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Project 6 of 8

20 new themes and 15 sunsetting themes in 12 months

Your theme is a fundamental tool when creating your online store with Shopify. It creates a brand identity and determines a buyer's experience. It can also establish a conversion flow. Themes give merchants access to great features developed by Shopify. That includes Local Delivery, Automatic Discounts, Currency and Language Selection, and many more.

On the Shopify Theme Store there are free and premium themes. Shopify's dedicated Theme Store Partners build premium themes. My team was launching twenty free themes in the next year.

We were also sunsetting fifteen vintage themes used by over a million merchants. This involved risk assessments for 8 audiences, including our Theme Store Partners. I created enablement material for theme migration and marketing for agencies.

Me
Product Marketing Manager

Problem

The free themes were different from previous releases. They shared the same UX features meaning their only difference was the art direction. They also leaned into industry-first design more than ever before. This decision created a disadvantage for the Shopify Theme Partners. They also wanted their themes to share a common code base to save time on development. There were risks related to this decision. For example, merchants may not pay for premium themes if they perceive them to be less valuable. It perpetuated a discussion around free vs premium themes that we were trying to avoid.

The goal was to encourage the adoption of Online Store 2.0 themes so we wanted to appear as a united theme store. We also needed to avoid a drop in Shopify GMV when the vintage themes were sunset.

To adopt Online Store 2.0, merchants need to migrate content or update the code of their existing theme. This is a lot of work and could create a sense of panic.

On this project, I ran a series of risk assessments with senior stakeholders and the team.

Should we be transparent with merchants that all free themes share the same features?

Should we allow Theme Store Partners to also create themes that also share the same code?

Should we position free themes around industry-first design if they are in fact the same?

Should we communicate to merchants that vintage themes are being sunset?

Should we encourage merchants to adopt an Online Store 2.0 theme at all?

Outcome

After a series of risk assessments over several weeks, we decided to focus our GTM of free themes on new merchants. This would mitigate the risk related to a drop in Shopify GMV when vintage themes are sunset. It also would relieve pressure on existing merchants. They can update their themes when the moment is right for their business. Instead, I created enablement material to support theme migration for agencies. We had decided to communicate that vintage themes would be sunset to this audience. They are in the best position to determine if a migration is appropriate for their clients.

Six months after our first merchant launch, 70.8% of merchants had migrated to an Online Store 2.0 theme.

Objectives

1

Drive adoption of Online Store 2.0 themes, in particular the new free themes, among new merchants.

2

Drive awareness of Online Store 2.0 among agencies, and ensure they have the resources to support merchants in update discussions.

Personas

New merchant
Agency Developer

New merchant

Choosing a theme is one of the first things a merchant will do on Shopify. Many are overwhelmed by choice on the Shopify Theme Store. When they get into their theme editor, the amount of work required to create their vision sinks in.

Some merchants find they have limited control over aesthetic elements (such as spacing) of free themes, and they escalate issues to theme support who have to edit theme code. This can take merchants off the upgrade path.

Responsiblities

  • To create unique layouts and showcase store information that matches their brand vision —without hiring a developer.
  • An easier editing experience for theme updates and app integrations. 
  • A more flexible way to manage and edit their storefront.

Challenges

  • Understanding the relationship between the theme and the platform.
  • Control over the sizing and placement of elements. 
  • Developer reliance.
  • Changing and upgrading themes is daunting.

Agency Developer

Full-service professional developers or small agency teams that are closely bought into the Shopify ecosystem, often supporting merchants on advanced plans or Plus. In recent years agency business models have become more retainer-based, managing performance and migrations as opposed to new builds.

Responsiblities

  • Building and maintaining storefronts. 
  • Front-end development.
  • Setting up integrations.
  • Building private apps and adding new features.
  • Migrations to Online Store 2.0.

Challenges

  • The amount of time spent on performance.
  • Inefficient workflows and painful incremental work (e.g. creating sections from scratch).
  • Helping non-technical clients make small updates to their store.

Process

Competitor Review

The purpose of the competitor review was to understand pricing, categorization and naming. The product team also used it to determine which industries to prioritize.

Many competitors had bloated theme catalogs and confusing names. This created an overwhelming shopping experience. I felt Shopify could win by offering fewer free themes that were diverse and descriptive.

Later in the project, we used to research again for decisions on positioning. For example, leaning into industries.

Theme naming

I used the risk assessments and the competitor review to inform naming principles. Then I ran a workshop for each theme.

I had worked with the design team to understand the art direction of the themes. This informed the messaging for each one and supported the creative session.

As a team, we listed descriptive words, benefits and name ideas. All names had legal and international reviews.

Example new merchant tactics

Learn with Shopify

Learn with Shopify is a YouTube channel for new and prospective merchants. It introduces merchants to the basics of Shopify.

In this video, I raised awareness of new free and premium themes. It received over 5k views in the first 48 hours.

Social

Twitter

@Shopify is largely for new and prospective merchants with some industry thought leaders.

  • Impressions – 150,212
  • Total engagements (comments, retweets, media engagements) – 3174
  • Links clicked – 614

Instagram

This paid campaign ran as a Reel and Carousel. The experiment targeted current leads and prospects and ran as a split test.

  • Total impressions – 621,728
  • Total reach – 89,937

Example agency tactics

Coding with Jan

Jan is a Shopify Developer who has 29k followers. His audience is largely agencies and some merchant developers.

  • Impressions – 39k
  • Watch time from impressions – 56.9 hours

Targeted email

The email went to over 40k agencies who are known to Shopify. Email open rates were 38.95% (up 27.04%) and click rate was 2.22% (up 1.42%).

Impact and Results

By the end of the project,

  • I had a standardized GTM process. Working with the design team, we formalized the workshop format for theme names. The design team also took more ownership over international and legal name reviews.
  • Alignment on the priority audience for theme releases – new merchants. We agreed that existing merchants should have the right education available. They shouldn’t feel pressure to changing their storefront.
  • Alignment on how to position free and premium themes in the future.

6 months after launch,

  • 73% conversion rate from theme listing to install on free themes. In the 6 month period before the new themes launched, this figure was 53.9%.
  • 35% conversion rate from install to publish on free themes. In the 6 month period before the new themes launched, this figure was 27.4%.
  • Apparel was the biggest merchant segment for every installed theme. There was also evidence of success around industry-first design.