Photo by Roberto Cortese on Unsplash
Shopify’s checkout is, in all its simplicity, or exactly because of it, actually pretty awesome. It is simple, intuitive, and usable. However, as a developer, with Shopify being a self-hosted platform, you are locked out of its source files. As opposed to the rest of Shopify’s front-end, you don’t have many options while customizing the checkout on Shopify’s regular plans; you can add your logo, a background image, change some basic colors and that is pretty much it.
How to edit the checkout page on Shopify?
Admin -> Online store -> Themes -> Customize -> Checkout
You do have some additional options regarding customer accounts and behavior, form options, order processing, and the ability to add additional scripts to your checkout.
You will find these options by navigating to Settings -> Checkout.
There is a way to get your hands on the checkout code and unlock its full potential, however, to do that, you will have to join the big boy’s club – the Shopify Plus.
You can find a full guide on how to customize Shopify’s checkout on regular plans here.
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is an advanced account with access to the platform itself which offers many options that the regular plans do not. At the time of writing, the available plans with their pricing are as follows:
- Basic – $29 USD per month
- Shopify – $79 USD per month
- Advanced – $299 USD per month
These three plans cover most of the business’s needs. However, if you want the ultimate Shopify experience with many additional features (integrated wholesale, unlimited staff accounts, and the ability to edit the checkout Liquid code – among others), you will have to go PLUS. The pricing is $2000 USD per month.
Shopify checkout.liquid – Edit The Checkout On Shopify Plus
First, you will have to contact Shopify support to request access to the checkout.liquid file. It will not be in the theme’s code by default. They will ask you why you need the access and are you aware that messing around with the checkout could cause problems – they basically want to know that you know what you are doing. They will also require a store owner’s written consent for this action.
Once you do get the access, you will find the checkout under the LAYOUT in the theme editor:
Admin -> Online Store -> Themes -> Edit Code -> Checkout.liquid
You will definitely want to make a backup of the code before you start editing it. You can duplicate the theme, or, even better, set up a two-way integration with Github.
Check out (see what I did there?) the new Shopify checkout extensions guide.
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