How to customize checkout in shopify: Unlock 2024

Why Shopify Checkout Customization Is Your Secret Growth Weapon

How to customize checkout in shopify is a game-changing strategy that can dramatically boost your conversion rates and average order value. Here’s the quick answer:

Basic Customization (All Plans):

Use Settings > Checkout > Customize to add your logo and change colors
Install checkout apps from the Shopify App Store for extra features
Add trust badges, custom fields, and upsell offers through apps

Advanced Customization (Shopify Plus):

Use Checkout Extensibility for upgrade-safe customizations
Leverage Shopify Functions for custom discounts and logic
Access the Branding API for granular design control

Your checkout page is where browsers become buyers – or where they abandon their carts forever. A quarter of all cart abandonments are due to a lack of trust, making checkout customization critical for your success.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Shopify Checkout powers 10% of all US e-commerce stores and claims to be the world’s highest-converting checkout platform. But even the best platform needs your unique brand touch to truly shine.

Think of your current checkout like a generic storefront. It works, but it doesn’t tell your story or build the trust that turns hesitant shoppers into loyal customers. When you customize your checkout, you’re not just changing colors – you’re creating a seamless brand experience that can increase conversions by up to 36%.

The good news? Shopify has revolutionized checkout customization with Checkout Extensibility – a modern, upgrade-safe approach that replaces the old checkout.liquid method (which gets fully deprecated on August 13, 2024). This means you can now customize your checkout without breaking future updates.

I’m Cesar A Beltran, Founder and CEO of Blackbelt Commerce, and I’ve spent over 15 years helping 1000+ businesses optimize how to customize checkout in shopify for maximum conversions. Throughout this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to transform your checkout from a conversion killer into a revenue-generating machine.

How to customize checkout in shopify word roundup:

Why Customize Your Shopify Checkout?

A customer loves your products and is ready to buy. But when they reach your checkout, it feels generic and impersonal. Suddenly, that trust you built is gone—and so is the sale.

How to customize checkout in Shopify isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about creating a seamless bridge from “I want this” to “I bought this.” Shopify Checkout is already the world’s #1 converting platform, but your unique customizations are what open up its full potential for your brand. When you nail your checkout, your average order value climbs and conversion rates soar.

A lack of trust is a primary driver of cart abandonment. Customization directly addresses this by reinforcing your brand and professionalism. Every trust signal you add, every friction point you remove, and every brand element you incorporate directly impacts your bottom line. For insights into optimizing the entire Shopify checkout experience, Shopify’s own resources are invaluable. And if you’re ready to explore advanced strategies, learn more info about Shopify Plus services that can take your customization to the next level.

Strengthen Brand Identity and Build Customer Trust

When customers leave your gorgeous website for a generic checkout page, the experience is jarring. Your brand is the entire experience, and consistent branding means your checkout must feel like a natural extension of your store.

This means intentional logo placement, custom fonts and colors that match your site, and familiar button styles. But trust goes deeper than looks. Strategically place trust badges (“Secured by Norton”), display security seals, and showcase payment provider logos (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Shop Pay). These aren’t just decorations; they are psychological reassurances that tell customers their information is safe. Even your checkout URL matters—a Shopify Custom Checkout Domain keeps customers feeling secure throughout their purchase.

Boost Average Order Value (AOV) and Conversions

Checkout customization isn’t just about completing sales—it’s about making them bigger. Smart customizations can turn a $50 purchase into a $75 one, almost effortlessly.

One-click upsells and cross-sells present relevant complementary products at the perfect moment. Post-purchase offers are especially powerful because the customer has already committed to buying. The post-purchase apps in Shopify’s ecosystem make it easy to surface these offers when customers are most receptive.

Speed is also critical. A one-page checkout reduces friction, while express checkout methods like Shop Pay can boost mobile conversions by 91% compared to guest checkouts. Offering multiple payment options (Apple Pay, Google Pay, cards) tells customers, “however you want to pay, we’re ready.” This flexibility alone can significantly increase conversions.

For a comprehensive look at conversion optimization strategies, check out our guide on Checkout on Shopify: How to Increase Conversions.

Improve User Experience with Custom Fields and Logic

Standard checkout fields don’t always work. A jewelry store needs an engraving field; a florist needs a delivery date picker. Custom fields let you collect the exact information you need, such as gift messages, delivery dates, or special instructions.

This gets even smarter with display conditions and personalized checkout logic. Imagine showing express shipping only to local customers or hiding certain payment methods for international orders. This intelligent customization reduces confusion and makes the checkout feel purpose-built for each customer.

The golden rule is that every field must serve a purpose. Removing unnecessary fields is often more powerful than adding new ones, as shorter forms reduce friction and consistently lead to higher conversion rates. We help merchants Add Custom Fields to Shopify Checkout that improve the experience without overwhelming customers.

How to Customize Checkout in Shopify: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let’s explore the “how.” Customizing your Shopify checkout has evolved from complex coding into a streamlined, merchant-friendly system. Shopify provides three main approaches: the built-in editor for visual changes, the App Store for added functionality, and the powerful Checkout Extensibility framework for advanced, safe customizations.

Whether you’re on a basic Shopify plan or Shopify Plus, the path to a customized checkout has never been clearer.

Basic Customization for All Shopify Plans

You don’t need Shopify Plus to make your checkout feel like your brand. Every Shopify merchant has access to a dedicated checkout and accounts editor. To get started, go to your Shopify admin and steer to Settings > Checkout. Click Customize checkout to open the user-friendly editor.

Here, you can make crucial brand-reinforcing changes:

Adding your logo: This creates a critical moment of recognition, assuring customers they’re in the right place.
Changing background colors: Matching your brand palette makes customers feel more confident in their purchase.
Customizing fonts: Maintaining typographic consistency from your homepage to your checkout creates a seamless, trustworthy experience.
Button styles: A familiar “Complete Order” button reduces friction and feels intuitive to customers.

These touches create a checkout that feels like a natural extension of your brand story. For more details, Shopify’s official guide on Customizing the style of your checkout – Shopify Help Center is an excellent resource.

The New Standard: Checkout Extensibility vs. checkout.liquid

For years, advanced checkout customization required editing a file called checkout.liquid. This method was powerful but risky, as any Shopify platform update could break your checkout. Those days are over.

Checkout Extensibility is the new standard. It’s upgrade-safe, faster, more secure, and designed to work seamlessly with modern tools like Shop Pay. It offers all the power of the old system without the headaches.

Here’s a direct comparison:

Feature	`checkout.liquid` (Old Method)	Checkout Extensibility (New Standard)
Upgrade-Safe	✘ No (Updates could break everything)	✔ Yes (Your customizations stay intact)
App Integration	Limited and complex	✔ Seamless drag-and-drop functionality
Shop Pay Compatibility	Often problematic	✔ Works perfectly with Shop Pay’s high conversion rates
Security & Performance	Potential vulnerabilities	✔ Built-in security and optimized speed
Future Viability	Fully deprecated August 13, 2024	The future of Shopify checkout

If you’re still using checkout.liquid, you must plan your migration. The August 13, 2024 deprecation date is firm. It’s time to upgrade to Shopify Extensions in Checkout to access a more powerful and stable system.

Adding Functionality with Shopify Apps

The Shopify App Store is a treasure trove of solutions that can brilliantly improve your checkout without requiring you to write code.

With the modern app ecosystem, you can simply drag and drop new functionality right into your checkout editor. Once you install an app from the Shopify App Store, its features become available to place where you see fit.

Upsell apps present relevant offers at the right moment, potentially increasing AOV by 15-30%.
Custom field apps solve unique business needs, like adding engraving details or a delivery date picker. You can easily Add Comments Box to Shopify Checkout for special instructions.
Trust badge apps make it simple to display security seals and payment logos to boost customer confidence.

Because these apps are built for Checkout Extensibility, they integrate seamlessly without compatibility issues. This app-based approach democratizes advanced customization, giving small businesses access to functionality that once required an enterprise-level budget.

Advanced Customization with Shopify Plus

For enterprise-scale businesses, Shopify Plus open ups advanced customization possibilities that go far beyond basic branding. With exclusive features, higher API limits, and powerful tools, you can build truly bespoke checkout experiences to handle complex business requirements like B2B pricing tiers or wholesale customer flows.

At Blackbelt Commerce, we help enterprise clients leverage these capabilities to create checkouts that don’t just convert—they delight. Explore our Shopify web design services to see how we can lift your entire store experience.

How to customize checkout in Shopify using Functions for Custom Logic

Shopify Functions are small, custom pieces of backend code that run when your customers take certain actions, allowing you to apply your unique business rules automatically. They let you extend or replace Shopify’s default logic with your own.

With custom Shopify Functions, you can create sophisticated rules for:

Custom discounts: Go beyond simple percentages with complex bundling offers that adjust in real-time. For example, a customer buying a camera could get tiered discounts on lenses based on how many they add.
Volume discounts: Offer different pricing for first-time customers versus returning VIPs, or create special rates for bulk buyers in specific regions.
Payment method rules: Intelligently show or hide payment options based on cart contents, customer location, or order value. For instance, you could show “pay on delivery” only for local customers.

Customers won’t see the complex logic, they’ll just experience a checkout that feels perfectly custom to them.

How to customize checkout in Shopify with the Branding API

While the checkout editor handles basic styling, the Branding API is for merchants who need pixel-perfect brand consistency. This API gives you granular control over your checkout’s design, ensuring every detail matches your brand guidelines.

The Branding API lets you control subtle but important elements:

Border radius on buttons to match your product cards.
Spacing between form fields to align with your site’s grid system.
Favicons to reinforce your brand in the customer’s browser tab.

These granular design changes create a seamless experience, making customers feel like they never left your brand’s environment. Best of all, these customizations apply consistently across Shop Pay, maintaining a professional look that builds confidence through the final click.

Tracking and Optimizing with Pixels and A/B Testing

A great checkout is never finished. You must know if your customizations are actually improving your business goals. This is where web pixel extensions and strategic testing come in.

Tracking customer behavior through pixels in Shopify provides invaluable data. You can see exactly where customers pause, scroll, or abandon their carts. Identifying drop-off points is like creating a heat map of customer frustration, showing you exactly where to focus your optimization efforts.

Combine this data with A/B testing. You might find that changing a button color increases conversions by 12% or that moving trust badges reduces abandonment by 8%. These are no longer guesses but data-driven decisions based on real customer behavior.

This continuous cycle of tracking, testing, and refining transforms your checkout from a static page into a dynamic, ever-improving conversion machine that adapts to your customers’ preferences.

Frequently Asked Questions about Shopify Checkout Customization

We’ve helped hundreds of merchants master how to customize checkout in shopify, and these questions come up frequently.

Can I create a one-page checkout on Shopify?

Yes. Shopify has rolled out a sleek, one-page checkout experience designed to streamline the entire purchase process. Inspired by the high-converting Shop Pay platform, this format is the default for new stores and is gradually being released to all existing stores. By reducing the number of steps and fields, it significantly boosts conversion rates, especially on mobile where it can reduce cart abandonment by up to 35%.

How do I add trust badges or custom fields to the checkout?

The easiest and most reliable method is using apps from the Shopify App Store. Modern apps built for Checkout Extensibility integrate seamlessly. Once an app is installed, you can use the checkout editor to drag and drop elements like trust badges, review snippets, or custom input fields directly into your checkout flow. This approach is upgrade-safe and ensures all additions look native to the checkout experience.

What is the difference between Checkout Extensibility and checkout.liquid?

This is a critical distinction. Checkout Extensibility is Shopify’s modern, secure, and upgrade-safe framework for customization. It uses apps and extensions that work within Shopify’s system, so your changes won’t break when Shopify releases updates.

checkout.liquid is the old method of directly editing theme code. It was not upgrade-safe, meaning any Shopify update could break your checkout, and it required constant maintenance. checkout.liquid will be fully deprecated on August 13, 2024. All merchants still using this method must migrate to Checkout Extensibility to ensure their store remains functional and secure.

Conclusion

Mastering how to customize checkout in shopify is about changing the final step of the customer journey into a powerful conversion engine. A strategic checkout builds trust, reinforces your brand, and directly drives revenue. You’ve invested in your products and marketing; your checkout page deserves the same strategic attention.

The future of this process is Checkout Extensibility. This modern, upgrade-safe approach gives you the freedom to innovate without the fear of breaking your store with the next platform update. Combined with the Shopify App ecosystem and the advanced tools available to Shopify Plus merchants, you have an unprecedented level of control.

However, while these tools are powerful, they are also complex. To fully leverage these capabilities and steer the intricacies of customization, partnering with an expert is essential. Blackbelt Commerce has spent over 15 years helping 1,000+ businesses transform their checkouts from conversion killers into revenue-generating machines.

We craft comprehensive solutions, from backend logic using Shopify Functions to pixel-perfect post-purchase experiences, like learning how to customize my checkout thank you page shopify. Every element is designed to reduce friction and maximize conversions.

By investing in thoughtful customization, you create a competitive advantage. Ready to turn your checkout into your secret growth weapon? Contact us for a client inquiry today, and let’s build a checkout experience that actively grows your business.