You might have tried to change your current Shopify theme but found it harder than you thought it would be. You could also be looking for a company or a certain developer to help you customize Shopify.
Unfortunately, though, Shopify is not easy to change. Here, we’ll look at how to make your own Shopify custom design.
Shopify Custom Design Is
With a Shopify custom design, you can hire Shopify experts to create a shop design from scratch, helping you make a design for your Shopify store that is unique to you.
A custom Shopify theme is made from the ground up, with more focus on the features and parts that the retailer wants than on those that theme developers have already made.
What are the pros and cons of making a Shopify store from scratch?
Let’s look at the pros and cons of getting a Shopify custom design instead of a Shopify theme.
PROS:
Shopify themes that are already made are much less useful than Shopify designs that are made just for you. Creating your own Shopify theme has many benefits, such as:
- Staying up to date: As the owner of your unique Shopify theme, you decide which changes should be made to it. With these changes, Shopify platform updates won’t interfere with each other and it will be easy and error-free to update to the latest versions.
- Creative control: Everything about your website, from the design and color scheme to the unique icons and fonts, will be under your creative control.
- Focus on the needs of your audience: By making a Shopify theme from scratch, you can make a layout that will help turn your users into buyers.
- Flexibility in how it works: You can change your theme to add the features your business needs without installing other programs or plug-ins.
- Clean code: You can keep your code from getting too big and make sure your website loads quickly by only using the code it needs to run.
CONS:
Without talking about the bad things about making a unique Shopify theme, we can’t properly explain the good things about it. The two biggest problems with making a custom Shopify theme from scratch are:
- Cost-wise, installing a theme from a Theme Store will always be more expensive than making a website from scratch. Unless you are a developer, you will probably need to work with a Shopify development company to make and install your custom theme. The price will depend on what you want and how experienced the Shopify development company you choose is.
- Time: It takes more time to make a new Shopify theme from scratch than to install one that is already made. Depending on your design strategy, it could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to build a custom Shopify theme.
How to start from scratch when making a Shopify custom store
Now, let’s get to the important part: how to start from scratch and design a Shopify custom store.
Choose a theme template that has already been made.
For the most ease, it’s best to choose a theme that’s already been made and then start making changes to it.
After you log in, you can quickly go to the Theme Store: Click Online Store, then Themes, scroll down to find a template you like, and click Add.
You can also choose Visit Theme Store to look for more templates. Once the window for the theme shop is open, you can narrow down the choices by clicking the All themes button in the middle of the window. But keep in mind that customizing your Shopify theme is faster if you use a premium theme template that has already been made.
The best thing about Shopify is that users can try out as many premium themes as they want for free. But you’ll have to pay if you want to make the theme live in your store.
Start Shopify’s Customization Tools
Here are the two most important steps for customizing Shopify stores with Shopify themes, which are to go back to your Shopify dashboard and stay on Themes:
- Options for changing themes
- Changing the template for the theme
Shopify merchants often have more freedom and control over how the different page types used to build the shop are laid out when they use this method. When you click the Customize button to start making changes, the Theme Editor will open.
Changing the header
A header is the part at the top of a web page, as its name suggests. This part is usually on every page of your Shopify site, and any changes you make to it will show up on all shop pages.
Think about how you want to change this part. You can change things like the navigation menu, the divider line, and the sticky header.
In the theme editor, click on Header in the sectional panel menu on the left side of the page to change anything you want. When you’re done making changes, click the Save button in the upper right corner to make them stick.
Editing Moveable Sections One at a Time
Most parts of a document can be changed, except for the header and footer. This means that any changes or updates you make will only affect the template you are working on.
Most Shopify layouts have the following things that can be moved:
- Image Banner: An image banner is a marketing tool on Shopify designs that lets you advertise your business and give customers information.
- Collections that stand out: A business owner might put a certain group of items in a section that is meant to attract people and get them to buy something.
- You just have to click on any of them to see the different ways you can customize it.
Add/Move/Remove One Part
You can add as many parts as you want to your custom themes, but you should be very careful because doing so could slow down your website and make it work less well.
Add A Section: Most Shopify layouts have an Add section button that is part of the list of sections that can be moved. Choose the Add section and then look for a theme part that meets your needs based on the choices you made.
Change A Part: Go back to the segmented category list, move the mouse over any part until a six-dot icon appears and the cursor changes to a panning icon, then click and drag the section to where you want it. If you decide to change your mind later, you can repeat the steps to rearrange your custom template.
Remove A Section: Adding more sections may seem more important, but you also need to get rid of units that aren’t needed. To do this, click the section title, which in our case is the picture banner, scroll through the customization options, and then click the Remove section button on the very last page. Before you click Save to make changes, you should always read the preview to see if it’s what you had in mind. If it doesn’t, you can undo your changes by clicking the Undo button, which is next to the green save button in the upper right corner.
As its name suggests, the Footer section is the area at the bottom of each page on your Shopify site. This section usually has links to social media accounts, a copyright statement, a sitemap, and email sign-up forms.
The theme you choose has a big effect on the customization options for the footer, just like it does for the header. But the process for making changes is the same for all of them. Some of the most popular customization options are choosing the color scheme, how to sign up for emails, how to connect social media platforms, how to pay, and what language to use.
Scroll down to Footer on the sections panel, click it to make the changes you want, and then click Save to put them into effect.
Altering Theme Settings
To start, click the Theme Settings button to see the different ways you can change the theme. These include the favicon, social media, color, typography, styles, and checkout. Here are some changes you might want to make:
Change Theme Color: To change the color of your Shopify theme, go to the Color menu and change the color settings for accents, backgrounds, foregrounds, solid button labels, outline buttons, and text links.
Change Theme Typography: By clicking on Typography and then Change, you can change the fonts used for headers and body text on your shop pages.
Change the style of the theme: Click Styles to get to the many options you can try.
Change how you share on social media: If you use Shopify and click on Social Media, you can quickly connect and customize how you share on social media.
Change the favicon: When a website loads, you may see a small image called a favicon in your browser’s address bar or tab. Use the Favicon option and the Select Image button to make the needed changes. When you choose a favicon image, Shopify will automatically cut it down to 32×32 pixels.
Change checkout: Checking out makes it possible to get more people to buy from your store and decrease the number of people who abandon their carts. Choose the Checkout option from your Shopify theme to change any checkout settings you want.
Get a great Shopify custom design as a bonus tip
Making a custom design for Shopify is not a very easy task. Here are some suggestions that might help you.
Spend money on a great theme.
The main reason why so many businesses choose Shopify as their eCommerce platform is because it has so many well-made themes. Shopify’s experts have made a platform that even people who aren’t very “tech-savvy” can use easily. They also make themes that look great and are made to increase sales. Spend on one.
Hire a Shopify designer to change how your store looks.
If you want to change your theme, it’s easiest to hire a Shopify expert. With their help, you can make sure that your store looks good and is useful while you focus on growing your business and following your plan.
First, choose a theme. Then, work with a designer to add your brand to different parts of the theme. Once you are happy with how the home page, interior pages, and product pages look, you can give that design to a Shopify developer.
Last Words
Shopify gives businesses a lot of freedom and flexibility to come up with their own themes and ways to interact with customers. On the Shopify platform, you can do almost anything. Now that you know how to change a Shopify site, it’s time to build an online store for your business that stands out. On dropship-empire Blog, you can find more eCommerce guides.