Quick start

1. Duplicate your new theme

That way, you always have a clean copy of Primavera to go back to.

2. Choose a theme style as a starting point

In the Customizer, under Theme settings > Theme style, choose from one of our 5 preset styles:

1. Primavera for an airy grid, light cream tones and sharp edges. This style is great for products that don't vary too much in color, e.g. jewelry.

2. Savoir for a tight grid, monochrome color palette and sharp edges. Great for products that vary in color, as the monochrome colors won't clash.

3. Gloss for a medium grid with modern fonts and rounded edges. Great for beauty/wellness brands or any products that have little color variation and uniform branding.

4. Gaia for an airy grid with a natural color palette and serif typography. Great for classic brands wishing to convey authenticity, warmth and an organic, earthy style.

5. Composition for a bold look with sections framed with borders. Great for brands with bright colors, modern aesthetic.

3. Tweak your theme settings

Here are some of the most common customizations merchants make:

• Under Theme settings > Logo, upload your logo and favicon

• Tweak your color palettes under Theme settings > Colors

• Tweak your fonts under Theme settings > Typography

• If you're offering free shipping over X amount, head over to Theme settings > Cart > Free shipping message to enable the message and specify the threshold (remember to create the discount itself in the Shopify admin)

• Add your social media profiles under Theme settings > Social media

4. Build out your key pages

Build out the structure of your key pages. Usually these will be the homepage, product, collection and about pages, however it does depend on the brand.

If you're migrating from an existing theme, it's typically good practice to replicate existing pages and content in order to safeguard your SEO efforts. If in doubt, we recommend consulting an expert.

• Consider the role and goal of each page:

  • The homepage might provide an overview of your brand so customers can learn who you are, what products you sell, how those products help them and how they can find them.

  • The product page might educate customers about your product, providing product-specific information such as ingredients but also preempting questions about shipping and returns. You can leverage different types of sections and metafields on product pages to provide an information-rich experience that answers every question a customer might have, for example FAQs, inspiration, ingredient benefits, craftsmanship.

  • For the collection page, it's usually about helping customers find what they're looking for, fast.

    • Consider creating collection submenus for your larger collections (e.g. Shop All) to help customers build a mental picture of your categories

    • Implement collection filters using Shopify's Search & Discovery app

• Consider your assets:

  • If you have strong visual assets, such as high quality video and images, leverage the following sections/blocks: image banner, video banner, shoppable banner, banner grid, media grid, before/after image (when relevant).

  • If you don't have strong visual assets and are mostly relying on copy and product images, you can leverage the following sections/blocks: featured collection, rich text, rich text columns, multicolumn, newsletter, collapsible content. Play with background colors and color scheme transition to create visual interest and dynamism in the absence of imagery.

• Get creative with styling to create visual interest:

  • Alternate between different sections/blocks

  • Use the super flexible split banner and split card sections to mix and match different blocks

  • Use the right section for the right asset: for example, if you want text alongside images but don't want to crop the image/video (e.g. a founder image/video, a product diagram), use Image with text as it won't crop any part of the asset

• When uploading images and video, make sure you compress them first so performance is not impacted

• Review our accessibility guide

5. Check everything carefully

Go through all the templates available in the Customizer and check both desktop and mobile layouts. We always recommend placing a test order before going live to make sure everything's configured correctly.

This quick start guide is intended to provide a basic overview of setting up and using our Shopify theme. It is not a comprehensive guide to Shopify’s platform or best practices. For detailed information, please refer to Shopify’s official documentation or consult a Shopify expert for personalized guidance.