How to Create a No-Code Custom Shopify Theme
Jerrel Reigada
December 24, 2022
For a quickly-scaling Shopify brand, pre-built themes often just aren't versatile enough. Standard themes can feel clunky, limiting, and hard to scale around for a modern eCommerce business.If that situation sounds anything like yours, you might be considering if it's worth building a fully custom Shopify theme.The short answer to that? It is.The long answer? It is, if you can do it cost-effectively.In this guide, you'll learn two things:
- The "traditional" way to build a custom theme on Shopify with code.
- How to create a fully custom Shopify theme with no coding knowledge whatsoever.
How to Create a No-Code Custom Shopify Theme
Jerrel Reigada
December 24, 2022
For a quickly-scaling Shopify brand, pre-built themes often just aren't versatile enough. Standard themes can feel clunky, limiting, and hard to scale around for a modern eCommerce business.If that situation sounds anything like yours, you might be considering if it's worth building a fully custom Shopify theme.The short answer to that? It is.The long answer? It is, if you can do it cost-effectively.In this guide, you'll learn two things:
- The "traditional" way to build a custom theme on Shopify with code.
- How to create a fully custom Shopify theme with no coding knowledge whatsoever.
What are Custom Shopify Themes?
A Shopify theme is what determines the layout and design of your store's frontend. The best way to think of it is like a "virtual sales floor."When any visitor lands on your site, their shopping experience and first impressions are largely determined by your theme.And that's why Shopify themes are so critical to get right.A well-designed theme will encourage customers to dive deeper, stay on-site longer, and make purchases. A theme that doesn't fit your brand isn't just an aesthetic flaw, it can also lead to frustration, slow page speeds, and lost sales.While most themes are customizable to an extent, the level two which you can change them is fairly limited. That may not be a huge dealbreaker for a small store, but a prominent brand needs a shopping experience that caters specifically to its target demographics - if it intends to continue scaling, that is.Think back to shopping at various brick-and-mortar stores. A grocery store's layout is entirely different to a beauty store's.And if a makeup vendor organized products like a deli, it'd lose out on a significant number of sales.Or in other words, one-size-fits-all isn't a very profitable approach when it comes to eCommerce UX. That's where custom themes come in.Custom Shopify themes are specifically designed with a brand in mind rather than bought from the theme store.Usually, they have to be custom-coded by a developer and/or made from scratch. Before we talk about how, though, let's talk about a few advantages of designing your own theme
What are Custom Shopify Themes?
A Shopify theme is what determines the layout and design of your store's frontend. The best way to think of it is like a "virtual sales floor."When any visitor lands on your site, their shopping experience and first impressions are largely determined by your theme.And that's why Shopify themes are so critical to get right.A well-designed theme will encourage customers to dive deeper, stay on-site longer, and make purchases. A theme that doesn't fit your brand isn't just an aesthetic flaw, it can also lead to frustration, slow page speeds, and lost sales.While most themes are customizable to an extent, the level two which you can change them is fairly limited. That may not be a huge dealbreaker for a small store, but a prominent brand needs a shopping experience that caters specifically to its target demographics - if it intends to continue scaling, that is.Think back to shopping at various brick-and-mortar stores. A grocery store's layout is entirely different to a beauty store's.And if a makeup vendor organized products like a deli, it'd lose out on a significant number of sales.Or in other words, one-size-fits-all isn't a very profitable approach when it comes to eCommerce UX. That's where custom themes come in.Custom Shopify themes are specifically designed with a brand in mind rather than bought from the theme store.Usually, they have to be custom-coded by a developer and/or made from scratch. Before we talk about how, though, let's talk about a few advantages of designing your own theme
What are the Advantages of Custom Themes?
Just like anything else, custom themes come with their own give and take.On the upside, a custom Shopify theme allows merchants to tailor the shopping experience specifically to the brand. Full control over your store's experience means you can create a store that's faster, sleeker, or more functional than an out-of-the-box store.On the list of downsides, Shopify custom themes aren't free. While the investment is worthwhile in many cases, it takes time, money, or both to create a fully functional theme.For an established store that's suffering from growing pains, that can be well worth the cost. For a newer startup in the space, though, it may be wiser to wait till the budget allows.
What are the Advantages of Custom Themes?
Just like anything else, custom themes come with their own give and take.On the upside, a custom Shopify theme allows merchants to tailor the shopping experience specifically to the brand. Full control over your store's experience means you can create a store that's faster, sleeker, or more functional than an out-of-the-box store.On the list of downsides, Shopify custom themes aren't free. While the investment is worthwhile in many cases, it takes time, money, or both to create a fully functional theme.For an established store that's suffering from growing pains, that can be well worth the cost. For a newer startup in the space, though, it may be wiser to wait till the budget allows.
How to Create a Custom Shopify Theme for Your Brand
If you've decided to create a theme for your store, there are two main options.You can create a fully-coded theme from scratch, either hands-on or by outsourcing.or You can use a simple tool like Nyla to create a store without any coding knowledge or outsourced help.First, we'll tackle the "traditional" method of programming your own store, then we'll talk about how you can use Nyla to circumvent that process.Want to get right to the no-code section? Click here to skip the development guide.
How to Create a Custom Shopify Theme for Your Brand
If you've decided to create a theme for your store, there are two main options.You can create a fully-coded theme from scratch, either hands-on or by outsourcing.or You can use a simple tool like Nyla to create a store without any coding knowledge or outsourced help.First, we'll tackle the "traditional" method of programming your own store, then we'll talk about how you can use Nyla to circumvent that process.Want to get right to the no-code section? Click here to skip the development guide.
How to Develop a Custom Shopify Theme
How to Develop a Custom Shopify Theme
Step 1. Learn How to Code with Liquid
Liquid is the coding language that’s used in every Shopify theme; so the first step is to get a good grasp on it.If you have experience with HTML or CSS, Liquid won’t be too foreign for you; it has plenty of similarities.If you don’t have any prior experience there’ll be a higher learning curve, but it's still one of the easier programming languages to learn.In either case, we highly recommend Shopify’s official blog on learning the language. It has everything you’ll need to get up to par and then some.
Step 1. Learn How to Code with Liquid
Liquid is the coding language that’s used in every Shopify theme; so the first step is to get a good grasp on it.If you have experience with HTML or CSS, Liquid won’t be too foreign for you; it has plenty of similarities.If you don’t have any prior experience there’ll be a higher learning curve, but it's still one of the easier programming languages to learn.In either case, we highly recommend Shopify’s official blog on learning the language. It has everything you’ll need to get up to par and then some.
Once you’ve learned your way around Liquid, you'll have most of the building blocks needed to start developing a custom theme.
Once you’ve learned your way around Liquid, you'll have most of the building blocks needed to start developing a custom theme.
Step 2. Use a Prebuilt Theme as Your “Starting Point”
Building a theme entirely from scratch is no small task, and not a necessary one either.Instead of working from scratch, even the team at Shopify recommends that you use one of the free default themes as your starting point. On their blog, they recommend Dawn, as it’s a great showcase of Shopify 2.0 and has plenty of the functionality and support you’ll need. But if there’s a theme that matches your end vision closer, it’s a great idea to use it as your start.
Step 2. Use a Prebuilt Theme as Your “Starting Point”
Building a theme entirely from scratch is no small task, and not a necessary one either.Instead of working from scratch, even the team at Shopify recommends that you use one of the free default themes as your starting point. On their blog, they recommend Dawn, as it’s a great showcase of Shopify 2.0 and has plenty of the functionality and support you’ll need. But if there’s a theme that matches your end vision closer, it’s a great idea to use it as your start.
Once you have a good theme to launch from, it’s a good idea to upload it to a platform that's specifically meant for software projects. While it is possible to work entirely from Shopify’s GUI, it’s really not built for that task. Instead, utilize the GitHub integration and upload your theme to a repository. Working from GitHub helps to streamline the process. If you're not sure how to, here’s a great guide on how to get the most from the GitHub integration on Shopify.
Once you have a good theme to launch from, it’s a good idea to upload it to a platform that's specifically meant for software projects. While it is possible to work entirely from Shopify’s GUI, it’s really not built for that task. Instead, utilize the GitHub integration and upload your theme to a repository. Working from GitHub helps to streamline the process. If you're not sure how to, here’s a great guide on how to get the most from the GitHub integration on Shopify.
Step 3. Get Your Hands on the Shopify Cheat Sheet
Once you have your theme ready to work with, it’s time to start changing pieces around to make it into your own.Luckily, you won't have to fumble around to learn how to make basic changes.Instead, use this official cheat sheet to learn the most effective ways to build a theme.
Step 3. Get Your Hands on the Shopify Cheat Sheet
Once you have your theme ready to work with, it’s time to start changing pieces around to make it into your own.Luckily, you won't have to fumble around to learn how to make basic changes.Instead, use this official cheat sheet to learn the most effective ways to build a theme.
It'll save tons of time learning which piece of your code affects which part.To get even more use out of it, save the snippets you'll need most often in a separate doc for quick access.
It'll save tons of time learning which piece of your code affects which part.To get even more use out of it, save the snippets you'll need most often in a separate doc for quick access.
Step 4. Start Building Your Theme
Next is to dive into the trenches and begin the hands-on theme development.There are enough variables in each theme that it'd be impossible to fully cover here. With that said, Shopify has a plethora of tutorials, guides, and tips on its blog.The tutorial section on Liquid basics is a good place to start.We also recommend guides like these:
- How to Use Liquid to Create Custom Landing Page Templates
- 11 Easy Tips for Using Liquid
- 4 Advanced Theming Techniques
Step 4. Start Building Your Theme
Next is to dive into the trenches and begin the hands-on theme development.There are enough variables in each theme that it'd be impossible to fully cover here. With that said, Shopify has a plethora of tutorials, guides, and tips on its blog.The tutorial section on Liquid basics is a good place to start.We also recommend guides like these:
- How to Use Liquid to Create Custom Landing Page Templates
- 11 Easy Tips for Using Liquid
- 4 Advanced Theming Techniques
Step 5. Beta Test Your Theme
Once you have a working theme, it’s time to break it. (yes, really)With any new theme, you'll find that not everything works smoothly on the first iteration. Glitches and performance issues are to be expected with many fresh-developed theme, so you'll want to identify them before it goes live.To find those bugs, you'll need to do your best to "break" and test the store - The more issues you find before the launch, the smoother your post-launch will go.To do that, deploy it in test mode and use the theme as a customer would. Make test purchases, visit various pages, and enter information into fields. Does the site function properly while you're doing all of these? It's also a good idea to take note of how fast the site is loading as well.Is the store responsive or sluggish? If it's the latter, you may want to reduce the amount of features, images, or streamline your code.You can use the Shopify Theme Inspector to identify areas of inefficent code, which can slow down the whole site. Once you have your theme ready, it's time to deploy.
Step 5. Beta Test Your Theme
Once you have a working theme, it’s time to break it. (yes, really)With any new theme, you'll find that not everything works smoothly on the first iteration. Glitches and performance issues are to be expected with many fresh-developed theme, so you'll want to identify them before it goes live.To find those bugs, you'll need to do your best to "break" and test the store - The more issues you find before the launch, the smoother your post-launch will go.To do that, deploy it in test mode and use the theme as a customer would. Make test purchases, visit various pages, and enter information into fields. Does the site function properly while you're doing all of these? It's also a good idea to take note of how fast the site is loading as well.Is the store responsive or sluggish? If it's the latter, you may want to reduce the amount of features, images, or streamline your code.You can use the Shopify Theme Inspector to identify areas of inefficent code, which can slow down the whole site. Once you have your theme ready, it's time to deploy.
Step 6. Deployment
Deployment is one of the simpler steps in the process. All you'll need to do is upload it and deploy straight from the thme editor tool.But remember, deployment isn’t the final stage of custom theme development.
Step 6. Deployment
Deployment is one of the simpler steps in the process. All you'll need to do is upload it and deploy straight from the thme editor tool.But remember, deployment isn’t the final stage of custom theme development.
Step 7. Maintenance
No Shopify theme is ever truly “finished.” Why?Shopify is a consistently updating platform; and oftentimes you'll need to update your theme to stay current with Shopify.Not only that, but there may be issues and areas of improvement that pop up along the way. When that happens, you'll need to dive back into the code again.Luckily, you'll already have the hang of Liquid development at that point.To keep up to date with Shopify's recent updates, keep tabs on the official changelog.
Step 7. Maintenance
No Shopify theme is ever truly “finished.” Why?Shopify is a consistently updating platform; and oftentimes you'll need to update your theme to stay current with Shopify.Not only that, but there may be issues and areas of improvement that pop up along the way. When that happens, you'll need to dive back into the code again.Luckily, you'll already have the hang of Liquid development at that point.To keep up to date with Shopify's recent updates, keep tabs on the official changelog.
Method #2: Use a Visual Shopify Theme Builder
Let’s face it, if you're operating a rapidly-scaling store, you may not have the time to develop your own theme.And the cost of hiring a developer (in addition to the time you'll need to spend collaborating) may not be the most cost-effective endeavor.And we don't blame you. That's why we've created Nyla.Nyla is a tool that allows merchants to build responsive, fast, and ultra-customizable Shopify stores with no code involved.Instead, it allows you to use a visual builder, so you can see the theme come together in real time.It's simple to use too, with an intuitive UI that means you won't need to be a tech-genius to start getting the most out of it.Here's a quick video that shows how easy it is to modify a theme on the spot:
Method #2: Use a Visual Shopify Theme Builder
Let’s face it, if you're operating a rapidly-scaling store, you may not have the time to develop your own theme.And the cost of hiring a developer (in addition to the time you'll need to spend collaborating) may not be the most cost-effective endeavor.And we don't blame you. That's why we've created Nyla.Nyla is a tool that allows merchants to build responsive, fast, and ultra-customizable Shopify stores with no code involved.Instead, it allows you to use a visual builder, so you can see the theme come together in real time.It's simple to use too, with an intuitive UI that means you won't need to be a tech-genius to start getting the most out of it.Here's a quick video that shows how easy it is to modify a theme on the spot:
It has a list of preset sections and the ability to create your own templates, it's the perfect tool for a scaling store with changing needs.Brands that have switched to Nyla, like Supergoop and Jambys, have seen increases in page speeds of up to 3.3x and up to 60% more conversions across the board.If that sounds interesting to you, (or even if you're not convinced,) how about we give a free tour of the tool so you can decide for yourself?Book a free demo of Nyla today to see how you can take your store to the next level.
It has a list of preset sections and the ability to create your own templates, it's the perfect tool for a scaling store with changing needs.Brands that have switched to Nyla, like Supergoop and Jambys, have seen increases in page speeds of up to 3.3x and up to 60% more conversions across the board.If that sounds interesting to you, (or even if you're not convinced,) how about we give a free tour of the tool so you can decide for yourself?Book a free demo of Nyla today to see how you can take your store to the next level.
FAQ: Custom Shopify Themes
FAQ: Custom Shopify Themes
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Shopify Theme?
According to Upwork, Shopify Theme Developers charge between $15 and $95 per hour, depending on expertise. The time investment do develop a custom theme can be anywhere from days to weeks, depending on a range of factors.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Shopify Theme?
According to Upwork, Shopify Theme Developers charge between $15 and $95 per hour, depending on expertise. The time investment do develop a custom theme can be anywhere from days to weeks, depending on a range of factors.
What are the Best Shopify Themes?
There’s not just one “best choice” when it comes to Shopify themes. There are plenty on the market to suit different brands’ needs.If you’re looking for a one-size fits all theme to get started with, we recommend Shopify Dawn.
What are the Best Shopify Themes?
There’s not just one “best choice” when it comes to Shopify themes. There are plenty on the market to suit different brands’ needs.If you’re looking for a one-size fits all theme to get started with, we recommend Shopify Dawn.
Can You Start a Store with a Free Shopify Theme?
For smaller stores, free Shopify themes might have everything you’ll need to get up and running. If you intend to scale, though, you’ll likely need to invest in a custom theme down the line.
Can You Start a Store with a Free Shopify Theme?
For smaller stores, free Shopify themes might have everything you’ll need to get up and running. If you intend to scale, though, you’ll likely need to invest in a custom theme down the line.
Wrapping Up
Developing a custom Shopify theme can help take your brand to the next level, but it's no small investment of time, energy, or funds.But that doesn't mean you're out of luck.Investing in a visual tool like Nyla can help to use those resources in a more efficient way and take store design into your own hands.If you found this guide helpful, make sure to check out some of the other insights on the Nyla blog.
Wrapping Up
Developing a custom Shopify theme can help take your brand to the next level, but it's no small investment of time, energy, or funds.But that doesn't mean you're out of luck.Investing in a visual tool like Nyla can help to use those resources in a more efficient way and take store design into your own hands.If you found this guide helpful, make sure to check out some of the other insights on the Nyla blog.
Upgrade to the Nyla platform
Blazing-fast performance
100% no-code editor
Best-in-class ecommerce features with white-glove support
Upgrade to the Nyla platform
Blazing-fast performance
100% no-code editor
Best-in-class ecommerce features with white-glove support