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Merchant guideOnline storeImport a Shopify theme

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Import a Shopify theme

Moving from Shopify? Bring your theme with you. Upload the theme file and your home page, product, collection and other pages, header and footer look the way they do on Shopify. What shoppers do on them (adding to cart, paying, searching, signing in) runs on this store’s own features.

Only upload a theme you own or have the rights to. Themes bought from Shopify’s Theme Store are usually licensed for Shopify only. Themes you had built for you, or built yourself, are fine.

Get the theme file from Shopify

  1. In Shopify, open Online Store → Themes.
  2. Next to your theme, press the three dots (⋯) and choose Download theme file.
  3. Shopify emails you a link to a .zip file. Download it. Do not unzip it.

Import it here

  1. Open Online store → Themes and press Import Shopify theme. A new page opens.
  2. Choose the .zip file (up to 50 MB).
  3. Type your Shopify store’s address, for example waimers.in or yourstore.myshopify.com. We copy your theme’s pictures and hero videos from it into Files, so your new store does not depend on the old one. You can leave it empty and upload pictures yourself later.
  4. Tick I own this theme, or I have the rights to use it here, then press Import theme.

The import takes up to a minute. It creates a new theme called “your theme (imported)”. Your live theme does not change until you publish the new one.

Read the import report

After the import you land on the Import report. You can open it again any time from the theme library (the Import report link under the theme’s name).

ResultWhat it means
Imported exactlyLooks and works the same as on Shopify.
Runs on our featuresSame look; what it does runs here (for example, Add to cart puts the item in this store’s cart).
Not available yetThe look is kept, but one part has no match here yet. The report says which part and what to use instead.
Could not importThe section’s code uses something we cannot read yet. It does not show on the page.

Before you publish lists what to do first:

  • Menus your header and footer use that are not in this store yet. Add them in Content → Menus, with the same handle, or import them with the Shopify importer.
  • Collections and products the home page shows that are not in this store yet. Import your catalogue first; the theme finds them by the same handles Shopify used.
  • Pictures or videos that could not be copied. Upload them in Files and pick them in Customize.

What changes and what stays

On ShopifyHere
Add to cart buttonsThis store’s cart. The shopper lands on the cart page.
Cart drawerThe cart page. The drawer keeps its look.
Shopify checkoutThis store’s checkout, with your payment methods, COD rules and GST invoices.
Instant search suggestionsThe search page. The search box keeps its look.
Customer accountsThis store’s account pages, with sign in by one-time code.
Newsletter signupYour subscriber list, with a confirm email.
Contact and advice formsInstall the Forms app (Apps). Every message is saved under Apps, Forms and emailed to your store contact email. Until you install it, the form shows “This form is not available right now”.
Related products (“You may also like”)Works: products from the same collection first, then the same product type and tags. Sold-out and unpublished products are left out.
Shopify apps (Judge.me, Klaviyo…)This store’s apps where one exists (Reviews, Back in stock, EMI). With the Reviews app installed, Judge.me’s stars and review sections (Reviews showcase, Review stack, the comparison table’s rating) show your reviews; without it they stay hidden.
Pre-order appsThe built-in pre-order: products set to pre-order show as pre-order in the theme.
Metafields and metaobjectsRead from your extra fields and content types, which the Shopify importer copies over. Extra fields on variants, pages, blog posts and the shop itself are not kept yet, so a theme reading those shows them blank.
Shopify fontsThe same font families, from Google Fonts.
Pictures and videos in Shopify FilesCopied into your Files during the import. Each video comes with its poster picture and, when Shopify has one, a smaller copy for phones. The data import shows each video’s size before it runs; a video over the size limit is left in Shopify and listed in the report. By default the data import copies only the pictures and videos something uses; tick Also import unused files to copy everything. The preview shows how many files and about how much space they take after optimizing.
Country and currency pickerIndia and rupees only for now.
PricesShown in this store’s money format (for example ₹7,499).

Your home page, product pages, collection pages, pages (About, FAQ, Contact and your other page templates), header and footer use your theme’s own sections. On product and collection pages, the part shoppers buy from (photos, price, options, add to cart, the product grid and filters) is this store’s own, among your theme’s other sections such as specs, size guides and related products. Cart, search, blog and account pages use this store’s pages, inside your theme’s header and footer.

Imported your theme before 10 October 2026? Back then only the home page, header and footer were converted, so product, collection and page templates fall back to this store’s own. They are not added to an existing imported theme. To get them, run the import again: it makes a fresh copy and leaves the old one alone. Pages built from a theme template with a name, such as page.about, show in the report as Pages: about and arrive as the alternate about.

Edit and publish

  1. To experiment safely, open the imported theme’s ⋯ menu and choose Duplicate, then work on the copy. In the theme library, press Customize on the theme you want to edit.
  2. The left panel lists your theme’s sections by their own names. Click one to change its settings on the right; they come from your theme, so they read the same as in Shopify’s editor. Blocks (slides, logos, cards) are listed under Blocks.
  3. You can reorder, hide, duplicate and remove sections. Adding brand-new sections from your Shopify theme comes later.
  4. Press Preview to see it on your storefront, then Publish when you are happy.

Colours, fonts and layout come from your Shopify theme’s own settings. The theme presets in Theme settings do not apply to an imported theme.

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