Ending a Template Test
When your template test reaches statistical significance, it's time to review the results and decide what to do next. This guide covers how to end a test, apply a winning variant, and clean up unused templates.
End your test
When you're ready to stop your test, open the test in Shoplift and click End test. This stops traffic splitting immediately — all visitors will see your original template again until you apply a variant.
Pausing a test
If you need to temporarily stop a test to make quick fixes or edits, you can click Pause instead of ending it. Pausing reverts all traffic (including visitors who were seeing the variant) back to the original while the test is paused. Your test data stays intact so you can resume later.
Avoid pausing tests unless absolutely necessary. Extended pauses can compromise your test data. If you need to pause for more than a short period, end the test instead, duplicate it to a new draft, and relaunch when you're ready.
Apply your winning variant
If your variant outperformed the original and you want to make it permanent, click Apply variant.
Applying a variant reassigns every page that's currently on your A (original) template to your B (variant) template. For example, if your original "Default product" template was assigned to 50 products, all 50 products will now use the winning variant template instead.
After applying, your variant becomes the new live template for those pages. Visitors will only see the winning version going forward.
Always double-check your test results and preview the variant before applying.
What happens to your old template
Your original template isn't deleted when you apply a variant. It stays in your theme, available in case you need to revert or reference it later.
Over time, as you run more template tests, your theme may accumulate templates you no longer need. Keeping unused templates around won't affect store performance, but it can make your theme harder to navigate.
Delete unused templates
If you're sure you no longer need an old template, you can remove it through Shopify's Code Editor:
In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
Click Edit code on your live theme.
In the left sidebar, expand the Templates folder.
Find the template file you want to delete and click the trash icon.
Deleting a template in the Code Editor is permanent and cannot be undone. Before deleting, verify that the filename matches the exact template you want to remove. If you accidentally delete an active template, any pages assigned to it will fall back to Shopify's default template for that page type. This is a safety mechanism, but if your pages rely on custom layouts or content, they may not display correctly on the default template.
Not sure which template is which? Open the template drawer in Shoplift or check Online Store > Themes > Customize in Shopify to preview each template before deciding what to delete.
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