SHOPLINE Theme Review Standards​

Compliance with the Standards​

When creating a theme, it is essential to adhere to the SHOPLINE Theme Review Standards (hereinafter referred to as the Standards).

Themes and default settings released in the SHOPLINE Theme Shop (hereinafter referred to as Theme Shop) must satisfy all the conditions listed in the Standards. If any part of your submitted theme does not meet these conditions, SHOPLINE reserves the right to reject your request for the theme to go live. You must correct or modify the non-compliant sections before resubmission for review. Even after your theme has been approved and made live in the Theme Shop, it must continue to comply with the Standards; otherwise, SHOPLINE reserves the right to remove any themes not adhering to any single listed condition.

Before submitting for review, conduct comprehensive testing to ensure compliance with functionality and quality standards. Insufficiently tested themes will be rejected, and SHOPLINE will not conduct further reviews on them. If a single theme has multiple non-compliant issues in one review, it may result in an extended review time. If modifications to the same theme exceed three attempts and it still cannot pass the review, SHOPLINE holds the right to refuse the theme's review application.

SHOPLINE has the right to update the content of the Standards as deemed necessary. To safeguard your interests, review the latest specifications and requirements within the Standards regularly.

Exclusivity requirements​

Themes in the Theme Shop must have the SHOPLINE Theme Shop as their exclusive and sole distribution channel. To ensure merchants continue to benefit from high-quality themes and the latest features, any theme submitted for review must not contain external marketing materials (regardless of whether these serve the developer or any third party).

All themes must meet the following exclusivity requirements:

• SHOPLINE-only distribution: Themes published in the SHOPLINE Theme Shop cannot be offered on any other platform.

• Prohibited links: Themes must not contain any external links, whether these lead to developer sites or affiliate resources.

• Differentiation requirement: Themes submitted to the SHOPLINE Theme Shop must demonstrate significant originality in design and features compared to existing SHOPLINE themes (including your themes).

Theme functionality​

Themes submitted by developers need to include the following essential features that allow users to access and use online stores:

Use sections and blocks to arrange page templates​

Sections and blocks are modular theme content that allow merchants to customize and expand their themes by adding or removing them and adjusting settings.

Learn more about sections and blocks.

Display discounts​

Discounts can be applied to carts, checkouts, order items, or order pages, allowing flexible application to specific order items or the entire cart or order.

Learn more about discounts.

Accelerated checkout​

Support merchants in enabling payment service providers that offer accelerated checkout features, making the customer's checkout process faster and easier.

Learn more about accelerated checkout.

Storefront filtering​

Allow merchants to easily create filters for collections and search results pages based on existing product data, such as type, price, and multiple attribute options.

Learn more about storefront filtering.

Gift cards​

Support displaying key information on gift card pages. Customers can use their gift card balance to deduct corresponding amounts from order totals when shopping in the store.

Social sharing images​

Support incorporating the page_image object for social sharing, enabling merchants to show thumbnails in links shared on platforms such as Facebook or Instagram.

Learn more about social sharing images.

Multi-currency and language support​

Merchants can sell in multiple currencies and languages through SHOPLINE Payments, allowing customers to browse and check out in their preferred currency and language. You can use the following components to build this functionality:

• Country/Region selector

• Language selector

Learn more about Multiple currencies and languages.

Navigation​

Support merchants in creating navigational menus for their stores, with options for nesting to create dropdown menus.

Learn more about navigation.

Email subscription​

Allow customers to consent to email marketing via two methods: newsletter sign-up forms and customer registration form checkboxes.

Learn more about email subscriptions.

Product recommendations​

A great way to showcase products related to or frequently purchased with the current item to customers, potentially increasing sales.

Learn more about product recommendations.

Product media​

Support merchants in adding product videos and images, such as images, videos, and YouTube videos, to their products.

Learn more about product media.

Predictive search​

Support predictive search within the theme to display suggested results upon entering search queries, helping customers clarify and optimize their searches.

Learn more about predictive search.

Multi-attribute images​

Enable themes to use multi-variant images.

Learn more about Editing image attributes.

Benchmark requirements​

Performance​

The theme's performance is evaluated through benchmarking, and the theme that you develop must achieve the specified score. For more details, refer to Performance best practices for SHOPLINE themes.

SEO score​

SEO is assessed through benchmarking, and the Lighthouse SEO score must reach 90.

Code uniqueness​

Third-party theme code must demonstrate clear and meaningful differences from official theme code in terms of layout structure, core functionality implementation, or design language.

• The overall style of the theme should have a distinct design orientation or industry focus.

• The theme should feature unique innovations that differentiate it from other themes and provide merchants with unique value.

• The theme's name must ensure uniqueness and compliance within the theme shop (the name must not include common platform terms, trademarked brand names, or any misleading words).

• The style of all page templates, components, and interactions within the theme must be consistent.

Code Standards​

Page standards​

Establish essential functional elements for different types of pages:

• Layout page

• Product detail page

• Product list page

• Collection list page

• Shopping cart page

• Blog page

• Article page

• Search page

• 404 error page

• Gift card page

• Customer account page

• Password page

Consistency and functionality​

• The theme code must not include any segments that could disrupt the normal operation of the theme editor and SHOPLINE Admin.

• Theme functionality must not rely on the installation of third-party apps to realize complete features.

• Any third-party libraries, fonts, icons, and images used in the theme code must have legal authorization for commercial use.

Browser compatibility​

Ensure that users receive a consistent experience across different browsers when accessing our theme.

The theme must deliver optimal functionality and visual experience on the latest versions of all major browsers, and be compatible with the two preceding major versions. This includes:

• Google Chrome

• Safari (macOS and iOS)

• Mozilla Firefox

• Microsoft Edge

Asset standards​

Only native CSS should be used for style development within the theme, with no inclusion of any CSS extension language files (such as SCSS, LESS, etc.).

SEO standards​

• The theme must include code snippets for rendering SEO metadata, including page titles, meta descriptions, and the canonical URL.

• To facilitate better crawling by Google, the theme must incorporate code snippets for rendering Google structured data.

Design guidelines​

Online stores serve as vital channels for consumers to learn about brands and products. Well-designed themes help merchants efficiently build online stores while offering enough flexibility for merchants to establish personalized brand images. We recommend considering aspects like visual style, user experience, and responsive design for better theme design according to the following guidelines:

Visual style​

Themes should effectively represent brand images with visually appealing and clear information conveyance.

• Maintain consistency in visual elements such as spacing, icon style, layout, typography, and color.

• Ensure that brand logos adapt flexibly across different container sizes, clearly presenting to consumers.

• Make images like products, collections, and promotional banners prominently visible and clear.

• Icons should convey meanings clearly without ambiguity.

Layout​

Ensure a clear page structure with a distinct hierarchy.

• Present information clearly for consumers to find desired content.

• Establish a balanced visual hierarchy, aligning with user reading habits.

• Highlight key actions, such as payment operations, clearly.

• Use a consistent grid system, allowing merchants to adjust parameters.

• Provide appropriate white space.

Typography system​

Design typography for clarity, brand coherence, and visual appeal.

• Choose readable fonts to ensure text clarity without affecting consumers' reading experience.

• Set font size and line spacing reasonably to improve reading comfort and readability.

• Ensure consistent font usage for the same elements across pages, including titles, body text, and buttons, to maintain stylistic unity.

• Select complementary font pairings, such as an appropriate combination of header and body fonts, to enhance visual appeal.

• By default, do not use justified text alignment.

Color system​

A good color system shapes brand identity and enhances consumer browsing experiences.

• Choose a main color tone consistent with the brand identity, maintaining consistency throughout the website.

• Ensure that the default color scheme of the theme is harmonious and matches the tone of the target industry.

• The foreground and background colors must provide sufficient contrast for text and images to appear sharp and well-defined.

• If background color customization is supported, then corresponding foreground color customization must also be supported.

User experience​

A well-designed theme should cater to the needs of both merchants and consumers, enabling efficient brand building for merchants and allowing consumers to navigate online stores smoothly, ultimately enhancing conversion rates.

Merchant experience​

Starting from the merchants' perspective, the theme should offer a degree of flexibility while being user-friendly and meeting specific industry needs.

• Ensure that the settings are streamlined to meet the majority of merchants' needs, avoiding overly personalized style customization features.

• Provide adequate guidance in the settings interface, including feature descriptions, links to related features, and access to help documentation.

• Group related settings together to ensure a smooth configuration experience for merchants.

• Design components and features tailored to the characteristics of the target industry.

Consumer experience​

One of the goals of e-commerce user experience is to make the website "self-service." This means consumers can browse, navigate, and complete transactions independently. An intuitive online store typically has lower bounce rates and cart abandonment rates.

• Ensure menu navigation is intuitive, logical, and has a clear and understandable hierarchy.

• Provide a fast and seamless purchasing path that feels intuitive.

• Allow consumers to search for products efficiently with minimal clicks by offering features like an easy-to-use search bar, filters, and sorting options.

• Make key product information, such as price and size, easily visible and readable by highlighting these details.

• Offer clear product image displays with zoom capabilities for consumers.

• Enable consumers to easily create and manage their account information.

Responsive design​

Ensure that the online store adapts to various devices (mobile phones, computer monitors, tablets, etc.) while providing a good user experience.

• Prioritize the mobile user experience.

• Use responsive images that adjust to different screen sizes and resolutions, maintaining image clarity and loading speed.

• Implement simple and flexible layout designs to ensure the page displays well on different devices.

Theme materials​

Theme and theme style naming requirements​

When you submit your theme to the Theme Shop, it is essential to choose an appropriate name. A well-chosen name will help merchants understand your theme.

Uniqueness​

The names of both the theme and its style must be unique. They should be distinct from your other themes and those available in the Theme Shop to prevent any confusion.

Simplicity​

• Theme names must be in English, not exceeding 20 characters. They should convey a sense of branding or hint at the theme's style.

• Theme style names must also be in English and should not exceed 20 characters. Additionally, provide translations in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Malay, and Indonesian.

Distinctiveness​

• Avoid using a direct industry name for the theme name. Refrain from naming your theme with terms like Sports, Pet Supplies, or Books. Consider using more creative or suggestive words that reflect the applicable domain.

• To prevent trademark infringement and confusion, refrain from using names like "SHOPLINE," "Shopify," or any other company, product, service, or platform names (such as "Google," "Facebook," and "Instagram"). This also includes names closely resembling the aforementioned ones.

• Names for themes and theme styles must not include company or developer names. Theme and theme style names must not include company or developer names. Developer names will be uploaded via the theme management dashboard and displayed on the theme details page.

• Do not name your theme using product feature terms such as Analytics, Discount, or Product.

Theme versions and release notes​

When updating theme versions, you must provide corresponding release notes to help merchants understand the update content and decide whether to upgrade.

Demo store​

A demo store helps merchants quickly grasp the overall framework and features of your theme. Through actual store setup and interactive design, merchants can swiftly determine if the theme meets their setup needs.

• Each theme must include a demo store.

• Each theme style must have a demo store that distinguishes it from other styles.

• All demo store pages must employ authentic text content.

• To provide merchants with a genuine store experience, you can use apps during demo store setup. If using apps for page display, clearly indicate in images or text that the functionality is provided by apps.

Post-support for themes​

• You must reply to merchants' inquiries and support requests for the theme within two business days of receiving an email.

• Critical bugs found in the theme must be promptly fixed. If not, your theme will be temporarily removed from the Theme Shop until the issues are resolved.