By default, all official Shopify themes output a “powered by Shopify” line somewhere in the footer of almost every public facing page in your online store.
Many store owners often consider removing this line — and it’s pretty easy to do so. However, there are also some good reasons to consider leaving it.
Removing ‘powered by Shopify’
To remove the “powered by Shopify” line from your online store, just follow these steps.
Always be sure to backup your theme before making edits like this.
Since you’re editing the footer.liquid file, which is used on almost every page of your store, a single missing or invalid bit of code can cause your store to stop working or looking the way it’s supposed to.
Do yourself a favor and backup — either in full or with a “quick” backup, before you start editing code to make this or any other change.
Why you might not want to remove ‘powered by Shopify’
Now that you know how to remove the “powered by Shopify” line from your theme, there are actually some good reasons why you might want to keep it.
Building trust
Although it’s in the footer and certainly not something everyone is going to spot, having this one sentence shows shoppers that you’re using a leading ecommerce solution that’s safe, secure and known for building quality businesses can go a long way in building trust with shoppers.
Every day the Shopify brand becomes more well known — and more and more people, including consumers, are hearing about it.
In short, this means that shoppers are more likely to associate the Shopify name with stores that are secure, friendly and easy to checkout with.
For example, another or alternative opportunity to showcase your use of Shopify to shoppers could be opting to display payment icons in your theme with the Shopify pay icon as one of them.
Reducing checkout abandonment
One of the most significant reasons behind cart or checkout abandonment is that users are either wary of entering payment information for security purposes — or giving up because it's too tedious to enter
In these cases, Shopify’s integrations with PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and its own Shopify Pay are referred to as “accelerated checkouts” that make it faster and easier for shoppers to complete an order — and increase conversion rates.
Although it doesn’t have quite the name recognition that Amazon, Google, Apple and PayPal have, the Shopify Pay system (which has distinct differences from the similarly named Shopify Payments service) is becoming more and more popular with consumers as its usage increases and familiarity grows.
Even if the shopper doesn’t use an accelerated checkout, knowing that a store is hosted by a large, multinational company like Shopify can be a good confidence boost when deciding whether or not to enter a credit card number.
Likewise, this is actually one of the advantages to using the Shopify designed checkout pages — shoppers see a familiar and user friendly interface that they may have already used and recognize even on a subconscious level.
Is ‘Shopify’ off brand for your store?
Other store owners may want to remove the line because the name “Shopify” doesn’t fit in with their store’s own branding, which is certainly a valid point and something that each business owner needs to decide for their own store.
However, as the Shopify name and brand becomes familiar to consumers, it’s more and more likely to have a positive connotation — even if the name doesn’t match the general feel you’re going for.
Beware of making customizations
Finally, keep in mind that removing an item from a Shopify theme — even just a line of text — is an easy way to start down the customization path, which can lead to more code and layout changes.
At the end of the day, leaving “powered by Shopify” in place can go a long way in building trust with users — and for those who don’t see it, it can’t really do any harm.
Competitive reasons
Some store owners like to remove the “powered by Shopify” line so that competitors don’t know what ecommerce software they are using.
While this is a valid concern and ultimately should be a choice left up to each merchant, it’s worth noting that there are numerous ways for a competitor to figure out you’re using Shopify.
For example, a simple peek at your site’s code will show multiple references to Shopify’s CDN and other URLs.
In short, it’s very easy for someone with just a bit of technical savvy to find out what ecommerce platform you’re using and, ultimately, having the Shopify name behind you as a “trustmark” of sorts might be more beneficial than attempting to hide what tech you use.
Deciding whether to remove ‘powered by Shopify’ or not
In most cases, it’s probably not worth spending much time debating having the line in place or customizing code just to remove the line.
While it’s fairly easy to remove it yourself, if you’re not comfortable editing code, then it will require a small investment — but those funds might be better used elsewhere.
For most store owners, leaving the line in place is probably more of a “good” thing than bad. However, if your gut says it doesn’t match your brand — then trust your instincts.
