Open your store, choose one important customer journey and apply each section to the decisions your team is making now.
Frame the decision
Premium themes are efficient when their content model and interaction patterns already fit the business. They reduce initial engineering and can offer mature merchant controls.
What to inspect
Custom themes become valuable when differentiated storytelling, complex merchandising, unusual product logic or long-term performance needs make repeated overrides expensive.
Evidence worth keeping
Analytics checks, annotated screens, customer questions, technical profiles and a prioritised decision log make recommendations easier to act on.
Turn the finding into action
The right comparison includes future campaign work, app dependency, maintenance and team capability—not only the first build invoice.
Make the recommendation useful: assign an owner, a success signal and a review date.