Migrating to Shopify Online Store 2.0: Your Complete Guide

Have you had a Shopify site for a few years and is running on a “version 1” theme? Do you want to upgrade to Theme 2.0 to take full advantage of the innovations, speed and customization possibilities of the online store 2.0?

So at Pikka, as a Shopify partner e-commerce agency, we can migrate your theme to 2.0

Why switch to a Theme Online Store 2.0?

Shopify's Online Store 2.0 is the latest iteration of the No. 1 e-commerce CSM platform in France and Europe.

This new version brings with it a set of innovative features and new tools designed to help e-commerce merchants optimize their online stores. The update to Shopify Online Store 2.0 gives merchants increased flexibility, providing greater control over their store design, advanced customization options, significant performance improvements, and significantly reduced loading times for both them in the back office and for online customers.

All of these improvements translate into potentially higher conversion rates, reduced cart abandonment, and an overall improved shopping experience for customers. This means more sales for you with the same traffic.

What are the new features of an Online Store V2 Theme?

The list is long, but here are the main improvements of a completely 2.0 Shopify theme

Dynamic Sections

With dynamic sections, you can easily add, remove, and rearrange content on your homepage or any other page without having to edit your theme's code. These sections can now be applied to any page.

Improved Design Tools and Templates

A Shopify Online Store 2.0 provides more flexible and powerful design tools for you, allowing you to create custom designs without requiring programming skills.

A better mobile experience

A 2.0 Theme allows for further mobile optimization to deliver a top-notch shopping experience on smartphones and tablets, ensuring the satisfaction of your mobile customers.

Customizing Product Pages

Product pages are now fully customizable, with new sections for product details, reviews, and related products.

SEO Optimization

Shopify Online Store 2.0 includes new features to improve your store's SEO, including customization of meta titles and descriptions, language-specific URLs, and Shopify Markets management.

Advanced Analytics

You now have access to in-depth, customizable analytics, allowing you to track your online store's performance and make informed, data-driven decisions.

Improved Accessibility

As a more modern and recent Theme 2.0, they are designed with special attention to accessibility, offering improved keyboard navigation and more detailed image descriptions to better serve users with disabilities.

How do I know the version of my Shopify theme?

There are several ways to find out the version of your site, but it will depend on a set of clues.

• Was your theme created after July 2021? It's most likely a 2.0 theme.
• Do you have sections elsewhere than on the homepage? It's probably a 2.0 theme.
• Is your theme called Dawn? It's a 2.0 theme.
• Is your theme called "start"? It's a 1.0 theme.
• In the code you have JSON files? It's a Theme 2.0
• Do you have a "customize template" button on the right side of a page or product? It's definitely a Theme 2.0

If you have any doubts, it is best to contact one of our Shopify experts to help you identify the version of your theme and offer you the appropriate solutions and optimizations.

How much does it cost to migrate to 2.0?

As is often the case with IT and web projects, the migration cost will depend on the existing system. The more templates you have, the more time it will take and therefore the more expensive it will be.

In a project to move to the V2 online store, the Shopify sections become the heart of the system, so it is also necessary to adapt them to your needs, or even to create 100% personalized sections for you.

It is possible to do “simple” migrations to take advantage of the features by migrating just the templates or complete migrations by also migrating all the sections.

Price of a “simple” migration

A change of theme to 2.0, by improving your current theme can start around €2,000 or €3,000 for around ten different templates.

At a minimum, there is the homepage, the collection page, the "page" page, the product page and the shopping cart. But e-retailers often have one or two alternative templates, which quickly brings the total to around ten templates, generally to start with.

Price of a “complex” migration

Complex migrations should be considered on a case-by-case basis, either because of the volume of templates or because of the complexity of the sections and their rewriting.

In short, we are dealing with tailor-made solutions that will require an initial analysis (audit) and then an often-spread action plan to gradually migrate to the online store 2.0 while maintaining operational continuity in sales.

Benefits of migrating to onlinestore V2

The main advantage will be to keep your graphic charter, your functionalities, the developments made to measure for you or all the personalization part of your site identical.

It's "just" a technical migration that will give more flexibility to your merchandising thanks to the "Customizer", the page builder "made in shopify" which will save you from using a tool like PageFly or Shogun page builder.

Disadvantages of migrating to onlinestore V2

You'll keep the same site on the front end. There won't be any changes to the design or features. This is truly a "technical update." For the front end, you'll gain in display speed, but that's it. Mind you, that's already quite a bit.

It's especially in the back office where the difference will be seen in your daily management. You will save time and increase your productivity enormously in managing your site.

Alternative to migrating to the online store V2

If you prefer to take advantage of the features of Shopify's V2 online store while improving the design and UX of your e-commerce site, you can choose to create a custom Shopify theme . This custom theme will obviously be in online store 2.0 but will have the advantage of faithfully representing your brand on the web.

This is a more expensive project, starting at €15,000, but it will allow you to have a 100% personalized and tailor-made design.