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April 22, 2022

17 Best Free Shopify Themes to Stand Out

17 Best Free Shopify Themes to Stand Out

There are many different eCommerce strategies to help your store get more visitors, but site design is still one of the most essential things you can do to get your store to stand out from the crowd. If you want your online store to stand out, the site needs to be easy to use and navigate.

Using free Shopify themes is an excellent way to design a beautiful and functional website that your customers love. Paying for a premium theme is not necessary because a free Shopify theme will do the job and, in a best-case scenario, even lead to more sales.

However, choosing the best free Shopify theme can be challenging because the themes are not always up-to-date, and many options are available. Spending time comparing the best themes is worth it because choosing the right theme for your online store is one of the best and most effective ways to increase traffic.


What Is a Shopify Theme?

A Shopify theme is a template that you use to build your online store. It gives your website a specific feel because every theme comes with a different style and layout. You can easily customize the site to suit your needs: for instance, you can add specific colors and fonts that suit your brand.

For example, if you sell high-end luxury clothing for women, you want your website to be clean, elegant, and stylish. By choosing the best Shopify theme, you can achieve this feel for your website.

Using themes does not require you to know any coding. Shopify themes are easy to use even for beginners: all you need to do is pick your theme and drag and drop.


Choosing the Best Shopify Theme

While browsing all the available Shopify themes, you may find many stylish and alluring themes. It might even be tempting to just pick one and start customizing it, but you should hold your horses. By comparing and testing out the themes before choosing one, you can ensure that the theme is well-functioning and intuitive. 

In fact, there are a few things that you should consider when choosing the best Shopify theme for your eCommerce site.

Target Audience

The Shopify theme of your choosing should appeal to your target audience. For instance, you should consider their age, interests, and the devices they use.

An older female shopping for perfumes online will most likely be drawn to a different look than a young male shopping for new fitness gear. 

User Experience

When you enter a physical store and browse for products, you can experience the store’s atmosphere first-hand. However, shopping online does not directly give you the same kind of satisfaction of browsing for products that a physical store does. 

However, choosing the best Shopify theme that gives your customers a fun shopping experience can help them feel more engaged. For instance, if you sell yoga apparel and accessories, you want your customers to feel relaxed and motivated. Making your target audience feel at home can help increase engagement.

Features

Different themes come with different features. Each online store is unique, and its needs are different. Some eCommerce stores need to highlight customer reviews, whereas others have a large inventory to sell. 

Regardless of your end-game, it is essential to keep the layout simple. The goal is to have a Shopify theme that is organized, easy to use, and intuitive.


What Makes the Best Free Shopify Theme?

There are several other things to consider when choosing the best theme.

Choosing the best Shopify themes can be challenging, but taking the following elements into account, you will be able to choose the one that works for your business.

Style and Customizability

You do not have to choose a premium theme to create a stylish eCommerce store. A fully customizable free Shopify theme allows you to make the site yours. 

Loading Time

Most people do not have the patience to wait for a site to load. In this fast-paced world, people’s attention span is typically short. Most visitors will abandon the site before landing on the home page if the site loading time is more than a few seconds.

So it is essential that your site loading time on desktop and mobile are fast. 

Suitability for Your Brand

Your website is a part of your brand. On your website, you will be able to show your colors, fonts, and other elements that make up your brand’s image. Ensuring that the theme you choose suits your brand is critical because you want your website to represent your business in the best possible way.

Customer Support

Especially if you are building your first online store, you may have many questions. It is vital to be able to contact the developer and ask any questions you may have. Also, if you encounter any problems connecting to Paypal or Stripe, you want them solved as quickly as possible.

Good customer support can make a big difference, and it can even be the fine line between a great experience and a terrible one.


The 17 Best Free Shopify Themes in 2022

There are numerous excellent free Shopify themes out there. Each of them has its own pros and cons, and only by comparing and testing them, you can find out which ones suit your brand the best.

Some of the best free Shopify themes in 2022 are listed below, and one of these may be a good choice for your online business.

  1. Debut

Debut Shopify is one of the best free Shopify themes out there, and for good reasons. It is customizable, fast, easy to use, and flexible enough to suit many different types of stores. 

Both big and small businesses can get started with Debut. Visually speaking, it is stylish and clean, and it also looks great on mobile and desktop.

  1. Simple

Simple is a clean and minimalist theme that has received excellent reviews from users. It is easy to set up and has all the basic features you will need for your website. 

Simple is especially suitable for businesses with a Shop page on their site because this free theme has a lot of space for product image displays.

  1. Debutify

Debutify is excellent for those looking for an alternative to Shopify-created themes. There is no coding needed for this theme, and the page loading speed is fast, making it convenient for mobile users. The fast loading speed can also help to reduce store abandonment rate.

For more experienced designers, there are advanced options available for footer customization and product testimonials. Advanced product filters and image sliders are also available.

  1. Brooklyn

Brooklyn commands attention with its mobile-first responsive design approach, which is great for those who prefer to browse online stores on their mobile devices. 

Especially if you have fewer products as opposed to a large inventory, this clean and stylish theme may be for you because of its clean and organized setup. This free theme also features some eye-catching image features. In addition, Brooklyn comes with some useful features, such as a header slideshow, a slide-out cart, a home page video, and a dynamic product grid.

Brooklyn has a clear focus on branding, and it offers two different styles: playful and classic. If a minimalistic look and clean image is your style, classic is a great choice. However, playful is a great choice if your brand strives for a vibrant vibe.

  1. Narrative

Narrative has a minimalistic and clean approach. It is meant for brands who want to showcase their particular products through storytelling.

Narrative is especially great for those who have one single product that they want to highlight on one page. This does not mean that you cannot add more products, but it is best for those who market only one product or service. 

  1. Boundless

If your business relies on high-quality photos, Boundless is your choice. This free Shopify theme lets you highlight your product pictures and make them the center of your online store. 

Boundless is also a minimalistic theme that is fully customizable, so it works well for any kind of business, no matter if you sell clothing or fitness equipment. Boundless has a vibrant style that brings out strong images and creates a visually pleasing look for your website.

  1. Venture

The best thing about minimalistic themes is that they work for all businesses regardless of their category. However, sometimes you want something different. Venture has a strong outdoorsy feel and is an excellent choice if your store sells, for instance, camping equipment or sports gear.

One key aspect worth mentioning is that Venture was mainly created for Shopify dropshipping stores. This allows adding many products and creating a large store, so it may not be the best option for businesses with only a few products.

  1. Fashe

Fashe is a free Shopify theme with a minimalist design, so it works well for many different businesses and categories. The clean look is appealing, and the site is easy to customize and build to suit your needs.

However, Fashe can be a bit too minimalist for some businesses, and it can even come across as simplistic. Regardless, by customizing the theme, you can create a beautiful site that works for your brand.

  1. Annabelle

Annabelle is an older Shopify theme that has been around for a while. It is still free, and it can be an excellent alternative to many other options offered by Shopify. It allows the use of high-quality images that can transform this simple, basic theme into an eye-catching online store with a luxurious feel.

Annabelle comes with three styles geared towards apparel, jewelry, and furniture. 

A notable downside of Annabelle is that the customization options are quite limited.

  1. Voonex

Voonex is an excellent choice for businesses that offer and arrange events. It is a well-structured, free Shopify theme that is easy to navigate.

This theme has many useful features, including event information, sponsors, speaker profiles, the venue, schedules, and more.

Voonex has a free basic version that offers somewhat limited features. However, you can upgrade this theme to premium. 

  1.  Supply

Supply theme is a free theme that allows you to host big inventory. This theme has been geared towards digital and electronic stores that sell a lot of products. 

One of the strongest features of Supply is easy navigation. The customer can easily jump from one category to another. The categories are constantly visible, making it seamless for visitors to find what they are looking for.

Even though Supply has been geared towards digital and electronics stores, it can be turned into a store for luxury items, for instance. All you need to do is roll up your sleeves and start customizing this free Shopify theme.

Supply also works well with mobile devices, and the loading speed is adequate.

  1. Boundless

Boundless is a minimal theme that looks stylish and clean on desktops and mobile devices. This free theme is aimed at site owners who want to market fashion-related items and who want to highlight each product individually.

One of the first things you will notice is a big slideshow on the home page. It allows you to promote any product that you want to highlight.

Boundless also features a useful photo collection. It ties up all the designs and displays the product photos that will take the visitor to the product page.

  1. Gecko

Gecko is a versatile Shopify template that is considered one of the best themes on Shopify. The theme is suitable for selling many different items from clothing to shoes and apparel and can help you drive traffic to your site and even increase sales.

Gecko is easy to use, responsive, and mobile-friendly. It has been optimized for high-end performance, making the visitors feel comfortable when browsing your online shop.

Gecko is a minimalistic theme by default, but it allows you to create eye-catching stores. It has over 15 demos, numerous store layouts, and a good variety of product detail styles. 

In addition, Gecko has some other useful features, such as lazy load, infinite scroll, translations to different languages, a neat product video thumbnail, and more.

  1. Boutique

If your goal is to find a fully functioning and customizable, free Shopify theme, you found it. Boutique has been designed to serve fashion stores that want to utilize extensive features.

This free Shopify theme gives you hundreds of options and possibilities to create the exact layout you want. 

Boutique offers many different features, such as Revolution Slider and unlimited header styles.

Frankly, whatever your niche is, and whatever you want to do with your eCommerce store, you can achieve it with Boutique.

  1. SuitUp

SuitUp is a minimalistic theme that allows you to highlight your products more clearly. It has a simple but visually pleasing design that can be customized to draw the attention of your visitors.

SuitUp can be used for multiple categories and businesses, but it is especially useful for fashion and apparel stores. 

Additionally, SuitUp comes with some excellent features, such as a mega menu, multi-currency support, filters, and more.

  1. Thalia

A clean and minimal look goes a long way in creating an eCommerce store for fashion brands. Thalia is a free Shopify theme that highlights professionalism and simplicity. It attracts attention with its aesthetically pleasing design and makes visitors feel like royalty.

Thalia has some useful features, such as a responsive slideshow and an easy slide-out shopping cart. This free Shopify theme is also fully customizable with different fonts, colors, and sections. 

  1.  Express

Many Shopify themes are geared towards clothing and fashion brands. However, Express is a theme that suits bakeries and coffee shops. Express leaves an everlasting impression on visitors who want to familiarize themselves with your brand before stepping into your physical store.

The beautiful and unique homepage design commands attention and allows you to present your menu in a way that leaves a great impression in the minds of the visitors.

Express can be installed directly from the Shopify directory, and it comes with two different design styles that both support featured collections and pull-out carts.

Paid vs Free Shopify Themes - Which Is Better?

Numerous paid and free Shopify themes are available for those who wish to start building their own online business. Whether you should pick a paid or free Shopify theme depends on your needs and goals.

Who Should Choose Free Shopify Themes?

Free Shopify themes suit most businesses looking to get started because there is no cost to starting out. It is excellent for businesses with a minimal budget or those who do not yet have their budget figured out. 

Businesses that do not have a very clear brand image or vision can also utilize free themes. They can customize free themes to suit their style, but the free themes do have some limitations that can slow down more established businesses.

Who Should Choose Paid Shopify Themes?

Paid Shopify themes are excellent for businesses with some extra budget to use towards marketing. Even though free themes suit most businesses well, businesses with strong brand awareness can benefit from paid themes that allow more customization. Paid Shopify themes also usually have more available features than free themes. 

However, one thing to keep in mind is that paid themes can run anywhere from ten or twenty dollars to hundreds of dollars.


In Conclusion

There are many excellent free Shopify themes to choose from. In fact, free themes suit most businesses well, as they are versatile and fully customizable. They have the basic features that online stores need in order to operate, and with many different themes available, you will be able to find the best Shopify theme for your business. 

By comparing and testing different themes, you will be able to find a theme that includes the features you need.

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