Template tests

A/B test full Shopify page templates — product pages, collections, and more.

Template tests let you compare two completely different page layouts by leveraging Shopify’s native alternate template system. Variant visitors are routed to ?view=<suffix> which loads your alternate template server-side — no JavaScript injection needed.

Supported template types

• Product pages (templates/product.json)
• Collection pages (templates/collection.json)
• Regular pages (templates/page.json)
• Homepage (templates/index.json)
• Blog listing (templates/blog.json)
• Article pages (templates/article.json)

Setup

Step 1 — Duplicate your template

In your Shopify theme code (use the Theme Editor’s Edit code view, or a local development setup):

1. Go to the templates/ directory
2. Copy your target template (e.g. product.json)
3. Paste it with a new name — add a suffix after the type: product.my-test.json

The suffix (my-test) is what you’ll enter in Split Tester.

Step 2 — Customise the duplicate

Make your layout changes in the Theme Editor:

1. In Online Store → Themes → Customize, open the template dropdown (top center)
2. Select your alternate template (e.g. Products / my-test)
3. Rearrange sections, add/remove blocks, change settings
4. Save

Step 3 — Create the experiment

1. In Split Tester, go to New experiment and choose Template test
2. Select the Template type (e.g. Product)
3. The Variant template dropdown will show all alternate templates found in your live theme
4. Select your duplicate template and create the experiment

Step 4 — Configure and start

The control variant uses the default template automatically — no configuration needed. The variant is pre-configured with the view name from Step 3. Click Start experiment.

How routing works

When a variant visitor lands on a product page:

1. The JS checks if ?view=my-test is in the URL
2. If not, it redirects to the same URL with ?view=my-test appended
3. Shopify loads templates/product.my-test.json server-side
4. All Liquid, sections, and metafields render normally

The redirect happens before the page is revealed, so there’s no flash.

Routing scope

Template tests only redirect on matching URL patterns. A product template test won’t append ?view= to collection or homepage URLs.

Template type	Applied on
product	/products/*
collection	/collections/*
page	/pages/*
index	/
blog	/blogs/<handle>
article	/blogs/<handle>/<slug>

Notes

• Shopify falls back to the default template if the alternate doesn’t exist — so a misconfigured test won’t break the page
• The ?view= parameter persists as visitors navigate within the same template type
• No app block needed — this is entirely URL-based routing