A full store build produces a home page and product pages in one go, written from the same audience and voice so they hang together. By the end of this you will have those pages built and ready to review. It takes longer than a single product page, usually several minutes depending on how many products you include.
ℹ️ A full store is a set of pages, not a theme. Atlas publishes them into a Shopify theme you choose. Creating a store with Atlas does not immediately replace your live store or theme. That only happens if you choose to publish it.
In this article:
Before you start
You need a project, and between one and twenty products. Those products can come from your Shopify catalog, from product URLs, or both.
Decide in advance which theme you want to publish into. Building into a duplicate of your live theme is the safest approach: you can review everything on the storefront before making it live.
Step 1: Open the wizard
Select Create new on the dashboard and choose Full store, or select Build stores on the Full store card under Explore Atlas tools.
The modal is titled Create your store, with the same three steps as a product page build: Select products, Select a store template, and Upload research (Optional).
Step 2: Select your project and products
Choose a project, or create one. Then add products, either by pasting URLs into Paste a page URL or by selecting browse your Shopify catalog.
Up to 20 product links per build.
💡 Start smaller than you think. Three to five strong products make a more convincing store than twenty thin ones, and you can add more pages later without rebuilding.
Step 3: Choose a store template
The store template sets the layout for both the home page and the product pages. Select Use my theme to keep your theme and have Atlas rewrite all the copy, or pick one under Select a pre-built store template.
Pre-built store templates give you a home page and product page template designed by experts. Use Search templates by name & industry to find one that suits what you sell.
Your options:
Option | What it does |
Accept the suggestion | Atlas designs the home page and product pages around your products |
| Pick a different store template |
| See the layout before committing |
| Choose from the full Atlas library |
You cannot continue without choosing. Until you do: Pick a template — keep your own theme, or choose a pre-built one.
Step 4: Add customer research
Optional. Up to 20 MB, in TXT, PDF, CSV or DOCX. Anything you upload is saved to the project.
Because a full store build writes several pages at once, research pays off more here than anywhere else: it keeps every page arguing for the same customer.
Step 5: Review and build
Atlas pre-selects templates and personas from your products, then shows you the plan before it commits:
Atlas AI has pre-selected templates and personas based on your products. Personas shape the tone and copy of each page, so adjust anything below before building.
You will see the home page and Product pages ({count}) listed, each with its template, its language and its assigned persona. Change any of them with Edit home page & persona or Edit product pages & personas.
If a persona fails to generate you will see Persona generation failed — retry above with a Retry button. Retry it rather than continuing: a page built without a persona is noticeably more generic.
When the plan looks right, select Continue setup. Atlas shows Building… while it works.
If the button is greyed out, Atlas says why:
Hint | What to do |
| Pick or create a project |
| Add a product by URL or from your catalog |
| Choose a template |
| An import is still running |
| Atlas is still reading your research file |
💡 You can leave while it builds. The build runs on Atlas's servers rather than in your browser, so closing the tab or navigating away does not stop it, and the finished page is saved as a draft waiting in your dashboard. Atlas still asks you to confirm before you go, but the build continues either way.
A full store build takes several minutes, and the message Hang tight — this can take a few minutes is expected rather than a sign of trouble.
Publishing a full store
When the build finishes, your pages open in the Atlas editor. Use the page selector in the top bar to move between the home page and each product page, reviewing and editing as you go.
To publish, select Publish pages, choose the theme, and read the warning:
This will replace the current home page and product pages with the same products on the selected theme.
That is the whole point of the tool, but be certain you have selected the theme you intended.
⚠️ Publishing a full store replaces the home page on the theme you choose. If you publish to your live theme, your storefront home page changes immediately. Publish to a duplicate theme first if you want to review before going live.
If you change your mind afterwards, the Restore original homepage action on the row in your dashboard puts the theme's previous home page back.
If the build fails
What you see | What to do |
| Select |
| Retry with fewer products. Large builds are more likely to time out. |
| Retry the persona from the review step before building. |
| Go back a step and re-enter. Usually a temporary Shopify read failure. |
More detail in Why did my page generation fail?