Shopify’s architecture is built to give developers and merchants complete flexibility when building and customizing online stores. From reusable components to customizable layouts, every piece plays a vital role. Let’s break down the essential elements — starting with Sections.

Shopify Sections: The Backbone of Your Store Layout

Shopify sections are the building blocks of your theme’s layout. They let you organize content in a structured, customizable way, and they are one of the most powerful features of Shopify’s Online Store 2.0.

  • Sections define the structure of each page and allow merchants to add, remove, or rearrange content without touching code.
  • Each section is typically a Liquid file found in the /sections directory of your theme.
  • Shopify supports both static sections (like the header and footer) and dynamic sections (which can be added via the theme editor).
  • Sections can contain HTML, Liquid, JavaScript, and CSS, giving developers full control over how content is displayed.
  • You can also include settings inside a section’s schema, which allows merchants to customize things like text, images, or layout options directly from the theme editor.

Whether you’re building a homepage, product page, or custom landing page, sections allow you to deliver structured and editable content while keeping your theme flexible.

Shopify Snippets: Reusable Pieces of Code

Snippets are small chunks of Liquid code that you can reuse across different sections, templates, or layouts. They are stored in the /snippets folder and help keep your code clean and DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself).

  • Instead of writing the same code in multiple places, you can create a snippet once and include it wherever needed using the render or include tag.
  • For example, you might create a price-discount.liquid snippet that calculates and shows a discount badge. You can use this in product cards, product pages, and the cart — all without duplicating code.
  • Snippets are especially useful for handling UI components like badges, buttons, modals, icons, or any repeated logic (like metafield checks or conditionals).
  • They make your theme modular and easier to maintain.

By breaking down your UI into snippets, you reduce complexity, speed up development, and improve performance and readability.

Shopify Assets: Styling and Interactivity

The assets folder holds all your theme’s CSS, JavaScript, fonts, and image files. These resources define how your store looks and behaves.

  • You can store CSS files like base.css, component-product-card.css, or custom.css for reusable styling across the theme.
  • JavaScript files like cart.js, predictive-search.js, or theme.js enhance interactivity and functionality.
  • Assets can be included in sections and layouts using Liquid tags like {{ 'style.css' | asset_url | stylesheet_tag }}.
  • You can even load assets conditionally based on the section or page being rendered.

Assets are essential for branding, responsiveness, and user experience. Clean and optimized asset usage improves load speed and ensures your store feels polished.

Shopify Layouts and Templates: Structuring the Page

Layouts and templates control the overall structure of a page. They define what content shows where and are responsible for wrapping your sections and snippets together.

  • Layouts are stored in the /layout folder and typically include theme.liquid, which acts as the base wrapper for every page.
  • Templates live in the /templates folder and determine the structure of specific page types, like product.liquid, collection.json, or cart.liquid.
  • You can create alternate templates to customize pages for specific products or collections.

Together, layouts and templates serve as the scaffolding for your storefront. They decide which sections appear and in what order.

Config and Locales: Settings and Translations

  • The config folder contains settings_schema.json and settings_data.json, which power the theme editor interface. They define global settings like colors, fonts, and layout preferences.
  • The locales folder contains translation files for multilingual support.

These files make your theme customizable and usable in different languages or regions.

Conclusion

Shopify’s theme architecture is thoughtfully organized into folders and components that promote reusability, flexibility, and speed. By understanding how sections, snippets, assets, templates, and config files interact, you can build robust and scalable Shopify themes that deliver both aesthetic value and performance.

Whether you’re customizing a Dawn-based theme or building one from scratch, mastering this architecture will help you maintain clean code, improve your workflow, and empower merchants to create their dream storefronts.

If you need any technical help to build your store, you can hire a freelance Shopify developer to offer you the best customizable store within your budget.