Shopify themes have grown in leaps and bounds from the simple storefronts that once dominated the Web to today’s shops that often include slick animations, responsive designs and cutting edge layouts — but what are some of the most requested features that store owners look for in Shopify themes nowadays?
When creating any Shopify theme or store, it’s important to consider the balance between feature overload and design clutter and being able to create an eye-catching and unique design, so deciding which features are really worth including in a Shopify theme release can be tricky.
Here’s a quick look at some of the most requested Shopify theme features.
Which ones would you find most useful in your own shop?
Large store support
Although most Shopify themes will work well with any size store, Shopify stores with a large product selection and expansive product lines often have unique requirements:
- Navigation that makes it easier to sort through a large number of collections.
- Better layout and organization of products, especially on the collection level.
- Improved loading times for longer collection pages that feature more content.
High volume stores that carry hundreds or thousands of products and variants have unique requirements and challenges when it comes to helping visitors understand and browse their product offerings.
Update: Our newest Shopify theme, Turbo, features improved load time technology, lazing load and more. Find out more here.
Speed
As search engines such as Google place more and more emphasis on page load time, store owners look for options to help speed up their sites:
- Advanced coding techniques that optimize page load times and help you convert better.
- Flexible options, including lazy loading of images and infinite scrolling on collection pages.
- Implementation of super fast page speed options.
Shopify themes with these options not only load faster, but they can help your site perform better overall and, consequently, make more sales. In fact, page load time has been shown to contribute to the rise and fall of your conversion rate; studies have shown that more than 40 percent of online shoppers will abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load!
Page load times are a key way to set your store apart from other stores — and make your store stand out in customers’ minds.
Update: Our latest theme release, Turbo, lives up to its name with blazing fast load times, including the ability to intelligently pre-load pages in the background before users even click. Find out more here.
Flexible homepage options
Homepages are the traditional gateway to Shopify stores — so most store owners want plenty of options to showcase content on their homepage without having to fiddle with the code directly, such as:
- Ability to reorder various sections of the homepage, creating a myriad of possible layouts.
- Multiple areas to spotlight products, collections and other content.
- A variety of layouts to add to the visual interest of each section.
- Tight integration with video and social media options.
Being able to configure your store’s homepage with just a few clicks is a great way to experiment with creating the ultimate homepage that draws in shoppers. Flexible page design options that appear on other parts of the store build on this idea and make it even easier to design your store without making code updates.
Update: Our newest theme, Turbo, includes one of the most flexible homepages we've ever built — with full width video banners, cool checkerboard layouts and more. Find out more here.
Flexibility in banner images and slideshows
Since banner images and slideshows (link to previous post) are some of the most prominent features of a Shopify theme, most store owners like to have as much flexibility as possible, including:
- Multiple pretext, headline and subheadline text fields for promoting products, collections and content.
- Fine-grained control of text alignment and positioning.
- Multiple clear call to action buttons, including the ability to highlight one.
- Flexible number of slideshows and a variety of layout options (including full-width) for optimal visual interest.
Setting your store apart with stunning visuals should be high on every store owner’s “must have” list, but it’s just as important to be able to implement these features without knowing code.
Update: Our newest theme, Turbo, includes some of the most flexible banner options ever — with pretext, headline, subheadline, multiple call to action buttons and more. Find out more here.
Design
Creating a well designed and eye-catching store is also a key part of running an ecommerce business — and being able to do as much as possible without customizations is a common request:
- Advanced header options, including options for social media icons and a contact phone number and email.
- More flexible menu navigation options, including mega menus.
- Multiple layout options and column configurations for pages.
- Flexible footer design options, including background images, logo and newsletter signup forms, social media icons and payment icons.
Design options on Shopify themes are constantly expanding — everything from setting fonts to colors and layouts, so it’s no surprise that store owners look for and expect more and more options that make it easy to change the look and feel of their stores via the theme settings alone, without having to touch any code.
Update: Turbo includes some of the most in-demand design styles in today's world, including full width video and photo banners.
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus merchants, or any business with high volumes in competitive markets, also have a unique set of challenges:
- Optimized page loading times to help convert customers quickly.
- The flexibility to use a theme for a variety of industries, with a special focus on large volume retailers.
- Improved navigational elements, especially for collections.
- Improved robustness of the theme code across platforms and devices, for their often wider and more sophisticated audiences, who expect a polished and professional shop.
Which do you need?
These are some of the most commonly requested Shopify theme features we’ve seen. Which ones would you find most useful?
Let us know in the comments.
