Set up Smash with confidence.

Getting started

What you need

• The approved Smash theme ZIP.
• Access to Shopify Admin with permission to manage themes, products, collections, pages, and navigation.
• Your logo, brand colors, menu structure, product photography, location, opening hours, and contact details.

Install safely

1. In Shopify Admin, open Online Store → Themes.
2. Select Add theme → Upload zip file, then choose the supplied Smash ZIP.
3. Keep the uploaded theme unpublished while you configure it.
4. Open its Theme Editor and confirm the Smash preset is active.
5. Preview the homepage, product, collection, Menu, cart, search, contact, and mobile layouts with your own data.

Publish and update

Publish from the theme actions menu only after testing. When a new theme version is supplied, upload it as a separate unpublished theme. Theme files are updated separately from your store's products, collections, pages, and navigation; review editor customizations and app integrations before switching.

Theme Editor basics

The Theme Editor changes the selected theme without requiring code.

• Sections are the large content areas on a template, such as Restaurant Hero or Featured collections.
• Blocks are items inside a section, such as a category, testimonial, opening-hours row, or product-information control.
• Theme settings control global typography, colors, layout, buttons, cards, motion, social links, Quick Add, and restaurant-menu routing.
• Templates control the section arrangement for a page type.

Add, move, hide, or remove a section

1. Use the page selector at the top of the editor to open the template you want.
2. Select Add section, then choose the section.
3. Drag it in the left panel to change its position.
4. Use the eye control to hide it temporarily, or open its menu to remove it.
5. Select Save and review both desktop and mobile previews.

Header and homepage

Header

Choose the logo, main menu, sticky behavior, and the Shopify-native discovery controls available in the header. The header supports responsive navigation, search, account, localization where configured, and cart. The restaurant-menu theme settings can replace the normal Catalog or Menu collection link with your dedicated Menu page.

Announcement bar

Add message blocks and choose static, rotating, or marquee presentation. Keep the message short. Motion is restrained and responds to reduced-motion preferences.

Restaurant Hero

Configure desktop and mobile media, headline, supporting text, up to two CTAs, alignment, overlay, height, media presentation, and color scheme. Use the first action for Menu or ordering.

Homepage sections

• Menu categories: visual discovery links connected to the restaurant Menu page and collections.
• Popular products / Featured menu: collection-backed product grids using shared product cards.
• Featured collections: collection-picker blocks with image ratio, grid, and optional mobile horizontal scrolling.
• Image with text: restaurant story, sourcing, kitchen, chef, or neighborhood content.
• Gallery: linked media with optional captions; below-the-fold images load lazily.
• Testimonials: merchant-authored quotes only; the theme does not import reviews.
• Collapsible content: accessible FAQ content using native details controls.
• Opening hours and Restaurant location: practical visit details, directions link, and optional media.
• Promotional banner and popup: focused promotions using configurable links and Shopify customer forms.

Build the restaurant menu

Smash uses a dedicated page template instead of turning a generic collection page into a restaurant menu.

1. In Shopify Admin, create a page named Menu.
2. Assign the page.menu theme template and save.
3. In the Theme Editor, open Theme settings → Restaurant menu and select that page.
4. Create one Shopify collection for each useful category, such as Burgers, Chicken, Sides, or Drinks. Add the correct products to each collection.
5. Configure Menu page category blocks or choose a collection-only navigation menu in the shared restaurant category setting.
6. Update the header navigation so Menu links to the page, not to /collections/all.

Product options

Create options and variants in the Shopify product editor. Smash never guesses a variant. Products with multiple valid choices open the product selection flow instead of using unsafe direct add.

Products and collections

Product information

The block-driven product section supports title, price, variant picker, quantity, selling plans, inventory, SKU, pickup availability, share, app blocks, purchase controls, and collapsible information. Reorder only the blocks that help shoppers make a purchase decision.

Product media

The gallery supports Shopify-native images, video, external video, and 3D models. Upload sharp media with consistent ratios and useful alt text. Shopify CDN transformations handle responsive image delivery.

Quick Add

Enable Quick Add in Theme settings. An available product with one unambiguous/default variant can add directly. Multi-variant products show Choose options. Sold-out products show an unavailable state. Products that require a selling plan do not receive the unsafe direct-add path.

Mobile Sticky Add to Cart

Enable it in the Product information section. The mobile bar synchronizes the selected variant, price, availability, quantity, and compatible selling-plan state. It is intentionally optional in Smash.

Collections

The collection template supports product cards, filtering, sorting, pagination, and category navigation where configured. Set collection images and descriptions in Shopify Admin, then configure the template in the editor.

Recommendations and pickup

Product recommendations use Shopify's related or complementary sources. Pickup availability appears only when the store, location, and product support it.

Cart and search

Cart drawer

The accessible drawer supports line updates, quantity changes, removal, status/error feedback, subtotal, checkout, and a full-cart link. The full cart adds cart notes and Shopify checkout handoff.

Discounts and checkout

Discount eligibility and checkout remain controlled by Shopify. The theme displays applicable cart information but does not replace Shopify checkout.

Search

The header search can use predictive search when Shopify provides results. The Search template handles products and other searchable resources. If results are missing, confirm the resource is published to the Online Store sales channel and review its title and content.

Colors, typography, and mobile

Global styling

Theme settings provide Shopify font pickers, body size, heading scale, page width, page margin, section spacing, button/input/card radii, borders, shadow opacity, motion style, and reusable color schemes.

Smash defaults to Archivo Black headings, Work Sans body text, extra-wide pages, 64px section spacing, square cards, and warm cream, red, and yellow schemes. You can change these values without editing theme code.

Mobile review

• Upload a dedicated mobile hero image when the desktop crop loses the subject.
• Keep headings short and check long product names and prices.
• Verify the mobile drawer, menu categories, variant picker, sticky purchase control, cart drawer, forms, and footer.
• Use consistent image ratios and avoid oversized videos.
• Test at 375px and 390px before publishing.

Pages and Shopify settings

Smash includes templates for Contact, generic pages, Blog, Article, Search, Cart, 404, Password, collections, products, and the restaurant Menu page. Create About and FAQ pages in Shopify Admin, then assign the appropriate generic template and add them to navigation.

The Contact template uses Shopify's native contact form. Confirm the store contact email in Shopify Admin. Social links are configured globally. Store policies, shipping, taxes, markets, payments, inventory, pickup, and fulfillment are Shopify settings rather than theme features.

Troubleshooting

Menu opens a Products page

Your link points to a collection. Create a page with page.menu, select it in Theme settings, and link navigation to that page.

Products or collections are missing

Confirm they are active, published to Online Store, and included in the collection used by the section or Menu category.

Quick Add says Choose options

This is expected for multi-variant or ambiguous products. Open the product page and make a selection.

Sticky Add to Cart is missing

Enable it in Product information and test at a mobile width. It is off by default in Smash.

Images look wrong

Use a consistent aspect ratio, upload a mobile-specific hero when needed, and choose the matching section image-ratio setting.

Theme changes do not appear

Confirm you saved the correct unpublished/live theme and edited the correct template. Reload the preview; if a cached asset persists, use a private window before changing files again.

Cart behavior is unexpected

Test without conflicting cart or subscription apps, confirm the selected variant and selling plan, then record exact reproduction steps for support.