Shopify Theme: Essential Selection Criteria

In an era where new 100% digital brands (Direct to Consumer) are born daily in almost all sectors of activity, it becomes vital to offer a strong and unique brand experience to perform well in e-commerce.

Your choices in design, UX (mobile-first), artistic direction, and content creation will be essential to stand out from the competition.

There are several approaches to implementing a design in a Shopify store. Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, as well as associated costs. Before exploring the different design options, read our complete guide to e-commerce with Shopify.

1. Installing a Shopify theme for free

A theme is a data presentation template (e.g., how the header, a collection page, or the cart is displayed, etc.) including features (search tool, mega menu, slideshow, etc.). There are free and paid themes, some of which are available directly through the Shopify theme library and others are published by third-party companies (e.g., Out of the Sandbox).

In this article, you will discover the best-selling Shopify theme:

Warning: Even if it's possible to change themes at any time, the choice of theme is a very significant commitment for a Shopify site. Therefore, be sure to meticulously read the technical documentation before purchasing and installing a theme!

Some questions to ask yourself to find the best theme:

• What features are included in the theme?
• What will be the impact of the theme on my site's performance (speed)?
• Is the publisher's customer service available and responsive? What other sites use the same theme? …

When you want to create an online store in record time with limited budgets, it is entirely possible to use an existing Shopify theme, simply by integrating content (photos, texts, videos), without modifying the code or style.

Advantages:

• It's the least expensive option (€0-300). You don't need to call a Shopify agency for this!
• You can launch a site in a few hours.
• The support service and bug handling by theme publishers are generally excellent.
• Unlike Shopify subscriptions and apps, a theme is a one-time purchase with no recurring fees.

Disadvantages:

• Even with beautiful content, it is very difficult to stand out with a site that looks like thousands of other online stores;
• The experience will be defined by the limits of the features natively available in the theme. Anything that does not exist in the theme will have to be developed or integrated via an application.

Visit the Shopify website to browse the theme library.

2. Customizing a theme

For more ambitious e-commerce projects, it is also possible to rely on an existing theme (point 1 above) and customize it to obtain a site with a strong and unique experience (e.g., homepage, product pages, collection pages, storytelling pages, etc.).

In this case, the Shopify agency uses the set of features and assets natively present in the theme and then develops on top of it (modifying, adding, deleting code and style). At Stellar, our specialty is Shopify theme customization.

Advantages:

• It's the best value for money: creating a unique and "custom-made" experience without having to develop everything "from scratch" significantly reduces development costs. Indeed, the native presence of certain major features avoids certain complex developments.
• Significant time savings: The ability to directly integrate certain powerful features (because they have been tested and approved by renowned theme publishers and then validated by thousands of e-commerce sites) allows you to launch your site faster and more serenely (fewer bugs).
• Theme customization allows much more freedom in layout and UX. It is therefore common to go through a wireframing and prototyping stage beforehand, before integrating and modifying the theme.

Disadvantages:

• Even if this option offers a lot of flexibility at a reduced cost, you remain dependent on a preconceived system to which you adapt;
• Just like using third-party Shopify applications, using a theme can have an impact on a site's performance and speed.

This is the intermediate option (€€) suitable for most online stores and the one favored by most Shopify agencies in Paris.

3. Creating a custom website

It is also possible to create a custom online store (without starting from a theme) with a custom design, UX, and features.

This option is generally the most expensive (€€€) because it requires excellent development skills and a longer development time.

It is thus possible to practice "headless" commerce, which means decoupling the transactional Shopify part (back-end) from the site's experience and design (front-end). This concerns heavier, more expensive, and more complex development projects to administer.

If you choose between options 2 and 3, get help from a Shopify or Shopify Plus agency. Here is the list of the best Shopify and Shopify Plus agencies in Paris and throughout France.

To learn more about the selection criteria for a theme, read our article: Which theme for your Shopify store?

Also read:

• How to remove "Powered by Shopify"
• Shopify product page: best practices