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; targeted adjustments to branding elements then create a unique brand presence. Custom code is only necessary where requirements are very specific.

"You can tell right away that it's a Shopify store." This prejudice persists, but in practice, it's not true. The crucial factor is the approach: choose the right theme, leverage its strengths, and only make individual refinements where appropriate.

We demonstrate how this works in practice with the Develey relaunch. The traditional Bavarian company approached us with a fresh, deliberately bold rebranding that needed to be translated from packaging to an 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 as a Foundation Makes Sense

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

1.1 What Premium Themes Offer Today

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

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

Especially the latter two points are part of the basic equipment of any store. With a good theme, they are already present and only need to be adjusted in design at most.

1.2 Difference to the Custom-from-Scratch Approach

Those who build completely custom must first conceive and develop each section. A premium theme, on the other hand, comes with about 30 ready-made sections. Even if only 15 of them are ultimately used, the others are always available, for example, for new pages or campaigns. A few years ago, themes were not as technically advanced, but today that has fundamentally changed: code quality and customization options are at a level with good theme developers where long-term development is possible.

2. How to Choose the Right Shopify Theme?

The theme selection depends on requirements, product range, and brand appearance. We work with a handful of favored themes, such as Impact, Scratch, or Enterprise, for which we know from experience that code quality and flexibility are right.

2.1 Requirements and Product Catalog

Some themes already come with functionalities that suit the project. For example, they can display large product catalogs significantly better, perhaps through the 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.

2.2 Industry Look and Code Quality

The standard look of a theme should match the brand:

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

In addition, code quality is a long-term criterion. The goal is a store 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?

Good premium themes are always sufficient for a solid, functional store. Individuality comes into play when a brand has very specific ideas. The rule of thumb from our project experience: the more specific the requirements and the less willingness to compromise, the more likely custom adjustments are needed.

3.1 Strengths: Design Settings and Standard Functions

Many things that at first glance sound like individualization 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 thus be mapped directly in the theme without a single line of code.

3.2 Limits: Where Custom Adjustments Become Necessary

Typical limitations we frequently encounter in projects:

Limitation	Example
Legal requirements in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)	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 often still needs to be added 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 today one of the major brands for all kinds of sauces: mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, 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: to translate this new appearance into a Shopify store.

4.1 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 focused on packaging, not on an online store. This translation into the digital realm was a central part of the project, because print does not function identically to online.

4.2 Why the Impact Theme Was the Right Choice

The Impact Theme inherently includes a color scheme for almost every single area. This perfectly matched the bold rebranding: individual color definitions for backgrounds and buttons can be set for each section without needing additional settings. This allowed us to carry the product color worlds through the store: yellow background for mustard, red for ketchup, blue for mayonnaise, consistently from the product page to the product card. Furthermore, at the time of the project, Impact was one of the most flexible themes in terms of sections and customization options.

4.3 Individual Adjustments: What the Theme Couldn't Do

We implemented four branding elements via custom code:

• Specific Button Shape: a parallelogram instead of a classic rectangle, a brand-specific shape that no theme provides
• Wave Element: the wave from the packaging as its own flexible section, with definable colors at the top and bottom, allowing it to fit 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 capture the brand's playful nature

Important note: All adjustments remain within the modular Shopify logic. Sections can still be freely moved, and new pages can be assembled in minutes. We always want to maintain this flexibility in projects, as hardcoded stores 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 what the requirements are and how they can be implemented on Shopify, even before any design or development takes place. This approach has proven crucial in our projects, especially for design-heavy undertakings like Develey.

5.1 Defining the Structure with the Theme as a Base

After theme selection, we work with the client team to define the basic structure of the store: homepage, product page, category page. Three components come together here:

• 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 reveals what the theme can already do and where adjustments are needed.

5.2 Design Phase with Figma and Feedback Loops

In the design process, our designer, who is intimately familiar with Shopify and the respective theme, translates the brand elements into a Figma mockup. Our proven approach is as follows:

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

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

5.3 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: implement everything one-to-one or defer individual elements for the first step. This maintains full control over effort, price, and project duration on the brand's side.

6. Learnings: Maintain Flexibility, Make Targeted Adjustments

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

Using a theme as a foundation is almost always worthwhile. The included structure, sections, and customization options save time and budget. The market continues to evolve: newer themes like Stretch now offer even more customization options and sometimes include their own effects.

Targeted adjustments instead of universal adjustments. Rebuilding every single section of a theme loses the efficiency advantage. Specific adjustments are meaningful in areas that truly define the brand, or complementary new sections like the wave element in Develey.

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

Clarity on the brand's side accelerates everything. The clearer a brand knows what it wants, where it is willing to compromise and where it is not, the smoother 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 individual areas rely on existing components and save effort. The more fixed the ideas down to the last detail, the more complex and expensive the implementation becomes.

7. Conclusion

The prejudice of the interchangeable Shopify look does not stand up to practice. A carefully chosen premium theme provides the basis, while 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, yet the full modular flexibility of Shopify is retained.

The process is crucial: first the conceptual phase, then the theme-based structure, then the design with clear feedback loops and transparent effort estimations. This way, the brand maintains 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 life.