Ritual Documentation

This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to install, configure, and customize the Ritual Shopify theme. Ritual is an avant-garde apothecary Shopify OS 2.0 theme for skincare and wellness brands. All five page templates are individually art-directed: an art-print collage home, a celestial-rail collection, a story-driven product page, a journal-fragments blog, and a ritual cart. Typography pairs Cormorant serif caps with a bundled Caveat handwritten face, over a cream, lilac, moss and gold palette with a bundled gold-dust hero loop. Built-in cart upsell, cross-sell, and countdown timers give you conversion boosters without installing a single app. Use the sidebar navigation to jump to a specific section, or scroll through for the complete reference.

Getting Started

System Requirements

Ritual requires a Shopify store on any current plan (Basic Shopify, Shopify, Advanced, or Shopify Plus). The theme is built on Online Store 2.0 and requires no additional apps for core functionality.

Installation

After completing your purchase, you will receive a ZIP file named ritual-theme-1.0.0.zip. Follow these steps to install it on your Shopify store:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin panel at your-store.myshopify.com/admin.
2. Navigate to Online Store > Themes in the left sidebar.
3. In the Theme library section, click the Add theme button.
4. Select Upload ZIP file from the dropdown menu.
5. Choose ritual-theme-1.0.0.zip from your computer and wait for the upload to complete. This typically takes 15-30 seconds.
6. Once uploaded, the theme will appear in your theme library. Click Customize to open the visual theme editor, or click Actions > Publish to make it your live theme immediately.

Activating Ritual

Once you have uploaded and customized the theme to your liking:

1. Go to Online Store > Themes in your Shopify admin.
2. Find Ritual in your theme library.
3. Click Actions > Publish.
4. Confirm the activation in the dialog. Your previous theme will be moved to the theme library and can be restored at any time.

Theme Settings

Colors

Ritual ships with a cream, lilac, moss and gold palette. In the Shopify theme editor, navigate to Theme settings > Colors to configure:

• Background (Cream) — The cream paper background used across the storefront, layered under a soft grain texture.
• Text (Worn Ink) — The default worn-ink text color.
• Accent 1 (Lilac) — The lilac accent used for art blocks and journal covers.
• Accent 2 (Moss Green) — The deep moss accent used for photo mats, art tiles and emphasis text.
• Accent 3 (Antique Gold) — The gold accent used for foil scraps, rules and button hovers.
• Light background — The lighter card tone used for note fragments and panels.
• Dark text — Text color used on light-paper surfaces for contrast.

Craft Fonts

Ritual bundles two craft webfonts directly inside the theme — no Google Fonts requests, no external dependencies:

• Special Elite — The typewriter font used for headlines, section titles, buttons and product names.
• Caveat — The bundled handwritten font used for note fragments and captions (headings come from the font picker, defaulting to Cormorant).

Both are controlled by a single "Use craft fonts" checkbox under Theme settings > Typography. It is ON by default. Turn it off and the theme falls back to your own Heading font and Body font picker choices from the Shopify-hosted font library — useful if you want Ritual's torn-paper layout with a more conventional typographic voice.

Layout

Under Theme settings > Layout, you can control the page width and the left rail:

• Page width — Set the maximum content width to suit your storefront.
• Enable left rail — Checkbox that turns the pinned left icon rail on or off globally. This is OFF by default — Ritual is designed to look complete without it.

Cart

Under Theme settings > Cart:

• Cart type — Choose Drawer for the AJAX slide-in cart or Page for a traditional full-page cart with a no-JS fallback.
• Free shipping threshold — Set the dollar amount required to unlock free shipping. Setting this to 0 hides the free shipping progress bar entirely.

Social

Under Theme settings > Social, add your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook URLs. These populate the footer social icons throughout the storefront.

Header & Navigation

Menu, Logo & Logo Position

In the header section settings, use the menu picker to select which Shopify navigation menu displays in the header, and upload your logo image. A logo position setting lets you choose between Left and Center alignment to match your brand. Manage menus in Shopify Admin > Online Store > Navigation.

Sticky Header

Enable the sticky header checkbox in the header section settings to keep the header pinned as customers scroll.

Mobile Menu

Below 990px viewport width, the header navigation collapses into a mobile menu icon. Above 990px, the full navigation menu displays inline in the header.

Hero Banner

Media Type: Video or Image

The homepage hero banner includes a media type setting — choose Video to play the bundled Ritual motion loop (an 8-second gold-dust drift over a cream and lilac gradient), or Image for a static photo. The video mode always renders a poster fallback image for the first paint and for browsers that can't play the video. When a visitor's device has reduced motion enabled in their operating system, the hero automatically falls back to the poster image instead of autoplaying the video.

Bundled Photos or Custom Image

A "Bundled photo" select field lets you choose any of the 5 bundled apothecary hero photos that ship with the theme, whether you're in image mode or need a poster for video mode — no photography of your own required to launch. To use your own photo instead, use the Image picker, which overrides the bundled photo selection whenever an image is uploaded.

Eyebrow, Heading & CTA

The hero supports a handwritten eyebrow label flanked by doodle stars above the typewriter headline, a two-line heading, and an optional call-to-action stamped-label button with customizable text and link.

Height & Scrim

• Height — Slider from 360px to 720px to control the hero's height on desktop.
• Scrim opacity — Adjusts the overlay applied over the hero video or photo so heading text stays legible.
• Text position — Choose where the eyebrow, heading, and CTA are anchored within the hero.

One-Product Spotlight

The One-Product Spotlight section puts a single hero piece front and center on a torn-paper card. Configure:

• Product — Use the product picker to choose which product the section spotlights. The product's featured image fills the card automatically; upload a custom image to override it.
• Blurb — A short editorial description that appears alongside the product imagery.
• Material callout blocks — Add up to 6 typewriter callout blocks, each with its own line of copy (materials, stone, technique, etc.). Every callout block has a side setting (left or right) and a vertical offset to position it precisely against the product photo.

Origin Story

The Origin Story section is a storytelling block styled as two overlapping torn-photo scraps with a handwritten washi-tape label. Share where your materials come from, how pieces are made, or your brand's founding story. Two bundled photos fill the frames until you pick your own Big image and Small image, and the Photo label text setting controls the handwritten tag overlapping the big photo's corner.

Journal Preview & Lookbook

Scattered Collage

The homepage Journal preview section shows up to 3 blog entries as art-print cards — pick articles (or enter title/link/image manually) and imageless entries automatically get lilac moon-art covers. A legacy Lookbook section also ships for scattered shop-the-look collages. Each look block accepts:

• Image — A lifestyle photo for the polaroid frame. If you skip it and set a product instead, the product's featured image is used automatically.
• Product — An optional product link. When set, a tag badge appears on the photo so customers can shop the look directly from the image.
• Label — An optional handwritten caption on the polaroid's chin.

Social Proof

The Social Proof section is a strip of up to 6 customer quotes styled as tilted polaroid notes — photo on top, handwritten quote, typewriter author line. Each quote block accepts:

• Photo — An optional customer or product photo.
• Product — Optional. When no photo is set, the product's featured image fills the polaroid automatically.
• Quote and Author — The handwritten quote text and the small-caps author line.

On mobile the strip becomes a horizontal scroll-snap carousel with a peek of the next card.

Direct Purchase

The Direct Purchase section is a torn-paper homepage buy card that lets customers purchase without leaving the homepage. Configure:

• Product — Use the product picker to choose which product the buy card sells.
• Live variant pricing — The card automatically reflects the price of the selected variant as customers choose options; no manual price entry needed.
• Testimonial blocks — Polaroid-styled customer testimonials build trust next to the buy card. Each accepts an avatar photo or a product pick whose featured image fills the polaroid when no avatar is set.
• Free shipping note — An optional line of reassurance copy shown near the buy button.

Trust Badges

The Trust Badges band displays a row of stamped-icon reassurance badges between hand-drawn ruled lines. For each badge block, choose an icon from the built-in icon select and enter a label (for example, "Handcrafted to Order" or "Lifetime Warranty").

Countdown Timers

Banner Section

Add the Countdown Timer banner section from the theme editor and set an end date in the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM. The countdown always displays in the visitor's local time zone, with the digits styled as stamped paper tiles. Choose what happens when the countdown reaches zero with the expiry behavior setting: Hide removes the banner entirely, or Message swaps in a custom message you provide.

Product Page Block

A matching countdown timer is also available as a product page block, so you can run the same time-limited promotion directly on the product page. It uses the same end-date and expiry-behavior settings as the banner section.

Cart Upsell

The "Complete the Look" cart upsell surfaces complementary pieces to customers while they shop. Configure it in the Cart drawer section settings (and the matching settings on the Cart page section):

• Enable — Turn the upsell on or off.
• Heading — Customize the heading shown above the upsell products (e.g. "Complete the Look").
• Product picks — Choose up to 4 products to feature in the upsell.

Any product already in the customer's cart is automatically excluded from the upsell row, so customers are never shown something they've already added. The upsell appears in both the cart drawer and the cart page.

Pairs Well With

The "Pairs Well With" cross-sell block appears on the product page and recommends products that go well with the one being viewed. Configure the intent setting to Complementary or Related:

• Complementary — Pulls Shopify's complementary product recommendations automatically. This requires the free Search & Discovery app to be installed, since that's what powers Shopify's complementary product recommendation engine.
• Related — Pulls Shopify's related product recommendations, which work without any additional app.

You can also add manual product picks to override the automatic recommendations for any product.

Star Ratings

Product cards and the Direct Purchase buy card can optionally display a star rating next to the price. To enable star ratings for a product:

1. Go to Shopify Admin > Settings > Custom data > Products and add a new metafield definition with namespace and key reviews.rating.
2. Set the rating type so it accepts a decimal value.
3. On each product, enter a value such as 4.8 in the reviews.rating field.

When a product has a value in reviews.rating, the star rating renders automatically next to the price. Products without a value simply hide the rating — no placeholder or broken layout appears.

Product Page

Reorderable Blocks

The product page is built from reorderable blocks that you can drag into any order in the theme editor: vendor, title, price, star rating, variant pills, quantity, buy buttons, description, collapsible tabs, countdown timer, "Pairs Well With", and share.

Media Gallery

The product media gallery supports standard images as well as video and 3D models. Upload a 3D model file through the standard Shopify product media uploader and it will display automatically in the gallery — no extra configuration required.

Variant Pills

Variants use a stamped-pill picker that matches the theme's craft design language. Selecting a pill for one option keeps every other option selector on the page in sync.

Dynamic Checkout & Structured Data

Dynamic checkout buttons (Shop Pay and other express checkout options) appear automatically below the buy buttons. The product page also outputs JSON-LD structured data for SEO and rich search results, with no extra setup needed.

Collapsible Tabs

Use the collapsible tabs block to organize shipping info, materials, care instructions, or any custom content into clean, expandable sections.

Collection Page

Sorting & Filters

Collection pages include a sort dropdown and Shopify's native storefront filters. To enable filters:

1. Go to Shopify Admin > Search & Discovery.
2. Open Filters and enable the filters you want to expose (product type, availability, tags, etc.).
3. Ritual automatically renders enabled filters on the collection page, styled to match the cream apothecary aesthetic.

Price Range

A price range filter is available alongside the standard storefront filters, letting customers narrow results to their budget.

Bestsellers Grid

The homepage "bestsellers" section renders torn-paper product cards from the collection you pick. If you leave the collection empty, it automatically shows products from your whole catalog — so it's never blank on a fresh store.

Cart

Drawer or Page

Choose between a slide-in drawer cart or a traditional full page cart under Theme settings > Cart. The drawer is styled as a cream paper panel with serif ritual headings. The page cart includes a no-JS fallback so it functions even if JavaScript fails to load.

Free Shipping Bar

The cart drawer displays a free shipping progress bar based on the Free shipping threshold you set in Theme settings > Cart. Setting the threshold to 0 hides the bar entirely if you don't offer free shipping.

Complete the Look

The Complete the Look upsell (see the Cart Upsell section above) appears in both the drawer and page versions of the cart, automatically excluding products already in the cart.

Order Notes

Customers can add an order note directly from the cart — useful for gift messages or delivery instructions. Cart totals are section-rendered, so quantity changes update instantly without a full page reload.

Customer Accounts & Gift Card

Ritual includes fully styled customer account templates: login, register, account, order history, and addresses. A gift card template is also included and styled to match the theme. A newsletter signup block is available to add anywhere on the homepage or footer.

License & Activation

License Terms

Each Ritual purchase grants you a single-store license. This means you may install and use the theme on:

• One (1) live production Shopify store
• One (1) development or staging store for testing purposes

Using the theme on additional production stores requires purchasing additional licenses. Contact our support team for multi-license pricing.

Entering Your License Key

After purchasing the theme, you will receive a license key via email. To activate:

1. Install the theme on your Shopify store following the installation steps above.
2. Open the theme editor and navigate to Theme settings > License.
3. Enter your license key in the License key field.
4. Click Save. The theme will verify your license against our server and activate all premium features.

Removing the Watermark

The unlicensed version of Ritual displays a small "Theme by beBriz" watermark in the footer. Once you enter a valid license key, the footer watermark is automatically removed and all premium sections become fully functional.

Need Help?

If you cannot find the answer to your question in this documentation, visit our support page to contact our team directly. We typically respond within 24 hours on business days.