Demo content

Signal ships configured as a fictional brand called Outfit Lab — “four drops a year, four hundred units a run, cut from deadstock technical shell.” That demo setup is useful as a worked example and it is the fastest way to see what each section is for. It is also the thing you have to clear out.

This page is the punch list.

What won’t carry over

Shopify theme settings reference your store’s own content by handle. Signal’s demo references content that exists on the demo store and nowhere else, so on your store:

Reference	Where it’s used	What you see instead
Collection roreli-clothing	Homepage Product mosaic	An empty section
Collection roreli-accessories	Homepage Product rail	An empty section
Blog news	Homepage Dispatch	An empty section
Product sunblocker	Header Mega panel promo	The promo with no product card
Images under shopify://shop_images/…	Hero, slideshow, editorial plate, split feature, lookbook, logo, favicon	Empty plates, and your shop name instead of a logo

None of these are errors. They’re pointers to content you haven’t got.

Tip

Work through the theme editor section by section looking for empty pickers. Any setting whose value no longer resolves shows as unset, so “nothing selected” is a reliable signal that a demo reference needs replacing.

Step 1 — the catalog Signal expects

Signal is built around a small, curated catalog. To get the homepage looking like the demo you need, at minimum:

One hero collection

Six to twelve products, your current drop. The Product mosaic draws its plates from this. It’s the collection the homepage is really about.

One or two supporting collections

Accessories, or last season. Used by the Product rail and by the Collection plates grid. Give each a collection image — the plates use it.

A blog

Three posts minimum, each with a featured image. The Dispatch section shows three by default. Shopify creates a blog called “News” (news) on every store — you can use that one.

Products with real options

A size option, and a color option if you have one, so the variant picker and the swatches have something to render.

Product setup that Signal reads

What	Why it matters
Product images — at least two per product	The second image is what the card swaps to on hover (card_hover_swap, on by default). With one image, cards are static
An option named Color	Renders as color swatches on cards and in the variant picker. Also accepts colour, shade and tint — configurable via swatch_options
Inventory tracking	Required for the run counter on the product page to show a number
Compare-at price	Set above the price to get a sale treatment
Product type or vendor	Printed in the corner of product cards. card_show_vendor switches which one
Video or 3D media	Renders in the product gallery alongside images — nothing to enable

Swatch colors

Unrecognized color names fall back to the theme’s built-in color dictionary (130-odd names, from Natural to Rose Gold). For anything it doesn’t know, add a line to Custom swatch colors (swatch_map) in theme settings:

Clay:#b0653a
Deadstock navy:#20293a
Shell camo:https://cdn.shopify.com/.../camo-swatch.jpg

One per line, Name:#hex or Name:image URL. Names match your option values, case-insensitively.

Step 2 — imagery

Signal is image-led, and the images are large. Rough guidance:

Where	Shape	Notes
Hero	Tall / full-bleed	Set the Height (as a percentage of the viewport) and the Image focal point so heads don’t get cropped
Slideshow	Full-bleed	One image per slide; each slide picks its own text position
Editorial plate	Wide — the default is 21:9	The ratio is a setting
Split feature, founder note, callout	Portrait or square	Pairs with a copy column; flippable left/right
Lookbook shots	Per-shot ratio and alignment	Up to three product pins each, positioned as percentages
Image strip	Wide row, six across by default	Focal point setting, because faces end up near the top
Collection plates	Uses the collection image	Set it in Shopify on the collection itself
Mega panel promo	4:5	Or pick a product and let its image do the work

Caution

Compress before uploading. Signal serves responsive sizes and lazy-loads everything below the fold, but a 6 MB hero is a 6 MB hero. 200–400 KB per full-bleed image after compression is a reasonable target.

Every image-led section has an Image focal point setting (top, upper, center, lower, bottom). It costs nothing and it’s the difference between a considered crop and a decapitated model.

Step 3 — the copy to replace

The demo’s voice is specific, and traces of it are easy to leave behind. Search the theme editor for these:

• “Outfit Lab” — the brand name, the header and footer wordmarks, bench@outfitlab.com in the footer, and the outfitlab social handles in theme settings.
• “Drop 04” — the mega panel promo and the countdown eyebrow.
• “Four hundred units” / “four drops a year” — the footer blurb, the mega panel note, the statement, the countdown, the numbers and several perk lines.
• “Deadstock” — the statement, the spec table, the product page spec list and the size guide intro.
• “Nothing is restocked” — a perk block on the product page, among others.
• “Osaka, Japan” — the product page spec list.
• “Free shipping worldwide · 400 units a run · New arrivals every Friday” — the announcement bar.
• “Join the list — 10% off your first” — the newsletter and the promo popup, both of which promise a discount you need to actually create.

Caution

The newsletter and promo popup copy promise 10% off a first order. Shopify doesn’t issue that for you. Either create an automatic discount or a code and wire it into a welcome email (Shopify Email or your ESP, triggered by the customer tag the popup applies — popup by default), or change the copy. Promising a discount you don’t send is worse than not promising one.

Step 4 — things the shipped setup turns on

The install arrives with a few things enabled that you should make a conscious decision about:

Setting	Shipped as	Think about
Promo popup	On, 8 seconds after load, with the 10%-off copy	Turn it off until your welcome email exists
Loading screen	On, once per page type, 2200 ms	A striking first impression, and a delay on every new page type. Set it to Once per visit if you keep it
Free shipping threshold	150	Change to your real threshold in your currency, or clear it to hide the progress bar
Age verification	Off	Turn it on only if you need it
Gift wrap product	Not set	Create a real gift-wrap product and pick it here if you want the option in the cart
Popular searches	”Jacket, Ski mask, Travel pack”	Replace with terms that exist in your catalog — these are links, and a dead one is a bad first impression

Step 5 — content the theme needs that isn’t in the theme

Four things live in Shopify admin, not in the theme, and all four show up in the storefront:

1. Policy pages — Settings → Policies. Refund, privacy, terms, shipping. Add them to your footer menu so the footer policy row isn’t empty.

2. Notification sender address — Settings → Notifications. Where the contact form and the back-in-stock sign-ups land.

3. Markets — Settings → Markets, if you sell internationally. The footer’s country and language selectors only appear once there’s more than one option.

4. Storefront filters — the free Shopify Search & Discovery app. This is where collection and search filters come from, and also where you set the complementary products the product page’s “Complete the look” section uses.

A realistic first pass

1. Replace the logo, favicon and brand name.

2. Set the accent color and check it against the coal ground.

3. Point the Product mosaic, Product rail, Collection plates and Dispatch at your own collections and blog.

4. Replace the hero image and headline. This alone changes the store’s first impression more than everything else combined.

5. Delete the homepage sections you don’t have content for — rather than leaving them half-filled.

6. Set the countdown to your next drop, or hide it.

7. Rewrite the announcement bar, footer blurb and newsletter copy.

8. Replace the product page perks and spec list — these are per-template defaults, so they apply to every product until you change them.

9. Clear the demo social links, or remove the ones you don’t use.

10. Search for “Outfit Lab” one more time.

Next step

You’re set up. Read the FAQ for the questions that come up next, or Troubleshooting if something isn’t behaving.