Template tests

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

What is a template test?

A template test compares two different Shopify page templates against each other. Unlike a Section content test (which injects HTML into a specific spot), a template test replaces the entire page layout for variant visitors — different sections, different order, different blocks.

Template tests are ideal for:

• Testing a product page redesign (different section order, new blocks, removed elements)
• Comparing a simple vs feature-rich collection page layout
• Testing two completely different homepage designs

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How it works

Shopify supports alternate templates via the ?view= URL parameter. When ?view=my-test is appended to a product URL, Shopify renders templates/product.my-test.json instead of the default templates/product.json. The full Liquid template renders server-side — sections, metafields, blocks, and schema all work normally.

When a variant visitor loads a page matching the template type (e.g. any product page for a product template test):

1. The Arktic script checks if ?view=<suffix> is already in the URL
2. If not, it redirects to the same URL with ?view=<suffix> appended
3. Shopify loads the alternate template and renders the page normally
4. The redirect happens before the page is visible to the visitor — no flash

Control visitors are never redirected — they see the default template.

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Supported template types

Template type	Applies to URLs matching
product	/products/*
collection	/collections/*
page	/pages/*
index	/ (homepage only)
blog	/blogs/<handle>
article	/blogs/<handle>/<slug>

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Setup

Step 1: Duplicate your template file

Open your theme’s code editor. In Shopify Admin, go to Online Store → Themes and click Edit code on your live theme (or use a local development setup).

Navigate to the templates/ directory. Find the template you want to test:

• Product pages: product.json
• Collection pages: collection.json
• Regular pages: page.json
• Homepage: index.json

Click the template file to open it, then click … and select Duplicate (or copy the file contents and create a new file manually).

Name the new file by appending a suffix after the type:

• product.json → product.my-test.json
• collection.json → collection.new-layout.json
• page.json → page.redesign.json

The suffix (my-test, new-layout, redesign) is what you will enter in Arktic. It can be any lowercase letters, numbers, or hyphens.

Do not use spaces or special characters in your suffix. Stick to lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. The suffix becomes a URL parameter, so product.My Test.json would break URLs.

Step 2: Customise the duplicate template

Go to Online Store → Themes → Customize and open the template dropdown at the top center of the Theme Editor. Select your new alternate template (e.g. Products / my-test).

Make your layout changes:

• Rearrange sections by dragging
• Add new sections from the section library
• Remove sections
• Change block content and settings within sections

Save when done.

Step 3: Create the experiment in Arktic

1. Go to Experiments → New experiment
2. Select Template as the experiment type
3. Choose the template type (Product, Collection, Page, etc.)
4. The variant template dropdown will populate with all alternate templates found in your live theme — select the one you just created
5. Set your traffic split and segment (if applicable)
6. Click Create experiment

Step 4: Start the experiment

The Control variant is automatically configured to use the default template — no setup needed.

The Variant B configuration is pre-filled with the alternate template view name you selected. Click Start experiment on the Overview tab.

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How routing is scoped

Template tests only apply redirects on matching page types. A product template test does not affect collection pages or the homepage.

If a visitor is assigned to a product template test and navigates to a collection page, they see the default collection template. When they navigate back to a product page, they see the alternate product template.

The ?view= parameter is applied on navigation — not stored in the assignment cookie. Each product page load checks whether the parameter is in the URL and adds it if not.

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Multiple template tests

You can run multiple template tests simultaneously as long as they are for different template types. For example:

• A product template test and a collection template test can run at the same time without conflict
• Two simultaneous product template tests will conflict (both will try to append ?view=... to product URLs)

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Comparing to Theme tests

	Template test	Theme test
Scope	One page type only	Every page on the store
What changes	Sections and layout for that template	Entire theme (styles, JS, all templates)
Requires code access	Yes (to duplicate template file)	No
Simultaneous with others	Yes (different page types)	One at a time
Shopify mechanism	?view=suffix	?preview_theme_id=id

Use a Template test when you want to redesign a specific page type. Use a Theme test when you want to compare two complete design systems.

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Notes and edge cases

Shopify fallback behaviour If Shopify cannot find the alternate template file, it falls back to the default template silently. This means a misconfigured test (wrong suffix, deleted file) will not break the page — it will just show the default template for all visitors. Check that the file exists in your theme code if the variant is not applying.

The ?view= parameter persists on navigation When a visitor on the alternate template navigates to another page of the same type (e.g. from one product to another), the ?view= parameter is preserved in the URL if they navigate via links that include it. The Arktic script re-applies ?view= on every product page load, so even if the parameter is dropped, it is added back.

Theme Editor shows alternate template in preview When you open the alternate template in the Theme Editor, changes you make are isolated to that template. They do not affect the default template. This is expected behaviour.

Do not delete the alternate template while the experiment is running If you delete the template file, variant visitors will fall back to the default template — effectively seeing the control experience. Shopify does not error when the template is missing; it silently falls back.