How to Customize Shopify Themes with Image

When searching for a Shopify theme, you assess each one once it's configured with images, fonts, and colors, offering a glimpse of its complete capabilities. However, after installing a theme in your store, the task of refining its appearance begins.

This is where design decisions play a crucial role, and it can be daunting if you lack experience in making them. In this guide, we will delve into Shopify theme customization, exploring a range of options to help you enhance your brand representation and boost sales, even if you're new to the process.

How to design and code a custom Shopify theme from scratch?

You can edit the theme to customize your online store's content, layout, typography, and colors. Each theme offers sections and settings that allow you to change the look of your store without editing code.

However, if the changes you made to the theme code are not compatible with the theme update, all code changes will be removed in the updated copy. You should only edit your theme code if you can't make the necessary changes using the Shopify app or the theme editor.

You can edit the theme code to change the details of your online store. Most of the files that make up the theme contain Liquid, which is Shopify's template language. Theme files also contain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages. Only edit theme code if you know HTML and CSS and have a basic understanding of Liquid.

6 steps on how to customize Shopify themes

Step 1: Choose a treasure theme Ideas

When choosing a theme, you should consider a number of factors such as:

Features: You'll typically get a 3-day free trial of Shopify to explore the features before investing your money. You can use their paid plans with different features. Here are some features:

• One order management system for your entire business
• Impressive SEO tools that deliver!
• Powerful analytics tools
• Customer profiles, accounts, and groups
• Review and act on abandoned checkouts
• Easy payment integrations and options
• Shopify Dropshipping
• Shopify POS

Prices: You can purchase paid Shopify plans with the features mentioned above. Here are Shopify's 3 main packages:

• Basic Plan: This plan costs $39/month/billed monthly and $29/month/billed annually.
• Shopify Plan: The Shopify plan costs $105/month/ billed monthly and $79/month/ billed annually.
• Advanced Plan: This plan costs $399/month/ billed monthly and $299/month/billed annually.

There are many free and paid themes available in the Shopify Theme Store. Choose a theme that is responsive (looks good on all devices), and that has the features you need.

Consider focusing on specific products that have a strong demand, as this can lead to substantial profit margins. Top recommendations include sought-after items like skincare products and fashionable clothing, which are known for their high quality. Hence, it is advisable to explore some of the most lucrative niches for your Shopify store.

If you feel confused about which theme to choose, you can refer to the best shopify themes evaluated by the PageFly team. All themes are experienced by the team to draw the most objective opinions possible for users.

Read more: Shopify Theme Customization: How to Create a Unique and Professional Online Store

Step 2: Basic customizations for your theme

Color palette

If you already have an established brand, it's essential to customize your Shopify theme settings to align with the existing principles of your brand. In the absence of brand guidelines, consider utilizing colors present in your logo.

Starting from square one? Selecting colors for your brand can pose a challenge. Do they harmonize well? Are vibrant colors more suitable, or do neutral tones better reflect your brand? Seek inspiration from the nature of your products; for instance, if you specialize in wooden or leather furniture, natural hues like brown, beige, and orange could serve as excellent starting points.

Online color palette tools can also be beneficial, offering examples of appealing color schemes generated by others or established brands.

Once you've identified a visually pleasing and fitting set of colors for your products and business, make sure to save the hexadecimal codes representing each color. These alphanumeric combinations, consisting of six characters, can be applied across platforms and online design tools to ensure precise color matching wherever your brand colors are employed.

Fonts

Fonts play a crucial role in branding, and many successful ecommerce store designs utilize a mix of different fonts. It's not necessary to limit yourself to a single font or style; instead, look for fonts that complement each other, creating a harmonious combination without becoming monotonous.

It's generally advisable to stick to two or three fonts to avoid diluting your brand and distracting from the flow of information. While creativity is tempting, finding a balance between legibility, consistency, and clarity is essential.

Opt for complementary fonts, and a quick way to discover perfect font combinations is by using different fonts within the same font family, such as Helvetica or Times New Roman. Fonts within the same family often have various weights and styles that naturally work well together.

For instance, a bold version of a font represents a heavier weight, while a style variation could be an all-caps version. If you have a favorite font, you can use different versions like bold, regular, and italicized to distinguish headings and other content, allowing a single typeface family to serve your entire store while maintaining differentiation.

Pair compatible typefaces:

• Serif (e.g., Times New Roman)
• Sans-serif (e.g., Arial)
• Script (calligraphy or handwriting styles)
• Monospace (equally spaced letters, common in computer code like Roboto Mono).

Combining fonts from different typefaces creates a strong contrast, helping establish a hierarchy in your content.

Utilize font sizes intentionally to highlight important information and guide users through your website. Larger font sizes should emphasize crucial content, ensuring a clear distinction between headlines and paragraphs for improved readability and navigation.

Once you've finalized your choices for fonts, colors, and overall brand guidelines, the key to effective store design is consistency. Adhering to these choices will enhance the readability and overall user experience, reducing obstacles to closing a sale.

Add your logo and branding

Customizing the appearance of your event in both Participant and Present modes by incorporating your logo and preferred colors is a great way to align the event's visual identity with your branding. Additionally, you have the option to showcase partner or sponsor logos during the Present mode.

To add logos:

 1. Navigate to Settings.

2. Choose Customization.

3. Upload your image in the Branding section.

For event logos, it's advisable to use an aspect ratio of 1.15:1, such as an image 250 px wide and 217 px high.

To add custom colors and backgrounds to the Present mode:

1. Go to Customization.

2. Select Present mode - Custom.

3. Input your preferred colors.

4. Optionally, upload your own image.

This allows you to enhance the visual appeal of your event, ensuring a cohesive and branded experience, whether it's a team meeting, town hall, or a large conference.

Quick read: Shopify Theme Development 101: How to Build a Custom Shopify Theme

Customize your navigation

The Shopify app store offers a vast array of apps for customizing your store design, and the key is to pinpoint your specific customization needs and then find the app that fulfills those requirements. Various customizations are possible using Shopify apps, including:

1. Search Bar Customization: Apps like Shopify Search & Discovery allow you to personalize your search bar, implement filters, enhance product recommendations, and even integrate visual search, ultimately improving the overall search experience.

2. Product Recommendations: Boost your average order value by using apps to recommend similar products. Examples of such apps include those utilized by Thousand to enhance product recommendations.

3. Customer Reviews Integration: Optimize for conversions by incorporating customer reviews. Apps like Product Reviews and Judge.me can help leverage social proof through customer reviews.

4. Landing Page Templates: For more extensive customization of landing pages and easy-to-use templates, consider apps like PageFly, equipped with a drag-and-drop editor for streamlined customization.

5. Checkout Customization: Tailor the checkout experience to align with your visual brand and enhance it to minimize friction and boost sales. Apps such as Skip To Checkout and Zipify One Click Upsell are designed to facilitate these specific customizations.

Identifying your desired customizations and exploring relevant apps in the Shopify store can significantly enhance the functionality and visual appeal of your online store.

Add images and videos

A product can accommodate up to 250 images, 3D models, or videos, with specific hosting limitations for 3D models and videos based on your Shopify plan. Additionally, Shopify Mobile app users with compatible iOS devices can utilize the 3D scanner feature to directly scan and create 3D models.

The initial media item assigned to each product is referred to as the featured or main media item. This main media item is showcased on collection pages, the cart page, the checkout page, and the home page. You have the flexibility to alter the main media item whenever necessary.

Step 3: Create a template

While the allure of experimenting with different fonts and colors across various pages may be tempting, it's crucial to remember that consistency plays a pivotal role in building a brand. The ability of customers to easily identify and navigate your store is paramount, and adhering to a consistent set of fonts, colors, and styles contributes significantly to achieving this objective.

This is where page templates and sections become valuable features in Shopify theme customization.

Page templates prove beneficial for elements you use repeatedly, such as blog posts, landing pages, sales funnels, or product pages. Starting with a template not only ensures consistency but also streamlines the creative process, saving both the time and effort required for each page creation.

As for sections, they allow the creation of smaller, templated content blocks applicable across different pages on your website. Whether it's a contact form, call to action, or newsletter signup meant for multiple pages, creating and updating these sections ensures that changes made reflect automatically on every page utilizing that section.

• To manage sections, follow these steps:
• Navigate to your theme editor and click "+ Add section”
• Choose a new section from the list or locate the section you wish to edit using the search bar.
• Editing blocks within a section can be done by clicking on the section.
• Rearrange the order and layout of sections on the page by clicking and dragging the ⋮⋮ icon.
• Save your changes when you're done.

Step 4: Use apps in the Shopify App Store to customize your store

The Shopify app store boasts an extensive collection of design apps, offering numerous options for customization. The key lies in identifying your specific customization needs and then selecting the appropriate app to fulfill those requirements.

A bespoke application is one that you or a developer creates specifically for your Shopify store, as opposed to a publicly available application designed for use by multiple stores. Custom apps enable you to enhance your Shopify admin, directly retrieve your store's data through Shopify's APIs, or expand your online store to other platforms using the Storefront API.

Step 5: Level Up Your Store: Elevate Sections with Targeted App Embeds

Shopify app embeds refer to elements provided by apps that either float, appear as overlays in your theme, or add code to your online store without being visible to customers. An example of this is a chat bubble app positioned in the corner of a store or an analytics/tracking app seamlessly integrated into the site.

For instance, Ora Organic, a Shopify merchant, utilizes a live chat app embed powered by Gorgias. This allows users to interact with a live chat bubble while continuing to browse the website without interruptions.

Ora Organic's on-site chat screenshot Management of app embeds, including activation, deactivation, and customization, can be done through the theme editor, and they are compatible with any theme version.

Similar to sections, app embeds have a centralized point for implementation and management. Any modification made to the app embed is automatically reflected on every page where it appears, eliminating the need for manual updates on individual pages.

To customize Shopify app embeds, navigate to the theme editor, click on "App embeds," and choose the app embed you wish to manage. You can use the search bar to find specific app embeds. Once located, toggle the status to activate or deactivate, and access the app embed settings by clicking the expand icon (▸) next to the app embed's name.

Step 6: Upload your theme to a store

To share a permanent link to your theme, update existing code, or prepare for theme publication on Shopify, you must utilize the theme push command.

During the initial theme code push, it's advisable to upload the theme to your theme library as a new, unpublished theme. This can be achieved by executing the command with the --unpublished flag. When using this flag, you will be prompted to provide a name for the theme that will be displayed in the theme library.

Once the theme is created, subsequent updates to your theme code can be implemented by running the push command without any flags:

After creating the theme, you can update your theme code by running the push command without any flags:

Tips for customizing your Shopify theme

- Start with small changes: It's easy to get overwhelmed when you're customizing your theme. Start with small changes and then make bigger changes later.

- Test your changes: Before you publish your changes, make sure to test them on different devices.

- Get feedback: Reach out to friends and family members who possess expertise in this field to gather feedback on your store. They can help you to identify areas that need improvement.

Final Thought: Customize & Conquer: Own Your Shopify Experience

Each Shopify theme adheres to a stringent quality standard, equipped with inherent features enabling merchants to provide discounts, suggest products, collect emails, and cater to various buyer needs. Moreover, all themes receive complimentary updates, ensuring you consistently have access to the latest version.

Designed for optimal online selling, your store will boast swift loading times, seamless functionality on mobile devices, and an unparalleled checkout experience—all tailored to enhance your existing brand.

PageFly offers a fresh approach to page creation, providing a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that allows you to easily customize your store for any sales campaign. Whether you begin with our pre-designed templates or create your own page from scratch, you'll enjoy full control over every detail.

PageFly ensures fast page loading through its streamlined and optimized code. Integration with your preferred themes and apps is seamless, requiring no additional effort on your part.

• Create a structure with Slideshow, Block, Tab, Accordion and Table.
• Define funnels, flows, data sources and styles
• Boost conversion with Sales Countdowns, Badges, Forms and Views.
• Self-responsive display and cross-device editing for all screens.
• Create easily with Autosave, Global Style and Global Section.
• Prices
• Free installation

No more delay! Start customizing your Shopify theme with PageFly today, right here!

Conclusion

Each Shopify theme adheres to rigorous standards, equipped with integrated functionalities that enable merchants to provide discounts, suggest products, collect email addresses, and perform additional actions to enhance the shopping experience for buyers.

Customizing Shopify themes with images provides the best experience —all in a way that complements your existing brand.

Above is an article about How to customize Shopify themes with images. To see more theme samples, you can read more of our PageFly articles.

Explore more, check out: [Ultimate guide] How to Create a Custom Shopify Product Page Template