Shopify: Duplicate Your Checkout to Test Changes Safely
One of Shopify's lesser-known features — and among the most useful for stores with customizations — is the ability to create draft configurations of the checkout, Thank you page, Order status page, and customer account pages. In practice, it's a parallel environment where you can test changes, try new apps, and prepare seasonal setups without touching the live customer experience.
What are checkout configurations
Checkout configurations are saved versions of your store's entire checkout and account system: the payment page, Thank you page, Order status page, and customer account pages. Shopify lets you have one live configuration (active for real customers) and one or more drafts (versions you work on in parallel).
Drafts function as a staging environment for the checkout. They let you try different setups — apps, branding, layout — in a simulated editor, without any real customer seeing them. When a draft is ready, you publish it with one click: the old live configuration automatically becomes a draft, and the new one takes its place.
Which plans support it
This feature is available on all Shopify plans, not just Plus:
Basic, Grow, and Advanced: up to 20 draft configurations.
Shopify Plus: up to 99 draft configurations.
The difference between plans isn't about draft creation — that's universal — but about the level of customization allowed in the checkout editor. Standard customizations (branding, apps for Thank you and Order status pages, customer accounts) are accessible from Basic onward. Advanced payment page customizations (Information, Shipping, Payment) remain exclusive to Shopify Plus.
How to create and manage configurations
Accessing configurations
From the Shopify admin: Settings → Checkout. In the "Configurations" section, you'll see the active live configuration and any existing drafts.
Duplicating the live configuration
To create a draft based on the current setup, click Duplicate next to the live configuration. An identical copy is created as "New draft". The live configuration remains unchanged and continues serving real traffic.
Customizing the draft
Click Customize next to the draft to open the checkout and accounts editor: a dedicated visual editor, separate from the theme editor, operating in a simulated environment. You can't place real orders here.
In the editor you can:
Add and configure app blocks on supported pages (Thank you, Order status, customer accounts and — for Plus — payment pages). Customize branding: logo, colors, fonts, background images. Choose the checkout layout: one-page or three-page (for Plus and eligible stores). Manage customer account pages: orders, profile, custom app pages.
Previewing
From the "⋯" menu next to the draft, select Preview to see how it will appear to customers. Preview works on mobile too.
Publishing the draft
When the draft is ready, click Publish. The draft becomes the new live configuration. The old live configuration is automatically saved as a draft — so rollback is always possible with another publish.
Rename, duplicate, delete
Drafts can be renamed for easier organization (e.g. "BFCM 2026", "New loyalty app test"). They can be duplicated from each other and removed when no longer needed. Configuration names are not visible to customers.
Practical use cases
Seasonal sale preparation
The most immediate use case: preparing an optimized checkout configuration for Black Friday, seasonal sales, or product launches. The draft can include upsell apps, promotional banners, custom messages on the Thank you page. When the period starts, publish it. When it ends, switch back to the standard configuration.
Testing new apps
Before activating a new checkout app (upsell, post-purchase survey, trust badges), you can test it in a draft, verify its behavior in the editor and preview, and publish only when you're confident about the result.
Legacy customer account migration
In the context of the legacy customer account deprecation, draft configurations let you prepare and test the new customer account setup — with compatible apps, updated branding, and customized pages — before making everything live.
Manual A/B testing
While it's not an automated A/B testing system, the ability to rapidly switch between different configurations enables testing checkout variants across different periods and comparing their performance.
What you can customize by plan
Here's a summary of what's customizable based on your Shopify plan:
Basic, Grow, Advanced: branding (logo, colors, fonts), apps for Thank you and Order status pages, customer account pages (orders, profile, app pages), draft configurations (up to 20).
Shopify Plus (in addition): customization of Information, Shipping, and Payment pages via Checkout UI Extensions, Checkout Branding API for advanced customizations, Shopify Functions for custom logic on discounts, shipping, and payments, checkout customization for specific markets, draft configurations up to 99.
Official references
Full documentation is available in the Shopify Help Center:
Managing live and draft configurations — how to create, duplicate, publish, and manage configurations.
Checkout and accounts editor — guide to the visual editor for customizing checkout and accounts.
Checkout style customization — logo, colors, fonts, and branding.
Checkout and account apps — how to add and manage app blocks.
One-page checkout — how to enable and configure single-page layout.
Shopify Changelog — checkout and accounts editor announcement for all plans (May 2024).
Support
At Tunca, we support Shopify merchants with checkout configuration and optimization: from app selection to branding customization, from seasonal configuration prep to legacy customization migration. If you need support, get in touch.