What happens on your site when you connect Shopify
Theo builds the website shoppers find first: home page, brand story, collection and product pages, and, on Starter and Pro, the posts and landing pages search engines send people to. The Shopify connection puts your real catalog on those pages; layout, copy and photos change when you describe the change in chat.
- Products, prices and stock from your store appear on your Theo pages.
- Shoppers add to a cart on your site; the cart hands off to Shopify's secure checkout.
- You manage products in Shopify only. After a change, click Refresh my products in the E-commerce tab; it uses no chat credits. If the connection is ever lost, the same tab has Reconnect my store.
- Disconnect at any time; nothing inside Shopify changes.
How to connect Shopify to your Theo website
Three steps inside your Theo website.
- Open E-commerce in your Theo website.
- Choose Shopify and connect your store.
- Click Put my products on my site. Your catalog appears on your pages with a cart.
What stays in Shopify
Connecting changes nothing inside your store. Shopify keeps handling inventory, orders, payments, shipping and customer records. Store payments go through Shopify; every Theo site is a static website served over HTTPS.
If you also sell on Etsy, the same website can link to those listings; Etsy and Theo explains that keep-your-checkout setup.
| What | Where it lives |
|---|---|
| Product pages, prices, stock on display | Your Theo site, read from Shopify |
| Cart | Your Theo site |
| Checkout, payments, inventory, orders, shipping | Shopify |
| Posts, landing pages, technical fixes | Your Theo site, by Theo on Starter and Pro |
Why put a Theo website in front of a Shopify store
Shopify is built to sell, not to write the posts and landing pages that bring new shoppers in from search or to keep fixing the technical details Google reads. In Theo's audit of 5,974 small business websites, 50 percent of the 1,125 Shopify sites with search data got an estimated zero visitors a month from Google search (The State of Small Business Websites 2026).
On Starter and Pro, Theo does that work every week on the site it hosts: keyword research, new pages and posts, speed and technical fixes, pages submitted through Search Console, and work toward citations in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, with no chat credits used. It switches on once your domain and both Google connections are in place, so connect your domain right after you publish.
Basic, $29.99 a month, is the website and hosting only; the search work above is on Starter at $69.99 a month, free for the first 30 days, and on Pro. Pricing lists what each plan includes.
You do not need the Shopify Buy Button
The Shopify Buy Button, as of September 2026, puts a product and a small cart on a site Shopify does not host, through embed code pasted into a page. It is the usual answer when you want Shopify checkout on a separate marketing site.
With Theo you do not need it. The connection reads your whole catalog, builds the product pages and the cart, and hands checkout to Shopify; one click refreshes the site when products change.
What you pay Shopify and what you pay Theo
The connection is included on every Theo plan, so the Shopify plan is a choice about the store itself, not about Theo. Shopify's Basic plan, $29 a month as of September 2026 when billed yearly or $39 month to month, is the entry plan, with Grow and Advanced above it. You pay Shopify for the store and Theo for the website.
For a store opened from scratch, Theo recommends Shopify. The 30-day Starter trial is free, so you can connect the store before the first charge. To see the site first, give Theo your store's address; the first preview is usually ready in minutes. Build the site free and see it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Theo website for a Shopify store cost?
For a Shopify store the website and its hosting are $29.99 a month on Basic; the connection is on every plan. Starter is $69.99 a month, free for the first 30 days, and adds the ongoing search work that brings shoppers in; Pro is $129.99. Your Shopify subscription is paid to Shopify, separately.
How long until my products are on the site?
Connecting Shopify is three steps in the E-commerce tab, and the first preview of the site is usually ready in minutes. Your catalog appears on the preview a few minutes after you click Put my products on my site. Going live at your own address comes later, after you publish and point the domain at the site, and the store keeps selling on Shopify the whole time.
Who owns the website and the store?
The website is yours: every page, post and photo on it, and the domain it runs on. Theo hosts it, and on Pro you can browse and copy the site code through read-only GitHub access. The store, with its products, orders and customers, stays entirely with Shopify.
What happens to my store if I cancel Theo?
Nothing inside Shopify changes; the store keeps selling on its own storefront. There is no long-term commitment, so canceling stops the next charge, and the confirmation shows when your subscription ends. Before that date, copy the pages and images anywhere you like; disconnecting the store leaves your catalog untouched.
My products have no cart or checkout. What should I do?
Open E-commerce in that Theo website: connect Shopify and click Put my products on my site, or click Reconnect my store if the connection was lost. If the cart is still missing, ask Theo in the editing chat to add it.
Can I keep a WooCommerce store instead of Shopify?
Yes. WooCommerce keeps its WordPress hosting and Theo builds the website in front of it, linking to its products and checkout; the store can live at an address like shop.yourdomain.com. Products refresh when you ask Theo in chat; you do not have to move to Shopify.
Should I choose Shopify or Wix for a new store?
Theo recommends Shopify for a new store. Wix Stores is also a direct connection on every Theo plan, so an existing Wix store connects the same way.