Our experience crafting online stores for businesses of all shapes and sizes became a huge factor in the creation of our first Shopify theme, “Praise”. After the work that we did with companies like Deathwish Coffee, Ritual Cookies, and Barnacle Foods, we took the most requested features and made them available to every customer who downloads Praise.

Those features include:

Powered by Shopify 2.0

The latest and greatest technology is powering your new theme. Built from Online Store 2.0 – Shopify’s most up-to-date product – you’re getting access to new features like:

• Improved Page Building Functionality
• User-Friendly App Integrations
• Meta Fields

And that’s what just comes standard. As a Shopify user, you’re going to be working with a high-speed platform built specifically for e-commerce businesses like you.

Shoppable Images

Let’s say you invest in a styled shoot for your brand where a model is wearing your shoes, skirt, blouse and hat. With praise theme you can take that image and embed your products within it. This makes it way easier for customers to see themselves inside of your photography and buy your products from there.

Flexible Image Displays

Sometimes a large, rectangular image just doesn’t cut it. Now, photos can be displayed in unique ways including a circle, Square, landscape, semi-circle, arch, and more.

Color Code Your Products

The ability to associate specific colors with products was heavily requested. Now, you have a creative way to present your products and encourage easy recognition for collections.

Yellow = Lemon

Red = Spicy

Black = Gluten Free

Featured Products Inside of Articles

Now you can feature the product that you write about in your recipes directly inside of the article. Rather than linking via an in-line link, blogs and articles are now shoppable.

Have you ever read a recipe or blog that talks about trending styles, now you can click directly from the blog to a product page and add it to your cart.

Additional Stats Graph

Product information just got richer! With more ways to describe products, we found customers had fewer reservations and were more inclined to purchase products.

Show flavors on a bar graph scale

Show the stretchiness of pants

Show heat levels of a hot sauce

And even more features that highlight your products and increase your sales.

Product Slogans, Shop the Look Section, Custom Icons, EU translations, In Menu Promotions, Mega Menu, Quick View, Sticky Header

The Story Behind the Creation of the Praise Theme

We were given the opportunity to create a premium Shopify Theme that would be sold on the primest of real estate – Shopify’s theme marketplace.

In December of 2023, we launched Commence Commerce, a separate entity focused on creating Shopify Themes built for ease of use and conversions. We call the first theme, “Praise”.

How it Started – Backed by Shopify

For years, we’ve designed branding, packaging, and developed shopify websites for companies in the consumer packaged goods space. When we saw the opportunity for the accelerator program come up, we knew that we could take all of the learnings we’ve gained from client work and create something that business owners would love.

We knew that our experience working with brands like Barnacle Foods, Gravallese Co., and She is Cheval gave us unique insights into what features business owners loved on their Shopify websites. Even with those three brands operating in completely different industries, there were some key requests we repeatedly received, no matter the industry.

The accelerator program was meant to be a 12-week accelerator where we would be guided by Shopify, the best in the industry, to create a best-in-class theme available for purchase at scale.

From the day that we started this process, to the day the theme launched in Q4 of 2023 we’ve had to rely on our company value of Collaboration over Competition and work with both internal and external stakeholders.

Thanks to the backing and support of Shopify’s staff the accelerator was a success and we’ve launched Praise – A theme dedicated to highlighting your brand narrative with product focus.

Praise Theme – A Labor of Love

This project was a team-working exercise. Virtually every department of Commence Studio touched a piece of the Praise theme.

Our Project Manager and Technical Director worked together to plan the efforts from start to finish. Design and development worked together to create something that is beautiful and functional. Leadership and marketing researched the marker, including keyword opportunities, and created a release schedule to promote the project. And at the end of it all, we celebrated the launch together.

Without a killer project management software, *ahem ClickUp shameless plug*, an awesome team, and support from the world’s number one e-commerce platform, we present to you, Praise.