When you are getting started with Shopify, the first thing you have to choose is the theme to use. The theme is the most important part in a Shopify store design just like any other website. There are two choices available for you – select from the pre-built Shopify theme or use a custom Shopify theme. There is no denying the fact that the look of your shop can determine the success of your business to a greater extent. Whether you select the pre-built or custom theme, you should know that both of them have their merits and demerits. You have to choose that is best for your business. Therefore, we will compare both the options and arrive at a conclusion.

All You Need To Consider About Pre-Built Shopify Themes

A pre-built theme is like the plug-and-play theme, and they are available free as well as paid. You have to follow the screen instruction to turn a pre-built theme into the desired website. There are a few benefits of using a pre-built theme. You can get your Shopify store up and running quickly. The investment is low than a custom theme. You do not need a developer as you can do almost everything yourself. You can play around with color, fonts, and other design elements as you like. Therefore, most of the brands start with a pre-built theme to experiment and arrive at the conclusion of which color, design elements, and other UI based features to use before going for a custom theme.

On the flip side, a pre-built theme has a lot of disadvantages which is why custom themes are so popular. With a pre-built theme, you get limited functionalities and customizations. The advanced users can understand that you are using a cheap and pre-built theme. That is why your brand image will suffer and so will your trust factor. Moreover, the scalability will cost you a lot in the long run with a pre-built theme. Therefore, if you are getting started as a small store with a limited budget or you want to experiment with the look of the website before going public, pre-built themes are a good choice.

Why Are Custom Shopify Themes A Better Choice?

A custom Shopify theme is the one designed by the developers. Therefore, you have to hire Shopify developers and develop a Shopify store just the way you imagine it to be. The future customization and expansion are no more going to be an issue. You can create memorable branding and make your store look premium. However, you should bear in mind that custom Shopify themes require more investment.

The Advantages – There are almost all parameters where custom Shopify themes outweigh the pre-built ones. First of all, a custom-made theme is unique, and it gives your store or brand a unique identity by which your customers can distinguish you from your competitors easily. This is the whole concept behind branding which is to stand apart from the crowd and be memorable.

You can give your brand a personality with a custom theme by design exactly the way you want it. Moreover, your design can be consistent which is very important for building the trust factor. It creates a bad impression if you keep changing your design and outlook every now and then. It is likely to be the case with a pre-built theme as you will never get the design you always desired.

There is no doubt that a custom theme offers more customization than a pre-built one. In fact, the developer can create a robust backend for the website owner to change almost everything from the background any time he wants. It is very significant as Shopify stores are e-commerce stores and there are a lot of changes needed to be done in terms of products, price, discounts, offers, and likewise. If the website owner has all the future developments in mind, he can ask the developer to design all of that for future activation. The scalability is never going to be a problem, and you can hire any developer in the future to work on your theme for betterment.

A pre-built theme has a lot of restriction, and you cannot remove a few amateur things even when you desperately want to. There is no limitation or restriction. You can build your shop after analyzing the behavior of your targeted customer. You are not building a generic website for everyone. You can easily simplify the admin task and let your backend and frontend sync well. Moreover, a custom Shopify theme helps to create a sales funnel for maximizing the conversions.

Conclusion-

It is true that building a custom Shopify theme takes time and money, but it is totally worth it. You will never find a popular and sizeable Shopify store to have a pre-built theme because everyone wants to be unique and stand out.

Kitty Gupta
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