Shopify is one of the most, if not the most, popular e-commerce platforms. Today it’s one of the prime candidates for emerging as the king of the online store. However, one thing that not all store owners are clear about when running a store on Shopify is whether it should be built using a premade theme or a custom design.
There’s an economic logic to off-the-shelf themes: they’re fast and cheap to install and use. But as your shop grows and your business becomes more complicated, you’ll quickly start finding these themes quite limiting. Alternatively, a Custom Shopify Build has some unique advantages that are pertinent for the long-term success of your business, such as superior performance, flexibility and a development roadmap tailored to suit your brand’s specific requirements.
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In this article, we will discuss whether custom Shopify development is the best choice for an eCommerce business and help you make the right decision regarding your store.
What is an off the Shelf Theme?
Off the shelf Shopify themes are prebuilt themes you can buy online on the Shopify Theme Store or various third-party marketplaces, such as ThemeForest. These are complete themes with a variety of colors and functions. Designers and developers have designed and built them as a generic product for multiple types of stores.
Pros of Off-the-Shelf Themes
· Speed to Market: Pre-designed templates are generally ready to install and easy to set up, so you can start your shop in days or hours rather than weeks or months.
· Cost-Effective Price: As mentioned previously, almost all prebuilt themes are cost-effective – some going for less than $100, which means that they tend to be very popular with startups and small businesses working with tight budgets.
· User-Friendly: Typically, you’ll find that these themes feature a drag-and-drop design, to allow you to experiment with your store, regardless of your level of coding knowledge.
The Issue with Prebuilt Themes
· Generic Appearance: Since these themes are provided to a general market, they are not unique in any way. So, your website would not quite be differentiated enough to set itself apart in a saturated niche.
· Constraint on Flexibility: You are usually bound by how much you can customize a pre-designed theme. And even though you can alter the colors, images, and fonts, how you make more fundamental changes is almost always a question of understanding code.
· Composition of Premade Themes: These themes tend to carry quite a lot of bloatware that doesn’t need to run on your store. This extra code can slow down your site, harming the user experience and SEO.
· Difficult to Scale: As you grow, the inadequacies of a standard theme will become obvious. If you’d like to include new features or your website starts to outgrow the theme, it could be a problem if the theme doesn’t lend itself to add-ons or any custom functionality that you may need.
Don’t let limitations hold your store back. Get a Custom Theme Audit and find out what’s slowing you down.
What is Shopify Custom Development?
Bespoke Shopify development means that your website theme and structure is designed according to your business and brand requirements. It marries your unique branding with custom functionality and sophisticated backend programming to create a one-of-a-kind e-commerce experience that works well for your customers and your business.
Why would it be a good idea to go for Custom Development?
· Fully Bespoke: The whole website is custom-built to the branding vision you have for your e-commerce business, Any layout, Design, and functionality is possible.
· Smooth Integration: Custom code can be integrated through shopify apps, whether that’s a CRM software, marketing tools, or any other backend functionality.
Performance & Speed Benefits
Custom Themes – Faster Load Times
Website load time is a critical factor that directly affects user perception and successful conversions. Premade themes always carry unnecessary baggage, adding to your loading time. These could be scripts for features your store doesn’t even have or image optimizations that are not targeting your image file types.
Unlike downloadable themes, custom builds aren’t riddled with code you don’t need and run faster, leaner, and more reliably. Only a professional Shopify development team will ensure that only the code that makes sense is included and implemented, which is the key to improving your Shopify store performance.
Speed matters. Discover how a lean custom Shopify build can help your store convert better and rank higher Book a Free Performance Consultation.
Impact on SEO and Conversions
The speed of a page can have a significant impact on SEO and conversions. Google has said that page speed is a ranking factor in its search algorithm: You’ll rank lower if your site is slow. Extensive research dictates that users are also more likely to exit the conversion funnel if a page takes two or more seconds to load.
Here’s an example so you can see for yourself. According to a Google study tried and tested against page-load times, the probability of someone bouncing from your site increases by 90% from 1 to 5 seconds. Reduced engagement can especially decimate sales in an e-commerce environment.
By improving performance, custom themes contribute to improved Lighthouse scores and Core Web Vitals, critical factors for your site’s overall performance. If implemented correctly additional benefits include faster load time, better interactivity, and more visual stability.
SEO & Technical Control
Custom Shopify development allows you to have complete control of the website and its structure, which is incredible for SEO and the overall technical performance of a website. Off-the-shelf themes may ship with bloated code you don’t need or may not include critical SEO optimizations, but when you have a theme custom-formulated just for your site, you can trim the fat off the front end, and by doing this your store is guaranteed to rank and perform better.
Powerful Management Options for Meta Fields, Schema Markup, and URLs
Custom development can help you to get complete control over the most essential SEO elements, such as:
Meta descriptions, title tags, and headers: You can generate ideas for these three critical page elements to optimize for a better fit with relevant keywords.
Schema Markup: With a Custom Shopify theme, testing and implementing schema markups is easier. Search engines know exactly what’s on your site, contributing to the visibility of rich snippets and, consequently, a higher click-through rate.
Custom URLs and canonical Tags: This is a bit more technical, but custom Shopify stores have the option of a clean URL structure with no duplicate content you have the power to control how search engines index your site pages.
In addition to these SEO factors, the ability to optimize images and other media further for performance and SEO is a competitive advantage that custom theme development offers.
Higher Conversion with Personalized Layouts
There are several reasons for this, aside from the fact that when you build a Shopify store from scratch, you can design layouts and user experiences tailored to boost your conversion rate.
When you design pages and tools on the site that complement customers’ explicit steps, your customers get a better shopping experience and ultimately you get more sales.
Want higher conversions? Let’s Design Your Store Experience around what your customers actually need.
Better Product Discovery, Filtering, and Checkout Flow
Custom development allows you to build more intuitive product discovery experiences, dynamic filters, and streamlined checkout experiences, resulting in a personalized experience that revolves around your users. These improvements significantly reduce friction in the shopping experience and drive up AOV and conversion.
For example, a large European e-commerce platform, “Zalando” found that by simply improving its filtering options it increased sales conversions by 30%. Building from the ground up is the best option (budget permitting), as it allows every inch of your store, from product pages to checkout, to be customized to fit your goals.
Scalability & Flexibility
As your business expands, so will your requirements. Pre-built themes are generally rigid, so many features can’t be integrated, or the site cannot grow with the business. Custom Shopify development ensures your store is future-proof, allowing it to accommodate further features. It upgrades and scales up with your business.
Branding & Differentiation
Unique Design - Quality Branding
Your store reflects your brand, and a personalized Shopify theme can help set you apart from the competition. At the same time, ready-made themes may make your store look like thousands of others; a custom design ensures that your store stands out visually and matches your brand identity.
Consistent Visuals and Micro-Interactions
Custom theme development allows you to add custom graphic elements (images, fonts, animation, etc.) to your store and make it look professional. These small add-ons make for one cohesive brand experience and help keep your brand top-of-mind wherever your customers are experiencing it.
Micro-interactions: Tiny animations or effects when users hover or click can also improve user experience and complete the puzzle of achieving an interactive feel and impact.
These sublime touches are hard to pull off with off the shelf themes, but with a customized design, they can be tailored for your brand.
Your brand is unique your store should be too. Start building a Shopify store that truly reflects your identity.
ROI and Long-Term Value – Custom Builds Tend to Pay Off
Shopify Custom development may come with a significant up-front cost, but this usually translates into a BIG ROI over time. Building a unique and consumer psychology-optimized store that scales, saves on what you’d otherwise spend long-term, and does not need an ecosystem of other paid-for apps.
If you do want to use off-the-shelf themes, some tools or plugins can help you make your theme more functional. However, those third-party solutions can come with a subscription fee or be incompatible with other software, and there could be unnecessary bloat. Customization however, allows you to introduce features directly to your storefront, meaning you depend less on plugins and make your site faster and more stable.
When It’s OK to Go Off-the-Shelf
Custom development does provide many advantages, but it isn’t always necessary. Sometimes, an off-the-shelf theme works:
· MVPs (Minimum Viable Products): Let’s say you’re testing or launching a business idea or setting up a new store with minimal functionality; a theme that’s off the shelf could be a good DIY solution without spending much.
· Budget: For small businesses with a small budget an off the shelf theme is ideal, especially in the early stages of the business.
· Basic Store (Lower End) – Basic stores: Basic stores with small amounts of products and nothing too complex in terms of features may not need the high level of customization available with a custom store.
Simple Decision Framework:
If you’re in it for the long-term growth of the project and want your brand to stand out, you should consider going with custom development.
If you’re experimenting or need something lean, maybe an out-of-the-box theme is what you’re looking for
Conclusion
Custom Shopify development vs. out-of-the-box themes: Your choice between custom-made Shopify development and available themes for sale will depend on your business goals, budget, and room for growth. A premade theme is quick and cost-effective, but a custom build will facilitate your speed/performance, flexibility, SEO, and brand identity, which can be incredibly rewarding in the long run.
