Nielsen says that fashion is one of the top three most-bought categories in all parts of the world. Also, more than half of online shoppers in Asia, North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe said they would buy at least one fashion item online in 2021. This shows that starting a fashion eCommerce store or owning one can be a good way to make money if done right.
When you first start your eCommerce fashion business, one of the most important things to make sure you have is a good website. 85 percent of shoppers say that it is a very important factor because they decide what they think of a website in just 50 milliseconds. Because of this, you must use a reliable CMS (Content Management System) that lets you tailor the theme of your online store to both the clothes you sell and the people you want to sell to.
For example, Shopify, which was one of the top three CMSs in 2021, lets users make both traditional eCommerce stores and dropshipping stores that look good and work well. Also, a lot of dropshipping suppliers now offer automated ways to connect your Shopify store to their stock. For example, dropship-empire gives their customers an easy-to-use Shopify app that handles everything about setting up their storefronts.
The platform hosts and runs more than 500,000 stores that have made more than $40 million in sales between them. In 2019, sales in the global eCommerce market grew by 21%, but sales in the eCommerce market for businesses built on Shopify grew by 50%. Also, over 50% of customers who bought something from a website run by Shopify will come back to make at least one more purchase in the future. All of these things show that Shopify could be a great choice for your eCommerce store’s content management system (CMS). In this article, we’ll list the best Shopify themes that fashion eCommerce business owners can use to do well in the important area of Shopify web designs.
What is a theme for Shopify?
Shopify themes are basically templates that set the tone and look and feel of your fashion eCommerce store. This is the first thing that people see when they visit your site. You can choose from many different Shopify themes that have different layouts, styles, and experiences for your visitors.
When choosing a theme, you should always think about your brand, the kind of customers you want to attract, and the type of theme architecture that works best for your business. You can set up some Shopify themes for your store for free, but you can also buy a paid theme that can cost up to a few hundred UDS. Whether or not you need a paid theme depends on a number of things.
Paid vs. free Shopify themes
Before we tell you about the best Shopify themes, you need to know why both free and paid Shopify themes are good.
You don’t need a paid team when:
- You don’t need a professional and sleek website to build trust because your customers already know and trust you and your business. This way, most of your website’s visitors will be people you already work with, and they’ll be able to place orders and get in touch with you online. You don’t sell a wide range of products. If you only want to sell a small number of products, like fashion accessories, you don’t need the extra features that help you organize and filter a large catalog of products like clothes, shoes, and accessories. This is especially true if you only have a small amount of money to start your business. In this case, buying a theme might take money away from things like inventory or marketing that are more important.
On the other hand, a paid theme is what you need when:
- You want to sell to people who have never heard of your business before. If most of your customers are new, you will need a professional website to convince them of your legitimacy and the quality of the products you sell, especially if you sell luxury items from well-known brands. You want your website to have as many new features as possible and be as modern as possible. Even though free Shopify themes are a good option, their paid counterparts offer a wider range of customization options that can improve your customers’ shopping experience. You need your theme to have certain features. When it comes to free themes, it can be hard to choose between one feature you want and another. But if you look at paid themes, you’re more likely to find one that meets all of your needs.
The best themes for online clothing stores on Shopify
In this section, we’ll show you the best free and paid themes for your fashion eCommerce store that will make it stand out. In the fashion and apparel market, you need a highly visual, eye-catching theme that shows off the essence of your brand and helps you put your products in the best light.
The best Shopify themes that are free
Minimal
This theme was made by Shopify. Its design is simple and clean, so your customers can focus on the fashion items you are selling. One of the main benefits is that it is easy to set up, which helps eCommerce retailers who have never done it before get their stores up and running as soon as possible. This Shopify theme works best for stores with a small number of items. Minimal also gives you things like cart notes, a section with suggested products, and a stock counter.
Simple
Shopify has also made a minimalist theme called “Simple,” which is a great way to show off your products. This theme has an accordion-style menu on the side of the page for main navigation, product images that zoom when you move your mouse over them so you can see more details, image animations for smooth transition effects, and the option to show product recommendations to help people find what they’re looking for.
Boundless
Boundless is another simple website theme that helps you show off your beautiful photos. This theme works best with big images, so you can show off your products with high-resolution pictures all over your store. You can add a slideshow with a fading effect to your homepage to show off a variety of products and categories. Also, if you use Boundless, you can put a YouTube or Vimeo video on your homepage to tell visitors about your brand. Lastly, sticky navigation lets you keep your menu bar at the top of the page even as you scroll down, which makes it easier to use and navigate.
Narrative
This Shopify theme could be a good choice for you if your brand or products have a unique and interesting story. This theme works well for a single product or a small number of products with a strong message. The whole theme is made to tell a story through pictures and show off the finer details of your product. With Narrative, you can use an embedded autoplay video at the top of your main page to tell the story of your brand. You can also use the full-width layout to show off images with a high resolution. You can also put your navigation bar at the top of the screen to make it easier for people to find their way around your website.
Brooklyn
Brookly is a Shopify theme made for modern clothing stores that put a lot of emphasis on brand imagery. This theme has a header slideshow at the top of the home page that lets you show off several brands or images of products. You can also tell your visitors more about your brand by putting a YouTube or Vimeo video on your main page. With the slide-out cart feature, your customers can add items to their carts without leaving the page they are on. This makes your site more mobile-friendly.
Dawn
Dawn is the last free Shopify theme on our list. It is also the only free Online Store 2.0 theme right now. It has a modern and flexible design that lets you make the theme fit your brand the best. This Shopify theme has a lot more features than the ones we’ve already talked about. This theme uses blogs, cross-selling, product reviews, promo banners, and a section of recommended products to help with marketing and sales.
With this Shopify theme, you can add size charts, lookbooks, image zoom, product videos, and information about how to use your products so that your customers can learn more about them. This will help your customers decide what to buy and make them less likely to send your products back.
The best Shopify themes for money
Vantage
Vantage is a Shopify theme that is focused on making sales and can be used for both small and large fashion product catalogs. This theme is also an Online Store 2.0 theme that lets you move things like images, products, videos, and codes around on your store’s page by dragging and dropping them. You don’t need to know how to code to do this. Vantage is all about telling stories with images to support your brand’s identity and get that message across to your visitors. For a theme like Vantage, which can be changed in a lot of ways and has over 93% positive reviews, 240 USD seems like a fair price.
Loft
Loft, which costs 160 USD, is a more affordable Shopify theme. This theme is a classic Shopify theme that doesn’t have any Online Store 2.0 features. This theme combines visual storytelling and editorial content by giving you a great way to show off images and longer sections of text. If promotions are a big part of your brand, this Shopify theme is perfect for you. It has options like in-menu promotions, promo banners, and promo titles. Color swatches, image zoom, and the ability to filter and sort products can help you show off your products in the best way possible.
Envy
Envy is a Shopify theme that costs 350 USD and is one of the more expensive ones. Its clean design makes it easy to highlight products and run promotions on the website for your store. Envy is also an Online Store 2.0 theme that lets you make highly customized pages with well-designed blocks that you can move around freely. This Shopify theme lets you show recently viewed items and run flash sales that end at a certain time without using any extra apps. With its mega menu and ability to sort and filter products, it can be used for any size catalog.
Motion
Motion is another pretty pricey Shopify theme that will cost you 310 USD to buy. With multiple embedded animations and video options, this theme helps you bring your brand to life through visual storytelling. This is also an Online Store 2.0 theme, so you can change the way each page is set up to suit your needs. You can use things like in-menu promotions, product badges, press coverage highlights, promo banners, and pop-up promotions to help promote your brand.
With the help of these tools, you can run promotions that can not only boost your sales but also reduce the number of people who leave their carts without buying anything. This is a problem that a lot of online stores are trying to solve. Motion is great for stores with a wide range of products because it makes it easy for customers to find what they want with features like collection page navigation, a sticky header, and the ability to filter and sort products.
Lorenza
Last on our list is Lorenza, which is also a traditional Shopify theme that doesn’t have the Online Store 2.0 features. This is why it only costs 180 USD instead of more. This Shopify theme was made to look like a magazine and could be perfect for fashion boutiques. Its layout is like an editorial, so you can use large images of your products and brand to show off your brand in a very visual way. This theme has a sticky navigation menu bar and lets you sort products by price, type, and best sellers on collection pages. This makes it easy to get around.
To sum up
Choosing the right Shopify theme for your store might not always be easy. Before you make a choice, you should think about what makes your brand unique, what your website’s main goal is, and how your competitors are doing. If you’re just starting out, it’s best to start with the free themes that come with the platform. This will give you an idea of how each feature works and help you figure out where you might need or want more options. So, you’ll have a clear idea of what you want and a list of the extra features you’re looking for. This can help you find the best paid Shopify theme in the future.