Theme Settings: How to Customize Your Theme

Your theme determines how your online store looks and functions. But a good theme isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Most themes come with a range of settings you can adjust yourself, and they’re all gathered in one place in Shoporama: the Theme Settings page. Here, you can change colors, short texts, images, dropdown menus, and on/off features without touching a single line of code.

What are theme settings?

A theme is the template that controls your store’s design: the homepage, category pages, product pages, shopping cart, and checkout. The theme is created by a developer, either at Shoporama or a theme developer you’ve hired yourself. When building the theme, the developer can choose to give you, the store owner, specific options: “What color should the buttons be?”, “Should a message be displayed at the top of the page?”, or “What is the delivery time for items in stock?” These specific choices are theme settings, and they automatically appear on the page. This means two things:

• You can only change what the theme allows you to change. You cannot add new fields to the page yourself.
• Two themes rarely have the same settings. What your neighbor can adjust in their theme isn’t necessarily available in yours.

How to Find Theme Settings

1. Log in to your Shoporama admin panel.
2. Click “Store ” in the left-hand menu, and expand “Design.”
3. Click Theme Settings.

Under “Design,” you’ll also find the following options: Theme (where you select which theme the store uses), Texts, Stylesheet, Logo & Terms, and Page Designer. More on the differences below.

Important: Not all themes have theme settings

This is the most common source of confusion, so let’s make it crystal clear: theme settings are only available in themes that are built to have them.

Shoporama’s own themes typically have many settings, ranging from a handful of sections to several hundred fields. But if you have a custom theme created by a theme developer or an agency, theme settings aren’t automatically included. They must be built into the theme by the person who created it, and if they aren’t, the page will be blank.

If your page is blank or you’re missing a specific field, the answer is therefore almost always: contact the developer or agency that created your theme and ask them to add the setting. It’s a small task for someone familiar with the theme, and it saves you from having to request a change every time you want to adjust a color or some text. If you’d like to see which themes Shoporama offers, you can read the overview of themes on Shoporama.

How the Page Is Structured

All settings are organized into sections—that is, a heading with related fields below it, such as “General,” “Company,” “Theme & Colors,” or “Product Page.” The view you see depends on your theme:

• Accordion view: the sections expand and collapse when you click on them. At the top, there’s a search field, “Search in settings…,” which searches section names, descriptions, and field names, expands the relevant sections, and highlights the results it finds. The browser remembers which sections you had open last.
• Card view: Each section is displayed as a card one below the other, and on the right side, there’s a shortcut list under the “Overview” heading, so you can jump directly to a section.

The Field Types You’ll Encounter

The theme developer determines the type of each field, and the type determines how the field appears to you:

• Text field: a single line for short values, ranging from “Free shipping on orders over 499 kr.” to a Facebook link or a comma-separated list such as Dankort, Visa, MobilePay.
• Text box: a larger, multi-line field for longer blocks of plain text.
• Rich text: a field with an editor where you can format text in bold, add links, and create bulleted lists.
• Color: a color swatch you click on, with a small field next to it displaying the hex code (for example, #2563eb). The two fields are linked, so you can either select a color or enter the code.
• On/Off: a checkbox. Check the box to enable the feature; uncheck it to disable it.
• Dropdown: a list of predefined options defined by the theme.
• Image: an upload field, for example, for a social media share image.

If “Unknown type” appears next to a field instead of an input field, this is not something you can fix. It means the theme is requesting a field type that the site does not support. Please forward this to your theme developer.

How to save your changes

At the bottom of the page is a single button that follows you as you scroll: Save and continue editing. When you click it:

• all fields on the page are saved at once, including those in sections you haven’t opened;
• the store’s cache is automatically cleared so the changes take effect on the online store;
• you’ll remain on Theme Settings so you can continue working.

If you don’t see the changes immediately in the store, perform a hard refresh in your browser (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac, Ctrl+F5 on Windows). This is because your browser also stores a copy of the page.

For color fields, there may be a small circular arrow icon to the right of the field name. If you hover your mouse over it, it shows the theme’s default color—for example, #111827—and clicking it resets the field to that value. Remember to click Save afterward.

If the theme has an image field, you’ll see an upload field. Once the image is uploaded and saved, it appears as a thumbnail with the checkbox “Delete image? ” below it. To replace the image, check that box, click Save, and continue editing—the upload field will then reappear.

Color Schemes: Change the Entire Palette at Once

Some themes come with pre-made color palettes. If your theme does, an extra menu item will appear under Design: Color Schemes. If your theme doesn’t have color schemes, the menu item won’t appear at all.

If you select a color scheme, the colors are applied directly to the same color fields found in Theme Settings. This is a shortcut for applying multiple colors at once, and you can fine-tune them afterward. If you later select a different scheme, the manual adjustments will be overwritten again.

What happens if you switch themes?

Theme settings are theme-specific. Each theme defines its own field names, and the values are saved in your online store under those exact names. If you switch themes, here’s what happens in practice:

• The new theme displays its own fields. Your old values won’t carry over, and you’ll need to set everything up from scratch.
• Your old values aren’t deleted. If you switch back to the previous theme, the settings will still be there.
• The logo, favicon, terms of service, menus, and product data are separate from the theme settings and are not affected by a theme change.

Therefore, plan a theme change as a small task rather than a simple click. Feel free to take a screenshot of your most important sections first so you can quickly recreate the text in the new theme.

What Doesn’t Belong in Theme Settings

Many people look in the wrong place. Here’s a quick checklist:

• Fixed texts in the store, such as “Add to Cart” and “Proceed to Checkout,” are edited under Design, Texts. See Translate and Customize Texts in Your Web Store.
• You setthe logo, favicon, and terms of service under Design, Logo & Terms.
• Custom CSS—that is, fine-tuning the design beyond what the theme offers—is configured under Design, Stylesheet. See Custom Stylesheet (Custom CSS).
• You can buildcontent for the homepage and landing pages—such as banners and product carousels—in the Page Builder.
• Set uptracking codes for Google Analytics, Meta, and similar services under Account, Online Store, Tracking.

Tips That Boost Your Bottom Line

Every change you can make yourself here is a change you don’t have to pay a developer for or wait for. Where it usually pays off the most:

• The top bar message is the most visible spot in your store. Use it actively to promote free shipping thresholds, promotions, and the last day to order before Christmas, instead of leaving the same text there all year long.
• The USP text at the top of the page builds trust at no cost. Be specific (“Delivery in 1–3 business days”) rather than vague (“Fast delivery”).
• Delivery times and the icons for payment and shipping must match reality at checkout. Incorrect times lead to support emails, and mismatched icons cost you conversions.
• Change one thing at a time when adjusting colors so you know what worked.

Theme settings via Claude and the REST API

If you’ve connected Claude to your store, you can ask Claude to change theme settings, such as “change the top bar text to ‘Free shipping on orders over 499 kr.’” This requires that the “Theme and CSS ” section be set to “Read and Edit ” under AI Tools. A developer can do the same via the REST API. In both cases, the same rules apply to ensure the store doesn’t end up with invalid values:

• Only the settings provided by your active theme can be set. A field that the theme doesn’t recognize is rejected.
• On/Off, colors, and dropdowns are validated. A color must be a valid color code such as #2563eb, and a dropdown must contain one of the theme’s own options.
• If multiple settings are set at once and just one of them is invalid, none of them will be saved. You’ll be told what went wrong and can try again.
• Image fields must contain an image from the store’s image library. The image is copied to the theme; if you later remove it under Theme Settings, the original remains in the image library.
• Text fields are stripped of scripts, iframes, and other HTML that can execute code. Standard formatting, such as bold text and links, is preserved. If a field needs to contain, for example, an embed code with a script, you must add it yourself here on the page.
• If your theme has no theme settings, neither Claude nor the REST API can set any. The theme developer must first add the fields.

The store’s cache is automatically cleared when a change is saved, so it takes effect immediately. You can undo changes that Claude has made to theme settings from the audit log under “Manage the Store with AI,” as long as no one has changed the value since then.

For the tech-savvy

The form is generated directly from the `theme_settings.json` file in the theme’s root directory. If the file does not exist, there are no settings to display. The file must contain an `info` key—typically with the theme’s name—and a `settings` array of sections. If the `info` key is missing, the file will not be recognized as being in this format, and the page will display incorrectly. Both sections and fields have `path`, `name`, and an optional `description`, and fields also have a `type`:

{
  "info": "My Theme",
  "accordion": true,
  "settings": [
    {
      "path": "topbar",
      "name": "Top Bar Message",
      "description": "Display a message at the top of the page",
      "fields": [
        { "path": "enabled", "name": "Enable", "type": "bool" },
        { "path": "text", "name": "Text", "type": "string" },
        { "path": "bg", "name": "Background Color", "type": "color", "default_value": "#111827" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

• Supported type values: string, text, wysiwyg, color, bool, list, image. Other values, such as number and textarea, are rendered as "Unknown type." Use string for short values, including numbers, and wysiwyg for rich text.
• The values are available in the theme’s templates as $settings.section.field, i.e., the section’s path followed by the field’s path.
• A default value only pre-fills the field in the admin panel. The value isn’t available in the store until "Save" is clicked, so the template must handle the possibility that the value may be missing.
• The `default_value ` for a color field controls the reset icon. A list field must have a `values` array containing objects with ` value ` and `name` properties.
• If you set ` accordion ` to ` true`, the accordion view is used. Otherwise, the card view is used.
• Regardless of that: if there is a `color_scheme.json` file with a `schemes` list in the theme’s root directory, the “Color Schemes” menu item under “Design” is added automatically.
• The values are stored per online store and per field name, not per theme. If two themes reuse the same section and field name, they share the value.
• Theme settings can also be read and set via Shoporama’s REST API, which is convenient if the same configuration needs to be rolled out across multiple web shops. PUT /theme-settings validates against the active theme’s theme_settings.json: unknown keys and invalid values return a 400 error, and nothing from the call is saved. A maximum of 50 settings per call. Image fields require an ` image_id` from the store’s image library. See the REST API documentation for details.

Frequently Asked Questions

I can’t find Theme Settings, or the page is completely empty. What should I do?

The page is located under Design > Theme Settings. If it’s empty, your theme has no built-in settings, which is completely normal for custom themes. Contact the developer or agency that created the theme and ask them to add the desired fields. Shoporama cannot add fields to a theme we didn’t create.

I just had my own theme created. Why don’t I have the same settings as Shoporama’s themes?

Because the settings are part of the theme itself and not a feature that all themes automatically include. Shoporama’s own themes are built with many settings. A custom theme has exactly the settings your developer chose to include—no more, no less. Be sure to discuss this with your developer when you order the theme.

How do I know if my change has taken effect in the store?

Click Save and continue editing, then open the store in a new tab and perform a hard refresh (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac, Ctrl+F5 on Windows). Shoporama automatically clears the store’s cache when you save; if you’re still seeing the old version, it’s usually your browser that’s holding onto the old data.

Can I edit button texts like “Add to Cart” from here?

No. You can edit fixed text in the store under Design > Text. Theme settings are used for the values defined by the theme itself, such as your own campaign text at the top of the page or your USP texts.

I have multiple online stores using the same theme. Can I copy the settings from one to the other?

There is no “Copy” button on the page, and settings are saved per online store, so you’ll need to set them up in each store individually. If you have many stores or many fields, a developer can read and set theme settings via Shoporama’s REST API, allowing the setup to be rolled out automatically. This only works for settings that the theme has provided for the individual store.

Claude says that a setting cannot be configured. Why?

Typically for one of three reasons: the field doesn’t exist in your active theme, the value doesn’t match the field (e.g., a color without a valid color code or a selection the dropdown doesn’t offer), or your theme has no theme settings at all. If a single field is invalid, nothing from that change will be saved, so ask Claude to correct the value and try again. Images must first be uploaded to the image library, and you can add code with scripts yourself right here on this page.

Will I lose my settings if I try a different theme and change my mind?

No. Your settings aren’t deleted when you switch themes. The new theme simply displays its own fields, and they start out empty. If you switch back, your old values will still be there. However, please be aware that the store’s appearance will change immediately, so it’s best to choose a time when there are few visitors.

It says “Unknown type” next to one of my fields. Is something broken?

The store isn’t malfunctioning, but the field can’t be edited. This means the theme requires a field type that the page doesn’t support. Forward this message to your theme developer so they can correct the field type in the theme.

We’ve switched shipping providers. Where do I change the icons in the footer?

If your theme has a field for this, it’s typically located in the first section of Theme Settings as a comma-separated list, for example , postnord,gls,dao. The field’s tooltip tells you exactly which values the theme recognizes. If the field doesn’t exist, the icons are hard-coded into the theme, and you’ll need to contact your theme developer.