Can You Change Your Shopify Theme? [If So How Exactly?]

If you are looking to start a new Shopify store than one of your questions may be whether you can change your theme. Considering that your theme controls the look, feel and design of your store and entire customer experience its a pretty big deal. I would like to share with you today some information on the topic having run a store for multiple years on the Shopify platform.

So, can you change your Shopify Theme? Yes; you can change your shopify theme as often as you like. There are 8 free Shopify Themes that you can install directly from your Shopify Admin. There are a further 68 paid themes on the Shopfiy Marketplace. Beyond this there are hundreds of third-party themes that you can install for advanced customizations, features and functionality.

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Shopify is a flexible platform, making store installation and set up easy. Regardless of whether you are new to the platform or have a lot of experience, you can change themes quickly directly when you are within your Shopify Admin account.

Let us know explore the topic further with some other considerations. This way you will know exactly whats available, what you can and cannot do, how to go about changing a theme and an insight into the best themes currently available.

How Do You Change A Shopify Theme?

When you first sign up with Shopify, one of the first things that you will need to do is select your theme. This is the interface you will see:

By default, the free Debut theme will be installed automatically.

You can go ahead and customize this theme using the intuitive on-page builder, or you have the option to select another theme from the Shopify Marketplace.

To do so, and choose a theme, all you need to do is scroll down the page and click the required option. Your options are:

1. Free Themes
2. Shopify Theme Store
3. Upload Theme

For the Free Themes, there are currently 8 free themes available and provided by Shopify.

These are called: Debut (default selected theme), Narrative, Venture, Boundless, Simple, Brooklyn, Supply and Minimal.

Each of the free themes serve a different purposes and provide a different look. They are also designed with different product inventories in mind. Some are more preferable for single products, whereas others are best for small, medium and large catalogs.

The Paid themes hosted on the Shopify Marketplace were built and designed by the Shopify Development and Specialist team. There are currently 64 available, and they are cost a one-time flat fee of $180.

All themes on the Shopify Marketplace come with different ‘styles’ or how they will look visually. You can also demo each of the themes before you install them on your store

There are also third-party themes, which you can purchase from personal developers and other marketplaces like Themeforest. This provides you with a lot more options and enables you to find a theme that comes with everything that you are looking for and need.

If you decided to purchase a theme created by a third-party, as part of the order you will download the theme files and templates. This will be in the form of a .zip folder.

Once you have downloaded this zip folder (directly from the theme developers website), you will then need to head back into shopify and click the “upload theme” button as shown in the screenshot above.

From there you would select the .zip folder, click upload and that’s it. Simple.

Please note, this is the interface you will need to visit each time you want to select a new theme. To do so, simply navigate to Online Store>Themes using the left-panel on the left of your Shopify Admin.

How Do You Customize A Theme on Shopify?

Customizing a theme is simple. All you need to do is head to the Themes tab (Online Store>Themes), hover over your active theme (which will appear as standard) and click the customize button:

When you do so, you will be taken directly into the store builder functionality. It is shown directly as it will be to your customers when they visit your store URL.

You will then just need to run through the various elements one by one, being sure to add images and text to each required element.

Its important to note that for each theme you have installed, you will see and be able to change different things. You can also remove and change sections as you see fit, so if you did not want a ‘slideshow’ you can simply remove this section/element entirely and replace it with a section you did require.

The main benefit of Shopify is it has essentially pre-built you a template, but you have complete control of the customization if you wanted to.

How Do I Upload A Custom Theme To Shopify?

If you are looking to upload a custom theme to Shopify, then you would simply follow the process steps alone.

First and foremost you need to acquire the themes files from the vendor. This is generally a .zip folder and includes everything that the theme comes with inside.

From there you need to run a simple upload and install onto your store, and then customize as and how you see fit.

A lot of custom themes will also come with an activation key to prevent the same files being used across multiple stores. If this is the case you may be prompted to enter this during the upload process.

Another thing to consider is that a lot of third-part themes come with extra functionality and features. These will likely need to be set up individually.

If you are using a custom theme also note that this will not be supported by Shopify and that you will need to contact the vendor for support and any questions that you may have.

Whats The Best Shopify Theme?

There are hundreds of Shopify themes out there and what may be best for one store may not be best for another.

Everyone has their own requirements, design ideas, niche and audience so it is always hard to identify ‘the’ best theme for each and every store.

That being said, the best Shopify theme is one that will load fast, load optimally on both desktop/mobile devices, improve your chances of ranking in the Search Engines (SEO) and will also come with extra customization options and conversion-boosting functionality to ensure you make as many sales as possible.

I’m also a huge advocate of only needing to pay a one-time fee, and being able to use that theme on as many stores as you require.

I’ve actually documented my research into the the Best Converting Shopify Themes which you can read here. This will provide you with a list of affordable and effective themes that meet all of the criteria outlined above.

In Summary

So back to our original question, can you change a shopify theme? Absolutely, and its very easy to do so to as you can see!

Shopify is one of the most user friendly platforms that is ideal for beginners. It comes with everything you will ever need such as hosting and SSL certificates, and most importantly, enables you to get a professional, affordable store up and running in minimal time.

If you are yet to start a Shopify Store, sign up to your 12 Day Free Trial by visiting Shopify here.

You can cancel your trial at any time, do not need to enter your Credit Card to get started and there are no obligations to sign up beyond the 14 days. Its worth a play at the very least.

Have other questions on Shopify themes, my following guides may be of help:

• How To Change Shopify Theme [The Exact Clicks To Make]
• Should You Buy A Shopify Theme? [Is It Worth Investing?]
• Are Shopify Themes A One Time Purchase? [All You Need To Know]
• Why Are Shopify Themes So Expensive? [And What You Can Do]