20 best multipurpose Shopify themes for FREE

Have you ever wondered how your e-commerce store can stand out from your competitors and capture attention among the tens of thousands of stores on Shopify? If you are looking for a multipurpose Shopify theme that best fits your brand, read this article for the list of best Shopify themes that can be downloaded for free. Time to earn a competitive edge by installing exclusive Shopify themes without spending a dime!

Why do you need a non-default Shopify theme?

Shopify has been offering over 90 themes (both free and paid) for its users, and there are also themes provided by other web developers available in the market. So why stick with the default theme when you are swarmed with so many options?

A Shopify theme determines the organisation, features, and style of your online store, making it much simpler for you to start designing your store with the help of a built-in template. Therefore, picking a template that matches your brand style and store features before customisation is the fastest way to facilitate building your unique, functional, and user-friendly e-commerce store after moving to Shopify.

Never underestimate how important a Shopify theme is! But what are the criteria for choosing the best Shopify theme from among the many options?

How to choose the right Shopify theme for your store?

There is no fixed answer to the “best” Shopify theme – every brand has a different need for Shopify themes. To choose the right Shopify theme for your store, consider the two most important factors, customers and products, and ask yourself the questions below.

Customers

1. Who is your store’s target audience? 

• What mood board and style can attract them the most? 

• What functions and features do they need on your page?

2. How is the customer journey with this theme? 

• Can they search for what they want easily?

• Is the checkout process convenient enough?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels.

Products

1. What is the best way to showcase your products? 

• Is it better to be Image-oriented or text-oriented?

• Is the catalog size big enough to cater to your product size needs?

2. Does the theme match your product?

• What are the main features you need for showcasing your brand and products?

• Does the theme style align with your brand style?

For example, the Blum theme offers a modern and versatile design, which can be ideal for various types of products. Its clean layout and customizable features make it suitable for brands looking to create a professional and visually appealing online store.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

One more golden tip for choosing a Shopify theme: Pick a mobile-friendly theme! In a recent e-commerce study, nearly 79% of smartphone users have made an online purchase using mobile devices in the last six months. While ticking off the criteria checklist, make sure you check both the desktop and mobile versions.

Of course, there can be a whole list of criteria to consider while choosing the right Shopify theme, yet your customers and product needs shall lay the foundation for your store.

Where to get Shopify themes for free?

1. Shopify Theme Library

As mentioned in the beginning, Shopify has been offering a bunch of built-in themes in its library where you can apply different filters such as industry, catalogue size, layout, and design. Simply tick the “Free” checkbox then you may explore all the themes that will not cost you a single dime.

2. Apollo Theme

Apollo provides both free and paid theme options with a detailed introduction of features in infographic format and live demo. However, unlike Shopify Theme Library, there isn’t a filter system to browse many theme options.

3. Colorlib

Colorlib offers both Shopify and WordPress free and paid themes of a wide variety, yet without filtering or categorisation for better search and exploration on the website. You may also have full support and discussion with other users at its support forum for any problems and issues.

4. Athemes

Athemes features a range of clean and modern designs, making it perfect for e-commerce stores opting for minimalistic and aesthetic theme layouts. You may also compare different themes on their website to find the most appropriate one for your store.

5. Template Monster

From basic, clean templates to elegant and responsive designs, Template Monster offers free themes for Shopify users with live demos to display the overall look and feel clearly on your screen upon choosing a suitable theme for your store.

If you are opting for paid premium themes for more options and functional features, you may also check out ThemeForest and Creative Market. Here are a few reasons why a premium Shopify theme may help with your e-commerce business.

20 best Shopify themes for free

1. Minimal

The Minimal theme adopts a simple and clean image-oriented design by following e-commerce image optimization to help drive customers’ focus to your products shown on the webpage. 

• Features: Minimal and quick set-up, cart notes function, recommended product section on the home page

• Suitable for: Clothing and accessories, home and garden, art and entertainment, and businesses with small catalogs

2. Supply

The supply theme is designated for stores with products of wide varieties as it can showcase multiple collections on the homepage while allowing customers to filter in the sidebar.

• Features: Product slideshow on the home page, collection filter, multiple featured collections 

• Suitable for: Businesses with large catalogs of clothes, digital gadgets, healthcare products, sports and recreation, etc.

3. Brooklyn

If you are looking for a contemporary apparel store theme, Brooklyn is the tailor-made theme for you to best showcase your apparel brand imagery with a dynamic product grid. 

• Features: Slide-out cart without leaving the product page, header slideshow on the home page, product grid layout, video embedment on the home page

• Suitable for: Contemporary apparel stores, clothes and accessories

4. Simple

The Simple theme is another clean and minimal theme that helps draw customers’ attention to product images. With the special function of product image zoom, customers can even take a closer look at the product while browsing.

• Features: Sidebar menu for easy navigation, image animation, and transition, product recommendation on product pages

• Suitable for: Businesses with small and image-oriented catalogs such as clothing and accessories, art and entertainment, games and toys

5. Boundless

The Boundless theme is optimised to showcase large and high-resolution images by presenting product photos in a full-width grid layout.

• Features: Fixed navigation bar on the top of the page, slideshow with fading effect, home page video embedment

• Suitable for image-oriented businesses such as photography, clothing and accessories, interior design, etc.

6. Venture

The venture features product filtering by type, best sellers, and price, as well as a multi-column menu bar for user-friendly navigation and is specifically equipped with a promotional banner and a single featured product section on the homepage.

• Features: Product slideshow, multi-column menu, product filtering, promotional banner

• Suitable for: Businesses with large catalogs, such as clothes, health & beauty, sports and recreation,etc.

7. Narrative

Narrative is a theme designed for visual storytelling with videos, image blocks, and quote slides. The theme adopts a full-width layout to better present imagery and displays products and information with a vertical slideshow.

• Features: Autoplay, fullscreen hero video on the home page, fixed navigation bar, vertical slideshow

• Suitable for: Businesses with one single product or a minimal number of products, those who intend to highlight brand philosophy and stories

8. Express

Express is all about speed and sales. With a mobile-first and one-pager store design layout, Express shows customers with only a little content and photography and allows quick buying by facilitating their browsing and checkout procedure.

• Features: One-pager store layout, mobile-first design, slide-out cart, featured collections on the home page

• Suitable for: Businesses with a small number of products, such as F&B menu items 

9. Dawn

Dawn is a sophisticated yet minimalistic theme that brings product images to the focus. With an upgrade in customizability, you may enjoy great freedom in creating custom page blocks and various elements such as images, videos, and quotes for the page.

• Features: flexible drag-and-drop sections and blocks, large-sized product media, simplified font types

• Suitable for: Clothing and accessories, health and beauty, home and garden

10. Craft

Craft adopts an authentic, refined design that best celebrates craftsmanship. With generous spacing and elegant typography, it helps showcase brand style and demonstrate visual storytelling narratives.

• Features: Flexible drag-and-drop sections and blocks, generous spacing, elegant typography

• Suitable for: Home and garden, art and handcrafts

11. Crave

Crave is an eye-catching theme filled with vibrant colours and playful design elements to showcase the vitality and personality of your brand while drawing customers’ attention at their first glance.

• Features: Bold colours with distinct shadows, mobile-optimized layouts, dynamic checkout options, flexible drag-and-drop sections, and blocks

• Suitable for: Food and drinks, games and entertainment, kid products

12. Sense

If you are looking for a fresh, bright, and energising store theme, Sense is your sensual option. With a fresh colour palette and soft gradients, Sense is able to gently guide a refreshing customer journey while showing extensive product details along with images.

• Features: Extensive product detail layouts with testimonials, videos, and comprehensive descriptions; fresh and bright design with soft gradients and curved elements; flexible drag-and-drop sections and blocks

• Suitable for: Health and beauty

13. Taste

Taste catches customers’ eyes with bold branding elements such as bold headlines, industrial fonts, and a high contrast colour palette with a spacious layout. It supports large product cards to highlight speciality products with detailed descriptions and FAQs.

• Features: Large and informative product cards for speciality product highlights and bespoke FAQs, bold and spacious design layout with industrial fonts and high contrast colour palettes

• Suitable for: Food and drink, health and beauty

14. Studio

Studio is your best online ‘gallery’ place to showcase your curations with stylish typography, colourful accents, collection-based navigation and creator filters. Customers may easily explore your featured collections, new arrivals, and artist profiles.

• Features: Stylish typography, collection-based navigation, creator filters, featured collections, flexible drag-and-drop sections and blocks

• Suitable for: Art and entertainment, handicrafts, designer products and collections

15. Ride

Ride is a dynamic and sports-centric design theme combined with a dark background, bold typography, and accent colours to make every sporting product pop. With unique page templates and asymmetrical layouts, the theme distinguishes your store from other brands and products. 

• Features: Bold typography, accent colours, asymmetrical layouts, flexible drag-and-drop sections and blocks

• Suitable for: Sports and recreation

16. Colorblock

Colours shape a brand’s image, and Colorblock is a theme which amplifies your products with customisable blocks of colours and atypical typography to create a trendy fashion lookbook. It offers expanded menu navigation and advanced filtering for large catalogue collections.

• Features: Expanded menu navigation, advanced filtering capabilities, atypical typography, customisable blocks of colours, flexible drag-and-drop sections and blocks

• Suitable for: Clothing and accessories, high-end fashion, sports and recreation

17. Debutify

Debutify is a simple yet functional theme which is equipped with customisable slideshows with a fade-in animation, autoplay product slides, a customisable header and a fixed navigation panel.

• Features: Customisable slideshows, customisable header, fixed navigation panels

• Suitable for: Businesses with large catalogues such as clothes, sports and recreation

18. Fashe

Fashe is another simplistic and minimalistic design theme which focuses on product images. Its dynamic product grid layout also allows a zoom-in function to highlight product details. 

• Features: Header slideshow on home page, dynamic product grid layout with zoom-in function, featured product collection

• Suitable for: Clothing and accessories, art and lifestyle

19. Voonex

If you are organising events such as conferences, exhibitions, concerts, etc., Voonex would be your best choice to present all the event information to your attendees in a clear and systematic way. 

• Features: Countdown timer, smart blog page, call-to-action options, detailed venue and map, professional speaker profiles

• Suitable for: Events, conferences, exhibitions, concerts, expos, meetings 

20. Surprise

Surprise is definitely a minimalistic theme design that will surprise you. With a professional yet modern layout, the theme presents your products neatly and tidyly, with an informative header on the home page.

• Features: Quick-view product, countdown timer for sales, mega menu, blog page

• Suitable for: Home furniture and garden, art and lifestyle

One of the most effective methods of mastering the use of Shopify themes is to adopt other established Shopify stores as references. By observing specific details or referring to designs incorporated by successful Shopify merchants, some notable skills and knowledge can surely be acquired!

How to enhance user experience apart from great layout?

A good e-commerce store takes a lot of steps, but we are getting there with you step-by-step! Now, with a great layout that best suits your e-commerce store, we can take another step to create a more user-friendly journey with a helpful user experience for your customers using the right tools.

Setting up your automated abandoned cart WhatsApp reminder

With SleekFlow-Shopify integration, you can significantly boost the level of convenience when running your Shopify site. For example, you can instantly synchronise all customer information. When a customer adds items to the shopping cart and does not push to the checkouts, an abandoned cart reminder will come into play, and you can send them an automated discount code later. This will then lead the customers to reconsider the purchase, accelerating sales in the long run.

Personalised WhatsApp campaign 

You can also integrate your shop with their WhatsApp accounts and past purchases to organise them into segments, customise your promotions, and send them straight to their inbox. These personalised messages and promotions will undoubtedly escalate the level of customer trust and satisfaction, in addition to enhancing the overall shopping experience.

Explore and enjoy more benefits with SleekFlow-Shopify integrations! Here's an overview of the 8 best CRM integrations for Shopify in 2023 to make your decision easier.

Add a live chat widget 

Live chat is a chat widget normally located at the bottom right of a website. The interface is like a chatroom. Installing a live chat function on your website is effective. Instead of opening a new tab and drafting an email, the customers can seek support while staying on and browsing your website. Nowadays, customers expect a shorter response time, especially for e-commerce. Auto replies and smart routing can be set on your live chat. 

SleekFlow’s live chat widget is free to use, and the upgraded plan allows you to integrate other social channels, such as Instagram Inbox, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Want to outcompete your peers with SleekFlow's help?

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