Installing Pixel Wrangler

What the install actually does, the permissions it asks for, the theme blocks to add, and how to confirm the customizer is live on your storefront.

The Quickstart gets you from install to a live product in five minutes. This page slows down on the install itself — the permissions Shopify asks you to approve, where the app lands in your admin, and how to be sure the Customise button is really on your storefront before you tell anyone.

Before you install

You need a Shopify store on a plan that allows app installs. That's every paid Shopify plan. Development stores work too, which is the sensible place to try Pixel Wrangler if you don't want a work-in-progress template near live traffic.

You do not need to touch theme code, add a second app, or hire anyone. The Customise button is a theme block you add from Shopify's theme editor — a few clicks, no code (Step 3 below).

Step 1 — Install from the App Store

Open the Customizer by Pixel Wrangler listing and click Install. Shopify shows you the permission screen before anything happens.

Pixel Wrangler asks for the access it needs to do the job and nothing decorative:

  • Products — to find the products you'll assign templates to, read their variants (size, colour) so the customizer respects the option the shopper picked, and mark customisable products so the checkout guard knows which lines need a design.
  • Orders — to write the print-ready file links, tags and metafields onto each paid order. This is how your fulfilment process gets the artwork.
  • Themes and Online Store pages — so the Customise button block and cart preview can be offered in your theme editor, and so you can pick a page as a size guide.
  • Discounts, cart transforms and checkout validations — for Spend & Save discounts, per-side surcharges, and Sales Channel Protection.
  • Inventory — so the size-and-quantity step can show low-stock and sold-out states.

Approve it and you land in the Pixel Wrangler admin. Nothing is live on your storefront yet — an installed app with no templates changes nothing a shopper can see.

Step 2 — Start your trial and pick a plan

Open the app's Plan page and choose a plan. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial. You get the full builder, the customizer, and print-ready rendering during the trial — no feature is held back to a paid tier for the trial period.

The plan charge starts when the trial ends. Plan charges bill through Shopify and appear on your Shopify invoice. For what each tier includes, see Plans and what's included.

Until a plan is chosen, the app parks you on the Plan page.

Step 3 — Add the Customise button to your product page

The Customise button is a theme block for product templates. It isn't on your storefront until you add it — a missing block is the single most common "the button isn't showing" cause.

In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize. Open a product page in the theme editor, then in the left panel click Add block → Apps → Customise Button. Save.

The app's Home page has a Setup guide with an Add to theme button that deep-links to the right place in the theme editor. Tick the step off once you've saved.

Products can use different product templates in your theme. If some use a second template, add the block there too.

If the button lands in the wrong spot, move the block like any other section. Placement is yours; the wiring is ours.

Cart preview (optional, worth doing). To show the shopper's design thumbnail in the cart, open the cart template in the theme editor and add the Cart Design Preview block. For drawer and mini carts, go to Theme settings → App embeds and switch on Cart Preview (Global) — that's the only app embed Pixel Wrangler adds. The Setup guide's Enable app embed button takes you there. The global embed is also what powers the cart's Edit design pencil after a shopper adds a design — see Cart editing.

Step 4 — Verify on a real product page

Assign a template to a product (the Quickstart walks this), then open that product on your live storefront in an incognito window. You should see a Customise button. Click it — the customizer opens as a modal over the page.

Seeing the button on a real, logged-out page view is the only confirmation that counts. The admin can look perfect while the block is missing from the theme.

Common pitfalls

  • No button, template assigned. The Customise Button block hasn't been added (Step 3), or the product uses a different product template from the one you added the block to. Products can use different templates — check the one this product actually uses.
  • Button reads "Customisation unavailable". The product has no template assigned — or the store has no active plan. Assign a template in the builder's Products tool, or check the Plan page. The app's Home page lists products that show the button without a template.
  • Button shows but does nothing. Almost always a caching layer or a theme script error. Hard-refresh; if it persists, email us the product URL.

Staff access

Pixel Wrangler follows Shopify's staff permissions. Any staff account with app access can open Pixel Wrangler and build templates. There's no separate Pixel Wrangler login to manage — Shopify handles who gets in.

Uninstalling and reinstalling

Uninstall from Apps and sales channels → Customizer by Pixel Wrangler → Uninstall in your Shopify admin. Because the storefront pieces are theme app extensions, Shopify removes the Customise button and cart preview from your theme as part of the uninstall — there's nothing to clean up by hand.

Your templates, assets and order files aren't wiped the instant you uninstall. Shopify asks us to remove a store's data about 48 hours after uninstall, so reinstall within that window and everything is still there, saving you a rebuild if the uninstall was a mistake. Beyond it, store data is removed. Your subscription ends when you uninstall.

Planning a store migration, or need order files kept? Email hey@pixelwrangler.io before you uninstall.

What's next