How individual can Shopify get? Develey's relaunch based on a theme

An individual Shopify store doesn't require a custom build. A premium theme provides the foundation with over 30 sections and extensive design settings, while targeted adjustments to branding elements create a unique brand presence. Custom code is only necessary where very specific requirements arise.

"You can immediately tell it's a Shopify store." This prejudice persists, but in practice, it's not true. The key is the approach: select the right theme, maximize its strengths, and only refine individually where it truly matters.

We demonstrate what this looks like in practice with the relaunch of Develey. The traditional Bavarian company approached us with a fresh, deliberately bold rebranding that needed to be translated from packaging to the online store. Our expert, Tobi, uses this case to show how much a theme base can be individualized and where custom coding is indeed necessary.

1. Why a Premium Theme Makes Sense as a Basis

A premium theme from the Shopify Theme Store is currently the most efficient starting point for a professional store. In our agency's daily work, this approach has clearly proven its worth: use a theme as a base, adapt it strategically, instead of building everything from scratch.

What Premium Themes Offer Today

Good premium themes provide a solid basic structure that can be utilized instead of having to define it yourself:

• Over 30 flexible sections for all page types
• Central theme settings for colors, fonts, sizes, and shapes of buttons or images
• Standard features like cross-selling and upselling on product pages and in the cart
• Features like free shipping gamification in the cart

Especially the last two points are essential for any store. With a good theme, they are already included and only need design adjustments at most.

Difference from a Custom-from-Scratch Approach

Those who build completely custom have to conceive and develop each section themselves. In contrast, a premium theme comes with about 30 pre-built sections. Even if only 15 of them are used in the end, the others are always available, for example, for new pages or campaigns. A few years ago, themes were not as technically advanced, but today this has fundamentally changed: code quality and customization options from good theme developers are at a level that allows for long-term building.

2. How to Choose the Right Shopify Theme?

Theme selection depends on requirements, product range, and brand presence. We work with a handful of preferred themes, such as Impact, Scratch, or Enterprise, where we know from experience that code quality and flexibility are right.

Requirements and Product Catalog

Some themes already come with functionalities that suit the project. For example, they can display large product catalogs much better, through available sections or the way the main menu is structured. A store with many products and categories needs a different theme than a store with a focused product range.

Industry Look and Code Quality

The standard look of a theme should match the brand:

• Fashion and Lifestyle: clean, simple themes with strong visual language
• Technical Products: themes focusing on text presentation and information
• Playful Brands: themes that already include small effects and playful elements

Additionally, code quality is a long-term criterion. The goal is a shop that can be built upon for years. That's why we rely on theme developers with whom we have never had problems adding functionalities or design adjustments in the past.

3. What Can a Theme Do Out-of-the-Box and Where Are Its Limits?

For a solid, functional shop, good premium themes are always sufficient. Customization comes into play when a brand has very specific ideas. The rule of thumb from our project experience: the more concrete the requirements and the less willingness to compromise, the more likely custom adjustments will be needed.

Strengths: Design Settings and Standard Features

Many things that at first glance sound like customization are already adjustable in premium themes:

• Custom brand fonts can be integrated, even if they are not Shopify Fonts
• Color schemes according to brand guidelines can be stored
• Button shapes from round to angular are configurable
• Spacings and font sizes can be adjusted

Rough brand guidelines can therefore be directly implemented in the theme, without a single line of code.

Limits: Where Custom Adjustments Become Necessary

Typical limitations we repeatedly see in projects:

Limitation	Example
Legal requirements in DACH region	Legal notices that themes do not provide in an EU-compliant manner
Accessibility	Pause buttons for movable elements like sliders
Complex logic and features	Mix-and-match sets, product configurators
Very specific branding elements	Button shapes beyond round or angular

Many theme developers are already working on implementing accessibility, but experience shows that custom code is often still required here. And complex features like configurators are almost always so individual that even an out-of-the-box solution would need to be adapted.

4. Practical Example Develey: Rebranding Meets Shopify

Develey is a traditional Bavarian company with about 180 years of history, starting with a small mustard production and now one of the major brands for all kinds of sauces: mustard, ketchup, mayo, barbecue sauces. Shortly before Develey approached us, the company had undergone a complete rebranding, with new packaging and a deliberately colorful, bold brand world. Our task: translate this new appearance into a Shopify store.

Starting Point: A Brand Guide for Packaging, Not for the Web

The new brand guide came from a packaging and branding agency and was accordingly geared towards packaging, not an online store. This translation into the digital realm was a central part of the project, as print does not work identically to online.

Why the Impact Theme Was the Right Choice

The Impact theme inherently provides color schemes for almost every single area. This perfectly matched the bold rebranding: for each section, individual color definitions for backgrounds and buttons can be set without needing additional configurations. This allowed us to carry the product worlds' colors throughout the shop: yellow background for mustard, red for ketchup, blue for mayo, consistently from the product page to the product card. Additionally, Impact was one of the most flexible themes regarding sections and customization options at the time of the project.

Individual Adjustments: What the Theme Couldn't Do

We implemented four branding elements using custom code:

• Specific Button Shape: a parallelogram instead of a classic rectangle, a brand-specific shape that no theme offers
• Wave Element: the wave from the packaging as a separate, flexibly usable section, with definable colors at the top and bottom, so it can be inserted between any sections
• Talking E: the talking E from the Develey logo, implemented as a speech bubble dropdown for product information on the product page
• Hover Effects: small animations like bouncing icons that pick up on the playful nature of the brand

Important here: All adjustments remain within the modular Shopify logic. Sections can still be moved freely, and new pages can be assembled in minutes. We always want to maintain this flexibility in projects, as hardcoded shops lose Shopify's biggest advantage.

5. How the Process Works: From Concept Phase to Individual Design

Every one of our projects begins with a concept phase. This clarifies the requirements and how they can be implemented on Shopify before any design or development takes place. This approach has proven crucial in our projects, especially for design-heavy undertakings like Develey.

Defining the Structure with the Theme as a Base

After selecting the theme, we work with the client team to define the basic structure of the store: homepage, product page, category page. This brings together three building blocks:

• The best-practice basic structure provided by the theme with its sections
• Input from the client, such as elements seen as inspiration from other brands
• Our experience from past projects

This step also facilitates knowledge transfer: those new to Shopify often don't know what's possible out-of-the-box. The collaborative structural work makes visible what the theme can already do and where adjustments are needed.

Design Phase with Figma and Feedback Loops

In the design process, our designer, who has excellent knowledge of Shopify and the respective theme, translates the brand elements into a Figma mockup. This approach has proven effective for us:

• Two design versions with targeted differences per section
• Client feedback directly as comments in the Figma file
• Consolidating favorites into a final version

For Develey, there were only two to three loops because the structure was clearly defined beforehand.

Effort and Budget: How Costs Remain Transparent

For design creation, we plan a fixed contingent with defined feedback loops, meaning a fixed price. After the design phase, we estimate each individual element separately. The client then decides: either implement everything one-to-one or defer individual elements for the first step. This ensures full control over effort, price, and project duration on the brand's side.

6. Learnings: Maintain Flexibility, Customize Strategically

From projects like Develey, we take away some clear learnings that can be applied to almost any theme-based project.

A theme as a base is almost always worthwhile. The included structure, sections, and settings save time and budget. The market is evolving: newer themes like Stretch now offer even more customization options and sometimes include their own effects.

Customize strategically instead of customizing everything. If you rebuild every single section of a theme, you lose the efficiency advantage. Targeted adjustments are sensible in areas that truly define the brand, or complementary new sections like the wave element at Develey.

Never sacrifice modular logic. Individual adjustments must not limit Shopify's flexibility. Moving sections, assembling pages yourself, integrating apps without conflicts: this must also work after customization.

Clarity on the brand side accelerates everything. The clearer a brand knows what it wants, where it is willing to compromise, and where it is not, the better the project runs. Preparing branding elements and inspirations as input helps enormously.

Willingness to compromise reduces costs. Those who are open to accepting the theme solution in certain areas leverage existing features and save effort. The more fixed the ideas are down to the last detail, the more complex and expensive the implementation becomes.

7. Conclusion

The prejudice of an interchangeable Shopify look does not stand up to practice. A thoughtfully selected premium theme provides the foundation, and targeted custom adjustments at brand-defining points create an individual appearance. The Develey store exemplifies this: color schemes, wave element, Talking E, and brand-specific button shapes, all while maintaining Shopify's full modular flexibility.

The process is crucial: first the concept phase, then the theme-based structure, then the design with clear feedback loops and transparent effort estimates. This way, the brand retains control over scope, budget, and timeline at all times. For us, this approach has proven to be the most efficient way to achieve both: a shop that looks distinctive and a shop that the team can operate independently in everyday use.