Products & formats
A book needs nothing unusual in Shopify. What follows is which ordinary field the theme reads for what.
The fields the theme reads
| Shopify field | Shown as |
|---|---|
| Title | The book title |
| Vendor | The author, under the title on cards and the product page |
| Description | The blurb, in the product description block |
| Media | The cover, plus any further images in the gallery |
| Variants | Format — see below |
reviews.rating metafield |
Stars, with the review count |
Formats as variants
Add one variant option called Format, with the values you sell:
- Hardcover
- Paperback
- Ebook
- Audiobook
Each variant carries its own price, SKU and inventory, so a paperback and a hardcover of the same title stay one product with two variants rather than two products competing in search.
The picker renders as labelled buttons rather than colour chips, because a
format is a word, not a colour. That is the Show swatches setting, which ships
off for this theme.
Digital formats
Ebooks and audiobooks are variants like any other. Untick Track quantity and This is a physical product on those variants so Shopify does not ask for shipping. Delivery of the file is a job for a digital-downloads app; the theme does not need to know.
Cover images
Covers are shown at 2:3. Shopify does not crop your originals — the card frames them — so a cover that is not exactly 2:3 will be centred and cropped rather than distorted. Upload at roughly 800×1200 or larger.
The second image, if there is one, is what the card swaps to on hover. A back
cover or a spread works well; the setting is Hover image under Product cards.
Collections are genres
The homepage tabs and the shop filters both read collections. One collection per genre is the arrangement the theme is built around. Sub-genres work fine as further collections; the tabs simply point at whichever you choose.
What the theme does not need
- No custom metafields beyond the review app's own.
- No page builder.
- No paid app.
- No particular product type or tag. Use them if they help you, but nothing in the theme keys off them.