Custom Stencil themes, Cornerstone customizations, Page Builder layouts, and Catalyst headless storefronts - built so merchandising stays fast, Core Web Vitals stay green, and your brand reads the way it should on every PDP, PLP, and checkout step.
BigCommerce Elite Partner · BigDev Certified · Since 2012
Stencil 01 · Cornerstone, cut to fit
Trusted by 400+ Brands · Certified Partners
Of results, scale, and quality at the enterprise level.
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Reviewed by the 1Digital® Design TeamLast updated:
BigCommerce Theme Architecture
Most BigCommerce theme work fails one of two ways.
Pair with senior BigCommerce design, BigCommerce development, and BigCommerce SEO from one Elite Partner team.
BigCommerce design, step by step
Colors, type and components are set once, then every BigCommerce page is assembled from them. That keeps the store consistent from the header to the checkout and makes new pages quick to add, with the call to action exactly where the visitor is ready to buy.
BigCommerce design on a monthly plan
Our designers mock up and style a new storefront on WorkspaceCMS that connects to your BigCommerce store, not a theme, built free on your plan. After launch, every change is made for you, every month.
Bigger build or another platform? Enterprise from $1,999/mo, or a fully custom project.
Now showing: Forge Industrial Supply, a industrial supply demo store built on WorkspaceCMS. Open the demo
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See how the three store plans work, from first mockup to the changes we make every month.
Four Ways We Ship Templates
Pattern 01
Cornerstone-based or ground-up Stencil theme. Handlebars partials, SCSS tokens, Page Builder regions, metafield-driven content, and Widget Builder components - engineered for your catalog depth, merchandising flow, and brand system.
Pattern 02
Keep the upgrade path. We customize Cornerstone via child-theme overrides, custom widgets, and Page Builder layouts - so you get a tailored storefront without forking off the BigCommerce-maintained base.
Pattern 03
Pick a Stencil marketplace theme that genuinely fits your catalog, then tune it. Faster than a custom build, cleaner than a fork - typesetting, PDP / PLP density, faceted nav, and checkout polish dialed to your brand.
Pattern 04
BigCommerce's React framework - Next.js + Makeswift visual editing on top of the GraphQL Storefront API. The right call when Stencil's theme architecture caps your UX, Core Web Vitals targets, or multi-channel ambitions.
Page Builder · Widget Builder
The point of a custom theme isn't to lock out merchandising; it's to give them better building blocks.
Stencil 02 · Page Builder regions
Custom vs. Curated vs. Catalyst
Match the signal on the left to the route on the right. If two rows describe you, the simpler route almost always wins.
Stencil 03 · Signal to route
You're on a stock Cornerstone theme and outgrowing it visually, but merchandising is happy.
Cornerstone customization - keep upgrades, layer custom widgets and Page Builder regions.
Catalog depth, B2B price lists, or Multi-Storefront branding push beyond a marketplace theme.
Custom Stencil theme build - own the templates, ship metafield-driven content systems.
Page Builder content velocity matters more than novel layouts; team wants to iterate without devs.
Curated template + Page Builder layout library - fastest path to a polished, editable storefront.
Core Web Vitals targets, headless CMS, mobile-app parity, or composable commerce on the roadmap.
Catalyst (Next.js + Makeswift) headless - only if Stencil genuinely caps the experience.
What You Get
Every engagement ships a documented theme, an editor handoff, and a component library merchandising can use. We don't hand off a tarball and disappear.
Stencil 04 · The handoff packet
Parts list
Catalyst Headless
Catalyst pairs Next.js, React, and Makeswift visual editing on top of BigCommerce's GraphQL Storefront API.
It's the right call when
It's the wrong call when
Stencil + Cornerstone + Page Builder would've solved the same problem in a third of the time.
We've talked clients out of Catalyst when the ROI wasn't there.
The Catalyst stack
Curated wins when your catalog and brand fit a Stencil marketplace theme cleanly and Page Builder gives merchandising enough control. Custom wins when you need bespoke templates, deep metafield-driven content, distinct PDP/PLP density, Multi-Storefront branding, or B2B Edition wholesale UX that a stock theme can't cover. We scope both honestly on the first call - fork-and-pray is the worst outcome.
Stencil is BigCommerce's traditional theme framework - Handlebars templates, SCSS, JS, Page Builder regions, served from BigCommerce's hosted CDN. Cornerstone is the official open-source Stencil reference theme. Catalyst is the newer React-based headless framework - Next.js + Makeswift on top of the GraphQL Storefront API, deployed on Vercel or similar. Most merchants stay on Stencil. Catalyst is the right call when you need maximum UX flexibility, headless CMS, multi-channel reach, or Core Web Vitals that Stencil can't deliver.
Yes. Every custom Stencil theme we build is Page Builder-aware - region zones on home, PLP, PDP, and content templates, plus custom Widget Builder components your merch team can drop into any zone. The point of a custom theme isn't to lock out merchandising; it's to give them better building blocks.
Related BigCommerce Services
Theme work is a slice of the BigCommerce roadmap. These are the partners we hand off to - or work in parallel with - for the rest of the launch.
BigCommerce Designer · BigCommerce Developer · BigCommerce Support · BigCommerce SEO
Store designs from the 1Digital® portfolio
Price tag
From $185/hour
Fixed-fee scopes for defined builds. Milestone-based pricing for full custom themes.
Yes. We architect template systems for Multi-Storefront - shared component library, channel-aware content, regional checkout, and brand-distinct theming across storefronts. One codebase, controlled variance, centralized merch.
No - that's the failure mode of forking Cornerstone without discipline. Every custom build we ship preserves Page Builder regions and adds Widget Builder components on top, so merchandisers can compose home, PLP, PDP, and content pages without engineering.
Themes intended for the BigCommerce marketplace go through a structured review - code quality, performance, accessibility, browser support, and design polish. For client-only themes we apply the same standards even though certification isn't required, because it produces themes that hold up under real catalog scale.
Yes. We handle Stencil v2 → v3 era migrations, Cornerstone version upgrades, and Stencil → Catalyst replatforms with template parity, redirect mapping, schema preservation, and merchandising continuity. Replatforming is a tool, not a default - we scope it honestly.
Engagements start at $185/hour with fixed-fee scopes for defined builds and milestone-based pricing for full custom themes. Cornerstone customizations are typically the lightest scope; Catalyst headless builds are the heaviest. You'll see a pricing band on the first strategy call.
Yes. B2B Edition introduces buyer portals, company hierarchies, Price Lists, quote management, and gated catalogs - all of which need template treatment. We theme the buyer experience end-to-end, not just the public storefront.
Real strategists. Real AI tools. Real growth. - 1Digital® since 2012
