“Entrepreneurship is hard....but it doesn’t have to be”, says Tobi Lutke, the Shopify founder & CEO.
This applies to creating stunning online storefronts as well - design is hard....but it doesn’t have to be.
To make this a reality, today online merchants can leverage a large number of themes available in the Shopify theme store. However, having too many options could also be confusing. Which one do you use? How do you compare them against each other? Which is the perfect theme for your business?
These are the questions we try to answer in this series where we deep-dive into popular Shopify themes to help make your life easier.
In this blog post, we will discuss the Impact theme - one of the most versatile and best-selling themes today. Here, we will deep-dive into its key features and analyze if it’s a good choice for your Shopify store.
Impact Shopify theme - An introduction
Impact is a powerful theme that helps build modern, chic, and unique Shopify stores easily.
This theme offers multiple elements, features, and customizable blocks to help you build interactive and engaging designs.
Impact has been repeatedly called one of the best Shopify themes out there. But is it really? Let’s find out!
Pricing
The Impact Shopify theme is available at a flat price of $380 USD.
Presets
The Impact theme comes with 3 presets -
Sound
The Sound may be the right choice for brands that are looking to create a contemporary and sophisticated feel in their stores.
Through its minimal and simple design that prioritizes white space, your products will definitely be in the limelight if you use this preset.
Home
You can design an online store that is friendly and comforting with the Home preset.
It uses comforting color palettes and purposeful design to create a homely atmosphere that has been put together to provide an inviting experience. This style is perfect for businesses in the lifestyle and home decor industries.
Shape
The Shape preset’s USP is in its striking typography and visuals. This is a style meant to capture attention. It uses minimal yet eye-catching design elements along with smart use of negative spacing. This is a perfect fit for fashion and tech businesses.
Impact Shopify theme - Key features
Let’s take a closer look at the various capabilities of the Impact Shopify theme and analyze if it's in fact one of the best Shopify themes.
Integrated cross-sell
This is a powerful feature that helps merchants display related or complementary products on various pages like product pages or shopping carts across the store. The goal is to encourage higher cart value by suggesting relevant products using past browsing and purchase behavior that the user will be interested in.
Impactful animations
The Impact theme has subtle animation which adds to the interactive nature of your store shopify. These animations make products vivid and engaging in product showcases while providing customers with an exciting and pleasant shopping experience.
Brands will be able to craft and manage the animations to develop a visually spectacular story that creates an indelible mark in the minds of their viewers.
Fixed add-to-cart
45% of US eCommerce sales are done through mobile phones. Prioritizing a mobile-first approach while designing your Shopify store has become an absolute necessity today.
A design element that is very useful to enhance the UX of your online store is the use of sticky buttons in mobile view. This is a button that remains visible at all times irrespective of how much the user scrolls. The sticky add-to-cart enables users to instantly add items to their cart without the need to scroll back to the top of the page.
According to a study conducted by Growth Rock, the sticky Add to Bag Button increases order rates by 8%.
The Impact Shopify theme provides you with this feature so you can improve the UX of your store effortlessly.
Quick buy
In e-commerce, the number of clicks it takes a user to complete a purchase plays a major role in determining the likeability, profitability, and retention of that store. You should try and avoid unnecessary steps that add no value to the overall shopping experience of your consumers.
Impact has an interesting feature called ‘Quick Shop’ that lets you easily add products to the cart without being redirected to a separate product page.
Hotspots
Hotspots are interactive markers placed on top of product images, They are used to highlight key products if a particular image has more than one product displayed. When customers hover or click on these “hotspots”, they’re presented with information such as product name, product description, and link to the product page.
This feature is perfect for cross-selling or promoting related products through contextual information. This is also a great way to showcase lookbooks and other detailed guides on your website.
Before/after visuals
A before/after display is a side-by-side comparison of two product images that demonstrate noticeable changes brought about by a variation or new technical aspect. By showing the "before" state compared to the "after" state, merchants can offer a powerful visual representation of the benefits their products provide.
This feature helps provide a clear, undeniable visual of how products can create a substantial change, giving consumers more confidence in the product's effectiveness.
Merchants can also create a persuasive story by visually demonstrating the positive impact the product has on customers' lives. This storytelling approach can influence customer behavior and establish an emotional connection with the product.
Offer blocks
The Impact theme has an interesting feature to help Shopify store owners improve conversions called offer blocks.
This is a dynamic element that can be added to product pages to display any temporary offers or discount codes that are applicable for that product. This acts as a great motivator to complete purchases for most online shoppers.
Discounts are hard to resist. In fact, about 93% of shoppers use a coupon or discount code throughout the year.
Shopify stores can easily leverage this huge number by using this feature.
Enhanced search
With this feature, users can search for products, collections, and pages with a ‘smart’ search bar.
It uses a predictive search function to display the most relevant results as the customer types, making it easy for them to find exactly what they're looking for.
Pros and Cons
We’ve tried to list down the Shopify Impact theme's pros and cons to help you make an informed decision -
Pros
Here are some advantages of the Impact theme -
- Stunning visuals with high-resolution imagery
- Extensive customization options to match your brand's style
- Engaging animations that bring your store to life
- Easy browsing and navigation for visitors
- Integrated cross-selling features to boost order values
- Mobile-responsive design for a consistent customer experience
- No technical expertise needed to get started
Cons
Here are some disadvantages of the Impact theme -
- Requires expert assistance and time for full customization
- Some advanced design elements could slow down website loading speed
Who is it best for?
Given the Impact theme’s immersive features to create modern, unique-looking stores, we think it’s perfect for brands in the home decor, fashion, and other design-heavy industries where visualization is super important.
However, given that to leverage to full potential of this theme, you will need some technical bandwidth, this might be a better option for brands with a slightly higher budget.
Need professional help setting up your Shopify store?
Design can seem scary, daunting, and time-consuming to most business owners.
We get it, and that’s why we’re here!
Bring your ideas to life with us with our Shopify web design, development, marketing, and support services.
Our team of Shopify experts works with Shopify merchants like you to design a store that reflects the personality of your brand and caters to the functionalities you require.
Whether you want to revamp your existing design or build a new one from scratch, we will help you create a positive shopping experience on your Shopify store design.
Reach out to us at info@xgentech.net and we’ll help you set up your Shopify store design!
