Getting around Design & Appearance: how the design tools fit together
3 min read · Updated November 1, 2026
This article shows you the four tools that give your storefront its look, and how they work together.
Read it once before your first design session, so you always know where to go.
Before you start
Changing the design needs the Customize Store Appearance permission. Without it you can look around, but you cannot change anything.
Putting a design in front of shoppers also needs Publish Store Appearance.
The Live Page Builder needs a computer or a tablet held sideways. On a smaller screen you see Open the page builder on a larger screen.
Step 1. Open the Theme Store
In the side menu, under Design & Appearance, pick Themes Marketplace. The Theme Store opens. Every design session starts here.
Appearance opens on the Theme Store, where every design session starts.
Step 2. Choose the overall look
Each theme is a card with a picture, a name and a short description. The theme your store uses carries an Active badge.
Applying a theme changes your draft only. Your shoppers keep the old look until you publish.
The theme your shop wears carries the Active badge.
Step 3. Shape the page yourself
On the active theme press Customize, or pick Live Page Builder in the side menu. The builder opens: your real shop in the middle, the list of sections on the left, and the settings of whatever you click on the right.
Here you set the order of the page, the colours, the fonts, the header and the footer.
The Live Page Builder: your shop in the middle, sections on the left, settings on the right.
Step 4. Keep your pictures in one place
Pick Media Library in the side menu. Every photo you upload lands here, in folders you name, with a Storage meter that shows how much of your space you have used.
When you change a picture in the builder, you can pick it from here instead of searching your computer again.
The Media Library keeps every picture you upload, in folders you name.
Step 5. Write your information pages
Pick CMS Store Pages in the side menu. The Store Pages list opens. It holds the pages made of words rather than design: About us, delivery and returns, terms, common questions.
Each page gets its own address on your shop, and you can link it from your menus.
Store Pages holds the pages that are words rather than design.
Step 6. Publish when you are happy
Everything you change in the builder is a draft until you press Publish in the top bar. Until then your shoppers see the shop exactly as it was.
Everything you change stays a draft until you press Publish in the top bar.
Result
You know which tool to open for any design job, and you know the rule that makes the builder safe to try things in: your design changes reach shoppers only when you publish them.