Themes and branding
A theme is the design system your storefront renders with: the templates, the type, the colours, the product tile, the header and the footer. You configure it; you do not edit it.
What a theme controls, and what it does not
| Controlled by the theme | Not controlled by the theme |
|---|---|
| Layout of listing pages, product pages, checkout | Which products appear (channel) |
| Colours, typography, spacing, the product tile | Product names, images, attributes (catalog) |
| Header, footer, navigation rendering | The category tree itself (Categories) |
| How prices and availability are presented | What the price is (Pricing) |
| Whether the visual page editor is available | The page content itself (Pages) |
If a change is on the left, it is a theme setting or a theme change. If it is on the right, you are in the wrong screen.
Install and activate
- Experience Studio › Marketplace: open the theme and read the listing: publisher, version, engine, languages, features, pricing, and the permissions requested. A theme runs against your tenant's data; the permission list is the access it is asking for.
- Install. It appears under Experience Studio › Installed Themes.
- Use Activate on domain and choose a verified domain. The Live on column then names that domain.
One theme can be live on several domains. A domain serves one theme.
Configure it
Open the theme and go to its Settings tab.
Settings are declared by the theme, so what you see depends on which theme you installed. A theme that exposes nothing tells you so. What is always the same is the scoping:
- Global baseline applies to all markets. Set everything here first.
- Market-scoped values override the baseline for one market. A field you do not override shows as inherited from Global.
That is the mechanism for "same shop, different logo in Switzerland" without maintaining two complete configurations. Override the two or three fields that differ and leave the rest inherited.
Some settings are marked sensitive, an API key a theme needs, for example. Their stored value is never shown again, only that one is set. Leave the field blank to keep the current value; enter a new one to replace it.
Where the logo and brand assets live
Upload brand assets to Experience Studio › Media, not into a page. The media library gives you a stable URL to reference from theme settings, folders to keep campaign assets apart from permanent brand assets, alt text for accessibility, and image transforms (size, crop, format, quality) so you upload the logo once rather than in six sizes.
Mark an asset public if it is served without a signed URL, which a logo on a public shop needs to be.
Permissions and updates
When a theme's requested permissions change, the theme is flagged and asks for re-consent, an acknowledgement of the current access register. Read what changed before you confirm it. The What's new section on the theme's Overview tab carries the version changelog.
What to check
- Open the domain in a private browser window. The theme, not a placeholder, should render.
- Check one product page, one category listing and the homepage. Those are the three templates most likely to be wrong.
- Check a second market if you have one, and confirm the overridden fields differ and the inherited ones do not.
- Check it on a phone. B2B buyers order from the warehouse floor more often than the desk-bound version of this decision assumes.
When it does not work
- "No verified domains": finish Domains and going live.
- A setting saves but nothing changes: you set it on the Global baseline while the market you are looking at has an override, or the other way round. Check for the inherited badge on the field.
- Uninstall is blocked: a theme cannot be uninstalled while it is active on any domain. Deactivate it everywhere first.
Next
- Domains and going live: the launch itself.
- Edit pages and blocks: the content inside the theme.