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Our Favorite Shopify Themes For Building Your Store

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Updated on October 6, 2023
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Shopify offers 80 themes in total, nine of which are free. The rest will cost you a one-time fee ranging from $140 – $180.

We love how many options Shopify gives its users, but choosing the best Shopify theme for your site – one that you like, with all the tools you want – can feel overwhelming! With that in mind, we’ve put our 10+ years of website building experience to the test and hand-picked the best themes by industry.

So, without further ado… let’s check out the 12 best Shopify themes available in 2021!

Good to know! If you’d like to see some Shopify themes in action, then check out our list of the Best Shopify Store Examples. Or see how it compares against another ecommerce provider in our Shopify vs WooCommerce article.

Art & Photography

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1. Narrative – Free

Narrative Gallery

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There’s a great balance between images and white space here.
Narrative’s layout consists of simple, image-focused blocks.
Even the navigation menu is clean and straightforward, letting your work take center stage.

Narrative is a simple theme, perfect for small portfolios of work, that utilizes straightforward section blocks to really let your images steal the show. It’s understated enough to emphasize the photos or artwork that you want to sell, but not so basic that it lacks important features.

For example, it comes with:

  • An optional full-screen video to autoplay at the top of your homepage
  • Customizable image blocks to aid visual storytelling
  • Full-width layout

2. California – $180

California Gallery

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California is great for displaying an abundance of products without looking disorganized.
Header slideshows can help you show off your work.
This “About Us” layout is simple and easy to read.

California is a professional-looking theme that makes it easy to display and sell a larger volume of artwork and photography. We especially like the customizable content sections you can include on the homepage of this theme, which help make for a straightforward user experience.

California also comes with:

  • The ability to sort products on the collection page by best sellers and prices
  • The space to showcase recommended products on product pages
  • An optional slideshow element to show off multiple images on your homepage

3. Minimal – Free

Minimal Gallery

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It’s near-impossible to make a design faux pas with Minimal.
Show off your prints and photography with Minimal’s neat product pages.
We love the email form on the bottom right side of this page – it's a simple, effective way of inviting your customers to receive your newsletter!

Minimal is, as you can imagine, a very stripped-back and simple theme. It’s similar to Narrative because of its straightforward image blocks, but we also love the font options, which make it a stylish choice for telling a story about your brand and creations.

You’ll also get:

  • A zoom feature to show more detail on product images
  • A homepage slideshow element
  • The ability to feature a YouTube or Vimeo video on your homepage

Clothing & Fashion

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1. Highlight – $180

Highlight Gallery

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The banner promo at the top of this page is noticeable, but never in-your-face.
Highlight’s off-center positioning makes it a cool, modern choice for an avant-garde fashion brand.
Product pages present everything your customers need to know in a sleek format.

Highlight is perfect for showing off a small number of products with style. While images and text boxes aren’t afraid to overlap in this template, the low-key color scheme keeps things from getting too overwhelming. Plus, the pop-up navigation menu is still clean and easy to read.

Ask an Expert: Daniel Driesen, Senior Brand Designer

daniel headshotGo easy on the color scheme

“In my personal opinion, it’s important to use colors – but it’s also very easy to overdo it. I always recommend staying within two to three colors maximum, to keep things visually attractive.

“It’s also good to work with opacities or lighter colors. These create separations, which  break up sections and make content easier to digest. Utilise strong colors for calls to action (CTAs) to make them stand out and generate more engagement.”

Highlight also offers:

  • Parallax design to create a 3D-like visual effect as users scroll down the page
  • A vertical slideshow for your homepage
  • Product feature highlights to help showcase key information

2. Brooklyn – Free

Brooklyn Gallery

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Don’t underestimate the power of a full-width background image!
We love Brooklyn’s mosaic of image-centric collection page links.
Brooklyn is great at keeping product pages understated.

Brooklyn is an ideal theme for contemporary clothing stores with a medium-sized catalog. All of the content is centered down the middle of the page, with plenty of empty space in between. We recommend this theme if you’re focused on developing a modern brand for your store, while keeping the design clean and minimal.

Brooklyn comes with some helpful tools, too:

  • A slide-out cart that customers can add to without leaving their current page
  • A header slideshow to showcase product and/or brand images
  • A dynamic product grid, which automatically changes the layout of products based on how many are displayed

3. Avatar – $180

Avatar Gallery

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Avatar is ideal for stores with large product catalogs.
This Shopify theme keeps your collection lists and product pages well-organized.
Why not include a blog to keep in touch with your customers? With Avatar, it's easy.

Avatar is a great theme for showing off a large catalog. It can help you display lots of products across different collections, without overwhelming customers – and this theme is actually designed to increase your average order value!

Avatar comes with the kind of powerful features that larger stores will want, such as:

  • A size chart that you can link to from your product pages
  • Color swatches to display different variants of the same product
  • Predictive search results for products and store pages

Food & Drink

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1. Express – Free

Express Gallery

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Express is a simple theme for emerging food service businesses.
Show off your best dishes with a dedicated menu page.
Don’t forget to add contact information for order placements and bookings!

The Express theme offers a quick (and free) way to start promoting and selling your food items online. It’s optimized for one-page stores, so the layout is really simple. But we think the elegant fonts and good use of white space mean you won’t have to sacrifice a sense of style, either!

Ask an Expert: Kirill Zeynalov, Designer

kirill headshot

Don’t forget about fonts

“Choosing the right typeface is an important element of web design. A typeface can set a mood and give character to a brand or product, so you’ll want to make sure you choose the right one for the product(s) that you’re selling.”

Express offers some great functionalities for small stores:

  • A “Quick buy” option to let customers add items to a cart without leaving their current page
  • A mobile-first design to prioritize on-the-go browsing
  • Multiple featured collections displayed on the homepage to show off lots of products

2. Foodie – $180

Foodie Gallery

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Foodie is a colorful and stylish option for, well...foodies!
We especially like the 3D hover effect on this product page.
Use your own images to personalize this theme to fit the unique look and feel of your brand.

Foodie is the best food service theme for anyone really focused on their branding. It’s stylish from the get-go, with color-blocked backgrounds and a centered, customizable logo in the header. Plus, it’s a very image-focused theme, which means there’s plenty of license to make it your own.

This theme comes with tons of practical features, including:

  • The ability to sort products by best sellers and price
  • A pop-up to verify each customer’s age before they can enter the site (useful for selling alcohol online)
  • List options to help display menus, pricing, and more

3. Providence – $160

Providence Gallery

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We love the bold simplicity of the centered logo and CTA on this page.
Take advantage of Variety’s color-blocked sections to highlight discounts and new info.
Providence includes a blog section to help you keep your customers in the loop with exciting new updates and info.

Providence is an efficient theme that’s best for any food service business looking to drive conversions. It’s simple without being dull – in other words, it draws attention to your dishes without any distraction. We really like the mobile version of this template, which separates every section into its own neat, colorful square.

Here’s what else you can expect from Providence:

  • A customizable sidebar for featuring page-specific info
  • A product image zoom feature to give customers a better look at your creations
  • YouTube and Vimeo video options for your homepage

Sports

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1. Boundless – Free

Boundless Gallery

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This full width-header image function is ideal for demonstrating which sports your business is passionate about.
We also love engaging with the hover function on this theme’s product pages.
This pop-up sidebar allows for easy navigation.

Boundless might be the most image-focused theme in this whole collection – which, in our opinion, makes it perfect for selling anything sports or fitness-related. This theme lets you show your gear in action through hi-res product images (it’s optimized for large photos!) and a homepage video feature.

Of course, you won’t be relying solely on cool action shots to drive your sales. Boundless also comes with:

  • Dedicated image galleries for each product
  • A fade-effect slideshow option for the homepage
  • Sticky navigation to keep menus fixed at the top of the page while you scroll

2. Launch – $180

Launch Gallery

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Use the Launch theme to connect with people, and tell your brand’s story.
We love the sticky navigation bar, which follows you as you scroll down the page.
Launch helps you present a lot of information, without taking up too much visual real estate.

Launch is a great choice for ambitious businesses with growth on the brain. It’s optimized for stores with a small number of products, and was designed with crowdfunding goals in mind: You can track and display the progress of a funding campaign onsite, and present your goals to your audience as clearly as possible.

Here’s what else you’ll get:

  • A modular-style homepage built for sharing testimonials and videos
  • Customizable color gradients to better match your brand’s look and feel
  • An optional homepage video element

3. Vantage – $180

Vantage Gallery

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Vantage is a stylish theme for established businesses.
Use product photos to get customers excited about your stuff.
Clearly advertise sales and discounts on your product pages.

Vantage is another theme that’s really focused on conversions. We recommend it for merchants wanting to take an established store to the next level. You can start by telling your story with Vantage’s built-in timeline tool, which is a really cool way to introduce new customers to your brand.

Here’s what else you can do with this theme:

  • Let customers filter products by brand, type, color, or size
  • Offer zoom functions, video clips, and hi-res images for each product
  • Show local pickup availability options on product pages

Want to Know More About Shopify?

Our Shopify review covers everything, from its ease of use to its ecommerce sales features. And, if you’re ready to pick a plan, our Shopify pricing review can help you get the most bang for your buck!

Written by:
Maybe just like you, at first we didn't have a darn clue about how to build a website, nevermind write half a line of code if our life depended on it! We wanted to build a website to start a side business, and felt overwhelmed, confused & scared about how to actually do it, which builder to use, and making wrong decisions. After years of trials & errors using different website builders, we're here to share our experiences with you.

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