Plinth Docs v1.1.8 Get support

Getting started

Get Plinth installed and looking like your brand in about half an hour.

1. Add Plinth to your store

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
  2. Add Plinth to your theme library:
    • From the Shopify Theme Store: open the Plinth listing and choose Try theme (to preview it for free) or Buy theme.
    • From a file: if you were given a Plinth ZIP file, choose Add theme > Upload zip file and select it. Don’t unzip it first.
  3. Plinth appears in your theme library. Select Customize to open the theme editor. Your live store doesn’t change until you publish.
  4. When you’re happy, select ⋯ > Publish next to Plinth in your theme library.

Tip: Work on an unpublished copy while you set things up. You can preview it with the Preview button and share the preview link with your team.

2. Set up your flagship product

Plinth is designed around one hero product, called the flagship. The home page hero, the featured product band and the product hotspots all use it when you haven’t picked something else.

  1. Create the product in Products > Add product, with its images, variants and price. If it has options like color, set up swatches too.
  2. In the theme editor, open Theme settings > Brand and choose it in Flagship product.
  3. Optionally, pick a Flagship collection. Sections fall back to the first product in this collection if no flagship product is set.
  4. Pick an Add-ons collection with accessories or extras. It powers the Add-ons grid section and the suggestions in the cart drawer.

Use the product.flagship template

Plinth includes two product templates:

Template What it shows Use it for
Default product Product information, complementary products, add-ons grid, related products and reviews Most products, add-ons and accessories
flagship Everything in the default, plus custom option fields, a feature grid, hotspots, what’s included, specs, comparison, FAQ and guarantee Your hero product or any product that needs a long, detailed page

To assign the flagship template:

  1. Go to Products and open your flagship product.
  2. In the Theme template box (in the right-hand column on desktop), choose flagship.
  3. Select Save.

Then edit the template’s content: in the theme editor, use the page selector at the top to choose Products > flagship, and fill in each section with your product’s details. Sections with no content hide themselves, so you can leave out anything you don’t need.

Good to know: The flagship template includes custom option fields (line item blocks). Any product you assign to it will show those fields, so only assign products that need them, or remove the blocks.

3. Create your menus

  1. Go to Content > Menus (called Online Store > Navigation in some admins).
  2. Edit Main menu. To make a dropdown, drag a menu item under another one. Plinth supports three levels: top links, dropdown links and a third level inside each dropdown.
  3. Edit Footer menu with links such as your policies, contact page and search.
  4. In the theme editor, open Theme settings > Header to confirm which menu the header uses. The footer’s menus are set in the Footer section’s Menu blocks.

On phones and tablets, the menu opens in a slide-out drawer with expandable sections.

4. Add your logo and favicon

  1. In the theme editor, open Theme settings > Logo.
  2. Upload your Logo image. An SVG or a PNG with a transparent background looks sharpest. Because the default color scheme is dark, use a light or single-color version of your logo.
  3. Adjust Desktop logo width and Mobile logo width until it looks balanced next to the menu.
  4. Upload a Favicon: a square image at least 32 × 32 pixels. A simple mark works better than a full wordmark at that size.

Without a logo, the header shows your brand name in bold text.

5. Set your brand name and colors

  • Brand name: in Theme settings > Brand, enter the name to show in the header and in small “eyebrow” labels above section headings. Leave it blank to use your store name from Settings > General.
  • Brand tagline: a short line about your brand, also in Theme settings > Brand. It appears next to your logo on larger screens and at the top of the footer. Leave it blank if you don’t want one. You can turn it off separately in the Header and Footer sections.
  • Colors: in Theme settings > Colors, set background, text (foreground), accent, surface, muted and border colors. Keep strong contrast between text and background.
  • Font: in Theme settings > Typography, choose your font.

6. Fill in your home page

The home page starts with a hero, the flagship band, a featured product, a feature grid, an add-ons grid, customer quotes, a comparison table and a guarantee band. In the theme editor:

  • Replace the demo text in each section with your own.
  • Hide or remove sections you don’t need, and add new ones with Add section.
  • Only add customer quotes, policy claims and comparison values that are real and accurate.

7. Before you launch

  • Set up shipping, taxes and payments in your Shopify Settings.
  • Add your store policies in Settings > Policies. The guarantee band and trust points can link to them.
  • Add alt text to your product images (open the image in the product’s media and select Add alt text).
  • Fill in the trust points on the product page with your real policies, or leave them blank to hide them.
  • Add your social media links in Theme settings > Social media.
  • Test your store on a phone: add a product to the cart and go through to checkout.

Next: learn every option in Theme settings.