Theme trial checklist

Previewing a theme before you buy on Shopify is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure it’s the right fit for your shop. Shopify makes it easy to preview themes and download a theme trial directly from the Shopify Theme Store. Your theme trial is unlimited, meaning you can try our themes for free with your own products, brand colors, imagery, and customizations. This way, you can ensure it’s the perfect match before making a purchase. Here’s a checklist to help you explore our themes during your trial.

◻︎ Design Choice: Start by asking yourself, does this theme’s design align with your brand’s aesthetics? For example, some themes like Impulse are designed for storytelling, while others, like Expanse, are ideal for shops with a wide range of products and brands. The closer a theme’s design aligns with your brand, the easier it will be to customize it in a way that complements your shop.

◻︎ Layout Options: Your homepage layout can set the tone for your entire site, and nothing does that better than the header section. Depending on the Archetype theme you’re previewing, you’ll find anywhere from 4 to 7 unique header layouts that can dramatically change the look and feel. Play around with these to find the one that suits your brand best.

◻︎ Typography: Fonts are more than just text—they’re a key part of your shop’s design. All Archetype Themes give you access to Shopify’s font library, which includes thousands of options, from system fonts to Google Fonts and even licensed fonts from Monotype. Experiment with different fonts to find the ones that best communicate your brand’s identity and enhance readability.

◻︎ Color Scheme: Customizing your color scheme is where your brand really starts to come to life. Our themes allow you to fine-tune colors for different elements, adjust image treatments, and control overlay opacity and text shadows. Take some time to explore these options under Theme settings > Colors to make the theme truly your own.

◻︎ Responsive Design: In today’s digital world, your shop needs to look great on all devices. Our themes are designed to adjust responsively to different screen sizes, so be sure to test your header, footer, and full-width image sections on both desktop and mobile to see if you need to fine tune any of your image focal points based on the way large images responsively adjust when using smaller screen sizes. This ensures your site is just as stunning on a smartphone as it is on a computer.

◻︎ Speed and performance: A fast site is crucial for keeping customers happy. All Archetype Themes are tested to meet Shopify’s performance benchmarks for key pages. During your trial, build out a real homepage, product page, and collection page using your actual content. This gives you a realistic sense of how the theme performs before you install any third-party apps. More details on Shopify's performance and accessibility requirements for themes can be reviewed here.

◻︎ SEO Optimization: Good SEO is essential for getting noticed online, and all Archetype Themes meet Shopify’s SEO requirements. This includes optimized metadata, canonical URLs, and structured data that helps search engines accurately index your site. We’ve also made it easy to manage what gets crawled with a customizable robots.txt.liquid file. More details on Shopify's SEO requirements for themes can be reviewed here, and you should also consider the following checklists for the overall SEO best practices:

• SEO basics checklist
• On-page SEO checklist
• Content checklist
• Technical SEO checklist
• Off-page SEO checklist
• Local SEO checklist

◻︎ Navigation: Getting your shop’s navigation right is key to a great user experience, especially if you have a large inventory. For bigger shops, test out features like mega menus and different header layouts to see which makes it easiest for customers to find what they’re looking for. Don’t forget to check how your navigation works on mobile devices, too!

◻︎ Theme settings: Our themes come packed with customization options that don’t require coding. Take some time to familiarize yourself with these settings so you can make the most of your theme. If you find you need more advanced customizations, our support team can help point you in the right direction or suggest working with a Shopify Expert.

◻︎ Template files: Our themes include well-organized template files for all your shop’s needs, from product and collection pages to blogs, FAQs, and more. During your trial, test out these templates to see how they can help you create the perfect shopping experience.

◻︎ Header and Footer Customization: Headers and footers are often overlooked, but they’re essential parts of your site’s design. Our themes offer powerful customization options for both, with unique sections like countdown timers or scrolling text to help keep visitors engaged. Be sure to test these features to see how they can boost time on page and conversions.

◻︎ Support: We’re here to help! Our support team is available to answer any questions you have about theme features, setup, or customization. Whether it’s a “how-to” or something more complex, don’t hesitate to reach out—we’re happy to assist. During your trial, you have full access to our support team, so make the most of it!

◻︎ Help Documentation: We maintain a knowledge base filled with answers to the most common questions, detailed setup instructions, and theme-specific features. It’s a great resource to explore during your trial.

◻︎ Self-service options: Need help after hours? Our AI bot is available 24/7 at our help center. It’s regularly updated with new information from our support team and can provide instant answers to your questions.