Custom Shopify theme Development.
Bespoke storefronts built on Online Store 2.0. Editorial-grade design, CRO-focused product pages, Core Web Vitals performance, and a theme editor your merchandising team can actually use. No fighting a template, no rebuilds in six months.
Years of Ecommerce
Shopify Builds
PageSpeed Targets
Native Architecture
A theme is a storefront, not a template.
Conversion is the brief.
Beautiful is the floor, not the ceiling. Every section, every product page, every cart interaction is designed against a conversion hypothesis. We map the funnel before we draw a wireframe and instrument the result so you know whether it actually worked.
Performance is a feature.
Core Web Vitals targets are part of the spec, not a post-launch fix. WebP imagery with explicit dimensions, lazy loading below the fold, critical CSS inlined, third-party scripts audited line by line. Recent builds: 92 PageSpeed on Chantecaille, 77 mobile / 94 desktop on QC Supply’s 50K-SKU catalog.
Editable without a developer.
Online Store 2.0 JSON templates, custom sections, and theme blocks built so your merchandising team can launch landing pages, swap hero content, and rearrange the homepage from the theme editor. Calling a developer to update a banner is the most common pain point we hear in discovery.
25+ years of storefronts.
Founded in 1998. We’ve shipped storefronts on every major ecommerce platform: WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify. That history shapes how we architect a theme: built to be edited, extended, and lived in for years.
The full theme stack.
From the product detail page to the cart drawer, the systems we build into every theme.
Bespoke Online Store 2.0 Themes
Built from scratch on Shopify’s current theme architecture: JSON templates, sections everywhere, and theme blocks. Designed around your brand, your catalog, and your actual customers, not a generic mid-market template.
CRO-Focused Product Pages
Variant selectors that don’t make customers think, sticky add-to-cart on mobile, clean spec tables, fast image galleries, social proof in the right place. PDPs are the highest-leverage surface on a storefront and we treat them that way.
Custom Sections & Theme Blocks
Modular content sections your team rearranges in the theme editor. Editorial hero blocks, product carousels, lookbooks, comparison tables, FAQ accordions, testimonial walls. Build the page; don’t file a ticket.
Core Web Vitals Performance
LCP under 2.5s, CLS under 0.1, INP under 200ms. We hit those numbers with WebP images, dimension-locked layout, lazy loading, inlined critical CSS, and ruthless audits of the app stack on every page.
Mobile-First Responsive UX
Most ecommerce traffic is mobile and most ecommerce themes still feel like desktop afterthoughts on phones. We design mobile first: thumb-zone CTAs, fast collection filters, sticky cart, and PDPs that work in landscape on a beat-up Android.
Accessibility & SEO Foundation
WCAG 2.1 AA targets, semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, screen reader testing, focus states that mean something. Plus structured data (Product, BreadcrumbList, FAQ, Article) and clean on-page SEO baked into every template.
Theme App Extensions
Custom app blocks that drop into the theme editor: reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, upsell. Built so merchants can position and configure them without code, and so they don’t hard-code apps into the theme that get painful to remove later.
Brand Identity & UX Design
Visual design, typography, motion, and interaction patterns. For brands without a design system, we build one. For brands with existing identity, we honor it on every page. The theme is where your brand becomes a storefront.
Headless Option (Hydrogen)
For brands that need it, Hydrogen + Oxygen headless storefronts on React. Headless solves real problems for a narrow slice of merchants and creates new ones for everyone else; we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s the right call.
Brands ready to leave the template behind.
Outgrown a Paid Theme
You started on Dawn, Impulse, or Prestige. Every small edit now feels like a full rebuild. The theme is fighting you and conversion has plateaued.
Brand-First Storefronts
Luxury, beauty, fashion, lifestyle. Brands where the storefront IS the brand experience and visual sameness with the rest of Shopify isn’t an option.
Replatformers
Migrating from Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Salesforce. You don’t want to drop a stock theme on Shopify and call it a day; the migration is the moment to fix the storefront.
Performance-Critical
High-traffic catalogs, mobile-heavy DTC, paid media spend. Brands where a one-second LCP improvement is measured in five-figure revenue.
How a theme project actually goes.
From kickoff to launch in 10-16 weeks for most builds. Here’s the shape of it.
Discovery & Audit
2 weeks. Funnel analysis on your current site, heatmaps and session recordings if instrumented, mobile UX audit, performance baseline. Output: a list of conversion hypotheses the new theme will test.
UX & Visual Design
2-3 weeks. Wireframes for homepage, collection, PDP, cart, account. Visual design system: typography, color, motion. Reviewed against the conversion hypotheses, not just “does this look nice.”
Build & QA
6-10 weeks. Theme development on Online Store 2.0, custom sections, app integrations, performance tuning, cross-device QA, accessibility checks. Senior developers, no junior handoff after kickoff.
Launch & Optimize
Cutover, analytics validation, Core Web Vitals confirmation in production. Then we keep going: post-launch CRO testing, ongoing section additions, and seasonal campaign work most clients stay on for years.
Storefronts we’ve built.
Luxury Beauty · Custom Theme · Multi-Region
Chantecaille
Editorial-quality custom theme for a luxury skincare brand. Multi-region storefronts, custom sections for product storytelling, performance-tuned for video and rich imagery.
B2B Agriculture · Custom Theme · 50K SKUs
QC Supply
Custom theme for a 50,000-SKU B2B catalog migrated from Magento. Fast collection filtering, buyer-portal integration, and PageSpeed scores most B2B sites this size don’t hit.
When to buy a theme, when to build one.
Paid themes are not a worse choice. They’re a different one. Here’s how to think about which is right for where you are.
| Consideration | Theme Store Theme | Custom Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | $0–$400 | $35K–$90K+ |
| Time to launch | Days to weeks | 10–16 weeks |
| Visual differentiation | Shared with thousands of stores | Yours alone |
| Deep customization | Fragile beyond minor edits | Built for it |
| Performance ceiling | Capped by theme bloat | Built to hit 90+ PageSpeed |
| PDP/checkout funnel design | Generic, one-size-fits-all | Designed around your funnel |
| Long-term cost | Rises with every edit | Stable; scales with the business |
| Best for | Pre-product-market-fit DTC | $1M+ brands with a funnel to defend |
The honest version: if you’re launching a brand new store and you don’t yet know which products will work, start on a paid theme. Dawn, Impulse, Prestige, and Pipeline are excellent. You’ll learn what your customers actually do before paying anyone to design around it.
The pivot point is when your “small edits” start feeling like full rebuilds. Every new section is a custom Liquid file. Every CRO test fights the theme’s assumptions. Page weight is creeping up. The merchandising team is filing tickets to change a banner. That’s when a custom theme stops being a luxury and starts being the cheaper option.
Most of our clients arrive at custom after they’ve outgrown a paid theme, not before. If you’re not sure which side of the line you’re on, that’s a useful 30-minute call.
Questions we hear from theme prospects.
What is the difference between customizing a theme and building a custom Shopify theme?
Theme customization starts from a paid or free theme (Dawn, Impulse, Prestige, etc.) and modifies it: brand colors, fonts, custom sections, performance tweaks. A custom theme is built from scratch on Shopify’s Online Store 2.0 architecture, designed specifically around your brand, catalog, and conversion funnel. Customization is faster and cheaper; custom builds give you a storefront nothing else on Shopify looks like and that doesn’t fight you as you grow.
How long does a custom Shopify theme build take?
A theme customization or rebuild of an existing storefront typically takes 6-10 weeks. A full custom theme built from scratch (with original UX, custom sections, integrated apps, and performance tuning) typically takes 10-16 weeks. Larger Shopify Plus builds with custom checkout, B2B, or ERP integration extend that timeline. Every project starts with a 2-3 week discovery and design phase before development begins.
What does a custom Shopify theme cost?
Theme customization on top of an existing paid theme typically runs $15,000-$40,000 depending on scope. A full custom theme built from scratch on Online Store 2.0 typically runs $35,000-$90,000 depending on PDP complexity, custom sections, app integrations, and performance work. Custom themes are part of larger Shopify Plus builds in the $80,000-$300,000 range, where the theme is one workstream of many.
Will my team be able to edit content without a developer?
Yes. We build with Online Store 2.0 JSON templates, custom sections, and theme blocks so your merchandising team can rearrange the homepage, swap hero content, add product callouts, and launch landing pages from the Shopify theme editor. Calling a developer to update a banner image is one of the most common pain points we hear in discovery; we design the editing experience deliberately to avoid that.
Is the theme optimized for Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed?
Performance is baked into every theme we ship, not added at the end. We use WebP image delivery with explicit width and height, lazy-load below-the-fold content, inline critical CSS, defer non-essential scripts, and minimize third-party app bloat. Our recent QC Supply build hit PageSpeed scores of 77 mobile and 94 desktop on a 50,000-SKU B2B catalog; Chantecaille hit 92 on a luxury beauty storefront with video and rich imagery.
Will the theme work for Shopify Plus, or just standard Shopify?
Both. We build themes for standard Shopify and Shopify Plus on the same Online Store 2.0 foundation. Shopify Plus unlocks additional capabilities the theme can take advantage of (custom checkout via Checkout Extensibility, multi-currency Markets, native B2B catalogs) but the theme itself is the same code architecture. For the full breakdown on when Plus is the right fit, see our Shopify Plus Development page.
Can you redesign our existing theme without starting from scratch?
Yes. For brands with an existing theme that mostly works but has accumulated technical debt or feels off-brand, a focused redesign and rebuild is often the right move: keep the data, rebuild the front end. We commonly redesign PDPs, collection pages, and homepages while keeping the cart and checkout untouched. This is faster than a from-scratch build and avoids the risk of a full replatform.
Should we use a paid theme from the Shopify Theme Store or commission a custom build?
Paid themes from the Theme Store (Impulse, Prestige, Dawn, Pipeline) are excellent starting points for brands launching in weeks rather than months, or doing under $1M in revenue where the upfront investment in custom isn’t justified yet. They become a problem when your “small edits” start feeling like full rebuilds: you’re fighting the theme more than you’re shipping. Most of our clients arrive at custom after they’ve outgrown a paid theme, not before. See the comparison above for the full breakdown.
Let’s build the storefront your brand deserves.
Whether you’re outgrowing a paid theme, replatforming from another stack, or starting fresh on Shopify Plus, the conversation starts the same way. Tell us where you are and where you want the storefront to go.