Shopify theme customization: what you can do yourself and when it needs code

Your Shopify theme fits almost, but only almost? A button sits in the wrong place, a detail is missing on the product page, or a feature only exists as a paid app. Before you hire someone, it is worth looking at what you can do yourself in the editor. A lot works without a line of code. For the rest you need someone who writes Liquid.

What you can change yourself in the theme editor

Under Online Store › Themes › Customize there is more than many people think:

• Colors and fonts for the whole store, in the theme settings.
• Adding, moving and hiding sections, on the home page and on every other page.
• Text, images and buttons in every section.
• Your own templates, for example a second product template for a certain group of products.
• Menus under Content › Menus, independent of the theme.
• Dynamic sources: connecting a section’s fields to metafields, so each product shows its own details.

Try changes in a copy of your theme (Themes › Actions › Duplicate). The copy is unpublished, your customers do not see it, and you can check it calmly in the preview.

When it needs code

The editor only shows the settings the theme developer planned for. Anything beyond that means changing code in the theme. Typical cases:

• A feature the theme does not have, for example an “Add to cart” button right on related products.
• A layout the section does not allow, such as a different arrangement of the product page on a phone.
• Product data that should be shown in a structured way: tables, ingredients, dimensions or downloads from metafields.
• Replacing an app, when what it does also works cleanly in the theme and then costs no monthly fee and no third-party code.
• Bugs in the theme that show up after app changes or old customizations.
• Navigation and orientation, for example breadcrumbs for nested collections.

What to watch before you start

Do not share your password. A developer gets access through a collaborator request in Shopify. You decide which areas they see and can remove access at any time.

Never let anyone work directly in the live theme. Every change goes into an unpublished copy first. Your store keeps running unchanged until you have seen and approved the result.

Keep theme updates in mind. When you update a theme from the Theme Store, Shopify carries over your settings and content, but not changes to the code. Custom code has to be added again afterwards. That is why every change should be documented, and as much as possible built as a section with settings.

Better as a section than hard-coded. A good customization is one you can then maintain yourself in the editor: change the text, swap the image, hide it. If you need a developer again for every small thing, something went wrong.

Customize or a new theme?

When the wish list gets long, it is worth asking whether the old theme is still the right base. A newer theme can do much of what the old one needs apps and workarounds for. Whether customizing or switching helps more is usually clear quickly once someone looks at the theme from the inside. More on the page about Shopify redesign and theme change.

And if your store is mainly slow: the most common causes sit in the theme too. I summed them up in Slow Shopify store? 7 causes.

An example: Lineargent

Lineargent, a silver jewelry brand from near Barcelona, runs a customized Prestige theme with hundreds of products and an external search tool. Instead of rebuilding everything at once, I audited the theme first and then shipped the fixes in seven small milestones, each small enough to check in the live store. On top came an “Add to cart” button on related products and breadcrumbs that show where a collection sits in the catalog.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep editing my theme in the editor afterwards? Yes, if the customizations are built as sections and settings. That is how I build them.

Does my store keep selling while it is being worked on? Yes. The work happens in an unpublished copy, which goes live only after your approval.

What happens on a theme update? Settings and content stay, code changes have to be added again. With clean documentation that takes a manageable amount of time.

What does a customization cost? That depends on what should change. After a short briefing you get a fixed price before I start.

Want me to look at your theme?

Send me your store’s address and a sentence or two on what bothers you for the free store check. I tell you what you can solve yourself in the editor and what needs code. If you would rather hand it over: I customize themes or rebuild them as part of a Shopify redesign, at a fixed price after the briefing.

Kiril Karatitsyn, Shopify developer in Germany