its wide popularity,...