Interactive 3D bookshelf
A 3D bookshelf for your online bookstore
InShelf builds a 3D bookshelf from your Shopify catalog. Shoppers browse the spines, pull a book off the shelf to see its cover and price, and add it to the cart right there, on desktop or on their phone.
More than a picture of a bookshelf
Plenty of “3D bookshelf” widgets are decoration: a nice image of books that doesn't connect to anything. InShelf works the other way around. Every book on the shelf is a real product from your store, with its real price, and every shelf is one of your collections.
The bookshelf opens full screen on top of whatever page the shopper is on, from a menu link to #shelf, a floating button or a block in your theme. Closing it puts them back where they were. Your product pages and checkout don't change.
This page is about the shopper experience. If you're comparing apps and want setup steps and plans, see the Shopify bookstore app page.
What shoppers can do on the shelf
Pull out a book
Click or tap a spine and the book slides forward with its cover, title, author and price.
Buy without leaving
Add to cart goes into your theme's own cart, so the order continues through your usual checkout.
Sort each shelf
By recommended, price, A–Z or color. Sorting by color turns a shelf into a gradient of spines.
Spot the badges
New, Signed and discount badges sit on the cover, like a sticker on a book in a shop.
Browse on a phone
Pinch to get closer, tap a book to open it and swipe to the next one.
Read it in their language
The storefront bookshelf is translated into 15 languages.
Why a shelf helps people browse books
A grid is good at one thing: showing a few covers at the same size. A shelf shows many more titles in the same space, because spines are narrow. That's how a physical bookshop fits a whole section on one wall, and it's a big part of why browsing a shop feels so different from searching a website.
On a shelf, your collections stop being menu items that few people open. “Staff picks”, “New in translation” or “Under $15” become something shoppers see and walk along. The eye catches a color or a name, and one click brings the book forward.
It also gives an online store something it usually lacks: a sense of place. For more ways to make a bookstore site feel less like a template, see our online bookstore website ideas.
Four ways to place it in your theme
Bookshelf hero
A headline next to a 3D shelf, made for the top of your home page.
Bookshelf (no background)
One shelf, or the whole bookshelf, sitting inside any section of a page, with no room around it.
Bookshelf strip
A low shelf that slides as the shopper scrolls, while the middle book comes out to show its cover. Use one collection or the whole bookshelf.
Bookshelf button
A button that opens the full-screen bookshelf from wherever you put it.
3D that doesn't weigh down your store
3D on a store raises a fair question: what does it do to load times? InShelf keeps the heavy part out of the way.
- The 3D engine only downloads when a shopper opens the bookshelf. On pages with a bookshelf block, it waits until the rest of the page has finished loading.
- On mobile, the scene is lighter.
- It works with any Online Store 2.0 theme, like Dawn or Horizon, without editing theme code.
- If you uninstall, the store is left as it was.
You can see the strip in action, scrolling with the page, in the bookshelf strip section of our home page.
Make it look like your shop
Every book gets a spine generated from its cover: the main color, plus title and author set in the font you choose, with the contrast adjusted so they stay readable. Products without an image get a typographic cover. To see the idea on a single book, try our book spine generator.
Then you choose the look: 12 ready-made styles (Classic, Minimal, Nordic, Night, Kids, Vintage, Gallery, Forest, Coastal, Terracotta, Blush and Midnight), the wood, the colors and the fonts, with a live preview as you go.
The Studio scene is included on every plan. The Living room scene, the one in the live demo, comes with Pro. What each plan includes is in the pricing section.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add a 3D bookshelf to Shopify without coding?
Yes. Install InShelf, let it import your catalog, then add a link to #shelf in your menu or add one of its blocks in the theme editor. No theme code is edited.
Does the 3D bookshelf work on phones?
Yes. Shoppers pinch to zoom in, tap a book to open it and swipe to the next one. On mobile the scene is lighter than on desktop.
Will a 3D bookshelf slow down my pages?
The 3D engine isn't part of your normal page load. It downloads when someone opens the bookshelf, or after the page finishes loading if the page has a bookshelf block.
Can shoppers search for a book inside the shelf?
Not yet. There's no search box inside the bookshelf, so shoppers use your theme's search for a specific title. The shelf is for browsing and sorting.
Can I show one collection instead of the whole bookshelf?
Yes. The Bookshelf (no background) block can show a single shelf, and the Bookshelf strip can use one collection. You also decide which collections appear in the full bookshelf.
Do I need 3D models or spine images for my books?
No. The books are built from your product covers. InShelf generates each spine automatically, and products without an image get a typographic cover.