01
UX and Interface Design
Homepage, collection, product, cart and page designs built around your catalogue and buyer journey rather than a generic template layout.
Custom Theme Development
Custom Shopify themes built around how your buyers shop.
Bespoke Shopify theme design and development using Online Store 2.0 — sections, metafields and Liquid built for your catalogue, your merchandising and your conversion goals rather than a template you have to work around.
6 wk
Typical design-to-launch
90+
Lighthouse score target
100%
Sections editable by your team
0
Page-builder apps required
Direct answer
Custom Shopify theme development is the design and build of a theme specifically for one brand, rather than configuring a marketplace template. It covers UX and interface design, Online Store 2.0 sections and blocks, metafield-driven content, Liquid templates, custom product and collection layouts, speed optimisation and accessibility. AKESTECH designs and builds the whole theme, then hands over one your team can edit without a developer for day-to-day changes.
What you get
Everything included, end to end.
02
Online Store 2.0 Sections
Reusable, configurable sections and blocks so your team can build and reorder pages without touching code.
03
Metafield Architecture
Structured content for size guides, ingredients, specifications and FAQs, editable per product from the Shopify admin.
04
Custom Product Templates
Distinct templates for bundles, subscriptions, pre-orders and high-value products that need a different buying flow.
05
Performance Engineering
Lean Liquid, deferred scripts, optimised images and fonts, and no page-builder bloat slowing the store down.
06
Accessibility and QA
Keyboard navigation, contrast, form labels and screen-reader testing, plus cross-browser and device verification.
Design
Designed from your buyers, not a template
Template layouts force every catalogue into the same homepage, the same product page and the same cart. That works until your buyers need something the template never considered: shade finders, bundles, subscriptions, B2B pricing or high-consideration content. Custom design starts from your catalogue and your funnel data instead.
- UX research first — Analytics, session review and competitor teardown decide what each template must solve.
- Conversion-led layouts — Product, collection and cart templates structured around buying objections.
- Mobile-first design — Layouts, imagery and tap targets designed for phones before desktop.
- Brand fidelity — Typography, colour and motion matched to your identity, not a theme demo.
Architecture
Built on Online Store 2.0, built to last
Every theme we ship uses Shopify's current architecture: JSON templates, reusable sections and blocks, and metafields for structured content. Your marketing team edits pages from the theme editor, and developers extend the theme cleanly instead of fighting page-builder output.
- Reusable sections — Configure and reorder content without touching code or hiring a developer.
- Metafield content — Size guides, ingredients, specs and FAQs editable per product from the admin.
- Lean Liquid — No page-builder apps, no legacy script bloat, no render-blocking surprises.
- Speed budget — Performance targets agreed up front and verified on real mobile devices.
Decision
When custom beats a premium theme
A premium theme configured well is the right answer for most young stores. Custom development earns its cost in specific situations — and we will tell you honestly when a premium theme is enough, because selling an unnecessary rebuild helps nobody.
- Template fights — You keep paying developers to force a theme into shapes it was never built for.
- Speed ceiling — App and theme bloat keeps Core Web Vitals red no matter what gets patched.
- Unique merchandising — Bundles, subscriptions or configurators need templates that do not exist.
- Scale economics — At volume, a faster, higher-converting theme pays for itself within months.
How we work
From audit to compounding results.
01
Research
We review your catalogue, analytics, competitors and current drop-off points to decide what the theme has to solve.
02
Design
Wireframes then high-fidelity designs for the key templates, reviewed on desktop and mobile before any build begins.
03
Build
Theme developed in Liquid with Online Store 2.0 sections, metafields and structured content your team can edit.
04
Optimise
Performance, accessibility and SEO checks run against a written checklist, with Core Web Vitals measured on mobile.
05
Handover
Editor training, documentation and a support window so your team can run the theme confidently without us.
FAQ
Questions clients ask us.
A premium theme configured well is the right choice for most brands under roughly ₹1 crore in annual revenue, because it is faster and cheaper. Custom development earns its cost when your catalogue has unusual merchandising needs, when you need page speed and Core Web Vitals under tight control, or when you keep fighting a template to do something it was not designed for.
Design and build typically runs five to seven weeks depending on how many distinct templates are needed and how quickly design feedback comes back. We work in two-week increments with something reviewable at the end of each, so you are never waiting until the end to see progress.
Yes. Every theme is built with Online Store 2.0 sections and blocks, so your team can add, reorder and reconfigure content from the theme editor without a developer. Metafields make structured product content editable from the standard Shopify admin as well.
Online Store 2.0 is Shopify's current theme architecture, which allows sections on every page and native metafield support. It matters because it removes the dependency on page-builder apps, which are a common cause of slow stores, and it lets your marketing team build landing pages without asking a developer.
Yes, and speed is a primary design constraint rather than an afterthought. We target a Lighthouse performance score in the nineties on mobile with Core Web Vitals in the green, which we achieve through lean Liquid, deferred third-party scripts, properly sized images and no page-builder bloat.
Yes. If your theme is structurally sound we can extend it with custom sections and templates rather than rebuilding from scratch, which is usually faster and cheaper. We will tell you honestly when a rebuild is the better call, and when it is not worth the cost.
Mobile is designed first, not adapted afterwards. Since most Indian ecommerce traffic arrives on a phone, mobile layouts, tap targets, image sizing, cart behaviour and checkout flow are all designed and tested before the desktop view is finalised.
You do. The theme, all custom code and all design files are yours, delivered through your own Shopify account and repository. There is no licensing arrangement or ongoing dependency that prevents you working with another developer later.
Build a theme your team can actually run.
Get a free theme audit and a fixed scope for design and development.